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Astecs Speakers |
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Alberto Savoia |
Alberto Savoia cofounded Agitar in June 2002. He is now CTO and VP of Engineering. Before Agitar, Alberto worked at Google as the engineering executive in charge of the highly successful and profitable ads group. In October 1998, he cofounded and became CTO of Velogic Inc., the pioneer and leading innovator in Internet performance and scalability testing. Velogic was acquired in 2000 by Keynote Systems Inc. (NASD:KEYN), where Alberto continued to serve as chief technologist. Prior to Velogic, Alberto had an impressive 13-year career at Sun Microsystems. His last position at Sun was general manager of SunTest, a highly successful business unit he created and established as the technology and market leader in Java testing solutions.
Before SunTest, he served Sun as director of the software technology research group for Sun Microsystems Laboratories, where his staff developed mission-critical and groundbreaking new technology in the areas of software development environments, programming languages, and clustering. |
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Alexander Suh |
Mr. Alexander B. Suh is a founding Director with California Technology Ventures, LLC, a Southern California venture capital firm that focuses its investments in early stage companies in the fields of Life Sciences and Information Technology. He is the managing director that invests in Life Sciences as well as Information Technology.
Alex is also a founding Managing Director with J.J. Jacobs Enterprises, LLC, a Pasadena-based venture capital fund, and Jacobs Capital Group, LLC, a Pasadena-based fund-of-funds. In these firms, he has been responsible for a portfolio of companies, including investments in enterprise software, Internet MMPOG 3-D gaming, oncology drug resistance testing, gene sequencing and bio-informatics, commercial printing, real estate, food and beverage, drug delivery, and others.
Alex currently serves on several Boards of Directors and has board visitation rights on others. Before co-founding Jacobs Enterprises, Jacobs Capital Group and California Technology Ventures, Alex founded and sold companies, helped develop the first small business incubator to the San Gabriel Valley, managed several small business lending programs, consulted with nonprofits and cities on economic development projects, and taught college in entrepreneurship, business, and management. |
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Andrew Farquharson |
Andrew Farquharson has 12 years of experience founding, building and managing companies in life science markets. Mr. Farquharson is currently a Kauffman Fellow at The Angels' Forum / Halo Fund, and Chairman of Ergodesigns, Inc., which he founded in 2003.
Before joining The Angels' Forum, Mr. Farquharson was an angel investor who served as Vice President of Commercial Operations for Innovadyne Technologies, a start-up that he helped to build into a profitable concern. Prior to Innovadyne, Mr. Farquharson served as Senior Vice President of sales and marketing for QIAGEN Operon, where he tripled revenues in two years and helped to sell the business for nine figures. In his earlier career, Mr. Farquharson held several roles in research operations at Genentech, Inc. and co-founded a gene design business in agricultural biotechnology. He has also developed strategies for healthcare firms as a consultant.
Mr. Farquharson received a BA with High Honors from the University of California at Berkeley, and his Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University Graduate School of Business. |
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Ann Winblad |
Ann Winblad is the co-founding Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm focused on software investing and manages over $1 billion in cumulative capital. Since Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ inception in 1989 the firm has launched over 90 new software companies.
Ann has over 25 years of experience in the software industry as a successful software entrepreneur, strategy advisor, technical author and venture capitalist. Her background and experience have been chronicled in many national business and trade publications.
Ann has a BA in Mathematics and in Business Administration. She has an MA in Education with a focus in International Economics from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. Ann also has an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from the University of St. Thomas.
Ann served and serves as a Director of numerous start-up and public companies. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas and serves as an advisor to many entrepreneurial organizations. |
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Dave Stark |
Dave Stark is president of Analysis Team, Inc., a Business Intelligence consulting firm. Analysis Team deploys business analysis, management reporting and financial planning software applications, streamlines related processes, and provides strategic guidance in the area of implementing business performance management systems.
Dave has been speaker on topics related to Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management at several conferences and to business professional groups, such as The Business Intelligence Forum, the Los Angeles Chapter of Financial Executives International, and the Hyperion Solutions global user conference.
Prior to founding Analysis Team in 1995, Dave held increasingly responsible financial management positions including accounting and financial analysis roles at IBM and Digital Equipment Corporation, FP&A Manager at Wyse Technology, and Chief Financial Officer at an early-stage navigation technology company in Silicon Valley.
Analysis Team is a professional services firm focused on improving and automating business performance analysis, management reporting, and planning. Combining expertise in leading Business Intelligence software applications with real-world experience in business analysis and project management, the firm’s goal is to help client companies maximize value from their business data and existing information systems. Analysis Team serves mid-market and large companies including Toyota, Papa John’s Pizza, Disney and Virgin Megastores.
Analysis Team’s consulting services include Business Intelligence assessment and strategy, software evaluation and selection, business process improvement, application design and implementation, and training. Projects have included design and deployment of data warehouses, real-time operational analysis and reporting, automated financial consolidation and analysis, and business performance “dashboards”.
Dave received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. |
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David Smith |
An entrepreneur for over 20 years, David is the author of the book Zero-to-IPO and founder of Tynax the technology trading exchange. David is currently involved with several exciting new ventures in the software, Internet and media sectors.
In the mid-1980’s David created one of the fastest growing PC clone manufacturers in the UK. As Apple World Marketing Manager for Apple Computer in the late 1980’s, he led the corporations branding and distribution efforts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. As a technologist and software inventor in the 1990’s, he created the worlds’ first virtual tradeshow on CD-ROM, the first CD-ROM to be filled with paid advertising and the leading web browser and safety service for kids. His products have won critical acclaim all over the world.
His speaking engagements take him to international conferences in Europe, Asia and the Americas. He has addressed U.S. government congressional hearings and appeared on several radio and TV shows.
