Programs
Presenters
Current/Recent
Lisa Adams
Partner - Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. Lisa Adams is a partner in Nutter's Intellectual Property and Life Sciences practice groups. She handles all aspects of patent and trademark law, including preparation and prosecution, providing infringement, validity, and right-to-use opinions, and performing due diligence and clearance studies. She represents clients ranging from start-ups, emerging growth companies, and Fortune 500 companies, counseling them in developing an intellectual property portfolio and a strategy for protecting and exploiting their intellectual property. She has prepared and prosecuted patents in a variety of fields, with a concentration in the areas of medical and life science technology, agricultural products, and filtration and material technology. Lisa served as the 2009-2010 President of the Boston Patent Law Association, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. Lisa also handles pro bono cases from the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts, and is very active with the United Way. She serves as a Vice Chair for the Education branch of the Women's Initiative, which oversees the Healthy Child Development, Youth Opportunities, and Employment and Housing Committees. Lisa's work with the Women's Initiative involves offering educational series, volunteer opportunities, and fund raising events to help the United Way reach its goals. Lisa also serves as a Vice Chair for the United Way Women's Leadership Breakfast, which supports Today's Girls and Tomorrow's Leaders.
Michelle Basil
Partner - Nutter McClennen & Fish. Michelle Basil is a partner in the Business Department and chair of the firm's Hiring Committee. She focuses her practice on corporate and securities law, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, tender offers and going private transactions. She represents clients in a broad range of industries, including financial services, life sciences and high technology. Michelle counsels clients regarding ongoing reporting requirements of publicly-traded companies, securities compliance, corporate governance, equity compensation, and various other matters affecting publicly-traded companies and their officers and directors. She also advises private companies regarding formation, ongoing business issues and venture financing. A member of Nutter's Banking and Financial Services group, she has significant experience representing banks in corporate and regulatory matters. She is a member of the Boston Bar Association and frequently lectures on securities law issues. During Law school, Michelle served as associate editor of Ecology Law Quarterly and as a member of the Moot Court Board.
Matt Douglas
Founder & CEO - Punchbowl.com. Matt Douglas is the Founder & CEO of Punchbowl, and has guided the company through all stages of growth. Matt has raised three rounds of capital from Intel Capital, Contour Ventures, and prominent angel investors. Matt has 15+ years in product management and marketing with expertise in software product development. At Adobe Systems, Matt was responsible for Premiere where he grew revenue from $15M to $50M in four years. At Bose Corporation, he was a senior manager in the professional division where he led a hardware and software product team. Matt has a degree in music from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill. Matt's favorite reason to celebrate is Groundhog Day � he and his wife held their 16th annual Groundhog Day party in 2012. Follow Matt Douglas on Twitter (@mattdouglas) or read his startup CEO blog, Startup Swami.
David Greenwald
Co-founder & Managing Director - Relay Technology Management, Inc. Dr. Greenwald is a cofounder of Relay Technology Management, Inc. and currently serves as Managing Director. Dr. Greenwald was an Associate Investigator at the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, MD. Dr. Greenwald worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 510(k) applications for diagnostic devices for dengue fever. Dr. Greenwald was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) research fellow while earning a B.S. in Cellular Biology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Greenwald was awarded an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) towards his Ph.D. research dissertation on gene therapy for Retinitis Pigmentosa. Dr. Greenwald is an active Licensing Executive Society member, and serves on the Board of Directors for Piers Park Sailing Center in Boston, MA. Dr. Greenwald focuses on infectious diseases, cancer and genetics and enjoys sailing in Boston harbor. Dr. Greenwald publishes his perspectives on the entrepreneurism and the innovation economy on his personal blog.
Mina Hsiang
Member - General Catalyst Partners Mina focuses on both early stage and existing businesses in wireless technology, medical technology, robotics, and consumer tech.
Prior to joining General Catalyst, Mina participated in a field study at Stion Corporation where she helped develop their marketing strategy. Before that she interned at the White House OMB where she provided support and analysis on investment allocation and budgetary issues for the Department of Energy. She has worked at DEKA Research & Development Corp., building novel robotic arms for amputees, and the William J. Clinton Foundation where she worked closely with the government of Malawi to design a program for rural water infrastructure and healthcare system development. She has also worked for Boston-area startups in molecular diagnostics and in stroke rehabilitation technology.
Mina is a graduate of both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and a M.Eng. degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering; and the Harvard Business School, earning an M.B.A.
Janet Kosloff
Co-founder & CEO - InCrowd, Inc. Janet is the Co-founder and CEO of InCrowd, Inc. InCrowd launched the first on-demand data platform, allowing life science business executives and market researchers to get information in the moment from targeted respondents. In the past, she has led operations and product development teams at several fortune 500 companies and more recently has headed sales and marketing efforts, which led to acquisition for several successful start-ups in the Boston area. She brings a long-standing entrepreneurial spirit combined with over 20 years of experience in growing and developing early stage businesses.
Bill McPhee
Member - Boston Harbor Angels. Bill is a member of Boston Harbor Angels. Concurrently, Bill is serving as Director of Outsourced Business Development Services for Health Advances LLC, a life science strategy consulting boutique. Bill joined Health Advances with over twenty five years of experience working with companies to develop strategic visions, growth strategies, and financial structures. Prior to working with Health Advances, Bill served as managing general partner of Mi3 Venture Partners, which he founded in 1998 to invest in early-stage bioengineering companies. He also founded and served as managing director for Lucas, McPhee & Co., an international strategy firm, and worked as a consultant for Bain & Company. Bill continues to serve on the boards of several private companies. Bill holds a honors BSc with honors and an LLB (equivalent to a JD in the United States), both from McGill University.
Gerard Murphy
Founder & CEO - Mosaic Storage Systems. Gerard was lucky enough to travel the world on business trips where between conference rooms and hotels, he was able to snap thousands of pictures using his trusty Nikon.
Gerard has been the lead sales and marketing guy at several Boston area startups. He loves spreading the word about Mosaic to the world!
Past
Mark Allio
Regional Director - Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) Network at UMass Biston. Mark R. Allio is the Regional Director of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (MSBDC) Network at UMass Boston, an SBA-sponsored business assistance program representing a three-way partnership between the federal government, state economic development authority, and academia that provides entrepreneurs with free business advisory services, educational programs, and financing assistance, as well as specialized services supporting government contracting and international trade. As a former entrepreneur, Mark co-founded two business ventures, TracRac, a Fall River-based manufacturer of automotive accessories, and Virtuous.com, an e-ticketing service provider serving the arts and entertainment industry. Previously, he held a number of senior posts in greater Boston's non-profit sector, and served as managing principal for a strategy consulting firm. He holds a BA from York University in Toronto, Canada, an MBA from Babson College of Wellesley, MA, and a NASBITE certification as a Global Business Professional. He lives with his family in Barrington, RI.
Dan Allred
Senior Relationship Manager - Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). In this role, Dan manages SVB's early-stage efforts in New England, including banking and lending to early-stage venture-backed start-ups, often times at pre-revenue stage. Dan also works closely with SVB's emerging technologies banking practice in New England which is comprised of over one hundred pre-funded technology start-ups.
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 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.
Omar Amirana
Partner - Oxford Bioscience Partners. Dr. Amirana is a Partner at Oxford focused on healthcare technology investing. He joined Oxford in 2005 with 15 years of industry-related experience in both large and small companies. He previously served as the Vice President of Business Development at St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) focused on electrophysiology, cardiology and vascular intervention where he was also responsible for a 20 person R&D; team. Dr. Amirana was formerly the CEO of Resolution Medical, a privately held cardiology company in Silicon Valley. He has helped raise over $60M in venture financing which resulted in three IPOs: EP Technologies, Cardima, and MedicaLogic/Medscape. Dr. Amirana was a co-founder of Cardima and served there for seven years as Vice President of Marketing, Business Development and Chief Technology Officer. He was also Vice President of Marketing at MedicaLogic through its IPO. Dr. Amirana has launched cardiovascular products worldwide and holds various patents. He works with Emory University and the South African government to promote life sciences entrepreneurship. He is a co-founder and the Chairman of Propel Careers, a business dedicated to fostering leadership development through internship and mentorship. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.D. from E. Virginia Medical School.
PJ Anand
Founder - Alcyone Lifesciences, Inc. PJ Anand founded Alcyone Lifesciences, Inc. in 2010 to address the large unmet need in treatment of difficult neuropathological conditions. PJ brings more than 18 years of operational, business and corporate development experience to Alcyone Lifesciences.
Prior to Alcyone, he was a founding executive and Executive Vice President of Corporate Development at Arsenal Medical, Inc. As EVP of corporate development, PJ was responsible for leading Arsenal's corporate strategy and business development activities with pharmaceutical/biotechnology, and Medical device companies including technology in-licensing, out-licensing and strategic alliances. Prior to this role, he has served as the Company's Vice President of Business and Commercial Development and working closely with Arsenal's technology visionaries, operational team and founding scientists played a critical role in creation of Arsenal's platform and product portfolio.
Prior to joining Arsenal in 2005, PJ, served as Vice President & General Manager of Spire Biomedical, Inc., a division of Spire Corporation (NASDAQ: SPIR) where he was responsible for establishing a medical products business unit. While at Spire, PJ was responsible for R&D;, sales & marketing and business transactions. In addition, PJ was chiefly responsible for identifying and in-licensing the seminal technology for the company as well as executing major transactions with $1B+ revenue deriving medical device companies that resulted in several million dollars of non-dilutive revenue for the company.
In addition, PJ has served as head of business & strategy for Toxikon Corporation, a CRO focused on providing preclinical strategy and services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. During his tenure there he led a team that was responsible 250% revenue growth in a span of 3 years. This was a result of execution of creative partnerships with top-tier life sciences companies in pharmaceuticals/biotechnology and medical devices. In addition, he serves as adviser on strategy & business to Claros Diagnostic, Spire Corporation, Neurowave Modulation Technologies and Vyteris Pharmaceuticals as well as non-profit organizations.
PJ Anand has a bachelors degree and a master level education in Biochemistry and has several patent pending inventions to his credit.
Richard Anders
Founder and Managing Director - MA Medical Angels
Founder - Launchpad Venture Group
Founder and Managing Director - Rubin/Anders Scientific, Inc.
Richard is the founder of MA2 (Mass Medical Angels), New England's only life-science focused angel group. A serial entrepreneur, he was the founder of Jurisoft, Inc. which was acquired by Mead Data Central; New Media Publications, LLC which published Boston Digital Industry, New York Digital Industry and Texas Software News; and is currently managing director of Rubin/Anders Scientific, Inc., a science consultancy.
Richard is a trustee at the Boston Museum of Science, a trustee at the Boston Cyberarts Festival, a founding trustee of the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council, a member of the advisory council of the Harvard-MIT HST program, a member of the corporator's board of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute and a board member of Quosa.
Richard was a former partner at Still River Fund, an early stage venture capital firm based in Waltham and the founder of the angel group Launchpad. He also created the Coolidge Corner Theater's Science on Screen series where noted scientists speak about the connection of science and film and serves on an IRB at the Dana Farber Hospital.
Richard is a graduate of Harvard College, summa cum laude in mathematics, and Harvard Law School.
Jeffrey Arnold
President - Arnold Strategies, LLC. Mr. Jeffrey Arnold, a serial CEO of life science and technology companies, is the founder and president of Arnold Strategies, LLC, which advises technology and medical device on company formation, strategy, financing and strategic partnerships. Mr. Arnold was previously CEO of CardioFocus, Inc. which developed a laser catheter for treating atrial fibrillation -- now in clinical trials. Prior to that he was founder and CEO of Cambridge Heart (NASDAQ: CAMH) and CEO of Accelrys (NASDAQ: ACCL). Mr. Arnold also ran the instrumentation group for Datascope Corp and ran marketing for a division of Becton Dickinson. Mr. Arnold is a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School, a mentor at the MIT Venture Mentoring Society, on the grant review board at the MIT Deshpande Center and an angel investor with Mass. Med. Angels and Boston Harbor Angels. He was formerly Chairman of the Board of the Greater Boston Chapter of the American Heart Association. Mr. Arnold received a BSEE from MIT in 1972.
Mara Aspinall
President & CEO - On-Q-ity, Inc. Mara Aspinall is President and CEO of On-Q-ity, Inc., an innovative diagnostics company dedicated to improving the treatment of individual cancer patients through real time, non-invasive monitoring to better target therapy and improve patients' quality of life. On-Q-ity will enable precise personalized therapeutic decisions across multiple cancers through two core proprietary technologies: (1) Microfluidic chip technology that enables the capture, enumeration, and molecular characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in the bloodstream and (2) Validated DNA repair biomarkers that predict treatment response in tissue and blood.
Previously, Mara was President of Genzyme Genetics, a leading provider of testing services in the oncology and reproductive markets. Under her leadership, the company set the standard for industry quality, exhibiting profitable growth at an unprecedented pace. She transformed the business, expanding its scope and market reach to become one of the nation's largest diagnostic laboratories. The company successfully completed and integrated multiple acquisitions, expanded research and development, launched more than two dozen new products and initiated new programs for community outreach and education during her tenure.
Prior to that, Mara restructured Genzyme Pharmaceuticals: while building a new international management team that created more than 25% annual profit growth, she transformed the business from generic drug manufacturing to value-added custom production.
Mara has been on the Board of Predictive Biosciences since its inception, serving as Chairman for the past year. She is also a Board member of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and is appointed as Lecturer in Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School where each year, she teaches a seminar series on medicine and business. During 2008, Mara was on sabbatical from Genzyme working at the Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on the implementation of personalized medicine into physician education, clinical practice and research.
Previously, Mara served as President of Genzyme Pharmaceuticals. She restructured the business from generic drug manufacturing to value-added custom production, while building a new international management team that created more than 25% annual profitable growth.
She is an active member of the Federal Secretary of Health and Human Services' Advisory Commission on Genetics, Health and Society as well as Board Director of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. She co-authored, "Realizing the Promise of Personalized Medicine" in Harvard Business Review in 2007.
Mara began her business career at Bain & Company, an international strategic consulting firm She earned her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and her undergraduate degree in International relations from Tufts University.
Dave Balter
Founder & CEO - BzzAgent, Inc. Dave Balter is the founder and CEO of BzzAgent, Inc. which he launched in late 2001. Previous to BzzAgent, Dave ran and sold two promotions agencies, and even wore a suit to work for a few years in the financial marketing industry. Since its launch, BzzAgent has been featured everywhere from the CBS Evening News to the BBC to The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and is the subject of two Harvard Business School cases. Today, across North America and the United Kingdom, BzzAgent remains at the forefront of the changing media and marketing landscape. Dave co-founded the Word of Mouth Marketing Association in 2004 (WOMMA) and has authored two books on the subject of Word of Mouth, Grapevine and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II. In 2007, Harvard Business School dubbed Dave one of Boston's "Hottest Technology CEOs." Dave was named to the "40 under 40" list by The Boston Business Journal and Advertising Specialty Institute, and in 2008, Dave was recognized as a Future Legend by the AdClub. Dave also sits on the advisory boards of the Wharton Future of Advertising Project, Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, Mass Technology Leadership Council, Social Media Advisory Council, FitnessKeeper, Perkstreet and the Boston Boys & Girls Club Marketing and Communications Committee.
Dave Balter
Founder & CEO - BzzAgent. CEO Dave Balter founded BzzAgent in 2001. Since that time, his company has provided word-of-mouth media services for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and on National Public Radio.
A co-founder and current executive council member of The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Dave is an international speaker on the topic of word-of-mouth marketing. The author of two books on the subject, Grapevine: The New Art of Word-of-Mouth Marketing and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II, Dave has presented for corporations, associations and non-profit groups around the world.
Dubbed a "serial entrepreneur" by The Boston Globe, Dave built and sold two promotional agencies prior to forming BzzAgent. In 2008, he was recognized as a Future Legend by the AdClub and he was named to the "40 under 40" list by The Boston Business Journal and Advertising Specialty Institute.
His commitment to corporate transparency has resulted in five innovative blogs, which were profiled in Inc. Magazine and the Harvard Business Review and later earned an Award of Excellence from the Society of New Communications research. Dave earned a B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College and aspires to build the world's largest rock garden.
John Barrett
Managing Director - Cook Associates. John has built an expertise in the technology, online media, marketing services, consumer, and business services industries. John's clients include private equity and venture-backed portfolio companies as well as the Fortune 1000, and he recruits at senior levels including CxO and functional Vice Presidents.
Prior to joining Cook Associates, John served as a Managing Director with Conley & Company. Previously, John was an Executive Director with Russell Reynolds Associates, where he also led the firm's North American Financial Technology Practice and was a member of the its global Financial Services and Technology Practices.
Before entering the retained executive search industry, John was Vice President of Marketing for Citi f/i (financial interactive). He has also worked for Mars & Co, a French strategy consulting firm, as a consultant serving Fortune 500 clients across multiple industries. John began his career with ICI Americas, the U.S. subsidiary of the British chemicals conglomerate.
John received his BS degree magna cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and his MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College. Soon after graduating from Tufts, he won first place in the Old Guard competition, which is the top national prize awarded to students by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Abigail Barrow
Founding Director - Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC). Dr. Abigail Barrow is the Founding Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC). She is responsible for the overall management of the MTTC and the development of its programs. Prior to joining the MTTC, Dr. Barrow served as managing director of William J.
von Liebig Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). The von Liebig Center was created in 2001 to support the commercialization of research being performed in the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. She has also served as a member of the board of directors of the Center for the Commercialization of Advanced Technologies Consortium (CCAT), which assisted in the identification and commercialization of technologies in the area of crisis and consequence management and received more than $25 million in federal funding from the Office of Naval Research.
Dr. Barrow worked in a variety of roles at UCSD CONNECT from 1990 to 2001. At CONNECT, she developed and expanded many of its programs to support early-stage company formation and technology commercialization. The CONNECT program is now internationally recognized and has been successfully replicated in other
regions of North America and in Europe.
Dr. Barrow is on the board and is Chair of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment and is on the board of the National Collegiate Inventors and innovators Alliance. In addition, she is a Fellow of the Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management at UCSD.
Dr. Barrow received her PhD from the Science Studies Unit and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.
Gene Barton
Principal - Fish & Richardson P.C. (Boston office). Mr. Barton's practice emphasizes financing and merger and acquisitions activity. He specializes in the representation of emerging companies and venture capital and other private equity funds. He also provides general corporate, business planning and financial advice to public and private companies.
Boris Batchvarov
Managing Director - Boston Harbor Angels. Boris is the managing director of Boston Harbor Angels, coordinating the overall operations of the group. Boris manages companies' coaching, screening and investment processes. He is responsible for identifying investment opportunities, expanding the group's network and attracting new investors and sponsors. Before that he was associate director of the BHA group assisting with the investment process.
Prior to that Boris was CFO of a start-up consumer products company founded by former Procter & Gamble executives. His previous experience is in banking and investment management at The Bank of New York - Mellon and State Street Bank. Boris is also a partner in a family-owned real estate development enterprise in Bulgaria.
Boris has a Bachelor of Economics and Financial Management degree from the University of Varna in Bulgaria and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts - Boston. As a graduate assistant, he conducted research in organizational behavior and development.
RJ Bee
Director of Energy & Environment - Hattaway Communications. RJ Bee is the Director of Energy & Environment at Hattaway Communications, a leading public affairs firm based in Boston. The company utilizes experience, relationships and capabilities developed over two decades of experience working for visionary leaders and organizations in politics, government, advocacy, philanthropy and technology, such as Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Governor Deval Patrick, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. RJ brings a unique combination of expertise in policy analysis and strategic communications for technology clients. He has worked with the New England Clean Energy Council, Cambridge Energy Alliance, Borrego Solar, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and The Washington Post. RJ has an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Political Science from The Ohio State University.
Jeff Behrens
Sr. Director - Business Development & Operations, Edimer Pharmaceuticals. Jeff Behrens is currently Senior Director, Business Development and Operations at Edimer Pharmaceuticals which is focusing on developing a drug to treat a rare genetic disease � XLHED. Edimer is funded by Third Rock Ventures in Boston and VI Partners in Switzerland. Jeff has broad responsibilities with manufacturing, finance, operations, and business development/alliance/partnering.
Formerly, Jeff was Director, Strategic Alliances at Alnylam and Co-founder and Head of Business Operations of "BI3" - The Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator - where he founded and launched 2 companies funded by Biogen Idec � Escoublac and Provasculon - working on diabetes and cardiovascular indications .
In 2003 Jeff sold his health-care IT company, The Telluride Group, to mindSHIFT Technologies, a Fidelity-funded rollup. Telluride was an angel financed managed services provider (MSP).
Jeff is currently an Entrepreneur In Residence at the MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship Center, a member Mass Medical Angels, and a mentor with MIT's Venture Mentoring Service. Jeff volunteers with several community organizations including the Harvard Alumni Association and sits on the boards of Tufts Medical Center and The Speakeasy Stage Company in Boston.
Jeff has a Lecturer appointment and currently teaches in the HST PhD program at MIT and Harvard Medical School. Jeff has an MS from the Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), an MBA from MIT Sloan, and graduated from Harvard College. He lives in Newton, MA.
Andrew Beisel
Vice President - Venrock Capital. David joined Venrock in 2007, and was previously a principal at Masthead Venture Partners in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While at Masthead, he helped lead an investment in Expo TV, and was an integral member of the investment team for Tremor Media, Intercasting, TripConnect, and NewsGator. Prior to joining Masthead, he co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company which was successfully acquired and subsequently became the About Direct division of Primedia. As Vice President of Marketing at Primedia, David led the marketing group responsible for the company's e-mail newsletter product suite, managed the division's customer relationship operations, and coordinated related business development activities. He is also the founder of the Boston Web Innovators Group and blogs at www.GenuineVC.com.
David Beisel
Co-Founder and Partner - NextView Ventures. David is Co-Founder and Partner of NextView Ventures, a new Micro VC firm focused on seed internet investments. He was most recently a partner at Venrock Partners, having joined them in 2007, from Masthead Venture Partners, where he was a principal in the firm. While at Masthead, he helped lead an investment in Expo TV, and was an integral member of the investment team for Tremor Media, Intercasting, TripConnect, and NewsGator. Prior to joining Masthead, he co-founded Sombasa Media, an e-mail marketing company which was successfully acquired and subsequently became the About Direct division of Primedia. As Vice President of Marketing at Primedia, David led the marketing group responsible for the company's e-mail newsletter product suite, managed the division's customer relationship operations, and coordinated related business development activities. He is also the founder of the Boston Web Innovators Group and blogs at www.GenuineVC.com.
Kent Bennett
Vice President - Bessemer Venture Partners. Kent Bennett is a Vice President at BVP's Wellesley Hills office. He is active in both the data/communications and healthcare/life sciences industries. Since joining BVP as a Senior Associate in 2008, Kent has been involved with several of BVP's investments including Streambase, Vertica, Millennial Media, Netuitive, Enforta, Goal.com, On-Q-ity, and Affymax (AFFY).
Before coming to 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 & Company where he worked on projects in a dozen industries spanning IT, retail, consumer products, health care and biotech.
Kent holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar, and a Bachelor's of Science summa cum laude in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia where he was a Jefferson Scholar.
