James A. Pitaro is Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo! Sports & Entertainment. Pitaro has managed the sports team since October 2006 and assumed responsibility for Yahoo!’s entertainment properties in July 2008. Pitaro is responsible for managing and guiding the strategic growth and continued development of Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! TV, omg!, Yahoo! Music, Yahoo Shine, and Yahoo! Kids, all leading destinations on the Internet.

Yahoo! Sports includes sporting news, real-time stats and scoring, broadcast programming, fantasy games, sports e-commerce, and an impressive list of exclusive analysts across all sports and all levels. Pitaro is credited with leading Yahoo! Sports into its current position as the #1 online sports destination. Pitaro also manages deals with the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, UFC, and Turner Broadcasting to deliver compelling video, including live games and highlights. In 2007, Pitaro helped Yahoo! Inc. acquire the college destination Rivals.com and integrate that property into the Yahoo! Sports environment.

Yahoo!’s entertainment properties are leading destinations on the Internet, offering film trailers, full streaming television episodes, behind-the-scenes features, the biggest breadth of video games, and the largest database of music videos. Yahoo! Entertainment also creates compelling online shows including “Primetime in No Time,” and Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo! Music.

Pitaro was previously Vice President and Head of Business Affairs for Yahoo! Music. In this position Pitaro managed the Business Affairs operations for the business unit and helped Yahoo! Music become the web’s #1 music site, giving consumers the ability to watch, listen to and control their digital music experience directly on Yahoo!. He was integral in helping Yahoo! Music forge unique and valuable relationships with all of the major record labels and with such major brands as Nissan, Pepsi, and Saturn.

Pitaro joined Yahoo! in August 2001 with the company’s acquisition of LAUNCH Media, Inc. Before joining the Yahoo! team, Pitaro was Vice President of Business Affairs for LAUNCH Media, Inc. Prior to joining LAUNCH Media, Inc., Pitaro worked as an associate at the law firms of Marshall, Conway & Wright and Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker, both based in New York City, focusing initially on commercial litigation and subsequently on media and entertainment transactions.

A New York native, Pitaro graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics, and received his J.D. from St. John’s Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review, Bankruptcy Division. Pitaro is a member of the advisory board of PACER, an organization dedicated to making a difference in the lives of children with disabilities. He resides in Southern California with his wife and two children, and is a passionate Yankee fan.

Come join HTBA in our annual kick-off mixer this Wednesday, 10/8 from 4:30-7:30PM. This year features a keynote by a dynamic speaker, Eric Chan - Director of Product Strategy and Marketing for the Cisco Media Solutions Group.

Prior to CMSG, Eric led the Consumer practice of Cisco’s Corporate Business Development group, which handles all strategy, acquisitions and venture investments for the company. During this time, he sat on various venture investment boards and was responsible for investments in six technology and media companies.

Before joining Cisco, Eric co-founded Combio, an enterprise software company in the content management space. During his time, Combio raised over $15M in funding, grew to over 100 employees, and eventually was sold to a Fortune 50 technology company. Eric ran Product Management and Development for Combio.

In addition, we have a great alumni panel lined up for you from 4:30-5:30PM in A201. We bring in alumni who have leading roles in finance, strategy, marketing, and product management. If you are interested in any of these roles, be sure not to miss this great event. These alumni are where you want to be post-Anderson, so come and find out how they got to where they are today.

We would like to thank Cisco for sponsoring this great event and we hope to see you there!

Hello Class of 2010. It was great to meet many of you earlier tonight at the club fair. We have some great events lined up for you this year, such as our Insider Sessions. If you who want to find out more information about our organization, including how to become a First-year Leader, make sure to attend our Info Session on Wednesday 10/1/08 from 11:45-12:45PM. Lunch will be served. (Details on location will be posted later.)

Becoming a First-year Director is a great way to get involved in HTBA and build your leadership skills. The position allows you to interact firsthand with some of the largest companies in the technology industry. Come and learn how you can be involved.

To the FEMBA Class of 2011, we look forward to meeting you at your club fair on Saturday 10/4/08.

I would like to welcome the incoming MBA Class of 2010 and FEMBA Class of 2011. Congratulations on being accepted to Anderson and for choosing to attend. You are about to become part of an exceptional group where you will have the opportunity to explore new career paths, make new friends, and make a lasting impact on the school by becoming first year leaders.

I hope everyone has the chance to enjoy their summer and to relax before the fast and furious pace of first year core begins. The leadership at HTBA looks forward to meeting everyone at the Club Fair during Orientation Week. We have some great events lined up for you during the upcoming year and I hope each and every one of you becomes fully involved in the Anderson community. Please feel free to reach out to any of the 2nd year leadership if you have any questions.

Lawrence Huang
President, High Tech Business Association

Based on feedback from HTBA members late last school year, we’ve found many of you would like to use the website more often as a source of the information for ongoing HTBA events and activites. As such, we’ve revamped the site to include a blog with optional RSS feed in which we’ll keep you posted on important news.

Also, we’ve opened up a qualtrics “Suggestion Box” that you can leave feedback or inquiries that we encourage you to use often for any issues, ideas, or questions you may have.

Lastly, we encourage you to reach out to alumni as well to spread the word to join this new online community. As HTBA members or alumni, you are provided a login to get access to online podcasts as well as an ability to submit your own news and weblinks you feel will contribute to the HTBA community.

Thank you all for your support!

For those interested, TechCrunch will be holding their conference froom September 8-10, 2008. Tickets are really expensive, but fortunately they have a limited number of student tickets for about 90% off regular price ($149 for students).

http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/get-tickets/

First off, congratulations to all the 2nd years on becoming newly minted MBAs. We wish them all the greatest successes and, of course, hope that they keep in touch with the HTBA in the future!

Meanwhile, the 1st years are busy working on making sure HTBA is geared up and ready to go for the incoming full-time class of 2010 and FEMBA class of 2011. Keep a feed on this blog for updates on fall career fairs and mixer events.

Lastly, with the introduction of a blog, HTBA hopes to better open a dialog with you to better serve you during the upcoming year. Please feel free to e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or through the “Contact Us” link on the website to drop your comments, thoughts, and questions.

Have a great summer!