David has a BS Honors Degree in Computer Science & Economics from the University of Leeds (U.K.) and a Postgraduate Diploma in marketing from the University of Westminster, London. |
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Diana Benedikt |
Diana Bendikt has extensive experience as a strategic advisor to seed and early-stage venture startups. She has assisted companies obtain over $100 million from angel and venture sources ranging from seed stage private equity investment to mezzanine level venture financing. In the last decade Diana has advised more than 60 notable Internet, software and network equipment companies on strategic finance, marketing, business and infrastructure development issues. She has consulted with early stage private equity firms and established technology leaders including Adobe Systems, where she helped structure the post-acquisition integration of the GoLive system. |
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Dr. Akram Chowdry |
Dr. Akram Chowdry is currently the General Partner of Hi-Tech Venture Capital LP. Hi-Tech venture Capital if primarily funded by the Government of Malaysia.
Dr. Chowdry is the former CEO of Mylex Corporation, based in Fremont, California. Dr. Chowdry became the CEO of Mylex in 1986, and under his management, Mylex went from a small producer of video adapter cards to a cutting-edge, technology design house, producing multi-processing motherboard and high performance RAID adapters for high performance storage networks. In 1991,US News and World Report ranked Mylex as # 1 among small cap public companies (7,300) in USA. Mylex was acquired by IBM in 1998. Prior to becoming CEO and Chairman of Mylex, Dr. Chowdry was founder and CEO of Prime Circuit Technology of San Jose.
Dr. Chowdry was also a founder and was a member of the Board of the Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) and also is a charter member of the Pakistan Engineer & Scientists Association of Santa Clara.
Dr. Chowdry holds an MBA from San Jose State University and a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He was a nominee for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award, by Ernst & Young in 1989. He received the CEO Award or the Best Northern California Business from San Francisco Chronicle in 1991 and was an honoree of Beta Gamma Sigma of San Jose State University in 1992. |
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Dr. Bill Musgrave |
Dr. Bill Musgrave is President and CEO of TEN, the Enterprise Network. Prior to joining TEN in 1999, he was a General Manager for DRS Ahead Technology, a supplier of specialty magnetic heads. While at DRS, Musgrave was engaged in corporate acquisitions and business development, and established the company's Minneapolis Division. He also led the acquisition and start-up operations for a factory in Eastern Europe.
Formerly, Bill was a career U.S. Navy officer, completing his military service at the rank of Captain. While in the Navy, he managed large-scale business and logistics operations, and as a senior government procurement official, was integrally involved in the formulation and implementation of major government procurement reform initiatives.
Dr. Musgrave maintains an active involvement in higher education and has led the initiation of an entrepreneurship center at San Jose State University and has been on the adjunct faculty of a number of universities. He is also a frequent speaker at professional events on entrepreneurship and innovation, and organizational leadership. He has been featured in numerous news journals, and has appeared on BBC Worldwide Broadcast, Silicon Valley Business Radio, and at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. He has lectured overseas in Japan at Keio University and Okayama National University, in India at Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, in China at South China University of Technology, and has addressed London's Strategic Planning Society and a Connect Midlands conference of investors and entrepreneurs on Innovation in the Knowledge Economy.
Bill earned a Doctor of Business Administration degree from The George Washington University's School of Business and Public Management, in addition to a MBA degree from the same institution. He holds a B.S. in Education degree from Texas State University. |
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Dr. Po Chi Wu |
Currently International Finance Advisor to the Guangzhou City Government and CEO of StoryManager, Dr. Po Chi Wu is a 20-year veteran international venture capitalist who has lived and worked both in the United States and in Asia. Over the years, he has invested in several companies which eventually grew into billion-dollar enterprises. He is currently interim CEO of StoryManager, Inc. and is also affiliated with Alameda Capital. Before this, he was: President and co-founder of Allegro Capital, a highly successful venture capital firm in Silicon Valley; a Vice President at Advent International, where he opened and headed the California office and was responsible for investments in Asia and in the US; Executive Vice President and co-founder of China Venture Management, a subsidiary of China Development Industrial Bank in Taiwan.
Dr. Wu is a member of the Advisory Council of the Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley; and a guest Lecturer for Engineering 110, “Venture Design - The Start-up Company”, at UC Berkeley. He is a former Director and President of the Chinese Software Professionals Association (Silicon Valley), a Trustee of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Genetic Medicine at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Wu has a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University (1972) and a B. A. degree in Mathematics and Music from the University of California at Berkeley (1966). His commitment to education and the cultural history of China can be traced back through several generations of illustrious scholars in his family. His great grand-father was one of the last Hanlin Scholars in the Ching Dynasty. Dr. Wu’s father, Professor Wu, Ta-You, was a highly respected theoretical physicist and educator. |
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Dr. Richard Caro |
Dr. Richard G. Caro has over 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology and business: as CEO of two startups, CTO of a third, occasional angel investor, and advisor to numerous new business ventures in fields such as life sciences, communications, alternative energy, security, and nanotechnology. He has been responsible for the development of a number of successful products and has 21 issued patents.