Carl Berke
Associate Director - Partners HealthCare. Carl's career has spanned over 25 years in the practice and management of innovation to bring new technologies to market. As a bench scientist and then R&D; director, he worked at Polaroid Corporation and Hygeia Sciences in the development of photographic and clinical products for both consumer and professional markets. He moved to Integral/Analysis Group, a consulting firm where he was Partner and Vice President focusing on the management of innovation and growth strategy for clients in healthcare and consumer products. He has been an active private equity investor as a member of Angel Healthcare Investors LLC and is a founder of Mass Medical Angels. He serves as a board member for Quosa Inc. [research literature management software], Automation Engineering Inc. [factory automation systems], the Sudanese Education Fund [philanthropy] and Combinent Biomedical Systems. Carl holds an AB degree from Cornell University and received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley. He also holds an appointment as Lecturer in the Biomedical Enterprise Program in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Skip Besthoff
General Partner - Castille Ventures. Skip Besthoff has an investment focus in on-demand applications, technology- enabled services and Internet-based businesses. Prior to Castile, Mr. Besthoff was at Rho Ventures where he had a strong record of investing in and participating on the boards of market-transforming software and services companies including Everdream (acquired by Dell), IntraLinks (acquired by TA/Rho), Megapath, and Verified Person.
Earlier in his career, Skip spent five years in Boston as a manager for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In this position he led large-scale systems development and integration projects for Fortune 100 companies. He also participated in building new practice areas including the SAP line of business.
Skip is a graduate of Hamilton College with a BA in Economics. He received his MBA with honors from Cornell University where he was awarded the distinguished Alfred Fried Fellowship for his academic achievements.
Sarah Biller
Co-Founder - Capital Market Exchange. Immediately preceding the launch of Capital Market Exchange, Ms. Biller was a Director of Fidelity Investment's Board Support and Analysis Group, responsible for managing the team and the process to renew the firm's multi-billion Transfer Agency contract and General Distribution Agreements with the firm's Board of Trustees. She also led the fund profitability process, which directly contributed to the product development and pricing strategies. Prior to Fidelity, Ms. Biller worked on the successful launch and sale of several start-ups, including IndUS Pharmaceuticals and as the Chief Operating Officer of Cambridge Healthtech Advisors (CHA).
Before moving to Boston, she worked on the Competitive Analysis and Ventures team at the telecommunications firm MCI. Ms. Biller also held multiple roles at the Corporate Executive Board leading research programs for Chief Financial Officers and Treasurers. During this time Ms. Biller led the launch of additional best practices research programs for executives in corporate finance and also spent time selling. In addition to these client facing responsibilities, she worked in corporate finance and on the initial public offering of both the Corporate Executive Board and the Advisory Board Company
Ms.Biller completed graduate studies in Finance at the George Washington University and holds a B.S. in Finance from West Virginia University. She has completed some post-graduate studies at Harvard University.
Jerry Bird
VP - Massachusetts Technology Development Corp. Jerry Bird, who joined Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation as Vice President in 2005, has over 22 years of investing and financial experience. He currently manages MTDC's investments in Clarity Imaging, Inc., BEZ Systems, Inc., and Ze-gen, Inc.
Before joining MTDC, Mr. Bird was President of Boston-based Claflin Capital Management, which he joined as a general partner in 1996. While at Claflin, Mr. Bird led over a dozen investments in early-stage technology companies. He was on the boards of e-Travel, Inc., which subsequently merged with VA Linux, LinkSoft Technologies, NexCen Technologies, and Bitpipe, Inc. Prior to joining Claflin Capital Management, he spent 10 years at Bank of Boston in the energy and emerging markets investment banking divisions.
Mr. Bird received both a BA and an MBA degree from Dartmouth College.
He is also on the board of Massachusetts Audubon, Crossroads for Kids, and the Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land.
Steve Bollinger
President & COO - Pervasis Therapeutics. Mr. Bollinger joined Pervasis Therapeutics in June 2005 and serves as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Pervasis, Mr. Bollinger was a founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Angiolink Corporation, which was a privately held medical device company, with responsibilities for overall operations, from 2000 to 2004, and sold the company to Medtronic Corporation in fall of 2004. From 1997 to 1999 Mr. Bollinger was the Vice President of Research, Development, and Operations for Byron Medical and held overall responsibility for corporate operations. He sold the company to Mentor Corporation in 1999. From 1991 to 1997, Mr. Bollinger has held positions at Mentor Corporation, American Hydro-Surgical Instruments, and Deknatel, in a variety of roles ranging from Sales to Product Development and Marketing Management.
Mr. Bollinger served as an artillery officer in the United States Army from 1987 to 1991, and during his service he led and supervised reconnaissance teams into combat during Operation Desert Storm. In 1991, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for exceptional meritorious service during combat. Also during his service, he graduated from the United States Army Airborne and Ranger Schools. Mr. Bollinger currently holds six medical patents. He received his M.B.A. from Oklahoma City University and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy West Point with a B.S. in mechanical engineering.
Elon Boms
Managing Director - LaunchCapital LLC. Elon has led LaunchCapital in making 25 investments across a broad range of industries. Since co-founding the company in 2008, Elon has developed LaunchCapital's presence across the U.S., opening 3 offices located in Boston, New Haven, and San Francisco. Elon joins the Venture Capital community with significant experience in structuring biotech, consumer products and technology deals. Prior to establishing LaunchCapital, Elon was a Management Consultant at Fidelity Investments where his work focused on strategy initiatives for investments in emerging markets. Elon also worked in Corporate Finance for Citigroup. He began his career as a brand manager at Georgia Pacific Company's Dixie Foodservice division. In this role, Elon assumed responsibility for a $125M business, orchestrated $25M in capital investments and engineered a complete profit turnaround for the paper cup business. Elon earned his M.B.A from the Yale School of Management where he graduated with distinction in venture capital and a concentration in finance and strategy. Elon completed his B.A. in Economics from George Washington University. Elon is an avid golfer, skier, and gourmet chef. He lives in Boston with his wife Stephanie and dog Bogey.
David Broadwin
Partner - Foley Hoag LLP. In addition to being a Partner at Foley Hoag and a member of the Firm's Executive Committee, David heads the Emerging Enterprise Center. He focuses on representation of venture financed technology companies as well as buyers and sellers of public and private companies.
David counsels clients across a broad range of business transactions, including venture capital financings, public offerings, private placements, PIPE (private investment in public equity) transactions, bank financings, and a variety of start-up company issues. He has written numerous books and articles on topics in Business Law. Dave has a B.A. from NYU, an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Graham Brooks
Associate - .406 Ventures. Graham brings 7 years of technology-oriented operating, investing and start-up experience to .406 Ventures. Most recently, Graham was Business Development Manager at Bose Corporation where he led a team that identified, evaluated, and structured strategic investment and acquisition opportunities within the digital media and technology infrastructure market. Prior to Bose, Graham co-founded Accentus, a technology company that developed innovative solutions for the financial trading industry. Graham began his career as a programmer and consultant for ALK Associates, a transportation consulting and software solutions provider. Graham, 32, is a Kauffman Fellow, received his MBA from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration in 2002, where he was a Tuck Scholar, and his BSE in Computer Science from Princeton University, where he was an All-American Fencer.
Ron Cahill
Partner - Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. Ronald E. Cahill is the manager of the Intellectual Property Department, co-chair of the Intellectual Property Litigation Group and a member of the firm's Emerging Companies/High Technology practice group. He concentrates his practice in patent portfolio development, patent litigation in federal courts and related counseling.
Ron also takes lead roles in patent infringement and patent validity opinions, re-examination and re-issue proceedings, patent interferences, corporate intellectual property due diligence undertakings and advising clients in foreign patent opposition proceedings.
Ron's practice covers a broad range of technologies. For example, he has participated in a microprocessor patent litigation, a series of patent interferences involving polymerization catalysts, a trade secret litigation concerning polyester film manufacturing technology and patent interference over osteogenic proteins. His patent prosecution practice focuses primarily upon software inventions and medical technology.
Active in professional associations, Ron chairs an American Intellectual Property Law Association patent law committee on legal standards for obviousness, and is a past chair of the Patent Litigation Committee of the Boston Patent Law Association. He writes and speaks frequently on topics relating to building strategic intellectual property portfolios and using intellectual property to enhance business value.
An engineer as well as an attorney, Ron began his professional career with Sanders Associates, in Nashua, New Hampshire, in their engineering and manufacturing divisions. Prior to joining Nutter, he was an associate at the New York office of Fish & Neave.
Kate Castle
VP of Marketing - Flybridge Capital Partners. Kate is the Vice President of Marketing at Flybridge Capital Partners where she is responsible for all marketing initiatives, including strategy, positioning, communications, events and public relations. She also plays an active role in providing marketing support and resources to the firm's portfolio companies.
Prior to joining the firm in May 2005, Kate served as Director of Marketing at Battery Ventures where she directed the firm's marketing and public relations initiatives. Before Battery, Kate spent nearly a decade leading public relations programs for emerging and established companies including corporate PR positions with Cisco Systems and Sangate Systems. Kate started her PR career at Copithorne & Bellows (acquired by Porter Novelli) where she directed PR programs for technology clients including Hewlett Packard, Software AG, UniSys, and WebLine Communications.
Kate also served as a volunteer with the United States Peace Corps teaching English as a Second language at a high school in Gabon, Africa.
Kate holds a BA in Anthropology from Wheaton College in Norton, MA where she graduated cum laude and was a Wheaton Fellow.
Lauren Celano
Co-Founder and CEO - Proper Careers. Lauren Celano is the co-founder and CEO of Propel Careers, a life science search and career development firm focused on connecting talented individuals with entrepreneurial life sciences companies across all areas of life sciences, including therapeutics, medical devices, healthcare IT, diagnostics, consulting, venture capital, and investment banking. Prior to Propel Careers, Lauren was a senior account manager for SNBL USA where she worked with emerging biotech companies in Europe, Asia, and the US to help characterize and advance their drug molecules. Prior to SNBL USA, she held business development positions with Aptuit and Quintiles, where she focused on IND enabling studies to advance therapeutics from discovery into the clinic. Earlier in her career, Lauren held positions as a marketing manager and account manager at Absorption Systems, where she was responsible for managing life sciences companies in the northeastern United States. She has a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Gettysburg College and an MBA with a focus in the health sector and entrepreneurship from Boston University. Lauren is on the membership committee of the Boston Chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association and the North Shore Technology Council. She also serves on the programming committee of the Capital Network, and the Alumni Leadership Advisory Forum for Boston University.
Glenn Champagne
Member - Launchpad Venture Group.
Yumin Choi
Sr. Associate - HLM Venture Partners. Yumin Choi currently works for HLM Venture Partners, a healthcare focused Venture Capital firm. He is also working on several startups ranging from stem cell tissue reengineering to hospital incentives programs. He previously worked at Angel Healthcare Investors performing due diligence and making early stage investments in healthcare startups. He worked as an analyst at a boutique investment firm called ZweigWhite where he worked on valuations, ownership transitions, 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.
Robert Chow
Partner - Pepper Hamilton, LLP. Robert Y. Chow is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group of Pepper Hamilton LLP, resident in the Boston office. Mr. Chow specializes in providing practical legal advice to entrepreneurs, emerging growth companies and venture investors. He advises companies at all stages of development, including, formation and governance issues, equity and compensation matters, venture capital financings, technology licensing, securities law and other regulatory compliance, and mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Chow's practice focuses on technology companies across a broad spectrum of industries.
Mr. Chow was previously vice president and general counsel of Convergent Networks, Inc., a developer of next generation switching equipment for telecommunications service providers. In this position, he was responsible for all legal matters for the company, including negotiations of strategic alliances, sales contracts, license agreements, equity financings and settlements of litigation.
Prior to joining Pepper, Mr. Chow practiced with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP in Boston, where he was a member in that firm's corporate group.
Mr. Chow received his undergraduate degree from University of California and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law.
Tom Cibotti
Managing Director - Covington Associates. Joining Covington Associates in 1993, Tom has over 20 years of transaction related experience working with public and privately-held businesses encompassing a broad range of industries including business services, healthcare, and technology. In addition to significant M & A advisory experience, Tom has focused on arranging and structuring leveraged acquisition finance transactions. Since 2002, Tom has been actively focused on the buy side arena completing well over 30 transactions for one of Covington Associates' clients whose business has grown from $40 million in revenue to approximately $2 billion in revenue. Tom has been a key part of the Covington team involved in the $1.3 billion sale of Inverness Medical Technology to Johnson & Johnson and the $1.8 billion acquisition of Biosite, Inc. Tom has worked closely with companies such as Abbott Laboratories, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and Procter & Gamble. Prior to Covington Associates, Tom was an Associate Director of Barclays de Zoete Wedd ("BZW") where he worked from 1989 to 1993. At BZW, Tom focused principally in the areas of structured acquisition finance and private placements. Before joining BZW, Tom was an Associate at Chase Manhattan Bank. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Economics from Boston College and an MBA from New York University.
Maria Cirino
Co-Founder & Managing Director - .406 Ventures. Maria brings 23 years of entrepreneurial, operating and senior management sales and marketing experience in venture-backed technology companies, with particular strengths in IT security and technology driven services (e.g. managed services, SAAS etc.). As such, Maria focuses on investments in the IT Infrastructure, IT Security, and digital media sectors. She is actively involved as an investor and board member in Adtuitive, Bit9, Digitalsmiths, Kaltura, Memento and Veracode. Prior to founding .406, she was Senior Vice President of VeriSign, following its 2005 $142 million acquisition of Guardent - a Sequoia, Charles River Ventures and NEA-backed IT security company that Maria co-founded, led as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, and for which she received "Massachusetts CEO of the Year" and Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards. Prior to Guardent, she was Senior Vice President for sales and marketing at i-Cube, an IT services company, which was acquired by Razorfish in 1999 for $1.8 billion. From 1993 to 1997, she was responsible for North American sales at Shiva, the category creating remote access company. A noted expert in information security, Maria was named one of the top 25 women in Information Security by Information Security Magazine, inducted by Women's Business Magazine into the "Women's Business Hall of Fame" and recognized by Upside Magazine's "Women to Watch in Technology". She holds a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, where she is a Trustee emerita and where she currently serves on the Investment Committee.
Andrew Clapp
Managing Partner - Arctaris Capital Partners Mr. Clapp is the Managing Partner of Arctaris Capital Partners, LLC, which provides expansion stage companies with innovative revenue-based financing that is not dilutive to equity. Previously he was a founding partner of Brook Venture Partners, a $100M expansion stage venture fund, and before that, a managing director at Shields & Company, and a Partner at Downer & Company for seven years where he launched their sell side practice. He was also President of the Equifax Research division of Equifax, Inc. for five years, and Manager of the Corporate Development Unit at Arthur D. Little, Inc. Andy is a Director of Hamilton Thorne Biosciences, Inc., and was previously a director of Mobile Medical International, Inc., Texterity, Inc., Really Strategies, Affordable Interior Systems, Inc., Wandrian, Inc., Universal Software, Linton Truss Company, Texterity, Inc. and Print Imaging Technologies, Inc. He is a frequent speaker and writer on the subjects of venture capital and mergers & acquisitions, having launched and overseen the publishing of four M&A; periodicals and directories that were acquired by a division of Thompson Group. He obtained his BS from Clarkson University and an MBA from Tuck School.
Dan Clevenger
Associate - Foley Hoag LLP. aniel Clevenger brings a diverse business and dispute resolution background to his corporate, securities and transactional work at Foley Hoag. He came to Foley Hoag after serving as co-general counsel for EOIR Technologies, Inc., a Virginia-based developer of systems, programs and training for a range of military and intelligence agencies. Prior to that he spent five years as Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for Spotsylvania County, Virginia. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from Virginia Tech and his J.D. from the College of William and Mary.
Patrick Cloney
Executive Director - Mass CEC. Patrick Cloney brings to the CEC eighteen years of experience in engineering, business, finance and government. His background in power plant operations, management, business development, and strategic planning provides a unique blend of expertise to bring to leading the organization. As an entrepreneur, Cloney has launched businesses in real estate, environmental services, and high technology. Cloney worked previously as Vice President at Susquehanna Capital Management where he managed four portfolio companies. He was also a partner at Clear Power Ventures, where he focused on early stage energy and environmental technology companies, helping them to raise funds and sharpen their business strategies. More recently, Cloney was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, assisting companies seeking to locate, expand, or maintain their presence in Massachusetts.
Doug Cole
General Partner - Flagship Ventures. Doug joined Flagship in 2001 where he focuses on Life Science investments. He came to Flagship with significant industrial experience and a strong academic background. He obtained post-graduate training in medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD and in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. In 1992, Doug was appointed Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School and an Assistant in Neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He established a research program investigating the mechanistic basis of neuronal signaling events and plasticity in neuro-psychiatric disorders with the support of the NIH and several non-profit research foundations.
Doug holds an AB magna cum laude with High Distinction in English from Dartmouth College, where he was a Senior Fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha.
In 1996, Doug joined Cytotherapeutics, in Providence, RI. As Medical Director he oversaw various research and clinical activities related to the company's cell-based therapeutic technologies. In 1997, he was appointed Program Executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in Cambridge, MA, where he led a multidisciplinary program that conducted preclinical development through Phase II studies in tissue protection and repair, oversaw an international research collaboration, and was responsible for identifying strategic market and technology opportunities in multiple arenas.
At Flagship, Doug has led investments in CombinatoRx (NASDAQ: CRXX), Tetraphase, Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Concert Pharmaceuticals, and Quanterix. He co-founded Ensemble Discovery with Noubar Afeyan and Professor David Liu of Harvard University, and he served as CEO of the company in its initial stages. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Ensemble Discovery, Tetraphase, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Quanterix, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, and CGI Pharmaceuticals, and is an Observer on the Board of Directors of Alvine. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of CombinatoRx and Morphotek.
He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation and the Genetics Advisory Council of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Birch Rock Camp in Waterford, ME.
Mike Conza
Partner - Bingham McCutchen LLP Michael A. Conza has more than two decades of experience representing privately held and publicly traded companies, investment banks and venture capital firms. His practice is primarily targeted toward the representation of emerging and public growth companies, with strong emphasis on companies in the software and communications industries. He concentrates his practice in the areas of general corporate representation, corporate finance and acquisitions.
A significant portion of Mike's practice involves general corporate work for ongoing clients, both private and public, on matters such as business counseling, licensing and joint venture arrangements, contract negotiation, corporate governance matters, and regulatory compliance (including the SEC and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act). He has considerable experience in the areas of outsourcing and "open source" software licensing.
With respect to his acquisitions practice, Mike has broad and deep experience in structuring and negotiating mergers, tender offers, asset transactions and other acquisitions, and in designing defenses against unsolicited takeovers. His practice embraces both public and private companies as well as the representation of independent committees of directors. He regularly represents buyers and sellers in transactions ranging from the tens of millions of dollars to the billions of dollars.
Mike's corporate finance practice includes extensive experience with both private and public offerings. He is a nationally recognized counselor in the area of venture capital financings. He has represented companies as well as venture capitalists in over 200 completed financings, and has served as the chairman of the Charter Committee for the National Venture Capital Association forms project and on the advisory boards of the 2004 through 2008 VentureOne Deal Terms Reports. Mike's public offering practice includes the representation of issuers as well as investment banking firms in a wide variety of public and quasi-public offerings, including IPOs, convertible debt transactions and PIPEs.
Mike is a frequent public speaker on matters relating to venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions, PIPE transactions, public offerings, and other topics relevant to private and public technology companies.
Mike has graduated magna cum laude from Boston College with a B.A. degree and has a Juris Doctor with highest honors from the Duke University School of Law.
Phil Cooper
Member - Boston Harbor Angels. J. Phillip Cooper ("Phil") is a seasoned entrepreneurial leader with strengths in marketing and business development, deal structuring / negotiation, acquisition / strategic partnering, and financial engineering. In June, 2006, he retired from CRA International, where he was Vice Chairman & Executive Vice President. CRA (NASDAQ: CRAI) is a leading provider of economic and financial expertise and management consulting services.
At CRA, while leading the corporate development function, Dr. Cooper was responsible for the successful identification, negotiation, and integration of more than 10 acquisitions and group hires in cooperation with group and practice vice presidents. As a member of the Office of the CEO, he also helped consulting practice leaders meet growth and profitability targets, and evaluated investments in practices and offices. The functional heads of marketing, corporate development, legal, and human resources reported to Dr. Cooper. For almost 3 years before becoming CRA's Vice Chairman, and while still heading the firm's corporate development activities, he also served as its CFO. While CFO, Dr. Cooper led 2 successful, follow on public equity offerings and an innovative convertible bond offering. In his 6 years at the firm, CRA quadrupled in revenue.
Prior to joining CRA, he had leadership roles in a number of entrepreneurial and change-management business ventures, including serving as CEO of: Newstar Technologies in Toronto, Ontario; Clinical Information Advantages, Inc., in Waltham, MA; and Applied Expert Systems in Cambridge, MA. He had been particularly active in various e-commerce business segments, both domestically and internationally, as well as in information industry and proprietary data businesses, packaged software, and financial services. Previously, Dr. Cooper served as Executive Vice President of Standard & Poor's Corporation in New York and Senior Vice President, General Manager, and a member of the Board of Interactive Data Corp., then in Waltham, MA, and owned by Chase Manhattan Bank. He has also been Assistant Professor of Business Economics at the Graduate School of Business of The University of Chicago. Dr. Cooper earned a B.Com. in Commerce & Finance at The University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in Economics at M.I.T., with specializations in Finance and Econometrics.
Bob Creeden
Managing Partner - Partners Innovation Fund. Bob is Managing Partner for the Partners Innovation Fund (PIF), at Partners Healthcare, where he oversees the creation, launching and funding of new ventures generated from Partners innovative research discoveries.
Bob has spent more than twenty-five years focusing on commercializing new technologies and promoting emerging businesses, including eighteen years early stage venture capital investing experience and culminating in his 2005 appointment by Partners to establish the PIF. Previously, he was a General Partner at Egan-Managed Capital, a $150 million dollar Boston-based venture fund, after having served as vice president of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, a 25-year-old early stage venture firm that funds technology-based companies in Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, he gained strategic operating expertise as a COO/CFO with start-up ventures and as a management consultant with Control Data Business Advisors. He holds an AB in Economics from Holy Cross College and an MBA from Suffolk University.
While serving in a leadership role on the boards of portfolio companies and developing strong relationships with co-investors from New England and across the country, Bob has reviewed more than 2500 business plans and invested in more than 40 companies. His portfolio has included companies developing leading-edge technologies in semiconductors, software, telecommunications, medical devices, manufacturing and advanced materials. He has extensive experience in putting together syndicates of investors, corporations and third parties to fund technology companies through investment, partnership, joint development and research agreements.
Bob is a member of the Advisory Board for the WPI Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and a former Chair of the WPI Venture Forum, where he currently serves on the Board. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at Tufts University in the Entrepreneur Leadership Program, a Director of The Capital Network and a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and early-stage investing.
Tim Curran
CEO - Vela Systems. Prior to joining Vela CEO, Tim served as CEO of Eleven Technology, the leader in next generation mobile field applications for the consumer goods industry. During his tenure, revenues grew 80% annually. Customers included Coca-Cola, Pepsi, P&G;, Miller, and Pepperidge Farms. Eleven was venture-backed by Highland Capital Partners and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey and was successfully acquired by Trimble Navigation in April 2006. Prior to Eleven, Tim spent five years as the number two executive of I-many, Inc., an enterprise contract management software company that grew from $6MM to $60MM in sales and went public during his tenure . Tim's roles at I-many included EVP of Sales and Marketing and EVP of Corporate Development. Prior to I-many, Tim spent eight years with Accenture and a year with EMC Corporation. Tim holds a BS degree in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Kirke Curtis
President & CEO - Pamet Systems Inc. Kirke has been an executive in the software industry for over fifteen years where he has successfully led several companies through consistent years of double-digit growth. Kirke is currently finishing a successful turnaround at Pamet Systems, a public safety software vendor. Prior to Pamet he helped raise over $20M in angel and VC capital while at MediaMap, an information service company serving the public relations market. Prior to MediaMap he founded the North American subsidiary of VideoLogic, Ltd and grew it from start-up to ~$10m. Kirke has a BA from Duke University and an MSOD from American University
Matthew Cushing
Partner - Bingham McCutchen LLP. Matt has a general corporate and securities practice with concentrations in representation of technology companies and mergers and acquisitions, including representation of both financial and strategic acquirors. He has represented public, private and emerging growth companies in a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, securities law compliance, venture financing, public offerings and technology licensing. Matt has also represented investment banks, private equity firms and venture capital firms in public and private equity and debt offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and leveraged buyouts. He received a BA from Holy Cross and a JD, cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law.
