Kaaren Cheney - Director, Speaker Services
Kaaren Cheney feels like one of the really lucky ones. She has spent the last 16 years in a job that she absolutely loves. In fact, for over 20 years, Kaaren, a UCLA graduate in psychology and sociology, has been a successful sales executive. She considers what she does fun, and would do it for free, even if she won the lottery! She also really loves the many long-term relationships that she has built with both clients and speakers.

Kaaren is known around Keynote for her positive attitude, her determination, and her ability to cut straight to the important issues when booking a speaker. She also has an immense knowledge base of speakers and their styles and abilities. No one zeroes in on the right speaker faster than Kaaren!

Krystiana Dela Cuadra - Office Administrator
Krystiana is always delighted to work with a wide variety of amazing speakers with such interesting backgrounds. She is the first point of contact for new speakers, current speaker updates, and also for all of Keynote's office needs. After collecting and reviewing new potential speaker information, she makes sure that all the agents get to see exciting new speakers to recommend to Keynote's clients. Because of her busy schedule on the front lines of speaker communication, she is very thankful for the strong support she receives from the rest of the Keynote team.

In her spare time Krystiana loves to keep active in sports, including volleyball, softball, running, and biking. She also enjoys being outdoors and traveling, whether it is a weekend getaway or a nice long road trip across country. Most of all Krystiana loves spending her downtime with her family and friends.

Peter Gunardi - IT
Peter Gunardi brings to Keynote Speakers his sense of professionalism and his passion for computer science, derived from his extensive studies in various high tech fields.

As Keynote's go-to guy for all IT issues, Peter handles the website administration and maintenance on all the computer systems. Concentrating on the technical aspect of the company, Peter enjoys the challenge of implementing Keynote's ongoing "one step ahead" mindset, making sure the company is on the cutting edge of current technology.

In his spare time, Peter "spoils a good walk" with a game of golf, when he his wife aren't enjoying their passion for traveling and for taking numerous photos of their newborn baby daughter.

Blake Joerger - Vice President Marketing
Because of his many years in the speaking industry as both an agent and an executive, Blake knows a great deal about not only individual speakers, but also about what makes for a successful speaking event: the best possible speaker and the best possible service. Blake wants to make every client feel like they are his only client, and he takes special pride in knowing that he has contributed to the success of an event. He particularly enjoys last minute speaker requests, since those often present the biggest challenges in finding the perfect speaker for each event. Most of all he enjoys building strong, long lasting relationships with his clients. Blake’s previous experience also includes a very successful run in the restaurant industry as a General Manager for several concepts.

Blake lives in San Francisco and enjoys all the city has to offer. On his time off you can find him at Golden Gate Park or at one the great restaurants in the city. He is active in his local community supporting numerous non-profit groups. If you are coming to San Francisco, give him a call, he’ll be happy to give you advice on what to do and where to eat. In addition to eating he enjoys riding his motorcycle with his pet weiner dog Mazzy in tow.

Connect with Blake

Kathleen Mozena - Events Director
Kathleen Mozena has been in the meetings business for nearly 20 years. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Communications, the perfect major for her future career. She enjoys working with speakers because it enables her to get to know the best and the brightest in a variety of fields, and because it helps her stay current on all of the latest business trends and topics that are important. She likes to be “in the know!” Kathleen’s favorite types of speakers are those with good humor and energy, who genuinely want to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

Kathleen leads an incredibly active life. She enjoys the outdoors and most types of athletic endeavors, including hiking, golf, volleyball, and running. Kathleen also enjoys good food and dining with friends, travel, the arts, music, theater, and dance. Her preferred travels include everything from a weekend getaway to the local wine country or to Lake Tahoe, to more extensive trips to Europe, particularly to her roots in Ireland and Italy, and to France, where she was an exchange student. Kathleen is one of 8 children and is active in a wide variety of associations and organizations (including Toastmasters and MPI – she is both a CTM and a CMP) so Kathleen does not lack for family and friends to join her!

Sean O’Keefe - Events Director
A graduate of the University of Toronto, Sean O'Keefe first started booking speakers from a small log cabin in the wilds of Vancouver, British Columbia. After a particularly wet BC winter, Sean's cabin washed up on the Gulf coast of Texas, where he continued his work in the speaking industry, albeit this time with air conditioning.