Richard is presently founder & CEO of TangibleFuture, Inc., which provides hands-on guidance to entrepreneurs navigating the path from idea to profitable business. Prior roles include Managing Director at RHK, a provider of advisory services to the communications industry; CEO (founder) of Vital Insite, a venture-backed medical device start-up; Engineering Program Manager at Coherent, then one of the two largest laser manufacturers in the world; and V.P. Technology Development (CTO & employee #5) of Summit Technology, a pioneer in the laser refractive surgery business. Before entering industry, he was a member of the research staff at Stanford University. Richard received a B.Sc. (Hons) degree from Melbourne University, Australia, and a D.Phil. in experimental physics from Oxford University — where he was a Rhodes Scholar. |
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Ephraim Lindenbaum |
Ephraim Lindenbaum is the founder and Managing Director of Advance Ventures. He has served as an active board member of Aviatis, DiveQuest, eSports, Workout.com and BPG Worldwide. Mr. Lindenbaum was the CEO, Chairman and Co-founder of Broadcast Production Group, Inc. until its acquisition in August 1999 by How2 no Parago. Broadcast Production Group was an industry-leading award winning digital advertising, interactive media and Internet development corporation. In his eleven years as CEO/Chairman, Mr. Lindenbaum organically grew the company from formation to over 200 employees and contractors with offices strategically located in the US, Asia and Latin America. |
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Francois Dumas |
Francois Dumas is an entrepreneur with a passion for bringing to market technology and services that consumers want. Francois was CEO and co-founder of WUF Networks, which was recently acquired by Yahoo. During his professional career which spans 20 years, Francois has held senior positions at large corporations and small startups alike, including most recently Yahoo, Contivo and Netfish. He has significant expertise in all aspects of business planning, engineering, defining technology vision, directing operations, as well as detailed software design and development experience. Francois holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and a Bachelors degree in Computer Science from University of California at Berkeley. |
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Frank Kline |
For over 20 years, Frank Kline, the Managing Partner, has helped organize and invest in three different private equity partnerships, including Pacific Technology Venture Fund which he co-founded with Patrick J. McGovern, a leading entrepreneur n the information technology industry and Publisher of Computerworld.
Mr. Kline was the West Coast General Manager of Lambda Funds, a $75 million private equity fund based in New York and Los Angeles which invested over 40% of its capital in California. During his career, Mr. Kline has invested in a number of highly successful companies, including MagneTek (NYSE:MAG), Merisel Inc. (NADDAQ:MSEL) (formerly Softsel), SuperShuttle, Designware, Laserscope, Inc. (NASDAQ:LSCP), Ensoniq/Creative Technology, Ltd. (NASDAQ:CREAF), International Microelectronic Products, (NASDAQ:IMPX), Transoft Networks, Inc., acquired by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP) and AboveNet Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ABOV) which was acquired by Metromedia Fiber Network (NASDAQ:MFNX)>
Frank received a Bachelor’s degree from Rider College in 1972 and a Masters degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1974. Mr. Kline is currently the Chairman of Uprizer, Inc. and Board Member of NewCoast College. |
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George Northup |
George Northup, currently President and CEO of AuctionDrop has more than 20 years of in-depth operating experience in building technology companies into durable and profitable entities. Well-known and respected in the investor community, George’s experience in driving profitability and guiding companies transitioning from their early stage, makes him well-suited to steward AuctionDrop through this exciting phase of growth and development. Due to AuctionDrop’s unique hub-and-spoke business model, the applications for a service like this are countless. George plans to explore corporate intake sources to expand the company in new directions as AuctionDrop continues to innovate and drive the evolution of this market.
Prior to joining AuctionDrop, George served as CFO of LiveCapital, Online Resources Corporation and Iverson Technology Inc. Earlier in his career, he was a CPA at Deloitte & Touche. George has successfully raised over $400 Million through IPO’s, venture capital financing, and bank debt.
George holds a bachelor of science degree from Duke University, where he graduated cum laude |
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Ian Stock |
Ian Stock is a business lawyer whose breadth of experience in start-ups, M&A, IP licensing and corporate finance ensures that he adds real value for his clients.
He has helped French high-tech start-up clients move their center of gravity to Silicon Valley, and negotiate with and understand their strategic American partners. He has helped US clients navigate the sometimes treacherous waters of doing M&A and licensing deals in France. Ian’s wide range of success with start-ups includes his years as Special Counsel with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto.
Ian has motivated and led teams inside both law firms and corporations, driving to completion complex transactions on both sides of the Atlantic. He obtains the best results from the teams that he has worked with by treating each member with respect. He drafted the largest acquisition then effected in France by a US multinational. He protected a start-up’s management team whose VCs sold their company, providing fair compensation for constructively terminated managers.
Ian earned his Bachelor of Arts with Highest Honors in Human Ecology at U.C. Berkeley and his J.D. at the Yale Law School. Representative clients include: Micron Technology, Cypress Semiconductor, Mindspeed Technologies, eMachines, Cosine Communications, StarOffice, Goldman Sachs, Immunotech, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Faiveley Transport, Republic National Bank of New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (of NY). |
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Imin Lee |
Imin Lee is currently the Director, Engineering in Cisco Security Technology Group with the responsibility of overlooking CS-MARS product line strategy, direction, engineering and operation.
Ms. Imin Lee has over 15 years management and technical experience in networking, security, telecommunications, and enterprise software. She was the co-founder and CEO of Protego Networks, which she sold to Cisco in February 2005 for $65M in cash. Like many Silicon Valley startups, Protego had a humble beginning with $1mm seed funding and five engineers. Nevertheless, the company grew quickly in the next two years, expanding to about 40 people and raised $6.5M venture funding. Six month after launching its first product in 2004, Protego has developed sales channels and acquired over 60 customers, despite of competition from other companies. It did not take long for such momentum to catch the eyes of potential partners and acquirers, resulting in Cisco’s acquisition.