Matt Cutler
VP of Marketing and Analytics - Visible Measures. Matt Cutler serves as Visible Measures' vice president of marketing & analytics. Most recently, Matt helped to found 80108 Media (now Go2 Media), a venture-backed direct-to-consumer mobile media firm, where he served as vice president of marketing. Previously, Matt led strategic marketing at SPSS Inc., the world's leading provider of predictive analytics software and services. Matt joined SPSS as part of the acquisition of NetGenesis Corp., a company that he co-founded in 1994. NetGenesis was the world's leading provider of Web analytics software and went public [NASDAQ: NTGX] in early 2000. While at NetGenesis, Matt helped found and chair the Customer Profile Exchange standard, an XML-based standard for privacy-enabled customer data interchange, and the Webmasters Guild, the world's first professional association for webmasters.
Matt plays as much soccer as he can, holds an undergraduate degree from MIT, and lives in Needham, MA.
Sean Dalton
General Partner - Highland Capital Partners. Sean is a General Partner who enjoys partnering with entrepreneurial teams leveraging disruptive technologies in the mobile, enterprise and media markets. He currently represents Highland on the boards of Calxeda, CENX, Movik Networks, QD Vision and Zoove and also actively works with Picochip and MokaFive. Sean is a former director of AccessLan Communications (acquired by Advanced Fibre Communications), Altiga Networks (acquired by Cisco), Casero (acquired by Radialpoint), CCTV Wireless (acquired by TerreStar), CHiL Semiconductor (acquired by International Rectifier), Covergence (acquired by Acme Packet), Envoy Networks (acquired by Texas Instruments), Ocular Networks (acquired by Tellabs), Optasite (acquired by SBA Communications), P.A. Semi (acquired by Apple), Starent Networks (NASDAQ:STAR; acquired by Cisco), Telcobuy.com (merged with World Wide Technology) and Telica (acquired by Alcatel/Lucent). The prestigious Forbes Midas List has recognized Sean multiple times as one of the top venture capitalists in the industry. Sean serves as a Director of the New England Venture Capital Association.
Prior to joining Highland, Sean was a Venture Associate at Fidelity Capital focusing on investments in communications and electronic commerce. Before Fidelity, Sean worked as a Product Manager - Internet Services for GTE where he developed remote access and other network services for ISPs and large business customers. While at GTE, Sean led the nation's first ADSL trial for Internet access.
Sean received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Stephen Davis
Managing Director - CXO Advisory Group. Steve has 28 years of experience as a senior executive, including COO and CMO roles with P&L; responsibility in the computer, software, consumer electronics and Internet industries. He has successfully built, managed, and restructured numerous sales and marketing organizations and introduced over 300 new products into various industries.
Steve is an industry pioneer whose visionary marketing and sales strategies were instrumental in the introduction of two PC industry milestones, the ATARI home computer and Corvus' OMNINET, the industry's first true local area network.
In 1989, he founded the Davis Management Group, a company whose proprietary sales management and marketing methodology promoted rapid growth in revenue and profitability for its clients. Steve is an executive, strategist and creative problem solver who conceives, plans and implements new business practices to produce measurable improvements in market position, revenues, profit and shareholder value. His clients have included The Canadian Government, Apple Computer, ATT, Lotus, Symantec, Hitachi, and Kubota.
Prior to Davis Management, Steve spent 15 years in senior level positions at major corporations including Qualogy, Corvus Systems, Atari, IBM and GE. Davis is active with many groups that support entrepreneurs and served on the executive board of the WPI Venture Forum. He is a frequent speaker and prolific writer on marketing and sales topics. Davis has given speeches at some of the nation's leading business and technology forums and his articles have appeared in a variety of engineering and IT business publications.
Steve holds an MBA, as well as an MS and BS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University.
Wing Delatorre
Head of Business Operations - Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator. Wing Cheung Delatorre, MD is currently the Head of Business Operations at the Biogen Idec Innovation Incubator (bi3) which supports start-up companies with financing and state of the art laboratory space at Biogen Idec. She is also a Director of New Ventures at Biogen Idec, where she sources and evaluates venture investment opportunities with a focus in cardiovascular disease and immunology/inflammation. Wing worked in the Biogen Idec Business Development group for one and a half years before joining the New Ventures Group. Prior to joining Biogen Idec, Wing was an Engagement Manager at L.E.K. Consulting, a global strategic consulting firm, working with leading biopharma and biotech companies on their corporate strategy. Wing trained in General Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and completed a Research Fellowship at the Laboratory of Tissue Engineering at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Joseph Vacanti. Wing received her M.D. from Harvard Medical School/M.I.T. Health Science and Technology Program, B.S. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology, and M.B.A. from Duke Fuqua School of Business and Administration.
Jim Deleo
Partner - Gray, Gray & Gray, LLP. Jim's "hands on" experience and entrepreneurial thinking in a wide variety of businesses and industries has given him a deep well of insight into what it takes to make a good business better, and a better business great. He brings this practical expertise to bear for his clients.
After starting his accounting career with a regional firm, Jim joined Gray, Gray & Gray in 1990. He has management responsibilities for several of our major clients.
Jim's diverse background and keen tax awareness make him a key player in our Professional Services, Energy and Life Science Practice Groups as well as in the manufacture and wholesale distribution industries. His expertise and experience has proven to be particularly helpful to mature organizations and start-up and early stage companies. This is evidenced by his close involvement with the innovative "Hatchery" entrepreneurial program at Babson College, providing support and services for fledgling businesses.
A graduate of Bentley College in Waltham, Mass., Jim earned his Masters in Taxation from Suffolk University and his MBA, with a concentration in entrepreneurial finance, at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. He is a member of the Boston Society of Architects, American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants. Jim also serves as a corporator for the Boston Biomedical research institute.
John Dellapa
Member - Corporate Practice, Mintz Levin. John is a member of the firm's Corporate section in Boston and a part of the firm's Tech Transfer and Licensing group. His practice is focused, in particular, on businesses engaged in the biotechnology, life science, medical device and clean technology industries. John has over twenty years of experience advising clients on a broad range of issues, in particular on the structuring and negotiation of collaborative research and development efforts, strategic alliances, joint ventures, licensing and technology "spin-outs," sponsored research, and supply and distribution relationships. He has successfully concluded numerous transactions in an international context and represents clients worldwide. John serves as a member of the MassINSIGHT Life Science working group and on the policy committee of the Personalized Medicine Coalition. He is a frequent panelist at conferences and executive education courses and speaks often on the subject of collaborative research and development agreements.
Before joining Mintz Levin, John served as general counsel to the Biosciences group of Fisher Scientific International Inc., where he was responsible for, among other matters, the conduct of acquisitions and subsequent integration efforts, negotiation of licenses, and procurement and supply agreements with life science industry partners.
John is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and Maryland. He received his J.D., cum laude, from George Washington University (1985). John was awarded his B.S. in Management, magna cum laude, from Boston College (1982).
Jack Derby
Founder - Derby Management. Prior to forming Derby Management in 1990, Jack's background included positions as CEO of Mayer Electronics Corporation, President of CB Sports, President of Litton Industries Medical Systems, CEO of Datamedix Corporation and President of Becton Dickinson Medical Systems.
Jack has been named to Mass High Tech's All Star Team. He is often quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald and has published articles and editorials in The Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech. He is frequent speaker at numerous business organizations including the MIT Enterprise Forum, the Small Business Association of New England, the Harvard Business School, and the WPI Venture Forum. He is also a guest lecturer at MIT where he teaches classes in writing business planning for undergraduate students and for the MIT-Singapore University Program.
Jack is extremely active in the New England entrepreneurial community. He is currently and has been an active board member in a number of emerging companies. He was instrumental in restructuring the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum (www.mitforum-cambridge.org) where he has held the position of Chairman of the Forum. Additionally, he has been the Vice Chair of the Smaller Business Association of New England (www.sbane.org). During 2004, Jack was the recipient of SBANE's Pro Bono Publico Award for his significant contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Jack has also been a Director of MIT's Technology Capital Network (www.tcnmit.org), and the President of the University Club of Boston (www.uclub.org). Currently, he is Chairman of the Association for Corporate Growth (www.acgboston.org), a Director of The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (www.aimnet.org), and a Director at Brainshark Corporation, Hybricon Corporation and Beacon Hospice.
Don Dodge
Director of Business Development - Emerging Business Team, Microsoft. Don is a veteran of five start-ups including Forte Software (first multiplatform object oriented development environment), AltaVista (the first web search engine), Napster (the first P2P file sharing network), Bowstreet (the first web services development environment), and Groove Networks (the first secure P2P collaboration platform). Don started his software career with Digital Equipment Corp, in the database group. Don writes a daily blog, "Don Dodge on the Next Big Thing". Don, a native New-Englander, holds an MBA from New Hampshire College and a BS in accounting from the University of Southern Maine.
Walt Doyle
Founder, President & CEO - Where. Walt's passion for emerging technology has kept him on the leading edge of consumer media and technology for over 15 years. Prior to joining uLocate in 2005, Walt was a GM of MapQuest (TWX). His career began in Hong Kong with Dow Jones (DJ), then spanned executive level appointments with GameSpot (CNET), Net2Phone (IDT), and DialPad (YHOO). Walt's ability to identify emerging technology trends, create corporate strategy, and build winning teams puts him squarely at the helm of uLocate. Walt left San Francisco for his native home of Boston in 2005 where he and his family are outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy fishing, biking, hockey, and travel. He is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Greg Erman
President & CEO - EmpiraMed. Greg Erman is President & CEO of EmpiraMed, a health outcomes technology company. Greg's career centers on entrepreneurship, technology commercialization, and business leadership. He incubated roughly 250 academic medical research projects over the last 10 years, raised about $100M in venture capital, and successfully grew businesses to about $20M in annual revenue. Each of Greg's 3 VC-backed companies successfully exited to large public corporations and generated returns up to 12X investment. Operationally, Greg has been President & CEO of 6 companies including Illumasonix, an ultrasound system for vascular surgery; Precision Biopsy, an optical guided prostate cancer biopsy device; Renalworks Medical Corporation, a VC-backed MGH/MIT spin-out which built an implantable hemofilter for ESRD & CHF; MarketSoft Corporation, a VC-backed enterprise software company in the marketing & sales automation field; and Waypoint Software Corporation, a VC-backed industrial B2B eCommerce internet firm. Greg holds BSEE and Marketing MBA degrees with high honors from Rutgers University, is a mentor in six different organizations, and sits on numerous boards of directors and advisory boards including the Harvard University Wyss Institute Accelerator Fund Investment Committee. Greg's avocations include coastal sailing & racing, tennis, jazz trumpet, and skiing.
Eric Evans
Former CEO - Targeted Cell Therapies. Eric J. Evans has nearly thirty years of experience in the biopharmaceuticals industry. Most recently, from 2007 to 2010, he was Chief Executive Officer of Targeted Cell Therapies, a Worcester-based biotechnology company developing gene therapies for various inherited disorders. While there, he was responsible for overseeing drug discovery and development, business intelligence, business development & licensing, competitive analysis, strategy development, corporate financing, staffing and administration, and alliances with other pharmaceutical companies. He took the company from founding by its scientists through several key milestones, culminating in a successful exit to a big international pharma company.
Previously, Mr. Evans had advised nearly all of the world�s largest pharmaceutical companies on issues of growth, strategy, market assessment and business development, while with the Boston Consulting Group and then for nearly fifteen years as president of Growth Analytics Inc., a strategy boutique based in the U.S. and Europe. He has also worked extensively in the related industries of medical devices and diagnostics.
Tim Evans
President - Carpenter Consulting. Tim Evans is channel sales and marketing professional with over 20 years of experience. As a channel consultant, Mr. Evans helps emerging companies develop and execute go to market strategies. Mr. Evans has technology expertise in local and wide area networking, telecommunications, wireless, interactive gaming, performance management, networking security, voice over the web and power management. His experience includes establishing sales channels domestically as well as internationally. Mr. Evans has held sales and marketing postions at start-ups as well as global public companies with over $1 billion in revenue, including: Director of Worldwide Channel Sales at Visual Networks, Director of Worldwide Partner Channels at Openwave, Director of Channel Marketing at Hasbro Interactive, and others. He is currently retained by 14 emerging companies to provide channel consulting and development. Mr. Evans is a graduate of Boston College with a BA in Communications, Cum Laude.
Bonnie Fendrock
President & CEO - Hepregen. Ms. Fendrock is co-founder, president and CEO of Hepregen. Ms. Fendrock comes to Hepregen with experience as Vice President at Genzyme Corporation, Director of Business Development, Somatix, Inc., a start-up gene therapy company, and Project Manager, Genetics Institute (now Wyeth). Ms. Fendrock also has been a business consultant for the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and the Biomedical Enterprise Program (a collaboration with The Sloan School at
MIT) and Acusphere, Inc. Ms. Fendrock holds a B.A. degree with a major in Molecular Biology from Wellesley College,an S.M. degree from MIT in Interdisciplinary Science and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Laura Fitton
Founder & CEO - oneforty inc. As the CEO of oneforty inc., Laura "@Pistachio" Fitton is leading the charge of sussing out intelligent and productive business uses of emergent technologies like Twitter, where she is read by thousands of community members. The first to publish a white paper on "Enterprise Microsharing" (popularly called "Internal Twitter") she also writes for an runs the TouchBase blog and is an early beta tester of Seesmic and Qik. She re-launched Pistachio Consulting in September 2008 to connect businesses to new ideas and innovations using all the tools of microsharing. Pistachio comprises the TouchBase blog (covering business use of microsharing), the TouchBase Link Blog (stream of Twitter and microsharing articles for businesspeople, wherever they are published), serves clients like Johnson & Johnson, Ford Motor Corporation, PeopleBrowsr, The Sister Project, Transplant-1 and CommuNteligence, and is writing Twitter for Dummies for Wiley publishing, due July 2009.
Laura's innovative use of social media has gotten the attention of the top minds in technology, as profiled by Naked Conversations author Shel Israel for his Global Survey. Her work is featured in five books published in 2008 including Seth Godin's Tribes, Liz Lynch's Smart Networking, Paul Gillin's Secrets of Social Media Marketing, and Julio Ojeda's Twitter Means Business. Laura has also been widely quoted in the press including The New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, The LA Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, NPR, NECN, Newsweek.com, Inc.com, CIO Magazine, CNET, ZDNet, ComputerWorld and many other magazines, publications, web shows and blogs. She speaks on business use of microsharing for private clients and at technology conferences. Guest lectures on social media and Twitter for Business include Harvard Business School, Bentley College, Clemson and Emerson.
Laura is a magna cum laude graduate of Cornell University's eclectic College Scholar program. In "past lives" she studied science writing with Carl Sagan, rock climbed, sailed on a schooner, raised a niece, ran a hobby farm, traveled and lived abroad.
Today she lives in Boston with two toddler daughters and a giant Leonberger. She practices Ashtanga yoga and plays ice hockey in her "spare" time, and is a stroke survivor dedicated to raising awareness.
Thomas Fitzgerald
CFO - Velico Medical, Inc. Thomas A. Fitzgerald is the Chief Financial Officer of Velico Medical, Inc., a private clinical-stage company focused on applying its proprietary technologies to Transforming Transfusion Medicine�. Based on its expertise in transfusion medicine, medical devices and related science and engineering disciplines, Velico has developed product-candidates that are expected to dramatically improve transfusion safety, reduce healthcare costs and result in a more effective blood delivery system. Mr. Fitzgerald has extensive financial management experience as both an investment banker and chief financial officer (including for life sciences companies), and as a consultant to emerging growth companies. He has in-depth experience with turnarounds and distressed companies. As an investment banker, he raised capital in both the private and public markets and completed mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions. As a chief financial officer, he has improved working capital and cash flow, managed financial reporting, upgraded reporting systems and processes, conducted operations and financial analyses, and led corporate financing initiatives, IT, HR and corporate governance. Mr. Fitzgerald graduated with an M.B.A. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration and an A.B. in Economics from Stanford University. Mr. Fitzgerald served nearly four years in the U.S. Army, as both an enlisted man on tanks and subsequently as an airborne-qualified infantry officer.
Maggie Flanagan-LeFlore
Managing Director - MedImmune Ventures, Inc. Maggie Flanagan LeFlore, who joined MedImmune Ventures as a managing director in 2007, transitioned into the role from her position as Head of R&D; Ventures at AstraZeneca. As Head of R&D; Ventures, she was on assignment to Advent International where she worked with the Healthcare and Life Sciences venture capital investment team. Previously, LeFlore was the Global Alliance Director for Global Sciences and Information from 2001 to 2005, where she led an international group responsible for evaluation, negotiation and management of global technology platform collaborations. Prior to 2001, LeFlore held business development and scientific management positions at Hybridon, Inc. (1997-2000); Oncogene Science Inc. (1994-1996); and Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1985-1994). Originally trained as a biophysical chemist, with a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Indiana University, she trained in molecular and cellular biology as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Maggie LeFlore is a board observer of Inotek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and BrainCells, Inc.
Martin Flusberg
CEO - Powerhouse Dynamics. Martin has been a technology entrepreneur and executive for over 30 years, with the past 20 focused on energy and clean tech. He currently is CEO of Powerhouse Dynamics, a pioneering firm in the Home Energy Management space Prior to that he was co-founder and President of Nexus Energy Software, a provider of enterprise software solutions to the utility industry addressing smart grid, smart meter, energy efficiency, demand-response and related issues. Nexus was successfully sold to in 2005 and integrated with its sister companies to become Aclara Software.
Martin previously served as Director of TASC's Commercial Systems Division with responsibility for the firm's Lodestar� product line for the utility industry (later spun out as LODESTAR Corporation and sold to Oracle in 2007). He was also founder and CEO of REALink Systems, a software firm serving the real estate industry, and CEO of Multisystems, a software and management consulting firm serving the transportation industry.
Martin has an MSCE degree from MIT and a BEE degree from CUNY.
David Fogel
Principal - Swifton CFOs. David A. Fogel is a Principal of Swifton CFOs LLC, an outsourced CFO firm that provides emerging businesses with cost-effective outsourced (part-time) financial leadership and support to clients with the goal of handling all accounting financial and administrative matters so entrepreneurs can focus on driving the business. Mr. Fogel possesses over 24 years of senior financial management experience in various capacities for a variety of high technology related companies. Most recently Mr. Fogel was the CFO of the healthcare IT consulting firm Beacon Partners, and previously was Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Webgen Systems, Inc., a provider of advanced solutions for building energy management, controls and conservation.
Mr. Fogel was a judge and mentor for the MassChallenge and WPI Venture Forum Business Plan competition. Recently he presented "Financial Projections for Presentations" at Mass Challenge, Boston BizSpark, MIT Enterprise Forum and The Capital Network. In addition to being a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Massachusetts, Mr. Fogel earned his BS in Marketing from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and has an MBA in Finance from the University of Cincinnati. He is also an Adjunct Instructor of Finance and Accounting in the MBA program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
Barbara Fox
CEO, Avaxia Biologics, Inc. Barbara Fox, PhD, is an experienced entrepreneur and scientist. She is currently the CEO of Avaxia Biologics, Inc. She was founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Recovery Pharmaceuticals, a company developing and marketing medications for the treatment of addiction. Prior to founding Recovery Pharmaceuticals in 1998, she was Vice President, Immunology at ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corp. She joined ImmuLogic in 1993, having served on the faculty of the University Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, as Associate Professor of Medicine with tenure in the Division of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Dept. of Medicine.
Dr. Fox received her BA in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College and her PhD in Chemistry from MIT. Dr. Fox trained as a post-doc in cellular immunology at the NIH.
David Frankel
Managing Partner - Founder Collective. Frankel was the co-founder of Internet Solutions (IS). IS became profitable within its first year and shortly became the Internet Service Provider in Africa. Frankel, its then CEO, turned down an acquisition offer from Sprint in 1995 before selling 100% of the company to Dimension Data plc in 1997.
Frankel soon found himself lead investing or seeding peers whom he considered to be extraordinarily promising, includingL Brontes (sold to 3M), SiteAdvisor (sold to McAfee), Getmein (sold to Ticketmaster), Cura Risk (sold to SoftPro) and Magazine Radar."
In 2000, David was voted the South African Technology Achiever of the Century and selected by the World Economic Forum for the GLT program in Davos, Switzerland. He holds an Honors degree in Electrical Engineering (Wits) and, post selection for the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Program, an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School. He has climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, cycled in numerous races and ran in the 2009 New York Marathon.
Steven Frank
Partner - Bingham McCutchen LLP. Steve Frank focuses on advising clients in all areas of intellectual property law, with emphasis on strategic IP transactions, patent prosecution, analysis of infringement and related issues, copyright questions, and the drafting and negotiation of agreements relating to the transfer or license of intellectual property. He has significant experience with general IP diligence, both in investment and M&A; contexts. Steve has negotiated multimillion-dollar domestic and cross-border licenses as well as technology-transfer agreements involving leading universities and research institutions.
Steve advises inventors, companies, investors and underwriters concerning open-source software issues and transactional events involving intellectual property. He also works with technology companies to develop patent portfolios and oversees the preparation and prosecution of patent applications both in the United States and abroad. Steve focuses in technology areas, including chemistry, semiconductors, computer software and hardware, network/Internet applications, medical devices, and clean technologies and nanotechnology.
Steve formerly worked at Goodwin Procter as a partner and, prior to that, was a partner at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in the Patent and Intellectual Property Practice Group.
Steven Frank
Partner - Bingham McCutchen. Steve Frank focuses on advising clients in all areas of intellectual property and commercial technology law, with an emphasis on strategic IP transactions, patent prosecution, analysis of infringement and related issues, copyright questions, and the drafting and negotiation of agreements relating to the transfer or license of intellectual property. He has significant experience with general IP diligence, both in investment and M&A; contexts. Steve has negotiated multimillion-dollar domestic and cross-border licenses as well as technology-transfer agreements involving leading universities and research institutions.
Steve advises inventors, companies, investors and underwriters concerning open-source software issues and transactional events involving intellectual property. He also works with technology companies to develop patent portfolios and oversees the preparation and prosecution of patent applications both in the United States and abroad. Steve focuses in technology areas, including chemistry, semiconductors, computer software and hardware, network/Internet applications, medical devices, and clean technologies and nanotechnology.
Steve formerly worked at Goodwin Procter as a partner and, prior to that, was a partner at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in the Patent and Intellectual Property Practice Group.
Aaron Freedman
Co-founder and VP of Business Development - Untravel Media, Inc. Aaron was the founder of RealityWave, Inc., where he sequentially filled the roles of President, VP of Business and Product Development, and CTO from its inception in 1996. RealityWave was sold in 2005. Aaron graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT in 1996.
Devkumar Gandhi
Founder & CEO - NEXAGE, Inc. Devkumar is the Founder and CEO of NEXAGE, Inc. He is responsible for the Management and Strategic direction of the company since founding it in 2006. Devkumar has more than 18 years of Wireless experience and a wealth of expertise in developing and maintaining large wireless networks and IT systems that are capable of handling literally millions of customers and transactions a day. Devkumar has also successfully built, managed and integrated global operations and technology teams.
Prior to Nexage, since 2005, he managed Vidiator's global business development group, developing relationships with wireless carriers and OEMs worldwide. Prior to this, since 2000, Devkumar founded Wyngate and marketed mobile payment and marketing products to wireless operators worldwide. He spent more than 2 years in India and was an adviser to MD of wireless operator Tata Teleservcies and MD of Tata Infotech in 2004.
