Azita Arvani, founder and principal at Arvani Group, helps international clients identify and harvest new business opportunities in emerging high-tech markets. She and her team help clients devise new business strategies, investigate emerging technology markets, establish new partnerships and improve R&D productivity.

Among Arvani's clients are DoCoMo, Microsoft, Otto Group, PalmSource/Access, Casio, Shamrock, FBR Capital and the Swedish Trade Council.

Azita previously led strategy and business development for ActiveSky, a pioneer in developing interactive rich-media technologies for mobile applications. In that role, she spearheaded a number of outstanding partnerships and strategy formulations with major companies in the US, Europe and Asia. She was also a key member of the company's Series B fundraising effort, which generated $22 million in capital during the third quarter of 2000.

Azita held several senior positions with Xerox Corp. As director of corporate business strategy in Palo Alto, Calif., she focused the marketing and business development of the spinoff that became ContentGuard, an enabler of digital rights management for web-distributed content. She also served as director of corporate business strategy at company headquarters in Stamford, Conn, where she was a consultant to the CEO and his senior team on planning and implementing corporate initiatives.

Azita also was among a select few serving as a technical advisor to Xerox's senior vice president of research and development, with responsibilities for research centers throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. In that role, she helped design and implement key channels to commercialize R&D projects.

A frequent speaker and moderator at conferences and trade shows, Azita has also been quoted in Financial Week, CNN.com, Yahoo Finance, Red Herring, InformationWeek, Network World, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Medill Reports. She also co-hosts a Wireless Innovations dinner series that brings together investors, major wireless firms and innovative startup companies.

Azita holds an MS in management from Stanford University (Sloan Fellow), an MS in computer Science (honors) from the University of Southern California and a BS in math/computer science (magna cum laude) from UCLA.