Imin previously led Cisco’s next generation Policy Configuration Management system team, having responsibility for development, product specification, and launch. Before Cisco, Imin held numerous technical and management positions in Bell Labs and AT&T Labs. While at AT&T, she built the Internet Service Platform for AT&T’s internet telephony and messaging services as well as the carrier services for broadband network telecommunications. Prior to AT&T, Imin served technical positions in Amerex Systems, IBM and teaching position in Guangzhou Vocational University, China. Imin holds an MS degree in Computer Science from State University of New York and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from South China University of Technology, China. |
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J. Peter Herz |
Mr. Herz was founding CEO of storage technology company 3ware, Inc., acquired by AMCC in April 2004 for $150 million in cash. Mr. Herz is currently CEO of WUCO Capital, LLC a consulting and investment company based in Mountain View, CA. Mr. Herz also serves as Chairman of the Board of IPextreme, Inc., a semiconductor intellectual property company based in Campbell, CA. In addition, Mr. Herz is a director of Kendall Investments, a private equity fund-of-funds company. Previously, Mr. Herz's career spans 20 years primarily in the storage, EDA and semiconductor industries at firms including Compiled Designs (acquired by Synopsys, Inc.), Siemens Semiconductor (now Infineon Technologies AG) and HHB Systems (acquired by Racal Redac Ltd). Mr. Herz holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University. |
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Jeff Ready |
Founder of four companies and an industry trade-group before he turned 29, Jeff Ready defines the word “entrepreneur."
His first company began in the basement of America's top-rated school of engineering, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Under the incubation of Rose, as the university is called by its students, Ready founded the Terre Haute Internet Services, the first business-class ISP in Larry Bird's college town in 1996. After building the business to sustainable profitability and its own office space, Ready sold the ISP and started Aureate Media in 1998.
Aureate Media developed a unique ad-serving infrastructure and set of technologies that allowed companies to put advertising directly into computer games and other software applications. Internet Venture Capital firm CMGI invested more than $5 million in the company before Ready re-launched Aureate Media as Radiate, Inc. From there, Ready grew Radiate to become one of the largest internet properties, generating over $20 million a year in sales and reaching with more than 30 million people per month through its technology.
In 2000 (while still with Radiate), he founded and served as the first Executive Director of the Internet Measurement Initiative (IMI). This non-profit association was a catalyst for defining new ways to measure digital user audience data, and grew to become 22-member industry association that included Microsoft, AOL Time Warner, DoubleClick, Motorola and other major corporations. The IMI now exists as the Advertising Research Foundation's Digital Media Measurement Council.
In 2001, Radiate was acquired by a privately-held software firm in Seattle, Washington. After this successful cash exit, Ready started Corvigo, his latest venture, serving as it’s president and CEO. Developed the first artificial intelligence and self-learning system for stopping junk email (or “spam”), called Intent-Based Filtering (IBF) technology. Starting Corvigo during the economic doldrums of 2002 (January), Ready led the company to success by doubling revenues every quarter, tightly managing cash-flow, and growing to profitability without raising outside capital. Then, poised for explosive growth with a proven business model behind him, Sequoia Capital, one of the top venture capital firms in the world, chose Corvigo as its only investment in the crowded anti-spam space in 2003.
Corvigo’s technology was a finalist in the Network World Best of the Test review, won first place in InfoWorld's anti-spam bake-off, and was chosen at the Security Venture Fair as the Most Promising Company of 2004. Ready successfully negotiated the acquisition of Corvigo by Tumbleweed Communications (NASDAQ: TMWD) in March 2004 for $41.5 Million. After the acquisition, Ready served as Tumbleweed’s VP of Marketing before moving on to seek out his next venture.
Ready has been interviewed and quoted in the New York Times, Forbes, Business Week, NPR, Business 2.0, U.S. News and World Report and countless other publications. He was nominated as MIT Technology Review's Top Innovators of 2004 and Corvigo was nominated to Red Herring's Top 100 companies of 2004. He's won the Blue Chip Award from the US Chamber of Commerce, the Ziff Davis Best Technology award, and the Rose-Hulman Distinguished Young Alumni Award, among others. |
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Jevan Anderson |
Jevan Anderson is a principal at SVB Alliant and has been an integral part of the semiconductor and systems group since 1999. He has completed more than 25 transactions totaling more than $3 billion in aggregate value, including a wide variety of domestic and cross-border transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and restructurings. Clients include several of the leading semiconductor and systems companies, such as Broadcom, Cypress, Huawei, IBM, IDT, Infineon, LSI Logic, National Semiconductor, Philips and Xilinx.
Prior to joining SVB Alliant, Mr. Anderson worked in the office of the chairman at Howmet Corporation, a billion-dollar aerospace manufacturing company based in Greenwich, CT. As the manager of strategic analysis for Howmet, he was an integral member of the team that, working with The Carlyle Group, lead Howmet’s LBO in 1995, and the subsequent IPO in 1997. Mr. Anderson’s corporate development responsibilities at Howmet extended to mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and investor relations. Prior to joining Howmet, Mr. Anderson was a systems business process re-engineering and strategy consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, where he worked with leading Forbes 100 communications, technology and entertainment companies.
Mr. Anderson holds an MBA as a Stern Scholar from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University and a bachelor’s degree of science with high honors in electrical engineering from Lehigh University. |
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Jill Wilson |
Jill is Group Manager, Business Development, Compass. Guidant Corporation (Santa Clara, CA).
Jill has been a manager in the Compass group, Guidant’s corporate venturing and business development arm, for over three years. Her areas of specialization are heart failure devices and non-cardiovascular device strategy and investing. Prior to that, Jill was in Guidant’s Carotids & Peripherals Group as a global marketing product manager, responsible for product development and launch, and customer and sales force support. Jill was also a summer intern in Guidant’s Vascular Intervention group. Jill holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. |
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John King |
In 1980, John King co-founded PSW3, a software and systems integration firm - holding positions in marketing, business development and operations. In 1990, he consummated the spin-out, sale of PSW3's public safety division and was subsequently named President of PSW3 Financial Services Corporation, a subsidiary specializing in electronic payment systems, electronic commerce and related integration services.