Prior to this, since 1993, Devkumar has been in various management positions with Nextel and Nextel International. He was responsible for Technology development for Nextel Communications. Later at Nextel International, as Director of Technology Strategy, he was responsible for worldwide Engineering and Operations. While with Nextel International he established operations in China, Philippines, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. Prior to Nextel, Devkumar was responsible for Software development for Teradyne, Inc.
Devkumar has Master of Science in Computer Science from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Master of Business Administration in Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California and Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Karnatak University in India.
Ben Gardner
Founder & President - Linkwell. Ben founded Linkwell in 2007, with the mission of developing simple, meaningful ways to engage and empower consumers to promote healthier lifestyles. Ben\'s 20 plus years of experience spans both the health care and marketing services sectors, working primarily in start up and early stage businesses. Ben was Vice President of Sales for 10 years at Imagitas, a marketing services company reaching the new mover market through a unique and exclusive relationship with the United States Postal Service. Ben also led new business initiatives, including ParentSource (a successful couponing and sampling partnership with McDonalds Corp), and DriverSource, a direct marketing program in partnership with State DMVs. Imagitas\' success attracted Pitney Bowes, who purchased the company in 2005 for $265 Million. Ben\'s earlier career was focused in healthcare, working for companies including Stryker Medical (medical devices) and HPR, an early, Boston-based, developer of clinical software purchased by McKesson in 1995. Ben is a graduate from Bentley University with a BA in Marketing.
Phyllis Gardner
Partner - Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. Phyllis Gardner, M.D., has spent over 25 years in academia, medicine and industry. She began her academic medical career in 1984 at Stanford University, where she has held several positions including Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs and remains today as Professor of Medicine. From 1994 to 1996, she took a leave of absence to work at ALZA Corporation, a major drug delivery company, as a Principal Scientist, Vice President of Research and as Head of ALZA Technology Institute. She has conducted extensive research in cell biology, including gene therapy, and is widely published in the fields of cell biology and pharmacology. She has received numerous national awards and honors and serves on the Board of Directors of several public and private companies, including Corium International and Revance Therapeutics, Inc. Essex Woodlands first worked with Dr. Gardner through joint directorship of Aronex Pharmaceuticals, a Fund IV portfolio company that was acquired by Antigenics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AGEN) in 2002.
Dr. Gardner joined Essex Woodlands in 1999. Her expertise in pharmacology and drug delivery has been invaluable to the Partnership in evaluating technology in this growing segment of the pharmaceutical sector. She was responsible for the Partnership's introduction to Rinat Neurosciences, a Genentech spinout in which Essex Woodlands became the lead investor. Rinat Neurosciences was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. in April 2006.
Dr. Gardner holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, where she graduated Alpha Omega Alpha. She trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a Chief Residency at Stanford University Hospital. She completed research fellowships at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and University College, London, U.K.
John Gargasz
VP of Strategic Planning and Business Development - DRS Codem Systems, Inc. Prior to Codem Systems acquisition by DRS Technologies Inc, (NYSE: DRS), John held various roles in General Management, Project Management and Engineering. Mr. Gargasz has experience in satellite communications, wireless systems, and radiolocation for the Defense, Telecom and Retail technology markets. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and attended the MIT Sloan School Greater Boston Executive Program.
Bill Geary
Partner - Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. William C. Geary, III is a partner in the Intellectual Property Department, a member of the Life Sciences practice group and the Firm's Executive Committee. His practice concentrates in all aspects of patent and trademark law.
Bill counsels clients in strategies for the development, protection, and exploitation of patent and trademark rights in the United States and abroad. He has extensive experience in preparing and prosecuting patent applications in a variety of technologies, with emphasis in the fields of medical devices, polymers and advanced materials, and chemicals. He represents start-up as well as established companies, including Johnson & Johnson, various medical device manufacturers, and medical and research institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital.
Bill frequently advises clients regarding the patent rights of others, and provides pre-market clearance opinions before new products are introduced to the marketplace. He has represented clients in patent litigation and breach of contract/patent license agreement litigation in federal district courts, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and before the International Trade Commission in such diverse technologies as oil drilling equipment, floppy disk liners, jewelry clasps, and bioimplantable polymers.
Bill is lead counsel in patent interferences, and has advised clients in connection with foreign patent oppositions. In the trademark area, he has represented clients before state courts in Massachusetts, in federal district courts and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
Active in the patent bar, Bill is a member of the Boston Patent Law Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He is one of the firm's representatives to the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC), and serves as MassMEDIC's legal counsel on a pro bono basis. He is also a member of the American, Massachusetts, and Boston Bar Associations.
In his community, Bill is actively involved with the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum, serving on its Board of Directors and its Program Committee, and he is on the Advisory Board of The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2).
Eric Giler
CEO - WiTricity. Eric joined WiTricity in 2008 as Chief Executive Officer, and is a member of WiTricity's Board of Directors. Prior to WiTricity, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Groove Mobile, a provider of mobile music commerce platforms, from April 2006 until its acquisition by Live Mobile, Inc. in March 2008. Eric was the founder and served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Brooktrout Inc., a provider of telecom software and hardware platforms, from 1984 until its acquisition by EAS Group, Inc. in October 2005. Under Eric's leadership, Brooktrout grew to over $150M in annual revenue, and had a successful IPO in 1992. Eric serves on the boards of directors of SoundBite Communications and Muse Research, and on the National Board of Directors of the American Electronics Association (AeA). In addition, he has served on the Board of the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council since its founding, most recently as Chairman. He is the author of eight patents. Eric holds a Bachelor's of Science degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Philip Giudice
Commissioner - Mass Dept of Energy Resources. Commissioner Giudice brings diverse and expansive experience to DOER. He is a geologist (B.S. from University of New Hampshire and M.S. in Economic Geology from the University of Arizona) and management professional (M.B.A. from Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth), with over 30 years experience in the energy industry. Commissioner Giudice serves as board chair for the National Association of State Energy Officials, board member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, board member for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, leadership group member for the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, board member for the National Council on Electricity Policy and a board member of the Commonwealth's Energy Facilities Siting Board. Prior to joining DOER, Commissioner Giudice served as Senior Vice President and Board Member at EnerNOC, a start-up company providing electricity demand-management services to businesses, institutions, utilities, and grid operators. The Commissioner was also a Senior Partner, and leader of Mercer Management Consulting's global energy utilities practice. Commissioner Giudice is also active in the nonprofit realm. He serves on the President's Council of ACCION. Previously, he served full terms on the board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, City Year Boston, First Parish Church of Wayland (Unitarian Universalist), Haitian Health Foundation, and was the founding chair of Boston Cares.
Jeffrey Glass
Managing Director - Bain Capital Ventures, Boston. Jeff joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2006 and splits his time between Boston and New York City. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ventures, Jeff was President & CEO of m-Qube, Inc. a Bain Capital portfolio company acquired by VeriSign. In 2006, Jeff was voted Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" in New England and was also named to the Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" list. Prior to m-Qube, Jeff held positions as Founder and President of Transactive Solutions, Chief Operating Officer of Travelers/NETPlus, and a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on multimedia and convergence technologies.
Jeff received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Political Science from Amherst College.
In addition to his professional responsibilities, Jeff is Chairperson of BUILD Boston, a non-profit helping high school student succeed in school and in life, and is working to bring BUILD to Boston. Jeff is also a founding board member of the Mobile Giving Foundation.
At the age of 17, Jeff started his entrepreneurial career selling office furniture door to door in New York. Then, as a freshman in college, he borrowed $10K to start a mail order company.
Alex Glovsky
Partner - Nutter McClennen & Fish. Alex Glovsky is the Manager of the Business Department and Chair of the Firm's TechnOvation Program. His practice is focused on mergers and acquisitions, capital finance and complex corporate governance issues. Alex has also guided clients at each stage of private finance, from initial angel round investments through late stage venture-backed financings. As Chair of Nutter's TechnOvation Program, Alex assists early-stage clients in formulating the strategy to realize their business goals and in building the foundation necessary to secure third party investment. Alex has counseled clients in angel financings representing an aggregate of over $20 million in investment. In addition, Alex has broad experience handling mergers and acquisitions for both strategic and financial buyers as well as public and private companies selling their businesses. He has served as lead counsel advising clients through auction processes, aggressive roll-up strategies, and complex deal negotiations, specializing in middle-market transactions ranging in size from $25 million to $500 million.
Chuck Goldman
CEO - Apperian. Chuck co-founded Apperian in 2009 to help build enterprise applications for the iPhone and help brands develop transformative point of service mobile applications. Prior to Apperian, Chuck spent the last eight years as the Director of Field Engineering and Professional Services for Apple, Inc where he helped integrate Apple technologies into Apple's largest education and enterprise customer infrastructure. Chuck also worked closely with Apple's iPhone Enterprise Beta/Software Development Kit (SDK) program and has been helping Apple's Enterprise customer's leverage the iPhone platform since the day it launched.
Chuck was also founder and CEO of Interactive Media Solutions, a company that provided next generation recruiting tools for colleges and universities looking to leverage the internet. At IMS Chuck created America's first "virtual open house" where 400 prospective students and over 80 faculty and staff communicated in real time and conducted virtual leader led tours around campus - all online. IMS also developed powerful middleware that personalized user experience and connected front end users into back-end CRM systems such as PeopleSoft.
Gail Goodman
Chairman, President & CEO - ConstantContact. A small business expert and visionary, Gail has revolutionized the way that small businesses and organizations can effectively and affordably communicate with their customers, clients, and members. Since taking leadership of Constant Contact in April 1999, she has led the company to more than 300,000 customers worldwide and its initial public offering in October 2007, when common shares of Constant Contact began trading on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "CTCT". Gail was named "Executive of the Year" at the 2009 American Business Awards, and was the 2008 New England Regional winner of Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Constant Contact was named "Best Overall Company" at the 2009 American Business Awards and ranked 180 on the Deloitte 2008 Technology Fast 500.
A frequent speaker at industry events, Gail develops and tracks best practices in small business success, email marketing, customer communications, and entrepreneurship. Gail is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, a member of the Board of Directors of HubSpot, and Chairman of the Board at Constant Contact.
Gail holds a BA degree from The University of Pennsylvania and a MBA degree from Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth.
Scott Goodwin
Member of the Firm - Wolf & Company Scott serves as an engagement leader in Wolf & Co.'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).
Eric Graham
Director - Fraunhofer Techbridge. Eric Graham is the Director at the Fraunhofer TechBridge. During his professional career, Eric has conducted business on a global scale. He has founded and managed businesses that have touched on every continent and engaged in cross-border trade in more than 30 countries. He holds a Finance & Insurance degree from Northeastern University, and received his MBA from Babson's FW Olin Graduate School of Business. Eric holds two global patents for ultra low temperature refrigeration and transportation methods. Eric is a frequent speaker on clean energy technologies and commercialization strategies, and regularly participates as a judge for cleantech business plan and grant competitions.
Joseph Graham
Associate - Covidien Ventures. Joe Graham works with Covidien Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Covidien plc. Joe Graham held a range of positions in corporate R&D;, academic research, and most recently, in strategic marketing for Covidien's Patient Care and Safety Products business. In this role, he helped to identify and assess new product and market opportunities. Prior to Covidien, he was a member of the Technology Development team at the Whitehead Institute's DNA Sequencing Lab. As Bio-Automation Manager, he participated in the development and installation of advanced DNA sequencing automation which helped enable the Whitehead Institute to be the leading contributor of data to the Human Genome Project. The success of this project ultimately led to the formation of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard where Joe continued to work with a number of labs addressing a variety of topics including cancer biology, population and medical genetics, and small molecule synthesis and screening. Joe holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Masters in Engineering and Management awarded jointly by MIT's Sloan School of Management and School of Engineering.
Mike Grandinetti
Managing Director - Southboro Capital. Mike Grandinetti has a unique cross-disciplinary background. He has deep operating experience as a serial venture capital-backed entrepreneur across four very successful ventures and was involved as an early team member in the launch of several successful new businesses within Hewlett-Packard.
In addition, Mike holds a long-standing faculty appointment at the Technical University of Denmark Center for Technology, Economics and Management. He has been deeply involved in regional and national economic development, with a distinct focus on global entrepreneurial coaching and enablement, innovation policy and innovation cluster acceleration, as well as advanced technology commercialization and tech transfer, in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Mike has also served as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company, the world's premiere strategy consultancy. As a serial entrepreneur, Mike has helped lead four venture-backed companies to successful exits for his investors, inlcuding 2 IPOs and 4 high-multiple trade sales.
He currently serves as a Senior Advisor to numerous global start-ups and venture capital firms across the IT world.
Derek Graves
Manager, Commercial Audit Services Group - Wolf & Company. Derek Graves is a Manager in Wolf & Company, P.C.'s Commercial Audit Services group where he is responsible for coordinating and supervising audits as well as ensuring clients receive customized services to fit their individual needs. Derek has over eleven years experience in audit, review and business advisory services to entrepreneurial-driven businesses in numerous industries including manufacturing, distribution, medical device, homeland defense, software developers, professional services, and employee benefits plans. Derek serves both privately-held and publicly-traded companies and has expertise in advising clients in complex accounting areas such as revenue recognition, equity instruments and LIFO inventory valuation. Derek is a graduate of Nichols College and graduated cum laude. Derek is a certified public accountant (CPA) and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants (MSCPA). Derek also serves on the program committee of The Capital Network.
Dayna Grayson
Principal - North Bridge Venture Partners. Dayna Balcome Grayson, Principal at North Bridge Venture Partners, specializes in Digital Media. Her investment career follows operational success in product design and management.
Dayna Grayson actively invests in companies seeking to change the way the Internet is used to deliver and monetize consumer services. Most of her North Bridge investments have been made at the very early stages. Trust and partnership are the best ways to start an investment, she believes, "The biggest disruptive bets start early when you have almost no data. It is the entrepreneur's ability to make decisions in the face of this that gives him or her an advantage."
Dayna started her career in product management roles and has a deep passion for conceiving, designing and bringing new products to life. "I love talking to consumers and identifying solvable problems. This is where new opportunity appears." She has led investments such as Awareness, Currensee, and Viximo, where she served as the CEO during 2009. All of these companies are pioneering new monetization methods for social media.
Before joining North Bridge in 2006, Dayna led new product development efforts at Blackbaud [NASDAQ: BLKB], the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations. She managed products throughout their life cycle as the company grew to over $130 million in revenue and completed a successful public offering. Previously, Dayna was a consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst and Young where she led product design on efforts that pioneered the development of large scale applications on web-based platforms. She started her career as an early employee at Eye Response Technologies - a company that was spun out of research at the University of Virginia's Systems Engineering department - where she helped commercialize breakthrough gaze-tracking technology.
Dayna is active in the start-up communities in Boston and New York, and mentors entrepreneurs through various organizations. She is also on the board of the Independent Film Festival Boston.
Dayna has a BS from the University of Virginia in Systems Engineering and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Chris Greendale
General Partner - Kodiak Venture Partners. Chris brings to Kodiak more than 25 years of software and technology services experience in sales, marketing, investment, and executive management that includes co-founding Cambridge Technology Partners, which had one of the most successful IPOs of the 1990s. As a General Partner, he primarily focuses on investments in the software and services segments but does reach across all of Kodiak's technology segments including communications and wireless, Internet and new media, and semiconductors and equipment. He also is on the boards of directors of the firm's portfolio companies including GlassHouse Technologies; HiWired; uLocate; and Vettro. Prior to joining Kodiak, Chris was a seed investor in many successful technology companies. Most recently he served as Managing Director at Internet Capital Group and was a Venture Partner at GrandBanks Capital. In these positions he served as a board member for start-ups, including Clarify, and publicly traded companies including Surgency, and Context Integration, Inc. (acquired by eFORCE). He also served as Chairman of the Board for Breakaway Solutions, Inc., where he oversaw the company's IPO. In 1991 Chris co-founded and ran sales and marketing for Cambridge Technology Partners (CTP), a systems integration company. By 1997, CTP had reached $600M in revenue with 4500 employees in 45 offices worldwide and enjoyed a very successful IPO. Chris holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from Southern Illinois University.
Kevin Greene
Principal - Flagship Ventures. Kevin joined Flagship in 2006 from IBM's Software Group. At IBM, Kevin was responsible for establishing, retaining and growing relationships with IBM business partners. Kevin also held a variety of product marketing positions at IBM including managing the WebSphere Application Server product portfolio. Prior to IBM, Kevin worked for several years at Goldman Sachs in its New York and Hong Kong offices where he executed over $30 billion in equity, equity-linked and M&A; financing transactions for technology, media and energy-related clients. Kevin earned a BS in finance and marketing from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce where he also captained the varsity swimming team, and earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School. Kevin's primary areas of interest include software services & infrastructure, on-line media, mobile & wireless and clean technology companies.
Steve Gullans
Managing Director - Excel Medical Ventures. Dr. Gullans is an experienced investor, entrepreneur and scientist. At Excel he focuses on life science technology companies with particular interest in broadly applicable disruptive platforms. Prior to co-founding Excel, Dr. Gullans co-founded RxGen, Inc., a pharma services company where he served as CEO from 2004-2008. In 2002, Dr. Gullans stepped in as a senior executive at US Genomics for two years to direct operations, recruit a new CEO, and assist with fundraising. In the 1990s he co-developed the technology that launched CellAct Pharma GmbH, a drug development company. Dr. Gullans' experience with venture investing began in the late 1980s when he became an active advisor to small biotechs and venture investors, including being a Senior Advisor to CB Health Ventures for 10 years.
He is currently a Director at Biocius Biosciences and RxGen and was a board member of BioTrove until it was acquired by Life Technologies (LIFE). He also advises Aileron and US Genomics and formerly advised GeneOhm (acquired by Becton Dickinson - BDX) and other biotech companies.
Dr. Gullans is an expert in advanced life science technologies and was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital for nearly 20 years. He has published more than 120 scientific papers in many leading journals, lectured internationally, and co-authored many patents. He received his B.S. at Union College, Ph.D. at Duke University, and postdoctoral training at the Yale School of Medicine.
Rana Gupta
CEO - HistoRx. Prior to joining HistoRx, Mr. Gupta was a Managing Director at Navigator Technology Ventures (NTV), the lead A Round investor in HistoRx. Prior to his position with NTV, he was Product Manager for Global Services with yet2.com, a B2B marketplace for technology transfer. Before that, Mr. Gupta founded IndoSine U.S. Link, Ltd., a business development company that helps clients to expand businesses in India, China, and the U.S. While at IndoSine, Mr. Gupta co-founded a wireless software company, International Solutions, for which he served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Previous to IndoSine, he served as Manager, PRC Investment Strategy for Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in China. Before joining Zeneca, he was Senior Consultant at Arthur D. Little, Inc. and served as a member of the start-up team for the company's Bangalore, India office. He holds an MBA in Finance and International Business from New York University's Stern School of Business, an MS in Operations Research from Stanford University, and a BA in Mathematics from Earlham College.
Jon Gworek
Member - Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, PC. Jon Gworek's practice focuses on the representation of entrepreneurs, technology start-ups and emerging companies from formation through liquidity event. In this role Jon routinely advises clients through angel and venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. He also represents venture capital funds and other institutional investors in fund formation and investments in start-ups and emerging companies. Jon has a particular interest in bridging the interests of investors and founders in the venture funding process. Over the course of his 15 plus years of experience as a corporate lawyer, Jon has represented a wide array of entrepreneurs, investors and public and private companies in complex business transactions as well as ongoing needs as they arise in the areas of corporate, securities, tax, employment, compensation, intellectual property and licensing law. Jon is a graduate of Brown University (Sc.B., Applied Mathematics/Biology) and a cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. While at law school, he was a member of the Connecticut Law Review. Jon has been an active member of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge for many years, and is a member of the Forum's Executive Committee. He is also a judge in the annual MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Jon is a member of the state bars of MA and CA. Before practicing law, Jon was an account executive at the advertising agency of Young & Rubicam.
Stuart Haber
President & CEO - Infoscitex Corp. Stuart S. Haber is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Infoscitex Corporation and its subsidiary, IST Energy Corporation. Infoscitex is a research, development and engineering company providing technology solutions and services to life sciences, defense and aerospace, and energy and environmental industries. IST Energy provides environmentally beneficial and economically attractive energy and environmental solutions to industry and government.
Since co-founding Infoscitex in 2000, Mr. Haber has been instrumental in making Infoscitex one of the fastest growing companues in the U.S. Prior to Infoscitex, Mr. Haber was President & Chief Executive Officer of Schafer Corporation, a $120M technology company.
Mr. Haber received a B.S. in Accounting from Bentley University and an MBA from the College of William and Mary. He is also an advisor to the United Way, Governor's Business Cabinet, Small Business Association of New England, George Washington University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and MySky Communications.
Brian Halligan
Founder & CEO - HubSpot. Prior to starting HubSpot, Brian worked as a venture partner at Longworth Ventures where he worked with many small businesses helping them build scalable sales and marketing machines. Brian spent 4 years at Groove Networks where he joined pre-revenue as VP of Sales and grew the business to a $20m annual rate until being acquired by Microsoft. Prior to Groove Networks, Brian worked at Parametric Technology Corporation where he worked in a variety of sales, marketing, and channels functions for over a decade. Brian's most interesting role at PTC was in starting the Pacific Rim organization while living in Hong Kong in 1993. Five years later, Brian was SVP of the Pacific Rim for PTC where he built an $80 million business and had 200 employees.
Brian coined the term inbound marketing and is author of a book entitled Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs, published by Wiley in October of 2009.
Brian holds a BSEE from the UVM and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management. He is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at MIT's Entrepreneurship Center and serves on the Board of Directors of HOPe and MITX. In his spare time, Brian follows the Boston Red Sox, is learning to play guitar, plays squash, and takes classes at St. John's Seminary.
Stephen Hallowell
Associate - Commonwealth Capital. Stephen is interested in investments in service-based software, media distribution and advertising, mobile technology, and energy storage and conversion. He has been closely involved with the senior management of Constant Contact, Visible Assets, and Zeetoo.
Prior to Commonwealth, Steve was a consultant in the strategy and innovation management practices of the Monitor Group. At Monitor, he helped Fortune 500 clients develop strategies for growth through acquisition, product innovation, and marketing excellence. Steve also spent time teaching engineering in the Philippines before joining Monitor.
Steve graduated with High Honors from Dartmouth College with an A.B. in engineering sciences and a B.E. in systems engineering. At Dartmouth, he was designated a Presidential Scholar and was a recipient of the Dartmouth Society of Engineers Prize. He holds a patent related to advanced technology vehicles.
Jeremy Halpern
Partner & Head of Business Development, Emerging Companies Group - Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP. Jeremy Halpern, is a Partner, and the Head of Business Development, Emerging Companies Group, at Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP, a large Boston-based law firm. Mr. Halpern concentrates on connecting with and supporting the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in New England, working with entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists, corporate strategic partners, trade organizations and local, State and Federal agencies. Concurrently, Mr. Halpern serves as the Chairman of The Capital Network (TCN), a Boston-based non-profit that provides education to entrepreneurs seeking early stage capital, and as an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership at Tufts University. Mr. Halpern is also a Connector in the Boston World Partnership, and the founder of JETPAC, a grant program assisting entrepreneurs with access to learning and networking opportunities.
Previously, Mr. Halpern was the Managing Director of Evolution Advisors LLC, a Boston based strategic transaction advisory firm, and 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, Mr. Halpern practiced corporate law with Goodwin Procter LLP and Bingham McCutchen LLP in Boston, and with Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles.
Mr. Halpern 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, Mr. Halpern spent two years as the Executive Chairman of a concert and special events production company.
Mr. Halpern participates with or is a member of MIT's Venture Mentoring Service, MassTLC, E-NET, MITX, REBN-East, Web Innovators Group and MobileMondays.
