I am delighted to share two very exciting announcements relative to team Astia!

First, it is with great pride that I share that Jen Shelby has accepted the CMO position at Betty Confidential - an Astia client and exciting, content-rich website targeting women. Jen has served as an Astia Advisor since 2004 and then as Managing Director since 2006 - and has been my right-hand in executive leadership since 2007 when I became CEO. While we will dearly miss having Jen involved on a day-to-day basis, it is difficult to feel anything but true excitement for her. And we of course have every confidence that Jen will stay engaged as a vital member of the Astia Community.

Those who know Betty Confidential will see that this is a great opportunity for Jen to join a fantastic management team and a company that is poised to be a market maker. It keeps her close to her passion for strong women and also brings her back to her entrepreneurial roots. You can follow Jen and Betty at: http://www.bettyconfidential.com/

The second piece of exciting news is that Katie Nittler has joined Astia as Vice President Silicon Valley, Astia's flagship program and the hub of our global network. After an extensive search and interview process that engaged many of you from the community, Katie was offered and accepted the position effective today. We are thrilled to have the benefit of her experience that includes a combination of global focus, alliance building, and women.

Katie joined Astia in mid 2008 as an advisor and brings a wealth of experience to the team with over 20 years' experience in marketing, business development & program management for both start-up and Fortune 500 high-tech companies including HP, PeopleSoft, Convoy/NEON, Commerce One, Portal and Oracle and not-for-profit organizations including NFCO and Lancashire University in the UK. Katie has been repeatedly recognized as an outstanding sales contributor and in 2000 was recognized as one of the top 100 influential people in B2B.

Her expertise provides the Astia entrepreneurs hands on experience building high-growth companies, global program management and first hand experience working as a corporate VC and in VC funded start ups and later stage companies.

With Astia's expansion across the globe Katie brings to the Astia Executive team direct experience managing teams and doing business globally.

We will have a proper Astia party to honor Jen and to welcome Katie - and you can expect to hear more about that soon. Until then, please join me in congratulating both of these outstanding women.