After leaving PSW3 in 1998, John was a partner at HK Ventures and an active private equity investor with the Keiretsu Forum. John joined Chernin & Company (an investment and merchant bank) in 2002. He has provided consulting services to clients in the areas of business development, mergers & acquisitions, capital formation, strategic partnerships and divestitures.
John is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with a degree in Computer Science. John’s experience has included private and public companies, foundations and government organizations. |
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Jon Rortveit |
Jon is the CEO of TYNAX. He a serial entrepreneur with 20 years international experience from working with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies. His areas of expertise include corporate strategy, international business, marketing, distribution, joint ventures and alliance building. Prior to joining TYNAX Mr. Rortveit served in executive level positions for both hardware and consulting companies.
He was the President and co-founder of International Business Accelerator, a venture consulting company that he ran for 5 years; president of Davis North America; and vice president of worldwide marketing for Davis A/S in Norway. During his tenure at DAVIS he was instrumental in growing the company startup to -$100m. The company was sold to the Kongsberg Group (www.kongsberg.com).
Mr. Rortveit earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Warwick Business School in England. He received a bachelor's degree in marketing from the Norwegian School of Management in Oslo. |
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Jorge Zavala |
Jorge Zavala is the CEO of TechBA, The Mexico- Silicon Valley Technology Business Accelerator based in San Jose, California. He is actually involved in supporting high innovative technology start-ups in their initial and turn around stages.
He joined the TechBA Program in December, 2004 to bring Small and Medium Mexican companies to the Silicon Valley area to expand their business in the USA and to open opportunities to American Entrepreneurs in IT and technology industries in Mexico.
Jorge has been a unique high tech entrepreneur combining the best of two worlds: the technical support in computer and innovation related areas, with his experience as a venture capitalist in the executive business management field.
With more than 28 years of management experience, he has been the CEO of seven companies and prior to joining TechBA he worked as an Associated Partner and CTO of Visionaria, a Venture Capital Group that provides funding, consulting and coaching capabilities to IT companies.
Jorge received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Universidad La Salle, Mexico in 1979, and a MS in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1984.
He has been a Guest Speaker at the prestigious Graduate Business School IPADE in Mexico City, for several years (from 2002 to 2003) in the areas of Creating virtual communities for business environments, Enabling innovation within the organizations, Deployment strategy: the knowing and doing gap and Collaborative Learning. |
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Mark Cameron White |
As the founding partner of Silicon Valley law firm White and Lee, Mr. White has represented recognized companies such as HotMail, ClassmatesOnline, Nuvomedia, Native Minds, 3ware, SurfMonkey.com, garageband.com, Betasphere, the EDA Consortium and AirFlash and venture capital funds such as New Enterprise Associates, Nexit Ventures and Selby Ventures.
Mr. White has spoken on technology law and entrepreneurship in Australia, Singapore, the Peoples Republic of China and Malaysia. He was the organizer of the "Soup to Nuts" seminar series, which in 2000 was sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, New Enterprise Associates, NASDAQ, Microsoft and Oracle. He currently spearheads the organization of Silicon Forest Forum in the Pacific Northwest and the Executive Leadership Series in Silicon Valley.
Mark holds a J.D. from University of California at Berkeley – Boalt Hall School of Law, an M.B.A. from Harvard University, Graduate School of Business and a BA, Economics from Rutgers College, Rutgers University. |
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Mark Specker |
Mark Specker is the Director of Equity Capital Markets with WR Hambrecht + Co. Mr. Specker joined WR Hambrecht + Co in January 2004 from SoundView Technology Group where he was Managing Director, Investment Banking and Chief Technologist for SoundView. Prior to Investment Banking at SoundView, Mark was Head of SoundView's Systems Research group and covered a range of large-cap technology companies. Previously, during his 10 years at Gartner Inc, he co-founded and served five years as a Program Director for the Gartner Financial Strategies service. Mr. Specker hold a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Columbia University. |
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Michael Sipe |
Michael is the president and founder of Private Equities, a San Jose based middle market mergers and acquisitions and business development firm, which serves buyers, sellers and builders of medium sized Bay Area manufacturing, distribution, sales and services companies.
Mike has been an entrepreneur since the fifth grade. Since then, his range of varied experiences, which include civil engineering, publishing, computer simulation, multimedia production, direct sales, business consulting, training and education, manufacturing, retail and real estate, has proven invaluable in his current work as a business intermediary and consultant to growing companies.
In the process of buying and selling his own companies, Mike became intrigued by the absence of a well-developed market for mid-sized companies, and the frustrations and challenges consequently faced by potential buyers and sellers. In 1991 he formed Private Equities to help remedy this problem.
The subsequent years have been filled with great people, fine companies, and successful deals. In the process, Mike has made a rigorous study of the contract, accounting, tax and business issues involved in the transfer of a company. He has a special talent for designing creative solutions to the problems that can arise.
Mike is a Master Marketing Consultant, affiliated with Y2Marketing, one of the nation's largest and most innovative marketing consulting firms, and he speaks regularly to civic and professional organizations on mergers, acquisitions, marketing and business development topics.
Over the years, Mike has been actively involved with The Executive Committee (TEC), an international organization of CEOs, as a TEC Associate, a TEC approved consultant, and as a speaker to TEC groups.
He is a graduate of the highly select Silicon Valley Leadership Program, which involves leaders from various industry and civic organizations in an ongoing examination and intervention in the critical business and social issues facing the dynamic Silicon Valley.