Erik Halvorsen
Director - Technology and Business Development, Technology & Innovation Development Office (TIDO), Children's Hospital Boston
Erik Halvorsen became the Director of Technology and Business Development for Children's Hospital Boston in September of 2007. He oversees and manages the Technology and Innovation Development Office (TIDO) responsible for translating Children's renowned laboratory and clinical research into devices, therapeutics, diagnostics, and informatics products that can benefit patients around the world. The office consists of patents & licensing, marketing, IP, clinical trials and sponsored research, business development and technology development teams. In 2009, under Erik's direction, Children's Hospital Boston launched its Technology Development Fund to advance the stage of development of promising Children's innovations. In collaboration with an external advisory board of biotech, pharma, diagnostic, device and VC executives the Technology Development Fund just completed its first round and is investing $1.2M this year in projects.
Prior to joining Children's Hospital, Erik was the Director of Business Development at Harvard University's Office of Technology Development. He joined Harvard in 2002 where he was primarily responsible for the patenting and licensing of technology arising from the departments of Molecular & Cellular Biology and Chemistry & Chemical Biology including early stage therapeutics, stem cells, targets and drug discovery technology. In 2006, Erik also became the first Director of Business Development for the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI). There he developed a comprehensive stem cell intellectual property (IP) policy, ratified and enacted by HSCI affiliated institutions, which allowed for centralization of stem cell IP and returned a portion of license revenue to fund additional stem cell research.
Prior to joining Harvard, Erik worked at the University of Virginia (UVA) Patent Foundation and the UVA Patent Foundation for-profit subsidiary, Spinner Technologies Inc. There he worked as a case manager starting up companies with faculty members around university technologies. His Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology focused on elucidating apoptotic and anti-apoptotic intracellular signaling pathways activated in Parkinson's disease and identifying potential therapeutic targets to slow or inhibit neuronal cell death and has authored and co-authored several peer reviewed papers. Erik also holds an M.S. from the Medical College of Virginia and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Jean Hammond
Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, and Member - Hub Angels, Launchpad Venture Group, and GoldenSeeds. Jean is a successful serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years experience in the high-tech industry. She is an investor and member of Hub Angels and Launchpad Venture Group. She is also the co-coordinator of the Boston chapter of Golden Seeds. She was recently the interim CEO for JAM Technologies and relinquished that role when they closed on their latest round of financing. She founded Quarry Technologies with a team from the GTE Internetworking / BBN Technologies SuperRouter project and served as startup CEO and on the Board of Directors. Jean also co-founded AXON Networks, a developer of network management applications and following 3Com's acquisition of AXON, Jean was responsible for 3Com's WAN strategy. She earned an M.S. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alain Hanover
Managing Director - Navigator Technology Ventures, LLC. Alan has over 30 years of experience in venture capital, executive management, software development, and engineering. He has served as CEO for over 15 years at InCert and Viewlogic, as well as being an early stage investor or advisor in over 20 private companies. He also co-founded CommonAngels, Boston's leading Angel Investor group. Most recently, he served as Managing Partner of Main Street Partners, a seed-stage, venture capital firm, where he helped launch five start-ups: IPVision, SemiDAQ, Bitpipe, ShieldIP and Saoirse. Previously, he co-founded InCert Software Corporation and led the company as President and CEO from 1997-2000. Hanover holds B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics from MIT; an M.S. in applied math from Harvard University; and an OPM program degree from the Harvard Business School.
Paul Hartung
President & CEO - Neuroptix. Paul is a longtime life sciences executive with a proven track record in launching successful startup businesses and leading Fortune 500 organizations. He has extensive experience in the laser and medical device industries, including managing manufacturing for Summit Technology, Inc., a leading developer of the LASIK procedure and other laser eye correction procedures.
Prior to Neuroptix, Paul was Vice President of Operations at Winphoria Networks, a successful mobile communications startup acquired by Motorola. Before that he was Senior Director at 3Com Corporation, where he was involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions, and directed global operations and new product introductions. At Trumpf, he developed high power automated laser systems for industrial applications. As Director of R&D; at Laser Fare Ltd., he developed new laser processing techniques for the medical device industry and other applications. Paul started his career as an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at General Electric Company. He graduated from MIT with an MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He received the FW Taylor Award of the CIRP for his research.
Robin Heffernan
Senior Associate - Flybridge Capital. Robin is a Senior Associate at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and expertise span two major industries: healthcare, including manufacturing and insurance, and energy-related technologies. Robin currently serves as an observer on the board of TARIS Biomedical and sits on the Oversight Committee for the Boston University Biomedial Engineering Group.
Robin joined the firm in 2009 after two years as a business strategy consultant for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While at BCG, Robin focused primarily in the healthcare industry, serving top tier, global pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers as well as health care insurance payers. She engaged in a wide variety of project work including, strategic planning and corporate development, marketing and sales, and operational transformation. Prior to BCG, Robin led a multi-disciplinary dissertation project, in coordination with NASA, to develop novel approaches for monitoring, predicting, and controlling global climate change. Her work included design and construction of innovative flight instruments, and also the field-testing of these instruments internationally. Robin has a Ph.D. from Harvard in Engineering and Applied Sciences and a B.A. from Harvard in Chemistry, with highest honors.
Bettina Hein
Founder and CEO - Pixability. Bettina founded Pixability to help entrepreneurs and small businesses tell their story with video and win more customers in the process. Bettina also co-founded Swiss-based speech technology specialist SVOX AG and led the venture-backed software company to profitability. In 1996, Bettina was the initiator of the START (http://startglobal.org), which encourages entrepreneurship among university students. Bettina frequently speaks on the topic of entrepreneurship.
James Herriman
COO - SmartCells. Mr. Herriman has co-founded and been a member of the senior management teams of several successful technology companies. He was Vice President of Operations for SmartCells, Inc., developer of an injectable, glucose-responsive insulin, which was acquired by Merck & Co, Inc. (MRK). Jim was Vice President of Operations and a Board member of MediaUnbound, Inc., provider of a SaaS media personalization platform that was acquired by Rovi Corporation (ROVI). He was Vice President of Product Development at Neuromedical Systems, Inc. (NSIX) where he played a key role in growing this start-up to a $100 million IPO and world-wide rollout of its system for improving the accuracy of Pap smear screening. Jim was also a co-founder and President of Aspex Incorporated, a supplier of high performance computing systems for research and industrial applications. He received his B.A. in Philosophy from Emory University.
Joshua Herzig-Marx
Founder and VP of Products & Services - Incentive Targeting. Josh brings a broad and varied professional background in enterprise software, international development, and non-profit administration to Incentive Targeting. He founded the company while completing his MBA at the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, the nation's #1 program in Entrepreneurship. At Babson, Josh was a Babson Fellow and Graduate Assistant to Professor Thomas Davenport, and he served as Technology Director for the Graduate Student Council. Prior to Babson, Josh served as Client Manager at SunGard iWorks where he managed the relationship with the company's largest customer, Old Mutual, in South Africa. Josh came to SunGard from Navinet, a leading provider of software for connecting physician offices and hospitals with their health care payers. Josh was the principal product manager for their largest account, and he drove implementation projects and development work using a rapid development methodology. Before joining Navimedix, he was a Senior Business Analyst at deNovis where he lead deployment of the company's health care claims processing software to Tufts Health Plan. Prior to deNovis, Josh held positions as an Assistant Project Administrator at Chemonics International, where he managed a multi-million dollar USAID project in Egypt, and as Assistant to the Director of The National Commons, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit.
Diane Hessan
President & CEO - Communispace. Diane Hessan is President and CEO of Communispace, one of the fastest growing social networking companies in the country, "with a Blue Chip client list that would make a Madison Avenue giant jealous," according to Advertising Age. A pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers generate consumer insights, Diane helped found Communispace in 1999 and hasn't looked back.
Today, Diane leads Communispace's employees in building and managing the more than 350 private online customer communities the company has created for a marquee list of global corporations. Communispace's revenues have tripled over the last four years, and the company enjoys a 90+ percent client retention rate.
Diane has spent her 30-year career helping companies become customer-focused -- both as a business executive, and as co-author of the best selling book Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage. She has received many awards and citations for her leadership and workplace innovation, including Ernst & Young's Regional Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year. In addition to her professional recognition, Diane is quoted frequently in the business media and is a highly sought-after speaker and expert in the marketing arena.
Diane has committed time and energy sitting on the boards of numerous organizations including the Advertising Research Foundation, The Business Innovation Factory, the Progressive Business Leaders Network, the Mass Technology Leadership Council, Horizons for Homeless Children, The Boston Philharmonic, Stand for Children, and the Tufts Alumni Council.
A summa cum laude graduate of Tufts University, Diane received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is the mother of two college-age daughters and co-founder of The Sound Bytes, an a cappella group that writes lyrics about business and performs at major conferences.
John Hession
Managing Partner - Cooley Godward Kronish (Boston office). John Hession is a partner in the Venture Capital Financings and Emerging Companies practice groups at Cooley Godward Kronish and a member of the Cooley Godward Kronish Business department. He is also Managing Partner of the Boston office. John represents emerging-growth companies, principally in the medical device, software, life sciences, telecommunications and electronic commerce fields, as well as angels and venture capital funds in the investment process in these sectors. He has participated in, structured and negotiated more than 200 venture and angel financings, 30 public offerings, more than 125 strategic alliances involving technology transfers, and 150+ acquisitions ranging in size from $1.0 million to $4.2 billion. John has won several awards during his twenty-five-year career in the legal profession. John was voted by Digital Industry in May 2001, as "one of Boston's best VC lawyers" and by Boston Magazine in October 2002, as "one of Boston's best start-up company lawyers", and nominated in the November 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 issues of Boston Magazine as a "Super Lawyer" and also "one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Massachusetts". John was also named as one of The Lawdragon 500 Leading Dealmakers for 2007. In 2005, 2006 and 2007 he was also acclaimed by Chambers, an international rating agency, as one of the distinguished members in his field of Venture Capital and Private Equity. He is also the co-founder of TEN, The Entrepreneurs Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated towards building technology companies and fostering job growth in the upstate New York area.
Todd Hixon
Founder & Managing Partner - New Atlantic Ventures. Todd has over 26 years of experience as a High-Tech investor and consultant. Todd currently holds a seat on the Board of Directors of Ember, Luminus Devices, GateRocket and Velox. Prior to joining NAV, he was a co-founder and Managing Director DFJ/NE. Before that, he was a Senior Vice President of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he founded the Technology and Communications Practice and managed it for twelve years during which it grew to $100 million of revenue, and subsequently became a partner in BCG's venture investment business. Todd was also the officer responsible for BCG's $50 million internal information technology activity.
Todd has a BA in Physics (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Princeton University, and an MBA (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School.
Eric Hjerpe
Partner - Kepha Partners. Eric Hjerpe brings over 23 years of operating and investing experience to the firm. In the late 1980s, he founded a software company that wrote desktop software for product development engineers.
In the early 1990s while at MIT Sloan, he worked for the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), studying new software development methods. In the mid 1990s, his team at Silicon Graphics was one of the first to deploy complex applications over the web. In the late 1990s, at Siebel Systems, Eric started the Siebel subsidiary SiebelNet, which partnered with USinternetworking (USi) to provide Siebel Enterprise Applications via the internet. He became interested in venture capital when, at Siebel Systems, he sponsored the company's investment in USi, which returned 12x in less than a year.
Prior to joining Kepha Partners, Eric was a Venture Partner and Partner at AtlasVenture, where he spent 6 years. He worked with AtlasVenture portfolio companies Active Endpoints, Fireclick (sold to Digital River), Globoforce, OpenRatings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet), OwnerIQ, Performix Technologies (sold to Nice), SimpleTuition, SupplyWorks (acquired by Intuitive), TrueAdvantage (acquired by InsideView), and Virtual Logix (acquired by Red Bend Software).
He holds a Master of Science in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor's degree from Brown University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA), is a TechStars Mentor, is on the Brown University Advisory Council on Computing and Information Technology, and is a member of the Massachusetts 12x12 start-up program.
Brad Holt
Relationship Manager - Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Brad is a Relationship Manager with Silicon Valley Bank. In this role, he manages SVB's early-stage efforts in New England, including banking and lending to early-stage venture-backed start-ups. Brad also works closely with SVB's emerging technologies banking practice in New England, which is comprised of hundreds of pre-funded technology start-ups. He currently serves on the Program Committee of The Capital Network (TCN), a non-profit organization providing extensive educational programs and a community to help early-stage entrepreneurs master the entire funding process and successfully raise seed capital for financing their high-growth start-up. He is also a member of the Angel Capital Association (ACA) Public Policy Committee Advisory Counsil which helps to provide important answers for the ACA and its members to better understand emerging policy issues which impact angels and angel investing. Brad is a graduate of Skidmore College, where he played varsity hockey.
Lee Hower
Principal - Point Judith Capital. Lee joined Point Judith in 2005 and focuses on internet & digital media companies. He is a board director of Multiply and FanIQ and is involved with PJC's investments in Music Nation and Sittercity.
Most recently, Lee was one of the co-founders of LinkedIn and served as Director of Corporate Development from the company's inception through venture funding and early growth phases. Previously he was an early employee at PayPal (IPO, later acq. by eBay), where he worked as a Product Manager and later served as Director, Financial Services.
Lee attended the Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a BAS from the School of Engineering and a BS from the Wharton School.
Doug Hurd
Director of Business Development - uLocate Communications. Doug Hurd works at uLocate Communications (WHERE.com) as the Director of Business Development. Doug has over 15 years of sales and business development experience in mobile and location based services. Prior to uLocate Doug worked for Tele Atlas, now a division of TomTom and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company's wireless and internet business. In his current Business Development role at uLocate Doug is responsible for forging distribution partnerships with wireless operators and mobile handset manufacturers as well as managing the 3rd party content partnerships with a particular emphasis on monetization through subscription, search, advertising and e-commerce.
During his years in the wireless industry Doug's collaborate with partners such as AT&T;, Sprint, Alltel, Virgin Mobile, RIM, Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG, and Sony Ericsson. Doug is a graduate of the University of Vermont's school of Business Administration where he received a bachelor's degree of science.
Ken Itrato
Counsel - Wilmer Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. Mr. Itrato practices business and corporate law with an emphasis on representing early stage technology, life sciences, internet and software companies. Mr. Itrato's practice includes, among other things, advising companies with respect to formation issues, equity and compensation matters, debt and equity offerings, joint ventures and other partnering transactions, mergers and acquisitions, asset purchases, reorganizations and divestitures. He provides counsel with respect to intellectual property matters and agreements, including licensing, development and distribution agreements. Mr. Itrato advises venture capital funds with respect to portfolio company investments and follow-on investments, fund formation and sales of fund interests. He also advises later stage private and public companies in the areas of SEC and Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance, securities and disclosure issues, contract negotiations and corporate governance matters.
Chad Jackson
General Partner - incTank Ventures. Chad is a General Partner of incTank responsible for business development and new portfolio selection. Chad has spent over 10 years working in the investment management and early-stage venture capital fields. He has worked at such firms as Bear Stearns, Intercontinental Ventures, and Softbank Technology Ventures. Most recently, Chad was Principal of Sparks Street Capital, a private investment company that has co-invested in incTank portfolio companies. He holds a BA in Economics from Franklin and Marshall College. Chad's areas of focus include computational sciences and life sciences.
Andrew Jay
Managing Partner - Medical Solutions Fund, Siemens Venture Capital. Dr. Jay was previously an analyst following the medical technology industry at Deutsche Bank-Alex Brown and Wachovia Securities. During his career, he was an II ranked analyst for his stock picking, instrumental in raising $2 billion in equity capital for a multitude of companies and published over 10,000 pages of research. Dr. Jay's prior experience includes managing several international healthcare consulting projects for Arthur D. Little and running his substantial dental practice. He currently is a Director of Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, U-Systems and Vasamed.
Oscar Jazdowski
Sr. Relationship Manager - SVB Silicon Valley Bank. Oscar Jazdowski has spent over 25 years financing technology companies at all stages of development, from young venture-backed startups to large multinational companies. Jazdowski joined Silicon Valley Bank in 2002 as a senior relationship manager focused on the Boston software industry. Having started his career with Bank of Boston in the U.K., Jazdowski was transferred to Head Office in 1983 to join the High Technology Lending Group. Over the next 13 years he held various positions and was involved in financing young emerging, middle market and large corporate, public-traded technology companies.
Tim Jones
CEO - Buzzient, Inc. Tim Jones is the CEO of Buzzient, Inc. and is responsible for the overall management of Buzzient Inc.
He has over 15 years of executive experience starting new companies and developing new businesses in the technology industry. Prior to Buzzient, Mr. Jones was CEO of BionTTech, a Georgia Tech spin-off company that focused on explosive detection for homeland security. Mr. Jones identified BionTTech after helping launch the east coast office of Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV), an early stage venture capital firm with over $1B under management. Previously, Mr. Jones was Founder, Chairman and CEO of Eba Systems, a mobile and wireless application company for customer relationship management (CRM) that was acquired by Iormyx. Mr. Jones was also the founding Vice President of Business Development of CRM software company OnDemand, which was acquired by Chordiant Software.
Mr. Jones has worked as a key contributor with two early stage companies from early stage through IPO; database vendor Sybase (IPO 1991) and systems management company OpenVision Technologies (IPO 1996). Mr. Jones started his career in the International Division of Oracle Corporation.
Mr. Jones holds a S.B. in Management Science from MIT, a M.S. in Computer Information Systems from Georgia State University, and a MBA from MIT as a Sloan Fellow. Mr. Jones has served as a member of the Committee of Visitors and an Information Technology Panel Reviewer for the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program since 2001.
Meerie Joung
Partner - Bingham McCutchen LLP. Meerie M. Joung concentrates her practice on general corporate and securities matters, with a focus on structuring and financing start-up ventures, representing venture capital and private equity funds, mergers and acquisitions of private and public companies, private placements and public offerings, formation of joint ventures, and licensing and commercial transactions. She is currently a guest lecturer at MIT\'s Sloan School of Management. She received her A.B. degree from Princeton University and her J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law.
Murat Kalayoglu
Founder and Chief Science Officer - HealthHonors. Dr. Kalayoglu is the co-founder and a director of HealthHonors Corporation, which uses a proprietary incentive platform to motivate employees to take their medications on time and as scheduled. Dr.
Kalayoglu's background on chronic diseases consists of a thesis on medication adherence and over 30 peer-reviewed publications, including an article in JAMA. He currently serves as the Medical Director at Best Doctors, Inc., and is also a board-certified practicing Ophthalmologist in the Boston area. Dr. Kalayoglu completed an NIH-sponsored MD/PhD program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a residency and research fellowship at Harvard, and an MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alan Kalin
Partner - Bingham McCutchen LLP. Alan B. Kalin has more than 20 years of experience representing emerging growth companies, entrepreneurs, investors and public companies in the Silicon Valley. Concentrating in corporate and securities matters, he advises clients on securities offerings, mergers and acquisitions, new business formations, strategic technology transactions, and general corporate matters.
Alan received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Juris Doctor from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
Alan is a licensed certified public accountant in the state of Illinois.
Josh Kanner
Co-founder & CEO - Vela Systems. Josh graduated with honors from Brown University and then pursued an MBA from the Sloan School at MIT. Upon graduation Josh was hired as the first Marketing employee at Emptoris, Inc., a web based software provider, and assumed responsibility for product management. After assisting with early sales at Motorola and elsewhere, Josh was promoted to develop and manage Emptoris' entire product strategy. During his tenure, Emptoris grew from one to twelve products, from 20 to 200 employees and from 1 to 100 customers, including Heinz, GlaxoSmithKline, and Vodafone; became the only privately-held company in its segment to be annually placed in the 'visionary' quadrant by Gartner Research; and was selected by IBM and Accenture as their global strategic sourcing platforms over industry "heavyweights" Oracle and SAP. Josh was a 2004 recipient of the prestigious Franz Edelman Award for technology innovation.
Bill Kantor
Member - Launchpad Venture Group. Bill is an investor and an advisor to software and information-technology companies. Building on a successful career selling capital equipment to semiconductor manufacturers, Bill has been part of the founding or leadership team at three successful software companies�helping to develop and grow each of them. Collectively these businesses created over $6B in value for their investors.
Drawing upon these successes, Bill helps his clients raise money, grow, and build strong scalable businesses. Bill specializes in sales, marketing, negotiations and general management; typically taking on interim roles to turbo-charge his clients' management teams, get the first few big deals done, and build repeatable sales processes. Bill has extensive operational experience in software and information technology businesses. Most recently he has served as SVP sales and marketing at Hire Reach, COO of Zixi, President of Idiro, and as an advisor to several startups including P3 Software, Smartleaf, MobiLaurus, WaveMark, TurnStar, and flexReceipts.
Bill led Business Development, Sales, and Marketing efforts as EVP of XMPie (variable data printing software), where his efforts led to a 300% growth rate and XMPie's acquisition by Xerox. As an advisor and later as EVP at marketing automation software supplier Unica, he led the company's growth from its first customer shipments to over $20M in revenue.
Bill was Vice President of Sales for Kenan Systems (now the billing and customer management group under Comverse), where he grew revenue from $35M to $170M in two years, leading to the acquisition of Kenan by Lucent for $1.5B. He was a pre-funding cofounder of OnDisplay, which after a successful IPO was acquired by Vignette (now Open Text). He was CEO and president of Visage where he led a successful turnaround and sold the company to Microtouch (subsequently acquired by 3M). He began his career at Teradyne where he held a number of sales and management positions. Bill holds a BA in Physics from University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Marketing and Operations Management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a board member of several private companies.
Stella Karavas
CEO - Voltree Power. Stella Karavas, CPA has over 10 years experience in the management of a custom component manufacturing company serving the radar, defense, aerospace, alternative energy and other industries. Stella received a B.S. in Business Administration at Stonehill College, North Easton, Massachusetts and Certified by the Mass Board of Accountancy in 1990.
Since 2000, she is co-founder and Vice-President of MagCap Engineering, LLC (www.magcap.com) located in Canton, Massachusetts. MagCap Engineering, LLC is dedicated to the design, engineering, manufacture and repair of magnetic of all sizes for the defense, aerospace, telecommunication, industrial microwave, industrial laser, radar, solar, wind power and other industries.
Prior to entering the Private Sector, Stella spent 12 years in public accounting specializing in taxation. Her most recent position includes tax supervisor at Tofias PC (www.tofias.com) concentrating on individual, corporate, partnership and international taxes.
Professional memberships include the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Massachusetts Society of CPAs (MSCPA). Stella is also a member of the AICPA Ambassador Program, AICPA Grassroots Committee, MSCPA Academic Committee, MSCPA Mentor Program, MIT Enterprise Forum and MIT/Harvard Energy Club.
Jon Karlen
General Partner - Flybridge Flybridge Capital Partners. Jon is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and experience include enterprise software, consumer-focused products and online services, and energy technology.
He currently represents the firm on the boards of Eka Systems, GamerDNA, Virtual Computer, Inc., and a LED company currently working in stealth mode. He also previously sat on the board of ZING Systems (acquired by Dell).
Prior to joining the firm in October 2005, Jon served as the Director of Product Marketing at OATSystems, an RFID software company, where he led the company's product positioning and marketing activities. Jon joined the company following a successful Entrepreneur-in-Residence position at Greylock, where he developed the investment opportunity in OATSystems.
Before Greylock, Jon was an executive at NTRU Cryptosystems, an early-stage company focused on commercializing data encryption technology for constrained devices. During his tenure at NTRU, Jon served as General Manager for the RFID and Smart Card group and Director of Product Management. Jon also spent time as an Associate with Greylock and an Equity Research Associate at Montgomery Securities.
