Last year’s Leadership Spotlight Series energized the lunch crowd at Basecamp. The series continues this year with sessions starting every day at noon, providing provide an intimate look at high-profile leaders in the startup community. Featuring interviews, group discussions and audience Q&A with founders and community leaders, these sessions will shed light on successes, failures and lessons learned.

Be sure not to miss the second half of Thursday's spotlights series - a special conversation with Brad Feld and Friends starting at 1PM!

12:00pm - Jeff Zabel, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, DataHero

Jeff Zabel combines more than 10 years of experience in product development, management and strategy with a deep passion for usability by discovering customer needs and innovating intelligent solutions. Today, he uses his role as DataHero’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer to continue that trend.

Prior to DataHero, Zabel leveraged his engineering background by innovating products and experiences people enjoy. He showcased this ability at BMW by taking visionary concepts from prototype to production. Awarded two US patents, two international patents, and the BMW innovation award in 2007, he was responsible for creating the ability to send Google Maps listings direct to navigation systems as well as the BMW Apps and Mini Connected offerings which allow drivers to seamlessly integrate their their iPhone apps directly in their car’s infotainment system. Before BMW, Jeff helped form the creation of the first business to consumer marketplace at eBay with the creation of eBay Stores while working on a joint venture between Accenture and eBay.

Today, Zabel pioneers DataHero’s user experience to enable any user to quickly and easily visualize their data without the need for IT or in-depth training. He has spent the past three years evangelizing an industry-wide shift to the cloud, positioning DataHero as the first truly freemium BI platform in the cloud space.

12:30 - TA McCann, Gist

Hey, I’m T.A. McCann, an entrepreneur living and working in Seattle, WA.

I am a founder of Rival IQ - the best way to analyze and monitor your competitive landscape. Focused on active online marketers who want to get ahead, Rival IQ saves you time and delivers key insights about your competitors across their key marketing channels (web, search, social…). Try a sample “landscape” here for major car brands.

I was previously VP of Product Strategy at Blackberry (formally Research in Motion), focused on BBM (Blackberry Messenger), social applications (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare…) as well as the native Contacts apps after Blackberry bought my last company, Gist.

I was the founder of Gist.com, a social address book sold to Blackberry in February 2011, as well as Jump2Go and 3 other web based companies. I am on the board of Full Contact and Guidant. I am an active advisor to startup companies including Creative Live, Zooppa and EveryMove. I also spent 4 years at Microsoft in various roles on Exchange and Mobile Service Delivery Platforms. I like B2B and mobile stuff!

I am a new, but active angel investor and have made investments in Creative Live, Inside Social, Everpath, Heapsylon, Skedadle as well as Founders Co-op, FG Angels and SKV. I am looking to do more so connect with me here.

I like sharing my experience and ideas, so I spend lots of time at Startup Weekend (on the board) and Techstars (active mentor) as well as Lake Washington Girls Middle School (on the board). I learn by coaching and teaching.

Prior to my startup activity, I was a professional sailor and competed in 2 America’s Cups (won one, lost one) and the Whitbread Round the World race (now called the Volvo Ocean Race). I am married to Teresa, a wonderful and creative woman and father of Ray, a smart, caring and active daughter! When I am not working, I like to run and bike long distances and swim at 1/2 the pace I did in college.

Event hashtag: #LeadershipDSW