Mike grew up in the high country of Northern Arizona. He attended Arizona State University and obtained a business degree on an Army ROTC Scholarship. He also graduated from the Army Ranger School, Engineer School and Topographic School before serving as an engineer officer in West Germany. |
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Mike Loughry |
Mike Loughry has significant experience investing in and working with privately held companies. He has been assisting private companies with financial and business development activities for the past six years. He was formerly a private equity investor at Berkeley International Capital and Newbury Ventures, and a product development engineer at Johnson & Johnson Corp. Mr. Loughry holds a B.A. degree in physics from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Chicago. |
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Nik Bahram |
Nik’s focus over his 25 year career has been on transforming underperforming and startup organizations into high performance value creating companies. He has held C and VP level responsibilities at 5 startups and spent the first half of his career at fortune 500 companies including Motorola and Digital Equipment Corporation. In his leadership roles, Nik has consistently emphasized that crisp vision and strategy must be matched with world class execution. He has led global organizations in Sales, Marketing, Product Development and Engineering. He has significant fundraising experience as well as $190 million in M&A to his credit on the sell and buy side successfully enunciating the strategic value of those transactions to all stakeholders followed by successful integration. Nik has applied his expertise to a variety of markets including nano and biomaterials for the Electronics, Solid State Lighting, Clean Energy and Digital Imaging market segments; chipsets and systems in wired/Wireless networks, Storage Area Networks; consumer electronics as well as web security software. Nik holds a BS and MS in computer engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Science in Finance from Boston College and a graduate certificate in Business Administration from Harvard. He can be reached at nikb@venova.com. |
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Paul C. Dali |
Paul C. Dali is a founder and the managing principal of Dali, Hook. Prior to this venture, he was founder and managing general partner of Convergence Partners and a general partner of Nazem & Co. and 3i Ventures.
Mr. Dali is a successful, progressive and visionary investor who was responsible for backing one of the first companies to put sound on computers (MediaVision), and one of the first companies to use the Internet for enterprise level network security and updates (Cybermedia). Because of his operating background, experience and current business conditions, Mr. Dali is focusing on enterprise software and the "real time enterprise".
Prior to his career in venture capital, he had 23 years of operating experience that included building Regis McKenna into the largest high tech marketing and communications company as its CEO, and serving as vice president and general manager of the PC Division of Apple Computer and chairman of its marketing council.
Both his operating and venture capital background have made Mr. Dali an invaluable member of the board of directors, or board of advisors, on which he currently serves, which include Blazent, BroadWare Technologies, Candera, iPolicy, Nuasis, UltraDots and Webify. He was also a board member of Cybermedia, MediaVision, Storm Software, @POS and Repeater Technology, all previously public companies. His experience and reputation as the "Godfather of Multimedia VC Business" (Red Herring, June 1993) has made him a sought-after speaker on marketing, entrepreneurism and venture capital. Mr. Dali has a BS degree in finance from California State University. |
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Peter Hewitt |
Peter Hewitt is a senior executive with over 22 years of operations, marketing, business development and sales experience with Silicon Valley technology companies. Proven track record of leadership and accomplishments in starting and growing successful consumer and technology companies. Extensive expertise in marketing services, shrink-wrapped software, interactive applications, rich media Web tools, communications, sports, TV, advertising and education markets.
Client Experience |
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Rebekah Wu |
Rebekah Wu is a Founding Partner of Right-Hand Partners (RHP), the trusted conduit to reach the VC community. She founded RHP after her own experience as a CEO/Founder of BeAssured Inc., a contract negotiations software startup company. RHP has helped 19 companies raise money totaling ~$110m since September 2001. Three companies that RHP worked with has already been acquired. Just before her own startup experience, she was an E-Commerce Strategy Manager at Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, which brought her to the bay area. Prior to moving to the bay area, she was a Regional Manager of Internet Solutions at AT&T supporting a sales organization of 700 people in the west coast. Rebekah has a BA in Business and BFA in Music from Pacific Lutheran University. |
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Richard W. Helfrich |
Richard W. Helfrich is a managing director of Alameda Capital, a venture fund focused on the overlaps of IT, Bio and new materials/nanotech. Earlier Rich actively invested in the US for a German fund. He served on over twenty boards and founded several companies. Richard served in executive business and marketing roles in large companies and did a public company turnaround. Richard has promoted public policy initiatives globally and now is active on the California Nanotech Task Force. He has taught business and marketing classes at UC Extension. His education includes BS physics, MSEE and pre-med chemistry and biochemistry. |
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Richard Wood |
Richard Wood is Managing Partner of Sand Hill Partners, a strategic services firm specializing in competitor and customer intelligence. The firm provides clients with information about the sales and marketing strategies of their competitors and the buying preferences and characteristics of their customers.
Rick is a seasoned professional with a strong background in corporate and product marketing, competitive intelligence, investor relations, sales promotion, marketing communications and general business management with both Fortune 500 and early stage firms. He has held senior positions at Black & Decker, United Technologies Corporation, Carrier Corporation, Avis Rent A Car, Cambridge Foods, the American Electronics Association and Laserscope, where he served as Vice President – Corporate Marketing before founding Sand Hill Partners in 2000.
Clients of Sand Hill Partners include Fortune 500 firms as well as a number of early stage and emerging growth enterprises, in addition to angel investors and VC firms. Sand Hill Partners’ largest client is ranked within the Fortune Top 50.