Jon holds a BA in Philosophy from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Laila Kassis
Associate - Key Venture Partners. Laila focuses on investments in communications, software and technology enabled services businesses. She serves as a board observer of Centive, OpSource, and TriActive and is actively involved with Insight Direct. Laila joined Key Venture Partners in early 2005 from Spectrum Equity Investors in Boston where she focused on late stage growth investments in software, technology enabled services and media. She was primarily responsible for sourcing new investment opportunities for the firm in these areas. Prior to joining Spectrum, Laila worked as a Financial Analyst in Bear Stearns' Technology Investment Banking Group in New York City. At Bear Stearns, she focused on M&A; advisory to Fortune 500 clients in the enterprise software, IT services, aerospace-defense, and communications technology arenas. Laila has a B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.
Elliot Katzman
General Partner - Commonwealth Capital Ventures. Elliot Katzman is a general partner of Commonwealth Capital Ventures. Elliot has more than 25 years of high-technology experience and has been instrumental as a venture backer, founder, and hired executive in building some of New England's most successful software companies. He focuses his investment activity in software, internet-related and new media companies. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Elliot was a general partner at Kodiak Venture Partners where he led investments in companies such as Groove Mobile, Newforma, Pragmatech Software, SpaceClaim and Wis.dm. In addition, he was on the board of Watchfire.
Before becoming a venture capitalist, Elliot spent more than 20 years as a senior operating executive building four highly successful software companies. He founded and led Myteam.com, a direct marketing/new media company now part of the Active Network, where he remains on the board of directors. Prior to Myteam.com, he was Senior VP and CFO at SolidWorks, where he led the merger with Dassault Systemes. As CFO of Atria Software, he led an IPO and a $1 billion merger with Pure Software, the largest software merger of its time. Earlier, Elliot served as CFO of Epoch Systems, where he had senior operational responsibilities and managed the company's merger with EMC. He was also an executive with Prime Computer during its significant growth phase in the mid-1980s.
Elliot holds a BSBA summa cum laude from Salem State College. He is also involved in a variety of community activities including the Board of Trustees of St. John's Prep High School and the Board of Fellows for Trinity College.
Jerry King
Chief Operating Officer - Where, Inc. Jerry King has over 30 years of experience bringing new software products and services to market, both in venture-backed and corporate environments. Currently, Jerry serves as COO of Where, Inc. As the chief operations executive at Where, Jerry managed the company from start-up to profitability and through its sale to 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 & Board Director for C-Bridge Internet Solutions (CBIS). C-Bridge was an industry-leading Internet systems integrator that Jerry helped build from scratch to a successful IPO in 1999. Jerry was 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 frequently advises early-stage Internet and mobile start-ups and is currently a board advisor at VillageVines, Inc.
Jerry spends whatever free time he has in Maine with his family and lives to hike and ski. He graduated with a BA from Tufts University and a MS from Bentley College.
Mike Kirkup
Director, Developer Relations - Research in Motion. Mike Kirkup is the Director for the Developer Relations program at Research In Motion (RIM), which is responsible for managing the technical relationships and programs for RIM's developer community worldwide. Mike and his team work with RIM's developer community to provide support and guidance as developers work to integrate their applications to the BlackBerry platform. Mike joined RIM in 2001 as a Security Software Developer in RIM's Wireless Security Group. As part of the Wireless Securty group, Mike contributed to the development of the BlackBerry Cryptography API, S/MIME and PGP implementations. Mike holds a Masters of Management Science and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Wade Kirshy
Associate - Fish & Richardson P.C. Wade Kirshy is an Associate in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson. His practice emphasizes patent litigation and patent prosecution. Mr. Kirshy was previously a Summer Associate with the firm (2007). Before coming to Fish, he interned at Network Engines, Inc., where he worked in manufacturing, engineering, and marketing, and he was an Engineering Intern at Netplane Systems (2001-2002). Mr. Kirshy was also a Software Quality Assurance Intern at Seranoa Networks (2003). He has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with Honors, magna cum laude, from Union College and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he was also the Associate Editor of The Journal of Business and Technology Law.
Bob Kispert
Director of Cluster Development - JAII at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative(MTC). Bob is the Director of Cluster Development - JAII at MTC, a quasi-public state organization focused on economic development for the Massachusetts technology sectors. Bob manages MTC's outreach activities and the Research Center Matching Fund, a $30 million fund that supports Centers of Excellence and major collaborative R&D; Centers funded by the federal government.
Garrett Knight
President & CEO - CloseHauled Strategies, LLC. Garrett has over 30 years of IT and business experience in the retail sector, where he is a widely recognized and respected business leader and software developer. Currently, he is President and CEO of CloseHauled Strategies, LLC. CloseHauled Strategies is a management consulting enterprise that provides business performance and process improvement management solutions. One of its current clients is Carstar, owners of over 250 collision repair franchises. Garrett is also serving as Chairman for GeoVue, a leading provider of dynamic modeling and optimization software for retailers, restaurants and other businesses seeking the highest returns when selecting new store locations.
Prior to founding CloseHauled Strategies, Mr. Knight co-founded Retail Expert, Inc., a software and consulting services corporation providing business performance improvement and loss prevention software systems and analysis to large retailers. Some of Retail Expert's more well-known clients include GAP, Rite Aid, HEB, CVS, TJX, and Burlington Coat Factory. He directed the strategic growth and development of Retail Expert from a two-person company in 1996, to an organization with 30 talented and dedicated associates. Retail Expert was acquired and integrated into Tyco Retail Business Analytics in 2007.
Previous positions held by Garrett included Vice President of the Center of Excellence at Melville Corporation; Vice President of Administration at Store24; and various management positions at Fujitsu Systems of America.
Mr. Knight has a BS degree in business from the University of Delaware and lives with his wife and 2 college-age children in the Boston area.
Bill Kolb
Partner - Foley Hoag LLP. Bill is a partner in the law firm of Foley Hoag LLP, based in the Firm's Boston office. As Coordinator of the firm's Business Department and Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group, William Kolb is recognized in Chambers USA, Massachusetts SuperLawyers and The Legal 500 for his experience in transactional matters. He has represented both buyers and sellers (including a special board committee) of public and private companies, particularly those involved in the technology industry. William also works closely with technology companies on licensing matters, including complex in-bound and out-bound licenses of various intellectual property rights.
William also advises companies and their underwriters in public securities offerings, including clients such as Allaire, Aware, Banc of America Securities, Charles River Associates and Credit Suisse First Boston. He also provides these and other clients with counsel on compliance with the securities laws, Sarbanes-Oxley and other governance issues. In addition, his transactional work includes representation of high-growth and emerging companies seeking venture capital and strategic investments.
William has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1984.
David Kopans
Co-Founder & CFO - EnergyClimate Solutions.
David Kopans is a co-founder and the Chief Financial Officer for EnergyClimate Solutions. He has been Head of Finance/CFO for two publicly traded companies and is a erial entrepreneur who has started, run, and advised software, hardware, biotech and clean energy companies. Although David started his career as a CPA and CMA at Coopers & Lybrand, he has been actively involved in the renewable energy industry since 2002. Prior to ECS, David was Director of Finance and then Director of Regulatory Affairs at Fat Spaniel Technologies. In these roles he successfully positioned the company for its $7 Million Series A funding round and then, as Director of Regulatory Affairs, was responsible for shaping state and regional monitoring and metering regulations for renewable energy programs. As the first Co-Chair of the California Solar Initiative's Metering Subcommittee, he was responsible for leading the drafting and development of the metering rules underpinning this $3 Billion solar incentive program. On the East Coast, David worked as a member of ISO-NE's Demand Resources Working Group drafting the Forward Capacity Market Rules applicable to distributed generation and energy efficiency projects as well as developed the first set of verification procedures for distributed generation RECs approved by the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control. Mr. Kopans conceived of and co-founded Value Added Energy Information Systems, Inc. (VAEIS), a company dedicated to bringing to market critical enabling technology for the distributed generation marketplace. Prior to starting VAEIS, David was the founder of a number of software companies as well as the Head of Finance/CFO of two publicly traded companies. In these roles, he helped source, structure, and close investments and M&A; transactions in these companies with a combined transactional value in excess of $50 Million. Mr. Kopans is a co-inventor of two technology patents that are currently under a license agreement that he sourced and negotiated with a major Fortune 500 software company. David is actively involved as a mentor to teams in the MIT Ignite Clean Energy competition and currently serves as Treasurer to the Board of Directors of the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Mr. Kopans holds a BA in Economics and Public Policy from Brown University and earned his MBA with Honors in Finance and Accounting from NYU. He is also a former CPA and CMA having started his career at Coopers & Lybrand.
Janet Kraus
Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Senior Lecturer - Harvard Business School. Janet is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School. She was the co-founder and CEO of Spire, a new type of media company-one that was created specifically to serve the needs of busy, discerning consumers around the world.
As CEO, Janet drives Spire's vision and culture. She came to Spire by way of Circles (the leading provider of concierge services), the company she co-founded with Kathy Sherbrooke and recently sold to Sodexho Alliance. As the CEO of Circles, Janet oversaw the company's growth strategy, including the creation and ultimate spin-off of Spire as a stand-alone company. Prior to co-founding Circles, she served as the Director of Values and Vision for The Body Shop.
She was a finalist for the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was recognized as one of Boston Business Journal�s Top 40 under 40. While earning an MBA at Stanford�s Graduate School of Business, Janet�s knack for entrepreneurship became evident as she spearheaded the financing and building of the first multimedia center with access to the Internet.
Steve Krom
Vice President & General Manager - AT&T; Mobility, New England Region. Steve Krom is the Vice President and General Manager for AT&T; Mobility in the New England market. He is responsible for all aspects of wireless operations, including sales, marketing, customer care, network engineering and finance.
Prior to his current position, Krom served in a number of leadership positions with the company, most recently including Vice President Customer Lifecycle Management in Cingular's West region.
Prior to the Cingular-AT&T; Wireless merger, Krom previously served as Vice President/General Manager of the San Diego/Las Vegas markets; Vice President - Business Marketing and Product Management; Vice President - Wireless Data and Internet Services with national responsibility for Cingular's data services marketing, development and Internet services management; Vice President of Marketing for SBC Wireless, Inc. with national responsibility for product development, product management, wireless data strategy, merchandising and customer communications; and as Vice President of Marketing for SBC's Pacific Bell Wireless operations in Los Angeles, California.
Krom began his AT&T; career in 1995 as Director of Product Marketing in Pleasanton, California. Before joining the AT&T; family of companies, Krom directed product marketing for EO, Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up company that introduced the first wireless PDA into the United States in 1993.
A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Krom received a bachelor's degree in information services.
Raju Kucherlapati
Scientific Director - Harvard Medical School-Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics. Raju Kucherlapati came to the United States in 1967 after completing undergraduate and graduate degrees in India. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana and did his post-doctoral work in the lab of Frank Ruddle at Yale University. He was assistant professor in the Department of Biochemical Sciences at Princeton University, then became professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. In 1989 Dr. Kucherlapati went to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he was the Lola and Saul Kramer Professor of Molecular Genetics and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics, a position he held for eleven years. In 2001 Dr. Kucherlapati became Professor of Medicine and the Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and the first Scientific Director of the Harvard Medical School-Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics (www.hpcgg.org).
Dr. Kucherlapati's research interests include cloning of human disease genes and the generation and characterization of mouse models for human disease. The Kucherlapati laboratory at Harvard Medical School has four major areas of focus: mammalian genetics, where his laboratory participated in the mapping and sequencing of the mouse and human genomes; the etiology of Velo-Cardio-Facial syndrome; generation of mouse models for human cancer; and the etiology of Noonan Syndrome. To date he holds 12 patents. He was a member of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research at the National Human Genomics Research Institute, and currently serves as co-chair of the steering committee for the National Cancer Institute's Mouse Models for Human Cancer Consortium. He serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and was editor in chief of the journal Genomics.
Dr. Kucherlapati was a founder of Cell Genesys, Abgenix and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves on the board of Millennium Pharmaceuticals and on the board of privately held AVEO Pharmaceuticals.
John Landry
Managing Director - Lead Dog Ventures. John Landry has spent nearly 30 years helping people connect with one another while building world-class software companies.
John is currently Managing Director of Lead Dog Ventures, a business accelerator providing emerging technology enterprises access to a well-developed network of relationship, technology and financial capital. Lead Dog Ventures package the technology vision, business expertise and funding alternatives and try to provide the means for today's entrepreneurs to become the "Lead Dogs" of tomorrow.
Prior to Lead Dog Ventures, John was Vice President for Technology Strategy at IBM where he discovered and evaluated "disruptive" new technologies emerging from new companies for IBM's corporate strategy. Preceding IBM, John was senior vice president of development and CTO at Lotus Development Corporation in Cambridge, MA. Prior to Lotus, John served as senior vice president and CTO at Dun & Bradstreet, Cullinet Software, Distribution Management Systems, and McCormack & Dodge. Additionally, Landry has served as Chairman/CTO of Agility Systems acquired by Dun and Bradstreet, Chairman of Narrative Communications acquired by Excite@Home, Chairman/CTO of Anyday.com acquired by Palm and Chairman/CTO of Adjoin Solutions acquired by Computer Associates.
John is a director and investor in several private high technology companies, is a long-time Trustee of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and an Overseer of Boston's Museum of Science.
He holds a BA in Finance from Babson College, where he serves as Trustee and part-time instructor.
Brent Larlee
Managing Director - WaiHaka Strategies LLC. Brent Larlee is the founder and Managing Director of WaiHaka Strategies LLC, a management consulting firm focused on helping companies accelerate top line revenue growth and optimize business operations. As an entrepreneurial executive, Brent has a proven track record of working in leadership roles that include operational, sales, marketing, consulting, financial, and human resources functions in fast growth companies. For much of his career, Brent has worked for challenger firms who take on industry leaders with innovative marketing and sales strategies that overcome the superior financial and human resources larger companies can throw at an initiative. Playing David against market Goliaths has formed his approach to be pragmatic and focused on high return activities that fill a niche previously underserved within a market.
Toby LaVigne
Founder & CEO - HubCast, Inc. Toby LaVigne is the founder and CEO of HubCast, Inc., the first global print-on-demand service to address the challenges of distributed sales and marketing organizations and the agencies that serve them. Toby began his on demand print career in 1995 with the purchase of an Indigo press and a print on demand vision. Toby's deep experience in the commercial print industry lead him to discover the need for a more scalable solution for short run print, and HubCast was born. Toby is passionate about building exceptional teams and technology and connecting them to reach goals quickly. He is a member and officer of the Young Presidents Organization.
Derek Lee
Chief Financial and Corporate Development Officer - Talaris Advisors LLC. Derek H. Lee is a seasoned expert in biotechnology and healthcare investment, financing, M&A; transactions, partnerships and business planning. His experience in the life science sector has resulted in successful financing and exit strategies for multiple portfolio companies that generated significant returns. Derek specializes in structuring and implementing creative and complex deal structures and working closely with portfolio management teams on financing and exit strategies.
Most recently, Derek was a Principal with SV Life Sciences (SVLS), a leading healthcare focused venture capital advisor with approximately $1.5B under management. For close to a decade at SVLS, Derek was actively involved with more than 55 portfolio companies across Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Healthcare Services investments. He worked closely with management teams across a range of issues including equity and debt financings, M&A;, IPOs, partnerships and exits.
Before joining SVLS, Derek was with the Global Healthcare Group at UBS Warburg where he engaged in a variety of equity and M&A; transactions in the life sciences sector. Prior to joining UBS Warburg, Derek was in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Salomon Smith Barney. Derek received his BS Finance from Bentley College.
Bob Lentz
CEO - PermissionTV. Bob brings extensive experience to his role as CEO at PermissionTV. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Operations and CFO of OATSystems, Inc., the recognized RFID framework leader, which provides software for supply-chain management systems that utilize radio-frequency identification (RFID).
Prior to joining OATSystems, Bob was Sr. Vice President, Operations and CFO at eRoom Technology, a web-based collaborative workspace that enables distributed teams to work together more efficiently.
Bob was a member of the management team responsible for the turnaround at Xionics Document Technologies, which became the leading provider of digital page processing software and technology for the office market, enabling users to print, scan, copy, process and transmit documents to computer peripherals. Before that, he served as Senior Vice President CFO for Individual Inc., an Internet information services company that merged with Desktop Data to become NewsEdge Corporation, and was Sr. Vice President and General Manager of Appex Corporation, a software company serving the cellular telephone industry that was sold to Electronic Data Systems.
Bob started his career as a CPA with Ernst and Young. He has an MBA from Babson College, and a BS in Business from Northeastern University.
Jon Lim
Principal - Polaris Ventures. Jon Lim is a Principal based in our Boston office. He joined Polaris in 2007 and focuses on early and expansion stage investment opportunities in technology and healthcare. Prior to business school, Jon was an associate with Summit Partners where he was responsible for sourcing and executing various growth equity investments across industries. Jon worked previously at Medtronic in their cardiac rhythm and disease management business. Jon also has prior experience conducting research and co-authoring several published materials at Harvard Business School. Jon was part of the investment teams responsible for Polaris' investments in Egnyte, KISSmetrics, Ocular Therapeutix, Phytel, SustainX, and 1366 Technologies. Jon is also an active member of the Dogpatch Labs community. In addition, Jon is an observer on the boards of Egnyte, Phytel and Ocular Therapeutix. Jon received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his AB, magna cum laude, in East Asian Studies from Harvard College.
Lucinda Linde
Partner - Walnut Venture Associates. Lucinda Linde invests in and consults to early stage information technology companies. While at First Light Capital, she invested in Nellymoser, Incipient, KESI, Strong Numbers (now part of Intuit's "It's Deductible" product) and HubX (acquired by SynXis).
She was an angel investor in Visualization Technologies Inc. (acquired by GE Medical Systems), Viveca (acquired by Open Pages) and Collego (acquired by MRO Systems) and Softrax (profitable company). Lucinda co-authored an in-depth study on angel investors, VSS Project: Report on Angel Investors, for Ken Morse of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Professor Howard Stevenson at HBS.
Previously, Lucinda helped build a management consulting firm focused on the telecommunications industry, COBA Boston, now Adventis. Start-up experience includes operations and marketing positions at Molten Metal Technology and Ceramics Process Systems. Both were venture-backed companies that went public. She holds an SB and an SM in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Robin Lockwood
Senior Associate - Flybridge Capital. Robin is a Senior Associate at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and expertise span two major industries: healthcare, including manufacturing and insurance, and energy-related technologies. Robin joined the firm in 2009 after two years as a business strategy consultant for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). While at BCG, Robin focused primarily in the healthcare industry, serving top tier, global pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers as well as health care insurance payers. She engaged in a wide variety of project work including, strategic planning and corporate development, marketing and sales, and operational transformation. Prior to BCG, Robin led a multi-disciplinary dissertation project, in coordination with NASA, to develop novel approaches for monitoring, predicting, and controlling global climate change. Her work included design and construction of innovative flight instruments, and also the field-testing of these instruments internationally. Robin has a Ph.D. from Harvard in Engineering and Applied Sciences and a B.A. from Harvard in Chemistry, with highest honors.
Ham Lord
Managing Director - Launchpad Venture Group. Ham has over 20 years experience in the software industry founding and building industry leading companies. Currently, Ham is the Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group. Launchpad is a Boston-based angel group that focuses on seed stage technology companies. He manages the group's deal flow, due diligence and investing activities. Ham is an active angel investor and advisor to early stage companies. He is a board member for Building Engines and a board observer for Mok3. Ham's senior management experience was in the software industry, most recently as co-founder and Vice President of Marketing for Advanced Visual Systems (AVS). AVS develops software for scientists and engineers involved in applications such as Medical Imaging, Geographic Information Systems(GIS), Engineering Analysis and Oil&Gas; Exploration. Muse Technologies acquired AVS in 2000. Prior to AVS, Ham helped launch two computational chemistry companies, MicroChem Technologies and Polygen. These two companies were pioneers in the development of software for drug discovery, and were part of an industry wide acquisition roll-up that resulted in Accelrys Inc. (NASDAQ: ACCL). Ham graduated magna cum laude with a degree in computer science from Brown University.
Jim Lucchese
CEO - The Echo Nest. Jim has over twelve years of experience leading and advising digital entertainment companies. Prior to The Echo Nest, Jim practiced law at Greenberg Traurig, specializing in music and digital media transactions. Clients included digital entertainment companies, multi-platinum recording artists, music publishers, branded entertainment companies and independent artists. Prior to GT, Jim held sales and corporate strategy positions at Hughes (parent of DirecTV), where he managed market development with annual revenues exceeding $20 Million. Jim was also Chief Strategy Officer of Webnoize/DMN, a digital entertainment research and advisory company serving over 500 clients. Jim holds a B.A. from Boston College and a J.D., Magna Cum Laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and New York.
Jennifer Lum
Founding Partner - Apricot Capital. Jennifer Lum is a founding partner of Apricot Capital and a startup advisor. She is passionate about building and investing in great companies, products and teams. Jennifer has acquired deep operating experience from working with several public companies and three successful tech startups.
Jennifer has been in the mobile industry since 2005 and was a core team member of Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple) and m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign). As VP of Advertising Operations at Quattro, Jennifer was responsible for running the ad network and helped to build the top premium mobile ad network in the world. At Apple, Jennifer was involved with the launch of iAd. Prior to Quattro, Jennifer was the Director of Business Operations of VeriSign's Digital Content and Messaging business in Mountain View, CA. Jennifer started her career in Toronto, where she was an early-employee at WebHosting.com (acquired by SBC Communications) and also worked with Canada's top financial services companies as a management consultant.
Jennifer plays competitive tennis and volleyball and is obsessed with music, food and travel.
ML Mackey
Co-Founder and CEO - Beacon Interactive Systems. Ms. Mackey is the CEO and one of the two co-founders of Beacon Interactive Systems. Beacon was started 16 years ago out of a rent-controlled apartment on Beacon Street in Massachusetts. Since then, the company has experienced significant growth by delivering its collaborative enterprise software solutions to customers in both the private and public sector. Private sector customers include MetLife, IBM and Olympus as well as global firms like the pan-European Venture Capital entity, E-Start. With the economic downturn in the software industry in 2001, Ms. Mackey and her partner successfully navigated the company into the Federal marketplace. Beacon is now a preferred provider to the US. Navy, delivering two key software systems to multiple System Commands and Program Executive Offices. Recently, the Navy made the strategic decision to roll out Beacon's maintenance software, TurboWork, to 460,000 users and every ship in U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
Increasingly recognized for her expertise in small business innovation, Ms. Mackey has participated in several legislative and policy initiatives. She is a frequent invited speaker and, in 2007, was asked to provide testimony to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Based on her experience of successfully delivering products to both private and public sector customers, Ms. Mackey was asked to speak at the 2008 Department of Defense Procurement Conference. Also in 2008 Ms. Mackey received the Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology Leadership Award. At the national level she serves on the Board of the National Small Business Association's Small Business Technology Council and is a member of the National Defense Industrial Association's Small Business Division Executive Committee. At a regional level, she serves on the Board of the Small Business Association of New England and is a member of the High Technology Committee. She is a member of the New England Innovation Alliance as well as a CEO Forum member of The Commonwealth Institute of Boston.
Prior to starting Beacon, Ms. Mackey worked for Digital Equipment Corporation. Ms. Mackey holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University.
