Board Profiles
Jerry has over 30 years of experience bringing new software products and services to market, both in venture-backed and corporate environments. Most recently, as the COO at Where Inc., Jerry managed the company from start-up to profitability to acquisition by eBay, Inc. (EBAY) in 2011.
Before entering the mobile space, Jerry had executive appointments as VP & GM of XML Products for Progress Software (PRGS), SVP of Channels at eXcelon Corp. (EXLN), and VP, Consulting for C-Bridge Internet Solutions (CBIS). As both a board director and operating executive for C-bridge, Jerry’s efforts to build an industry-leading Internet systems integrator resulted in a successful IPO in 1999. Jerry was also integral to the merger of C-Bridge with eXcelon in 2001 and the sale of eXcelon to Progress in 2002. Before he joined C-Bridge, Jerry held leadership positions at Sybase and Unum (UNM) and a series of advanced technology roles on Wall Street.
Jerry has given expert testimony before U.S. Congress and spoken at conferences around the world. He has served as a board director or board-level advisor for several Internet and mobile start-ups and is currently a board director for The Capital Network with a focus on coaching early stage entrepreneurs. Jerry spends his free time in Maine with family and lives to hike and ski. He graduated with a BA from Tufts University and a MS from Bentley College.
Dan Allred is a Senior Relationship Manager with Silicon Valley Bank. In this role, Dan helped to build SVB’s Accelerator practice which consists of advising, banking and lending to high growth technology start-ups. He manages the Accelerator team in Boston which is focused on serving hundreds of clients in the technology and venture capital markets.
Prior to moving to Boston in May 2007, Dan led SVB’s business development efforts in Research Triangle, NC, where he tripled that office’s profitability and earning assets between mid-2003 and mid-2007. Dan joined SVB as an associate in the Research Triangle office in September 2002.
Dan was Vice President of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) in Research Triangle Park, NC prior to joining SVB.
Dan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the SVB Foundation, which makes grants to various organizations in the communities that SVB serves. He is also Board member and Treasurer for The Capital Network, a resource for New England entrepreneurs seeking early-stage financing. Dan also serves on the Young Leadership Committee for the Museum of Science in Boston, MA and the steering committee for Start-up Massachusetts.
Dan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Johnston Scholar and Phi Beta Kappa. He lives in Wellesley, MA with his wife and two daughters.
Kent Bennett, a vice president in Bessemer’s Cambridge, Mass. office, joined the company in 2008. Kent focuses on investments in the “big data”, data-infrastructure, and communications sectors.
At Bessemer, Kent has been involved in investments including data-management companies Endeca (acq. by Oracle), Streambase, Vertica (acq. by HP), Hadapt, Netuitive and Portrait Software; mobile-communications companies BroadSoft (IPO), Millennial Media (IPO) and Enforta; as well as in Goal.com (acq. by Perform Group) the world’s largest soccer portal.
Prior to joining Bessemer, Kent was a creative executive for an entertainment-production company, where he developed and sold original material including a network television pilot and a feature film. He began his career with Bain & Co., where he worked on projects in industries spanning IT, retail, consumer products, healthcare and biotech.
Kent holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a B.S. degree, summa cum laude, in systems engineering from the University of Virginia, where he was a Jefferson Scholar.
Yumin currently works at HLM Venture Partners, a healthcare focused Venture Capital firm that specializes in medical technology, healthcare services, and IT investments. He also consults for and is founder of several startups ranging from stem cell tissue reengineering to hospital incentives programs. He previously worked at Angel Healthcare Investors making early stage investments in healthcare startups. Yumin was a financial consultant at a boutique investment firm called ZweigWhite where he worked on valuations and M&A services for the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering industries. He was a co-founder and CEO of a consumer electronics consulting firm and is a Babson College graduate. Yumin is a member of the Steering Committee of the New England Venture Network (NEVN), and leads the healthcare group.
Jay Dia is the Founder of Boxconcepts Consulting, a Boston-area operations and product management consultancy focused on helping entrepreneurial businesses transform innovative ideas into marketable products.
Jay has worked with a variety of companies in different industries and in various stages of development to achieve success in the marketplace. He has helped companies prepare for fundraising, analyzed market opportunities and competitive threats, launched products / services, established marketing programs and infrastructures, and developed business processes and managed operations.