After one meeting planner asked Sean what the biggest local attraction was and he couldn't remember the Alamo, he was strapped to the back of a Longhorn and run out of town. This time Sean took refuge in the cool climate of Northern California and the warm arms of Keynote Speakers, Inc.

Between bookings Sean toils as a published songwriter and spends time with his wonderful wife, two beautiful daughters and the family cat, who lets them live with her.

In his spare time Sean sleeps.

Sue Rouquette - Office Manager
Sue Rouquette never thought that she would find a job that draws from her experiences managing organizations in the high tech field, at the same time offering a fun and exciting opportunity to work with clients and speakers in meeting their event expectations. Having spent most of her career in operations management roles, Sue is very comfortable and happy helping meet the unique and special requirements that every event offers. Sue enjoys a challenge and works well in an environment that thrives on “good” stress.

Sue has held senior level management roles related to logistics, training, purchasing and planning. In these roles, she has had an opportunity to attend many types of events and she has heard many keynote speakers. She understands how important the details are in making an event successful.

Sue is married and the mother of one son and two dogs. She and her husband enjoy cooking, gardening, traveling and baking birthday favorites for all of her Keynote Speakers’ co-workers.

Katrina Kaposts Smith - President
Katrina Smith wishes everyone enjoyed their jobs as much as she loves hers. Getting paid to talk to nice people on the phone – who can beat that? And, what could be better than getting to know hundreds of great speakers, each at the peak of their profession, in fields from nanotechnology to mountain climbing?

Katrina worked as an agent at Keynote for several years before becoming the owner, operating manager, HR director, speaker manager, legal department, staff-party scheduler, and general complaint department. She regrets not being able to spend as much time working directly as an agent - it was much more fun than the paperwork she has to do now - but is thrilled at the way Keynote continues to grow and expand the scope of its operations.

She graduated from Yale University in 1994, loves all kinds of music from opera to blues to techno, speaks a variety of foreign languages, is an occasional practitioner of various martial arts, acts as the principal of the Bay Area's Latvian language school, and has a husband and two wonderful sons who make everything else pale in comparison. And as if she didn't already have enough to do...in the fall of 2008 the family welcomed a new baby daughter.

Debra Stern - Events Director
Debra Stern grew up in a beautiful northern Michigan lakeside community, where her family owned a small resort. At an early age Debra began acting as the social director of the family business. When guests arrived she would greet them, give directions to area hot spots, provide a tour of the property and offer to help them plan their time while in the area. A budding events director at the age of 13!

Debra's love for music led her to Nashville, where she began her booking career in the music business. She worked in music publishing, artist management and development, artist booking, and music & movie script pitching. She even produced artist showcases at the famed Hard Rock Café. Debra is also a trained singer. During her 14 year stay in Nashville she had the opportunity to sing on numerous albums and also sang with a group called Praise. One day Debra received a call from a talent agency that handled speakers, and thus began her career as a speakers' agent.

After spending 3 years as a speakers bureau agent in Nashville, Debra relocated to the San Francisco Bay area to join Keynote Speakers. In her spare time she enjoys sightseeing, movies, theatre, live music events, and visiting with friends.

Lori Young - Speaker Information Administrator
Lori has a passion for details, which is why she is in charge of speaker materials at Keynote. Ever since the advent of email, speakers send new updates and changes to their materials more often than ever, which keeps Lori busy making sure her colleagues have the correct information at their fingertips. Lori is proud of being a team player, and she enjoys the whirlwind of helping co-workers get information instantly; she claims to never have a dull moment! She also enjoys the widely diverse array of speakers she handles.

Outside of the office, Lori’s passion is her creative outlets. She is an expert seamstress and pursues many types of hands-on crafts and hobbies. Lori is Keynote’s most coveted “Secret Santa” gift giver, because her recipient can always count on something exquisite, hand-made, and thoughtfully personalized.

Her other love is traveling with friends and family, a pursuit that began when her children were in elementary school. As her boys grew older, her travels expanded, so now she and her friends get together to party and travel several times each year.