Rick holds B.A. and M.S. degrees from Rutgers University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively, and has completed additional graduate study in marketing and finance at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Syracuse University’s Graduate School of Management. |
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Robert Aronoff |
Rob has nearly 20 years of experience in Fortune 500 companies (Sun Microsystems, Eastman Kodak, Microsoft), business strategy and technology consulting (Coopers & Lybrand, Peat Marwick), public small cap companies (BrandEra Inc.), and large-scale industry consortium initiatives (the Digital Imaging Group). Most recently, Rob was managing partner of Worldwide Capital Partners, a San Francisco based boutique advisory company and a predecessor entity of CVP. Rob has hands-on experience in a range of key operating positions including COO, VP Business Development, VP Marketing, Director of Corporate Strategy, Director of Product Marketing, and Business Process and Information Technology Consultant. Rob led up the creation of the Digital Imaging Group – a still operating consortium (since merged with PIMA to become the I3A) with financial and technical backing of such industry giants as Kodak, Fuji, Canon, Intel, HP, IBM, Adobe, Agfa, and Microsoft—and served as it’s founding executive director while working at Kodak.
Rob has broad technical expertise spanning digital media, content, enterprise software, networking and communications. In several of his previous positions, he was responsible for the development of, and in-licensing and out-licensing of patents which gave him key insights into what creates and destroys the value of intellectual property. Rob holds B.A.'s in Computer Science and Economics from Brandeis University where he was recognized as a Milton Feld Economics Scholar, and an M.B.A. from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management where he was awarded the William L Stewart Award for Outstanding Contributions to M.I.T. for co- founding of the M.I.T. $50K Entrepreneurship Contest. |
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Ruth Fisher |
Ruth Fisher, Ph.D., is Founder and Principal of QuantAA, a business consulting firm that utilizes economic principles to conduct rigorous quantitative assessments and analyses to maximize businesses' profit potential. She has helped clients to assess various aspects of their business operations and to quantify past, present, and future sales, costs and profits. The information she has provided her clients has enabled them to make better decisions and to achieve greater profits.
Previous to founding QuantAA, Dr. Fisher spent seven years working with the premiere economic and management consulting firms, Putnam, Hayes & Bartlett, Inc. and Charles River Associates, Inc. During that time she worked on cases involving infringement of intellectual property, licensing disputes, and breaches of contract.
Dr. Fisher holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago. |
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Scott Munro |
Scott Munro's career has spanned over twenty years in high technology. As the former Chairman and CEO of Savoir Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SVTG) he increased revenues from $50 million to a run rate of over $1 billion in a five year period prior to the sale of the company to Avnet, Inc.( NYSE:AVT). At the time of the sale Savoir was IBM's largest customer in the world for mid-range computers and the company had built a comprehensive service offering that included leasing, software and services to complement the hardware business. Prior to founding Pagemill Partners Mr. Munro was also the CEO of two start-up companies in the wireless software and software infrastructure space.
Scott has been actively involved in representing primarily Venture Capital backed private companies in their sale to public companies. Some of his most recent notable transactions include the sale of Onetta, Inc to Bookham, PLC, the sale of Bloglines to Ask Jeeves, the sale of MediaDVX to Digital Generation Systems and the sale of Tarantella, Inc. to Sun Micro Systems, Inc. Scott’s primary focus is in the internet, software, security and services area.
Mr. Munro's undergraduate degree is from Concordia University where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree Magna Cum Laude. He received a graduate diploma in accounting at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Munro remains a member in good standing of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. |
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Sid Wilkins |
Sid Wilkins is a management consultant and executive recruiter who specializes in building teams for high-growth startups. In a 30+ year career, Sid has been involved in several high-profile startups including Netscape, SGI, Chemdex, Silicon Imaging and Apple Computer. He coaches executives and helps employers through merger, acquisitions and other challenging transitions. Sid holds an MSc in Psychology from San Francisco State University and a PhD in Psychology from the Western School of Psychology. Sid had a distinguished career in the military and is qualified as a personal fitness instructor. |
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Sina Fateh |
Sina Fateh is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vega Vista, Inc., a company based on technology he invented in France.
In 1997, Sina moved Vega Vista to Mountain View, California, where it develops and markets a unique motion-based user interface control for mobile phones and gamepads. The company licenses its IP, which is protected by 10 issued patents and 10 pending patents, to the mobile handset market..
Prior to Vega Vista, Sina Fateh was the founder in France of Innovision, an ophthalmology device company. He is also the inventor of the Visiodisk™ the first device to test the vision of very young children.
Sina Fateh graduated from the Medical School of University Louis Pasteur and spent 4 years as a researcher on orthoptic research projects. He also completed the Executive Program at HEC Business School in Paris.
In recognition of his accomplishments and expertise in Silicon Valley, the French Government appointed Sina Fateh as advisor to the French Ministry of Commerce to help French businesses export their products and services. |
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Tim Draper |
Timothy C. Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
On behalf of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mr. Draper serves on the boards of Skype, SocialText, Project Y, MailFrontier and Chroma Graphics. His original suggestion to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique to hundreds of businesses.
He was an original venture capital investor in Parametric Technology (PMTC), Tumbleweed Communications (TMWD), Overture.com (OVER), Digidesign (AVID), Preview Travel (TVLY), Four11 (YHOO), Combinet (CSCO), and Redgate (AOL). Mr. Draper launched the Draper Affiliate Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in 26 cities around the globe. He founded or co-founded Wasatch Ventures (Salt Lake City), Zone Ventures (LA), Draper Atlantic (Reston), Draper Triangle (Pittsburg), Timberline Ventures (Portland), Polaris Fund (Anchorage), Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham (NYC) and DFJ Frontier (Sacramento and Santa Barbara).
As an advocate for entrepreneurs and free markets, Mr. Draper is regularly featured as a keynote speaker in entrepreneurial conferences throughout the world, has been recognized as a leader in his field through numerous awards and honors, and has frequent TV radio, and headline appearances.