On behalf of investor clients, Jay has conducted technical and market due diligence, and Intellectual Property (IP) and Freedom to Operate (FTO) analyses. He has also performed company valuation analyses, and managed company asset sales and liquidity events.
Jay has held senior product management, marketing management, operations and sales engineering positions with startups and established companies, including Network Subscriptions, Inc., Vestis, Ulisys, Quantum Bridge, Quarry Technologies, and BBN Technologies / GTE Internetworking. (He was part of the original team from GTE Internetworking / BBN Technologies that founded Quarry Technologies and served as its Director of Product Management and Marketing.) He has also held engineering positions at MITRE, Grumman, and IBM.
Jay has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.S. in Computer Science and Information Systems from Boston University. He has taken graduate courses in finance and accounting.
Scott serves as an engagement leader in Wolf & Company’s Commercial Audit group where he is responsible for providing audit and advisory services including assisting rapidly growing, entrepreneurial-driven technology companies and consulting on complex accounting matters including revenue recognition, equity instruments and business combinations, internal controls and corporate governance. He joined Wolf in 2002 and has over seventeen years of experience as a CPA. His industry experience encompasses software developers, hardware manufacturers, medical device companies, life sciences, service providers and distributors. Scott serves on Wolf’s Accounting & Auditing Committee. Scott provides audit and advisory services to entrepreneurs, executives and boards of directors. He leads Wolf’s Technology Services Team and also serves as an engagement Partner. He works with both venture-backed companies as well as those that report publicly to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Scott is one of Wolf’s designated experts in share-based compensation arrangements, derivative accounting and revenue recognition. Scott is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Vermont and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Jeremy Halpern, is a Partner, and the Director of Business Development, Emerging Companies Group, at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP, a Boston based law firm. As a former entrepreneur, Jeremy concentrates on connecting with and supporting the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in New England, working with current entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate strategic partners.
Concurrently, Jeremy serves on the Board of Pintley, a MassChallenge 2011 Finalist company providing digital marketing solutions to the craft brewing industry and on the Board of MassVentures, the venture capital arm of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Jeremy is also a Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership at Tufts University, a Connector in the Boston World Partnership, and a proud co-founder of Boston IDEA, a networking group for entrepreneurs in Boston’s Innovation District, and MassApps, a high speed business competition for the software development community.
Previously, Jeremy was the Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Business Development for MobileTek Corporation, a developer of PC based applications enabling smarter mobility for consumer mobile devices. Prior to that, Jeremy ran a strategic consulting firm and practiced corporate law with other national law firms in Boston and Los Angeles.
Jeremy received his B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. Prior to law school, Jeremy spent two years as the Executive Chairman of a concert and special events production company.
Jeremy is a member of or participates at Launchpad Venture Group, Boston Harbor Angels, Golden Seeds, NE Angels, MassChallenge, Web Innovators Group, MassTLC, Mobile Mondays, Boston IDEA and MassApps.
Jean is an active angel investor, a co-founder of the Boston branch of Golden Seeds (which invests in women-managed businesses) and a member of Launchpad Venture Group and Hub Angels. An investor with an active portfolio over 50 companies, she has served on the board or as a board-level advisor with over 20 of these firms. She has led a number of syndicated deals increasing capital to growing startups. Jean recently founded NE-ACA Angel Training to help grow new angels and increase the effectiveness of those already in groups.
Helping drive the support ecosystem by matching entrepreneurs with investors and other resources, Jean meets with hundreds of entrepreneurs a year. As a part-time entrepreneur-in-residence at the E Center and an active mentor at TCN, TechStars, and MassChallenge, she has directly or indirectly helped dozens of startups, moving them from “idea stage” to “funding-ready” to eventual launch to become vital members of the Massachusetts innovation economy.
A serial entrepreneur, she co-founded AXON Networks, which was acquired by 3Com. She led 3Com’s first VC deal and other acquisitions and led the WAN strategy. Jean founded Quarry Technologies, spinning out the BBN Super-router group.
Jean is frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and angel investing at colleges, universities and at many organizations. She serves on the board of The Technology Capital Network (TCN), teaching entrepreneurs about the investment process.
Jean was recently named to the Alley-to-the-Valley investors group, bringing together the 50 most influential women investors in the country. She will be addressing the We Own It Conference in London, on women roles and behaviors in technology commercialization.