Dhiraj Malkani
Principal - RockPort Capital Partners. Dhiraj began his career at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies as a Senior Product Engineer developing next-Generation optical components for Telecommunications. He received several U.S. patents for his inventions in MEMS technology before transitioning from pure engineering to evaluating early-stage photonics and life-science companies for Boston University's Photonics Center business incubator program. Prior to joining RockPort he was a summer associate in Deutsche Bank's Technology Investment Banking division. At Rockport, Dhiraj is an active member of the screening and diligence teams and has worked on multiple transactions in solar energy, transportation, advanced materials, energy storage, smart grid, water and wind technologies. Dhiraj is a graduate of the University of Mumbai with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He earned an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Ed Mallen
CEO - TimeTrade Systems. Ed is CEO of TimeTrade Systems, the leading SAAS provider of self-service appointment scheduling. He has over 25 years of professional management experience in software and systems. He started his career at IBM. As vice president of US sales at Interleaf he was part of the team that built the company to $100 million in sales, an IPO and subsequent financings. As vice president of software products for Xerox Imaging Systems he led the marketing and development of TextBridge, which became the premiere OCR product in the world. He joined Xionics as an executive vice president at an early stage, and helped grow the company to $40 million in sales, building the sales, support, product management and marketing teams that positioned Xionics for a successful IPO. As president and CEO of Profile Systems he led the company's success in pursuing vertical markets and solutions, leading to acquisition by Comergent Technologies, where he became a Senior Vice President. He was most recently CEO of OzVision, a leading supplier of video services for the security industry. A graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, he is a member of the board of eCopy and MassNetComs.
Geoff Mamlet
Principal - New Atlantic Ventures; Co-Owner & Managing Director - Cambridge Innovation Center Prior to joining New Atlantic Ventures, Geoff was CTO and a founder of E-Travel, Inc., the leading provider of Internet corporate travel management systems. As designed by Geoff, the E-Travel product enables corporations to manage and control their business travel expenditures, providing cost savings and greater employee productivity. E-Travel, Inc. was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 1999. Prior to E-Travel, Geoff worked for a dozen years in the networking and telecommunications industries for companies such as Banyan Systems, Data General, and Technology Concepts. Geoff is also co-owner and Managing Director of Cambridge Innovation Center.
Geoff holds a B.A. from Williams College
Beth Marcus
CTO & SVP - Zeemote, Inc. Beth Marcus has served as founder, investor and advisor for nine startups. Most notable to date is her founding of Exos, Inc., which was VC backed and sold to Microsoft in 1996. Beth has also worked as a consultant providing patent strategy, litigation support and other strategic technology advice. Being an expert on the interface between the human hand and hand-held devices, she has provided support in patent litigation for several key players in the industry. In 2005, Beth founded Zeemote when she recognized the inherent problems in using a cell phone keypad to play games.
Beth holds a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the Imperial College London where she was a Marshall Scholar. She holds more than a dozen patents, has authored numerous publications and is a well-regarded public speaker. Beth has served on the faculty of MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and has been a member of the Executive Committee of the MIT Enterprise Forum and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee in Mechanical Engineering. She is a member of the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Sean Marsh
Co-Founder & General Partner - Point Judith Capital. Sean focuses on Internet investments including the Firm's investments in Sittercity.com, Spotlight Ticket Management, Ignighter.com, Multiply.com (acquired by Naspers JSE: NPN), Optasite (acquired by SBA Communications NASDAQ: SBAC) and Vaultus Mobile Technologies which merged with Antenna Software. Prior to joining Point Judith as a General Partner, Sean worked with Point Judith on behalf of Village Ventures beginning in June of 2001 and in that role spent the majority of his time working on Fund I investments. Sean has also been a board member or observer to Newforma, Inc., Handmark, Inc., Tower Ventures which was acquired by American Tower (NYSE: AMT), Adover.net (NASDAQ: ANDN, sold to VA Software, NASDAQ: LNUX), and Medical Metrx Solutions, Inc. which was acquired by AIG. He has been actively involved as a venture investor in 18 companies that have achieved over $1 billion of value through multiple M&A; and IPO events.
Sean joined Village Ventures from TSG Equity Partners, LLC, a Massachusetts private equity firm formed by a Special Partner of the Thomas H. Lee Company. He was one of three partners and focused on investing in Internet and mobile companies.
Prior to TSG Equity Partners, Sean worked in the Investment Banking Group of Prudential Securities Incorporated, where he was involved with the structuring, analysis, due diligence and closing of over $1.4 billion in mergers, public and private equity and debt offerings.
Sean is a member of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees Technology Advisory Committee which provides the Chief Information Officer input on technology strategy and procurement. Additionally, Sean has been a judge and a mentor for multiple early stage venture accelerator programs including Chicago based Excelerator and Boston based MassChallenge. He is also involved with entrepreneurial and venture capital activities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology including his role as a judge in the school's annual Venture Capital Investment Competition. Sean holds a BA in Economics from Bowdoin College.
Ian Mashiter
Entrepreneur-in-Residence - Boston University; Partner - Hub Angels. Ian Mashiter is an executive-in-residence and a lecturer at Boston University where he teaches entrepreneurship, strategy and business management. He also works within the university to support the entrepreneurial activities of students.
Mr Mashiter is an entrepreneurial executive with more than 28 years of high technology experience. Mr. Mashiter has raised $100 million in venture funding since 1996. Over his career, Ian has served as a board member, chief executive officer and Co-Founder of such innovative telecommunications companies as Dymec, Quarry Technologies, and Ennovate Networks.
Currently, Mr. Mashiter serves as executive chairman of Biomimetic Systems, where he provides assistance to the management team in the areas of strategic partners and company financing. Mr. Mashiter is also a partner with Hub Angel Investment Group, LLC where he evaluates business plans for potential investment and provides advice to portfolio companies. As part of this investment activity he is on the Board of Nimbit and a board observer at Altruik.
Rob May
Founder & CEO - Backupify. Rob started his career as a digital design engineer at Harris Corporation, where he worked on graphics processing chips for the Comanche helicopter. After Harris, Rob taught in the business school at the University of Louisville, then moved on to a business development position for a wireless software startup. Rob ran the popular business blog Businesspundit.com for 5 years, before selling it in early 2008. Rob has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a M.B.A., both from the University of Kentucky.
James McArthur
Chief Scientific Officer - Synovex Corp. James McArthur is Chief Scientific Officer at Synovex Corporation, a virtual company developing a therapeutic antibody to arrest synoviocyte-mediated pathology in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Synovex licensed its technology from Harvard University and is on track its lead drug from antibody identification to phase 1 clinical trials in under 4 years. Prior to Synovex, Dr. McArthur was the Vice President of Preclinical R&D; of Phylogix Inc., Senior Director of Preclinical Research of Cell Genesys Inc., and a Senior Scientist at Somatix Therapy. Dr McArthur received his PhD in Molecular Oncology from McGill University in Montreal and studied cellular immunology as a post-doctoral fellow at MIT and UC Berkeley. Dr. McArthur has consulted for multiple venture capital funded companies in the San Francisco and Boston areas and has raised $28M in venture capital. He is an inventor on over 15 patents and patent applications, and an author on 25 publications.
John McCarthy
President & CEO - Qteros. Mr. McCarthy joined Qteros in January 2010 as President and CEO after overseeing the growth of numerous leading life science and bio-based chemical companies from early-stage organizations into high-value commercial entities.
Mr. McCarthy's experience includes managing four public companies (three of which were IPOs), raising over $1B of capital in the private and public markets, and developing and executing numerous complex and large-scale corporate partnerships, several of which remain precedent-setting transactions within their industries.
Prior to joining Qteros, Mr. McCarthy served as chief business officer for Microbia, Inc., a leader in the development of unique, bio-based specialty chemicals for large-scale and high-value industrial applications. He was executive vice president at Verenium Corporation, one of the pioneering leaders in the development and commercialization of cellulosic ethanol and specialty enzymes. He served as the chief architect of Verenium's growth from a small privately held business into a publicly traded leader in the industry through the successful merger of Celunol and Diversa and the subsequent creation and execution of the industry's precedent-setting strategic partnership with BP plc.
Mr. McCarthy graduated with high honors from Lehigh University and received his MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Bill McCullen
Director - LaunchCapital LLC, Boston. Bill has several years experience as a private investor in companies in the networking, semiconductor, alternative energy, Internet and consumer oriented markets. Prior to LaunchCapital Bill was a sell side equity analyst for Susquehanna Financial Group in Boston covering telecommunications and networking stocks. Prior to Susquehanna, Bill worked in senior product marketing and business development roles at local start-ups WindSpeed Access Systems, Teraphase and Sycamore Networks where Bill was the first product manager and helped the company grow its transport product revenue from 0 to over $100M/quarter in less than two years. Bill began his career at Lucent Technologies where he held a variety of technical and marketing positions.
Bill received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. Bill is a lifelong Bostonian who currently lives in the suburbs with his wife and 3 children. When he has time he enjoys playing basketball and cycling.
Pete McDonald
Relationship Manager - Emerging Technologies Practice, SVB Silicon Valley Bank. Pete leads SVB's efforts in New England, providing banking services to hundreds of early-stage technology and life science start-ups. A majority of his portfolio consists of companies working towards raising their first round of equity. As part of his role, he acts as a resource for these companies as they begin the fund raising process, including business idea feedback, plan/slide deck review, and insight into the current investment climate. Pete has been with SVB for over 13 years beginning as an analyst in the Bank's Boston office and relocating to Virginia as part of the founding team in the Mid-Atlantic region. Pete moved back to Boston in 2000.
Sarah McIlroy
Founder & CEO - Fashion Playtes. Sarah McIlroy is an experienced, innovative marketing executive with fifteen years experience in product management and the interactive world of gaming. She is the founder and CEO of FashionPlaytes, Inc.
FashionPlaytes.com is the leading clothing design studio for girls ages 5-12 where girls are fashion designers and can create a clothing line they can actually wear. Prior to Fashion Playtes, Sarah worked for Midway Amusement Games and Atari for 9 years where she focused on strategic relationships, marcom and business development. Prior to gaming, she focused on product design and development for several companies, including Brookstone and Cyrk. Sarah holds a BA from Duke University and studied at the Sorbonne.
Lucy McQuilken
Director - Intel Capital. Lucy McQuilken manages Intel's investments in CircleLending, Black Duck Software, Virtual Iron, Skyhook Wireless, Jam Technologies, and the Microoptical Corporation. She joined Intel Capital in 2004 working in the Boston office, and is responsible for early stage venture investments with a focus on the Consumer Internet. Prior to joining Intel, Ms. McQuilken was co-founder and CEO of Groove Mobile (formerly Chaoticom). Prior to co-founding Groove Mobile, Lucy worked for nine years at Agilent Technologies/Hewlett Packard Company where she was a key account manager for communications test products selling to Cisco, Nortel, Lucent, and Tellabs. She also served as product manager for medical printer products, and operations manager and engineering manager for the ultrasound transducer medical device product line. Lucy is a graduate of Duke University and Clark University.
Hardi Meybaum
CEO - GrabCAD. Hardi's background is in manufacturing as an engineer, business and sales consultant, CIO and ERP Team Manager with a strong combination of understanding IT, sales, marketing and finance. Hardi holds a MSc in production development from Tallinn University of Technology. When not plotting how to bring engineers around the world together Hardi spends time with his daughter and teaches his Dachshund Fix some soccer.
Christopher Mirabile
Managing Director - Race Point Capital Group. Christopher Mirabile is the Managing Director of Race Point Capital Group LLC, a venture investment group focused on seed and early-stage investments in the high technology and green technology areas. He is also the lead investor of Race Point Capital Fund I LLC, which is a separate but affiliated early stage investment fund. In addition to his work with Race Point Capital, Christopher is an active member of the Boston-area angel investing community. Christopher is the former CFO and General Counsel of IONA Technologies PLC, a Nasdaq-listed provider of mission critical enterprise infrastructure software to Global 1000 companies. Christopher was instrumental in the acquisition of IONA by Progress Software in 2008. Before joining IONA, Christopher was a member of the corporate department of Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP, where he represented venture capital and private equity funds on investments and fund formation, as well as privately- and publicly-owned companies in fund-raisings, corporate and securities law, public and private securities offerings, investments and mergers and acquisitions. While at Testa, Hurwitz, Christopher represented IONA in its initial public offering. Prior to obtaining his law degree, he was a management consultant with Price Waterhouse's Strategic Consulting Group. Christopher earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A., with honors, from Colgate University.
Ryan Moore
General Partner - Grand Banks Capital Ryan co-founded GrandBanks Capital in 2000 with Charley Lax. Ryan currently serves on the Board of Directors uLocate Communications, GlassHouse Technologies, First Coverage, Vela Systems, Vivox, Inc and SendMe Mobile. Ryan managed and served on the board of GrandBanks' investment Enpocket which was sold to Nokia Corporation in October 2007. Ryan also served as the lead investor in the Series A funding of First Coverage, uLocate Communications, Vela Systems, and Vivox
Prior to co-founding GrandBanks Capital, Ryan had worked with Charley Lax since 1999 at SOFTBANK Venture Capital (Mobius Venture Capital), and SOFTBANK Capital Partners, a strategic late-stage investment fund. Previously, he was a Senior Associate focusing on Technology Investment Banking with Robertson Stephens in San Francisco, California. During his tenure at Robertson Stephens, Ryan worked with a number of technology companies on strategic and financial transactions including E*Trade Group, eBay, Internet Security Systems and WebMD.
Ryan earned his AB in Economics from Princeton University in 1996.
Laura Morse
Human Capital Partner - Atlas Venture. Laura Barker Morse works closely with portfolio companies on strategic human capital issues including recruitment, development, and reward systems and acts as a firm liaison with consultants and preferred providers of recruitment, compensation, and human resources.
Prior to joining Atlas Venture, Laura worked in Brussels for SWIFT, the global financial telecommunications consortium, where she reported to the CEO during a strategic reorganization and led worldwide recruiting and expatriate services. Before that, Laura spent twenty years in technology executive search with Russell Reynolds and Heidrick & Struggles. She joined Russell Reynolds in 1977 in Chicago and helped open the Boston office in 1981. As Managing Director and global Practice Leader of the Venture Capital practice, she worked with venture firms and their portfolio companies. In 1991, she joined Heidrick & Struggles as a Partner in their Technology practice, relocating to their Brussels office in 1992.
Laura is a graduate of the University of Iowa where she was elected to Mortar Board. She is a frequent speaker on team building and career planning at leading business schools including Solvay (Belgium), Harvard Business School and MIT/Sloan. Laura served for ten years as a Trustee of The Computer Museum, is a member of the Lank Center Visiting Committee at Dana Farber, and is an Overseer of the Boston Museum of Science.
Larry Nannis
CPA & Partner - Katz, Nannis & Solomon, P.C. Lawrence S. Nannis, C.P.A., received a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from Boston University School of Management and a Master's Degree in Taxation from Bentley College.
Larry's sub-specialty in his technology practice is understanding the financial management issues surrounding government R&D; contracts - primarily the SBIR program. He is an active member in the AICPA, MSCPA and Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE), the premier trade association for New England Companies. He has served as a member of the Innovative Committee of SBANE, which was the driving force behind the passage of the Small Business Innovation Development Act. He was an elected delegate from Massachusetts to the 1995 White House Conference for Small and Emerging Business.
Larry is currently the Chairman of SBANE and has served as the chairman of the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and was a member of the National SBDC Advisory Council. He has been a speaker at national conferences on Accounting for Federal Awards, and has been a panelist on the MIT Enterprise Forum. He was named national Small Business Accountant Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Administration.
Matt Nichols
Senior Associate - Highland Capital. At Highland Capital, Matt focuses on information technology investments specializing in digital media and online marketing. Prior to joining Highland, Matt was a member of Google's corporate development team, where he was responsible for digital media acquisitions and investments. Matt spent two years at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, where he identified and managed investments in the technology sector. He also engaged in strategic initiatives for portfolio companies, including fundraising and mergers/acquisitions. Prior to Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, Matt worked for three years in Morgan Stanley's Technology Corporate Finance group, where he was part of the Google IPO team and advised clients such as Dell and Intuit.
Matt also consulted for the Harry Fox Agency (the rights enforcement arm of the National Music Publishers Association) on the impact of digital delivery and Internet advertising on the music industry. Education: Pomona College, B.A., Mathematical Economics, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, M.B.A. with High Distinction.
John Niemoller
President and CEO - Perillon Software Inc. John is President & CEO of Perillon Software, a leading enterprise software vendor in the emerging Operations Risk and Compliance Management market.
Mr. Niemoller has a 20-year entrepreneurial track record in the manufacturing and enterprise software industries, including senior management roles at Kronos, SupplyWorks and Textron. Mr. Niemoller joined Perillon in 2002 and transformed the company from a niche IT services firm into an enterprise software product company driving the market. In 2005, he led a management buy-out of Perillon from its parent, securing outside capital and positioning the company for rapid growth. Mr. Niemoller has an MBA from Babson College and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University.
Vinit Nijhawan
Managing Director, Technology Development Office at Boston University. Vinit Nijhawan has over 25 years experience building five startups: as CEO of three, four were acquired, and the fifth has grown to over 300 people. Recently, Vinit was Venture Partner at Key Venture Partners and over two years sourced over 200 deals and made one investment which was acquired for $430M. Vinit is an advisor and board member to several technology startups and was a Mass High Tech All-Star in 2005. Vinit has participated in over 120 panel discussions and paper presentations, and is a Board of Trustee of TiE Global, a non-profit that fosters entrepreneurship globally. Vinit is Managing Director, Office of Technology Development, and Director of Enterprise Programs at ITEC (Institute of Technology, Entrepreneurship & Commercialization) at Boston University. Vinit also teaches an MBA course on Entrepreneurship at BU. Vinit earned a B.A.Sc in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Stuart Nixdorff
President & COO - Newton Peripherals. Stuart is President and COO of Newton Peripherals, a portfolio company of Manifold Products. Stuart is a well-seasoned professional with 20 years of sales, marketing and business development experience in start-up companies. Throughout his career, Stuart has founded or co-founded three companies, generated over $100M in "first generation" revenue and secured over $15M in non-dilutive strategic partner funding with companies including Tyco, Emerson, Hewlett Packard and IBM that contributed to the IPO of Coherent Communications and acquisition of SMaL Camera by Cypress Semiconductor. Stuart comes to Newton from his role at Manifold Products, Boston's leading Venture Engineering firm. At Manifold, Stuart focuses on strategic partner development, new company formation and operational support of Manifold's portfolio companies. Prior to joining Manifold, Stuart was co-founder of RedShift Systems, a pioneer in enabling low-cost, high-performance thermal imaging solutions for mass-market applications utilizing novel MEMs imagers. Stuart was vice president of sales and marketing for SMaL Camera Technologies, where he was responsible for SMaL's worldwide OEM sales and marketing efforts in several target markets, including the consumer, wireless, security and surveillance, and automotive markets. Prior to SMaL, Stuart was vice president of worldwide sales for Sound Vision, where he was a pioneer in the emerging digital camera industry. He holds both a Masters degree in International Business and a Bachelors degree in Marketing from Shenandoah University. Stuart is an active angel investor investing as a seed round investor in 5 companies and a current member of LaunchPad Venture Group.
Liisa Nogelo
Associate General Counsel - Biogen Idec. Liisa I. Nogelo is an Associate General Counsel of Biogen Idec, a biotechnology company and global leader in the discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization of innovative therapies in therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs. In her current role at Biogen Idec, Liisa focuses on structuring and negotiating licensing, collaboration, acquisition and investment transactions, negotiating research and clinical trial agreements, and managing a broad range of related matters. Prior to joining Biogen Idec, Liisa was a Counsel at Bingham McCutchen and a member of the firm's Emerging Growth Companies, General Corporate, Life Sciences and Mergers & Acquisitions practice groups. Liisa received her J.D. degree from the UCLA School of Law in 1999 and her B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Wellesley College in 1992.
Tony Nuzzo
Chairman, President & CEO - First Commons Bank.
Mr. Nuzzo is the Primary Organizer, Chairman, President & CEO of a new Community Bank based in Newton Centre, Massachusetts named First Commons Bank. He began full-time work on his vision for this bank in December, 2007 and raised $3 million in seed money during 2008 by reaching out to potential investors one by one. Then, he and his initial investor group raised an additional $15 million in the first half of 2009 during one of the worst economic climates since the great depression. Remarkably, the 2009 capital raise was oversubscribed; and there were over 300 total shareholders. First Commons Bank opened for business on July 22, 2009; and it is already one of the nation's fastest growing new banks ever. Assets were over $42 million as of September 30, 2009 -- already larger than over 1,000 of the over 8,000 banks in the US after only 10 weeks of operating.
Prior to First Commons Bank, Mr. Nuzzo had served as the CEO of two established banks, Chemical Bank Delaware and Fidelity Trust Company in Utah. Mr. Nuzzo also served as the Chief Executive Officer responsible for the successful chartering of a de novo Internet Bank in Massachusetts that was organized as a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan Companies. Mr. Nuzzo was also Chairman at Fidelity Trust for a brief period and at Marsh for his entire tenure as CEO.
Mr. Nuzzo also has significant small business experience, both as a banker and as a small business owner. At both Citizens Bank and TD Banknorth, he ran Small Business Divisions with responsibility in broad geographies including Massachusetts. He was published in the "Boston Business Journal" with a by-line article, "Small Businesses: Plenty of spirit, but help is needed." He also started and ran two financial services consulting companies.
While working in Utah, Mr. Nuzzo was appointed to the Utah State Board of Financial Institutions by then Governor Michael Leavitt. He also served as a director for the Utah Banker's Association and the Utah Association of Financial Services.
Mr. Nuzzo left banking for about 10 months in 2000-2001 in an attempt to salvage Engage, Inc., a troubled global Internet media and software company which he left poised for profitability.
Mr. Nuzzo's early career was in marketing beginning at Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati.
He has a BA from Boston College where he graduated as a "Scholar of the College" and an MBA from Columbia University where he graduated with "The Business School Service Award."
Tom O'Donnell
Director, Business Development - TIAX, LLC (www.tiaxllc.com). TIAX is a Cambridge, MA - based technology processing company that transforms emerging innovations into technology platforms ready for interactive hand-off to established companies. TIAX's primary technology areas include energy & energy storage systems, advanced materials / nano-materials, green chemistry and building / appliance systems. In his role reporting to TIAX's President, Tom focuses on identifying and developing new business opportunities for TIAX, including technology commercialization partnerships with established companies, research partnerships with university labs and marketing partnerships with industry organizations.
Prior to TIAX, Tom spent 14 years at Cisco Systems, Inc. in sales, business development and consulting roles. Most recently, Tom was a Senior Business Development Manager within the Technology Center Group, an internal advanced technology and market opportunity incubator for Cisco. Technology Center reported into Cisco's Corporate Development Group and worked very closely with the established business unit, strategic alliance and M&A; teams to develop and drive emerging opportunities for Cisco.
In collaboration with Technology Center's advanced engineering team, Tom focused on identifying and developing new technology and market opportunities for Cisco. This included work on disruptive market strategies, enabling business models, essential technology or business partnerships (including investments), specific strategies to address regulatory hurdles and overall solutions for unique operational requirements. Technology areas of focus included pervasive / ad-hoc / mesh networking, sensor networking, wireless, grid computing, security, alternative access technologies, IP telephony and next-generation routing protocols.
Tom also led a broader Cisco initiative to engage more aggressively with and create linkages to the broader Boston area emerging technology community, including early-stage technology companies, VCs, research centers and academia. Tangible results of that initiative included Cisco's sponsorship of both the MIT Media Lab's Digital Life Consortium and MIT's Communication Futures Program (CFP).
Previously at Cisco, Tom held leadership roles in the technical sales organization on the Enterprise, Service Provider and Channel teams. Prior to Cisco, Tom was a senior network consultant for Bolt Beranek and Newman's (BBN's) Systems and Technologies Division in Cambridge, MA and a system engineer for GTE Government Systems in Needham, MA.
Tom holds a B.S.E.E. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, M.S. Computer Engineering from Boston University and M.S. Management from MIT's Sloan School of Management.
In addition, Tom is a member of the Research Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's (MTC) John Adams Innovation Institute, a mentor with MIT's Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) and an industry advisor on the Tech Users Committee of TechConnect, a global technology outreach and development organization.