Mr. Draper is also the course creator and Chairman of BizWorld, a 501c3 organization built around simulated teaching of entrepreneurship and business to children. He served on the California State Board of Education. In November of 2000, Mr. Draper launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the California General Election.
He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. |
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Utkarsh Kansai |
Utkarsh has been working with private companies for the last seven years. During this time he made 10 investments as a venture capitalist (Blueprint Ventures and MCI Ventures) and evaluated over 500 companies. He served as a board observer on portfolio companies’ board and assisted portfolio companies in interim VP Finance and VP Business Development roles. Utkarsh is currently a Partner at Augustus Ventures, a venture advisory firm, helping private companies with fund-raising, M&A advisory and business development projects.
Utkarsh holds a BS in Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Rourkela, India, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University and an MBA from the Henry B. Tippie School of Management at the University of Iowa. |
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Vik Punj |
Vik Punj has over 22 years experience in Telecomm, Wireless and Optical communications. He is currently Managing Director Corporate Business Development at Cypress Semiconductor, with responsibilities for M&A, BD and the Cypress Venture Fund. Most recently he was an Industry Consultant and EIR at Storm Ventures where he helped launch Airespace as acting CEO (acquired by Cisco in 2005). Prior to that he was GM of the Wireless PAN operation at Intel, which developed and sold RF CMOS chips, a technology that was pioneered by his organization. Vik has over 10 years of senior management operational experience, is a Senior Member of IEEE and has 9 US Patents. Prior to Intel Vik spent 10 years at Bell Labs and 4 years at Hughes Electronics, where he did pioneering work on LMDS, Ka band Satellite systems, ATM/SONET, Frame Relay and Wireless systems. Vik was appointed the Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs and was the recipient of the Bell Labs Patent award in 1999 for one of his patents. Vik has a B.E. (Hons) degree in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and an MSc (Econ) with Distinction from the London School of Economics, which he attended on an Inlaks Foundation Scholarship. |
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Vincent P. Pangrazio |
Vincent P. Pangrazio is a partner in the Cooley Godward Business department. He joined the Firm in 1993 and is resident in the Palo Alto office.
Mr. Pangrazio has a general corporate and securities law practice with an emphasis in the representation of emerging growth companies and venture capitalists.
Mr. Pangrazio’s practice focuses on the day-to-day counseling of emerging technology companies throughout the corporate life cycle from incorporation through public offering. He assists company clients with formation and founders’ issues, financing, technology and licensing matters, employment issues, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic relationships. Mr. Pangrazio regularly serves as counsel to a number of venture funds in their financing activities and on other matters.
In 1999, Mr. Pangrazio served as Vice President and General Counsel of Women.com Networks, Inc., a network of online sites featuring content and services for women.
Mr. Pangrazio received his J.D. in 1993 from Loyola Law School where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as a member and editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. In 1993 he externed at the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Loyola Marymount University in 1985. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Alpha Sigma Nu.
Prior to joining Cooley, Mr. Pangrazio worked for several years as an electrical engineer with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in the areas of power generation and distribution.
Mr. Pangrazio is a member of the State Bar of California and a Licensed Electrical Engineer. |
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Vispi Daver |
Vispi Daver is a Principal at Sierra Ventures. Sierra Ventures is a $1.2 billion venture capital organization headquartered in Menlo Park, CA (www.sierraventures.com). The firm invests in early stage and emerging growth technology companies with a special focus in three areas: networking and telecommunications, mission critical enterprise software, and Internet infrastructure.
Prior to joining Sierra Ventures, Vispi was in the Corporate Development group at Network Associates (McAfee, Inc.). His responsibilities included implementing corporate M&A objectives on both acquisitions of emerging technologies and divestitures of non-core product lines. Vispi was also responsible for managing the company’s portfolio of strategic investments. At Network Associates, Vispi was involved with several company acquisitions including: McAfee.com, Entercept Security Technologies and IntruVert Networks. Vispi also managed the divestitures of PGP and Gauntlet product lines to Secure Computing and Magic Solutions to BMC Software. Before Network Associates (McAfee, Inc.), Vispi was a Product Manager at myCIO.com, a company that delivered network security solutions to enterprises online via the Internet.
Vispi was profiled as “Corporate Dealmaker” in The Deal, June 2003 and is a regular participant on industry panels as an expert on M&A in the multi-billion dollar network and systems security market. Vispi earned his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with distinction in Strategy and Finance from Yale University and his Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Combined Sciences from Santa Clara University. |
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Wu-Fu Chen |
Wu-Fu Chen, managing member and co-founder of Acorn Campus, Genesis Campus, & iD SoftCapital, is a renowned networking and serial entrepreneur who has since 1989 invested successfully in communications companies. Mr. Chen founded more than a dozen high tech companies including Cascade Communications where he was the founder and vice president of engineering. In 1994 he steered Cascade through its IPO, being instrumental in the company's achieving over $10 billion in capitalization. After the acquisition of Arris Networks, he was a vice president at Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) where he led their integrated voice, data, and video access product development.
Mr. Chen has served as chairman and CEO of leading edge start-ups such as Shasta Networks (acquired by Nortel), Ardent Communications (acquired by Cisco Systems), and Arris Networks (acquired by Ascend Communications) (NASDAQ:ASND). He has been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and chosen one of the top ten entrepreneurs of 2000 by Red Herring. Light Reading once called Wu-Fu Chen the "most influential person" in optical networking.
Mr. Chen received an MSEE from the University of Florida in 1976 and a BSEE from National Taiwan University in 1972. From 1976 to 1977 he was in the doctoral program in computer science at UC Berkeley. Mr. Chen is actively involved in the development of portfolio companies and plays an important role in attracting deals as well as top talent to Acorn Campus and its portfolio companies. |
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