Jean is the 2011 recipient of the prestigious Monosson Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring, awarded by the MIT Sloan School of Management.
On the board of Thompson Island Outward Bound and Boston Rising Jean supports the growth of science education and entrepreneurial jobs in the inner city. She earned a M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management and BS in Biology at MIT.
Sheryl Schultz is an expert in startup company dynamics, with a deep understanding of the marketing and organizational challenges faced by early stage businesses. She has spent over 30 years working with startups as a marketer, board advisor, mentor, and investor. During her career, Sheryl has designed and orchestrated the launch of some of the most successful companies in Massachusetts including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications.
Sheryl is currently a Managing Director at Golden Seeds, a network of angels that provides early stage and growth capital to women-led businesses, and a member of Launchpad Venture Group. Until recently, she served for two years as Golden Seeds’ Boston Forum Co-Leader. Prior to her work at Golden Seeds, Sheryl spent over 20 years as President of SRS Associates, a firm she founded to provide communications and market strategy consulting to telecommunications startups. In that capacity, Sheryl worked with dozens of companies, 20 of whom engaged her from inception through successful exit by IPO or acquisition.
Sheryl is a Board Director for Crimson Hexagon, a Harvard University spin-out that delivers Social Intelligence from the billions of unsolicited opinions individuals express online, and for The Capital Network, Boston’s leading non-profit organization providing education and community to help early-stage entrepreneurs master the entire funding process. She is also a founder of the Women’s Entrepreneurial Council (WEC), a “super” organization created to align the many groups that support women entrepreneurs, and provide a powerful ecosystem for entrepreneurial women.
Paul Sweeney is a partner at Foley Hoag and serves as Deputy Chair of the firm’s Business Department. Paul’s practice focuses on venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances and related business transactions. Paul has helped his clients raise hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital and convertible debt, and has also advised his clients through dozens of acquisitions and public offerings.
Paul’s clients range from start-up and venture-backed portfolio companies to well-established public companies. His clients operate in a wide array of industries, including networking, computer security, information technology, enterprise software, and life sciences. Paul provides practical legal advice to entrepreneurs and their businesses regarding corporate formation issues, contract negotiations, equity distribution and compensation matters. He advises emerging growth companies in the areas of venture capital and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions (both buy and sell side), reorganizations, strategic investments, joint ventures and other partnering transactions. He assists later stage and public companies with respect to SEC and securities law compliance, corporate governance, disclosure issues and general corporate matters. Paul also represents venture capital investors in connection with their portfolio investments in early and later stage growth companies.
Boston Magazine named Paul a “Massachusetts Superlawyer” in 2009. Before that he was named a “Rising Star in Massachusetts” by Boston Magazine for three straight years. Paul received his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A. from Saint Anselm College.
Leslie Williams has more than 20 years of industry experience in healthcare, management, commercial product development and marketing. In 2010 she founded ImmusanT, Inc. which subsequently acquired the assets of Melbourne, Australia based Nexpep after advising the company for a year. Ms. Williams serves as Director, President & CEO of ImmusanT. Prior to that she was President & CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals and under her leadership the company became a significant player in the pulmonary –drug-delivery market. The company was sold the end of 2007. While President and CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, she was recognized as one of the top 100 leaders in life sciences by PharmaVOICE magazine
Prior to Ventaira, Ms. Williams was director of marketing for INO Therapeutics, Inc., where she played a significant role in the NDA submission for INOmax (nitric oxide). Responsible for the commercial aspects of INOmax’s U.S. market introduction, Williams also assisted with expansion of the INO-therapy platform into the European marketplace. (The company was acquired by Ikaria Holdings in 2007 for some $670 million.) Ms. Williams’ prior pharmaceutical industry experience includes commercial positions at Merck and GSK, and drug-delivery and -monitoring experience at Datex-Ohmeda (formerly Ohmeda, Inc.).
She was a venture partner at Battelle Ventures where she sourced and evaluated deals and assisted early-stage technology companies with strategy, management, business development and M&A. She currently serves on the Boards of Hepregen Corporation, CDI Bioscience and The Capital Network (TCN) and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Life Science Leader. She serves as a mentor in the Boston University Kindle Program and Propel Careers. Ms. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business, and a B.S. degree with honors in nursing from the University of Iowa. Before entering industry, she was a critical-care nurse at Duke University, Medical College of Virginia and at the University of Iowa.