Tim O'Loughlin
Managing Director - Sempre Management LLC. Tim O'Loughlin has been leading active structured financings to emerging growth companies since 1984. He is a Managing Director at Sempre Management LLC, a venture debt firm focused on the financing needs of bootstrapped and venture orphaned technology businesses.
For the five years prior to Sempre, he ran the New England Region for Vencore Capital, a hedge fund- backed startup. Vencore provides high yield, structured financings for under-appreciated private and public technology companies. At Vencore Capital, Tim was instrumental in changing the company's product strategy from a small early stage equipment lessor to a large and highly profitable structured debt provider.
Prior to Vencore, Tim held a variety of senior management positions at Silicon Valley Bank. During his eight year tenure at SVB, Tim was directly involved in over 150 financings for high technology companies. He has had over 30 initial public offerings and strategic sales in his portfolio. He has served as the Chief Credit Officer for the bank's communication practice and in that role approved and monitored loans totaling more than $1.5 Billion. Tim was the national product manager for the bank's early stage lending products and was responsible for product development, product rollouts, pricing and training across the U.S. Earlier in his time at SVB, he ran the software practice for the eastern U.S. division.
He has an extensive network of entrepreneurs, investors and professionals in the software, information technology services and communications equipment markets. He is a graduate of Boston College with a B.A. in Economics.
Neill Occhiogrosso
Principal - Highland Capital Partners, LLC. Neill Occhiogrosso is a Principal at Highland Capital Partners, LLC in the Information and Communication Technologies group. He is focused on disruptive business models in software and education. Neill is actively involved in Highland's investments in Desktone, InXpo,Ocarina Networks, Virtual Computer, VMTurboand XORP. Prior to joining Highland Capital Partners, Neill was a Business Development Manager at Sandbox Industries, a Chicago incubator, where he worked with the founders to develop innovative business concepts and bring new ventures to market. Previously, Neill held operating roles in a number of technology startups. Most recently he was at InnaPhase Corporation, where he led development of their Newton product line until the company's acquisition by Thermo Electron Corporation. Neill received his B.S. in Computer Science from Duke University and his M.B.A., Finance and Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Bernat Olle
Senior Associate - PureTech Ventures. Dr. Olle is a Senior Associate at PureTech Ventures. He is part of the founding teams of Follica, Inc and Vedanta Biosciences, and the acting VP of operations of Vedanta Biosciences. He completed his doctoral work at the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT, where he co-developed a novel method to increase oxygen transfer in bioreactors by using hydrocarbon-coated nanoparticles. During his graduate work, Dr. Olle was awarded the "la Caixa" fellowship by the King of Spain, and also consulted for established chemical and pharmaceutical companies, and life sciences start-ups. Dr. Olle received his B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain, his M.S. and PhD in Chemical Engineering Practice from MIT, and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Heather Onstott
Director, Small Business Division - LaunchCapital LLC. Heather brings with her 13 years of commercial banking experience, having worked as a market manager with legacy Wachovia Bank of Charlotte, NC, and a commercial loan officer with regional Palmetto Bank of Laurens, SC. Most recently, Heather was a consultant with Fidelity Investments, where she focused on designing and implementing strategic business plans and creating pricing strategies. She has been an elected officer to several nonprofit boards and continues to be an active volunteer with Comfort Zone Camp, a nationwide bereavement camp for children.
Heather holds a BA in Economics and French from Wofford College, and a MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. A New Hampshire native and avid Red Sox fan, she enjoys flying small planes and spending time outdoors. She and her fiance live in Cambridge with their Ubermutt, Hobson.
Cat Oyler
Sr. Director - Emerging Technologies, Office of Science and Technology, Johnson & Johnson. Cat Oyler is Sr. Director, Emerging Technologies in the Corporate Office of Science and Technology at Johnson & Johnson. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Cat is responsible for identifying and nurturing emerging health care related technologies in the New England area, assessing technical and business risk of the new technologies, and facilitating integration of these technologies into the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies and their product lines. In this role, Cat works with local area faculty, researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors to identify innovative product/business opportunities that will fill strategic gaps in Johnson & Johnson's current portfolio and will expand Johnson & Johnson's horizons into new "white space" therapeutic areas and businesses that are strategically aligned with the future health care environment.
Cat joins Johnson & Johnson from AstraZeneca where she was responsible for evaluating and in-licensing clinical and marketed oncology products.
Additionally, Cat led the business development effort for out-licensing of AstraZeneca's oncology assets and assisted with strategic planning for oncology business development. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Cat served in a progression of business development roles at Myriad Genetics, culminating in leading all diagnostic licensing for the Myriad Genetic Laboratories division of the company. In previous roles at Myriad, Cat worked on in- and out-licensing efforts for the pharmaceutical division, establishment of research collaborations and strategic assessment and divestment of a non-core business unit. With over ten years of BD experience and more than 15 years of biotech experience, Cat has also previously held marketing and research scientist roles at Amgen, Alza and Alkermes. Cat received a bachelor's degree in Biology from Williams College and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management
Steve Papa
Founder & CEO - Endeca Technologies. Mr. Papa founded Endeca Technologies in 1999 after recognizing that in this age of overwhelming information overload, the methods available for people to find what they are looking for or get answers are ineffective and inefficient. He has been recognized by his peers for his ability to keep pushing forward when all other business forces have stood in the way and for the momentum he has garnered for Endeca in a relatively short time period. Prior to Endeca, he worked for Inktomi where he was the business lead in charge of creating its infrastructure caching business, which grew to make up 60 percent of Inktomi's revenues. He was also part of the original business team at Akamai. In addition, Mr. Papa was a venture capital associate with Venrock Associates, the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family, and was responsible for managing AT&T;'s $500 million high-end enterprise computing system product line. He served as Chairman of Endeca Technologies, Inc. He serves as Member of Board of Advisors at Alvenda, Inc. He serves as Director of Endeca Technologies, Inc. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Operations Research and Economics from Princeton University.
Nick Pappas
Vice-President - Massachusetts Technology Development Corp. (MTDC). Nick Pappas has been working with early-stage technology companies for over 10 years, advising management teams and boards of directors on market expansion, capital raising and merger and acquisition strategies. Mr. Pappas joined MTDC in 2009 and is responsible for identifying investment opportunities and working closely with MTDC portfolio companies. Mr. Pappas currently manages MTDC's investments in Ntirety, Courion and Clarity.
Prior to joining MTDC, Mr. Pappas was a senior technology investment banker with Oppenheimer & Co., SVB Alliant, and Canaccord Adams (formerly Adams Harkness) both in Silicon Valley and Boston. Mr. Pappas holds an MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Richmond.
Andrew Paradise
Founder & CEO - AisleBuyer LLC. Andrew is currently the CEO and Founder of AisleBuyer LLC, a stealth-mode startup company focused on providing innovative solutions for retailers. He is currently on the advisory board for the Inventis Group, a technology transfer initiative for the US Air Force, and the IT Chair on the advisory board for Boston Entrepreneurs Network.
Andrew was most recently CEO of Photrade, a web 2.0 digital media and advertising company. While at Photrade, Andrew created patent-pending advertising technologies, forged business development with companies such as Apple, and led the eventual sale of Photrade to publicly traded, MPA, Inc. Prior to Photrade, Andrew worked for Fort Washington Capital Partners. While there, he completed numerous venture capital investments in technology and health care, and deployed more than $75M in capital. Prior to FWCP, Andrew worked for The Watermill Group, a Boston-based private equity firm. At Watermill, Andrew was involved in closing multiple investments totaling over $200M in transaction value. Andrew started his career in finance with the Georgetown Federal Credit Union, having also worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as well as the Digital Federal Credit Union.
Andrew received his Bachelors of Arts in English Literature, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his Bachelor of Commerce in Economics from University of Auckland in New Zealand
Andrew Parvey
VP, Wealth Management Advisors and Portfolio Manager - Merrill Lynch. Andrew graduated from Bentley University and began his career at Olde Discount Brokerage in 1996. He worked briefly at Gruntal and Company before his 12 year stay at Smith Barney. Currently Andrew is a Vice President, Wealth Management Advisor, and Portfolio Manager with Merrill Lynch in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Andrew is a CFP� certificant and was recently included on Boston Magazine's list of Five Star Wealth Managers. Along with his 6 person team, Andrew offers a true private banking and wealth management experience with access to one of the deepest platforms in the industry. Andrew lives in Westminster Massachusetts with his wife and two children. He has been an active participant in Habitat for Humanity, The Walk for Hunger, and The Greater Boston Food Bank.
Kathleen Phelps
Of Counsel - Bingham McCutchen LLP. Kathleen Phelps focuses on a wide variety of project finance and real estate matters. Since joining the firm in 1995, she has represented major institutional lenders and developers in a wide array of lending transactions, including project finance, commercial real estate, asset-based and bond financings, and has worked on the development and transfer of electric-generating facilities and other commercial real estate.
Representative transactions include: the development and financing of a 1000MW gas fired cogeneration plant to be located in Astoria, N.Y.; the project financing of power plants located in Alabama and Oklahoma and of a hydro-electric facility in Maine; the acquisition of waste-to-energy facilities in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina; the power contract termination, refinancing, repowering and disposition of a cogeneration project in Hartford, Connecticut; and the disposition of 50 percent interest in a gas-fired electric generation and LNG import facility in Puerto Rico. International transactions include the OPIC financing of a hydro-electric facility in Guatemala and financing of a gas-fired electric generation project in Fife, Scotland. Additionally, Kathleen has acted as counsel in the acquisition, disposition, financing and development of commercial real estate for major institutional investors. In the last several years, Kathleen has represented major institutional lenders in the development and permanent financing of wind, hydro, solar and biomass facilities across the U.S., including in Arizona, California, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.
Kathleen has been a member of the teaching faculty at the Morin Center for Banking Law Studies at Boston University Law School since 2000, where she teaches a course, "Introduction to Project Finance." She has also served on the board of directors of the Lawyers Clearinghouse since 2008.
Enrico Picozza
Venture Partner - HLM Venture Partners. Enrico Picozza is a pioneer in life sciences technology with a history of recognizing and developing new technologies that change markets. Prior to joining HLM, Enrico co-founded HTS Biosystems, Inc., an early developer of SPR detection systems, where he served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to HTS, Enrico held leadership positions with PerkinElmer, Inc. and Applied Biosystems, Inc. At Applied Biosystems, Enrico was one of the major forces behind the development and commercialization of PCR, the revolutionary DNA-replicating technology that enabled the development of some of the most significant advancements in molecular biology. He is the holder of nine patents and has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institute for his achievements in PCR. Enrico is the author of numerous scientific papers and is a frequent speaker on molecular biology. He earned his masters degree in molecular and cell biology from the University of Connecticut.
Linda Plano
Associate Director - Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC) Dr. Linda Plano is the Associate Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTTC), an organization dedicated to the commercialization of technologies developed in the state's nonprofit research institutions. The MTTC has a number of programs designed to support entrepreneurs, including technology showcases such as the Conference on Clean Energy (which is co-hosted with the Massachusetts Hydrogen Coalition and the Energy Special Interest Group (ESIG) of the MIT Enterprise Forum), Platform events in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a small, hand-picked audience of investors and industry professionals for strategic feedback, and semiannual awards programs to provide prototype development funds to inventors in Massachusetts' nonprofit research institutions.
Linda is committed to the development of the Clean Energy Cluster in Massachusetts and the region. To that end, she helped co-found the ESIG as well as serving as chair of the Ignite Clean Energy (ICE) Business Presentation Competition for two years, which has provided mentoring and networking opportunities to over 100 teams in its first three years as well as more than half a million dollars in cash and prizes to the winners.
Linda is a member of the Board of Directors of the New England Clean Energy Council, and of both the MIT Enterprise Forum and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge. In 2007, she received the Mover and Shaker Award from the Mass Technology Leadership Council.
Linda did her undergraduate work in Physics at MIT, and earned her PhD at Stanford University in Materials Science and Engineering.
Dave Power
President - Power Strategy.Dave Power has guided technology companies as an operating executive, board member and advisor for over 25 years. Prior to founding Power Strategy, Dave was CEO of Novera Software, a venture-backed start-up that he positioned as the pioneer in web application integration and later sold at an attractive valuation to Mercator Software. Prior to Novera, he was Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development at RSA Security (now a division of EMC) where he helped transition the company from security token vendor to enterprise security leader. At Sun Microsystems, Dave was Vice President and General Manager of SunSelect, a software business providing PC-Unix integration solutions.
As a Partner at Fidelity Ventures, Dave led investments in technology companies in the go-to-market stage of development including: Black Duck Software, EnterpriseDB, Kajeet, Ping Identity, Polyserve (acquired by HP), RedBrick Health, SpikeSource, Ventana and Vibes Media. He was also a board member of Ximian (acquired by Novell) and Curam Software. Prior to Fidelity Ventures, Dave was a Venture Partner at Charles River Ventures where he led the firm's business development efforts with CIOs and provided strategic advice to portfolio companies.
Earlier in his career, Dave was a Partner at Temple, Barker & Sloane (acquired by Mercer Management, now Oliver Wyman). There he co-founded the firm's technology industry practice, providing strategic advice to Apple Computer, Lotus Development and other technology leaders. Prior to his business career, Dave was an environmental engineer with Camp, Dresser & McKee.
Dave earned BSCE and MS degrees in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University, and an MBA from Stanford Business School where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He serves as a Trustee at the Perkins School for the Blind where he has helped the school extend its leadership to the internet.
Katie Rae
Managing Director - TechStars, Boston. Katie Rae is the Managing Director of TechStars in Boston, and is also a founder of Project 11, a firm that invests in and assists early-stage startups. Katie specializes in rapid product development and customer growth strategies for Internet businesses that scale.
She has spent her career building significant Internet businesses in the community, self-publishing and search spaces. Most recently she was the Head of Product for Microsoft Startup Labs, an early stage product development lab focused on collaboration, location-based services and social applications, where concepts were tested for consumer enthusiasm. Before that she was SVP of Product at Eons, a business focused on new products for 50+ community. Katie pioneered early freemium business models at Lycos for the Tripod and Angelfire communities. She learned the ropes of product and business development at AltaVista, RagingBull, Zip2 and Mirror Worlds.
She holds an MBA from Yale University and a BA in Biology from Oberlin College.
Rod Randall
Sr. Managing Director - Vesbridge Partners, LLC. Rod has spent over 24 years in the networking industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Prior to forming Vesbridge, Rod was a General Partner with SPVC since 2000, where he led the mobile investment practice.
Some of Rod's representative investments include Dynamicsoft (acquired by Cisco), Bitfone (acquired by Hewlett Packard), FusionOne and Visage Mobile.
Before becoming a venture capitalist, Rod had been Chief Marketing Officer at Lucent's Service Provider Group, which he joined in 1999 upon the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent for $24 billion. At the time of acquisition, Rod was the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing helping re-position Ascend. Prior to Ascend, Rod was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and General Manager at Stratus Computer and Vice President of Strategic Market Development at Madge Networks.
Prior to Madge Networks, Rod co-founded Teleos Communications in 1987. During the nearly 10 years Rod spent building Teleos, he held several roles including CTO, Vice President of Business Development, and Vice President of WAN Access Technology. Rod helped guide Teleos until its acquisition in 1996 by Madge Networks. Rod began his career in technology at AT&T; Bell Labs in 1981 as a Member of Technical Staff and later as MTS Supervisor. Rod holds several US Patents.
Rod is on the Board of Directors at Visage Mobile, Bytemobile and FusionOne, and is on the Board of Overseers at WGBH. He is holds a BSEE with Highest Honors from Georgia Tech and an MSEE & MSCS from University of California at Berkeley.
Tali Rapaport
Associate - Matrix Partner (Waltham office). Tali focuses on early-stage technology companies and is actively involved in Matrix's investment in Care.com. She is an Associate in the Waltham office.
Prior to joining Matrix, Tali worked at Goldman Sachs in the investment banking division. Across the technology, media and telecommunication industries, Tali worked with companies such as VistaPrint (VPRT) and Xerox (XRX), as well as the television and radio broadcasting sector. Prior to Goldman in 2003, Tali co-founded CrimsonXchange.com, an online localized marketplace for students.
Tali graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in Applied Math and an M.S. in Engineering - Environmental Systems, Resource Management & Planning.
Marc Recht
Partner - McDermott Will & Emery LLP (Boston office). Marc is a member of the Corporate Department of McDermott. Marc's practice includes both public and private transactional work, including public offerings of securities, mergers and acquisitions, private equity buyouts, venture capital financing, as well as strategic alliances and licensing transactions. He also counsels public companies with respect to SEC periodic disclosure, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, corporate governance and stock exchange rules. His clients are largely focused on the life sciences and biotechnology industries, but also include firms in the high technology and telecommunications sectors. Marc is a committee member of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies Young Lawyers Group and is recognized as an Emerging Leader in connection with his philanthropic and development efforts for Brandeis University.
Scott Requadt
Transactional Partner - Clarus Ventures. Prior to joining Clarus in 2005, Scott was Director, Business Development of TransForm Pharmaceuticals, Inc until it was acquired in 2005 by Johnson & Johnson. At TransForm, Scott had broad responsibility for business development, corporate development and legal activities, including managing the company's intellectual property group. Prior to TransForm, Scott was an attorney specializing in mergers & acquisitions at the NYC-based law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell where, among other things, he completed numerous public and private deals worth in excess of $1 billion, negotiated credit facilities of more than $10 billion and represented two companies during their initial public offerings. Before that, Scott was a law clerk for a senior judge at the Supreme Court of Canada. Scott holds a B.Com (Economics & Finance) from McGill University (First Class Honors), a J.D. from University of Toronto and most recently an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.
Mr. Requadt is a member of the Board of Directors for TyRx Pharma, Inc. and a Board observer for Biolex Therapeutics, Link Medicine, Oxford Immunotec and Variation Biotechnologies.
Martin Reynolds
Director of New Business Development - DePuy Spine (J&J;). Martin A. Reynolds, MBA, is Director of New Business Development at DePuy Spine, a Johnson & Johnson company. Martin is currently responsible for seeking and executing strategic licensing, acquisition, and investment opportunities for DePuy Spine. Martin has 20 years of orthopaedic medical device experience covering the areas of research and development, marketing, and business development.
Diane Ripstein
Principal - Diane Ripstein Consulting. With over 20 years experience in the media industry, from cold-calling retail clients as a rookie radio sales rep to overseeing national accounts as the National Advertising Manager at the Boston Herald, Diane's highly successful sales career is the foundation of her business presentation skills.
Add to that her background as a performing arts teacher, professional actress and dancer (ask her about dancing live on national TV!) and her theatrical flair is unmistakable.
Diane has a Theatre degree from McGill University and Emerson College, and a Masters degree in Education, Antioch University. She is a past officer of the Advertising Club of Greater Boston and a past officer and active professional member of the National Speakers Association.
For her expertise and skill, Diane been Honored with Women in Communications' Matrix Award, named one of Adweek's "Six New England Women to Watch", quoted in the Boston Globe, and published in "Chocolate for a Woman's Soul."
Bill Rodriguez
CEO - Daktari Diagnostics. Bill Rodriguez, M.D. is the CEO of Daktari Diagnostics. Bull has been a leader in global health for more than two decades. His expertise has made him a valued advisor to the World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and several African and Asian governments. From 2003-2007 he served as Chief Medical Officer of the Clinton Foundation, responsible for strategy and market development for global health products and clinical policies and programs. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale University School of Medicine.
Micah Rosenbloom
Chairman & CEO - Novophage. Micah is the CEO and Chairman of Novophage. Prior to Novophage, Micah co-founded Brontes Technologies, Inc. in 2003 and served as General Manager of the business after its acquisition by 3M Corp in 2006. Brontes' technology was a breakthrough, handheld 3D imaging system that replaced traditional paste-based impressions. Prior to Brontes, Micah co-founded SimplyDone Business Solutions/ Handshake.com, in which he raised over $20,000,000 in financing from venture and strategic investors. Micah received his B.S. degree from Cornell University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. Micah is also on the Board of Advisors for Cornell's Entrepreneurship Program (E@C), and is a Founder Partner to the Founder Collective, a Boston/NYC based seed stage venture fund.
Dina Routhier
Vice-President - Massachusetts Technology Development Corp. (MTDC) Dina Routhier has over 12 years experience of investing in and financing technology companies. She joined MTDC in 1999, and has been responsible for reviewing business plans, interviewing entrepreneurs, identifying marketable technologies, making early-stage equity investments and working closely with MTDC portfolio companies. Mrs. Routhier manages an existing portfolio of five companies - serving as a Director of three of those companies (geoVue, Spectra Analysis, and EdNets), and as an Observer/Advisor to the other two (OwnerIQ and Tomophase).
Prior to joining MTDC, from 1995 to 1999, Mrs. Routhier managed a $400 million portfolio of loan commitments at Fleet National Bank (now Bank of America). As a member of the Bank's High Technology Division, she prospected, structured and originated new debt facilities to start-up and established companies operating with the technology and biotechnology industries. She came to Fleet National Bank from JP Morgan & Co., Inc. in New York City. Mrs. Routhier earned her MBA from Boston University and her Bachelor of Science in Management from Boston College.
Harry Ruda
CEO - Desktone, Inc. Mr. Ruda is CEO of Desktone, Inc., an early stage provider of an end-to-end virtual desktop platform that enables desktop computing at large enterprise to be delivered, on demand, as a network-based service. Desktone is in the market entry stage and is expecting its first revenues in 2007 with significant growth in worldwide revenues in 2008.
Mr. Ruda's career spans over thirty years in the information and communications technology marketplace. Mr. Ruda co-founded Softricity as its CEO in June, 1999 when the company was still in the business planning stage and continued in that role until March, 2006, when he assumed the role of Chairman. In April, Softricity agreed to be acquired by Microsoft and the transaction completed in July. This was considered one of the most strategic acquisitions Microsoft has ever made and it was one of the largest software transactions in New England, valued at greater than 17x previous year's revenue. Since Softricity's inception, Mr. Ruda had raised over $60 million from top-tier venture funds all of whom realized significant returns on their investments.
Prior to Softricity, Mr. Ruda was President and CEO of ITS, a manufacturer of video access equipment for IP and ATM networks. ITS was acquired by Artel Video in March, 1999, just prior to the closing of its first round of funding. Mr. Ruda also co-founded and was VP Sales and Marketing for a VC-backed start-up, Network Switching Systems, a manufacturer of integrated voice and data switching equipment which was later acquired by BBN Communications. Post-acquisition, Mr. Ruda served as BBN's VP for Integrated Network Sales, responsible for worldwide deployment of integrated T1 networks to enterprise accounts. Mr. Ruda also founded and operated a global telecomm consulting business, Global Technologies, whose clients were composed of many of the world's leading telecomm service providers; including, Bellcore, NYNEX, France Telecom, PacBell and GTE Services.
Mr. Ruda has also held the following positions: VP Field Operations for Bell Atlantic (a NE public communications carrier), VP Sales and Marketing for Bridgeway Corporation (a network management software company based in Redmond, WA) and President and CEO of Glyph Systems (an Andover-based software company specializing in international software and typefaces).
Mr. Ruda serves on several private company boards as an Independent Director and also sits on several Advisory Boards for early stage companies.
Mr. Ruda holds an MBA from Boston College, and MS in Operations Research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and a BS in Management Science from RPI.
David Safaii
Sr. Associate - Windspeed Ventures. David Safaii joined Windspeed Ventures in January 2004. He came to Windspeed from the Technology Investment Banking Group at CIBC World Markets where he focused on enterprise software. Since March of 2000, David has completed numerous public and private equity financings, mergers and acquisitions and general financial advisory engagements. Prior to his career in investment banking, David spent two years in the Equity and Fixed Income Sales Department of Oppenheimer. His clients included numerous banks, mutual funds, and insurance companies. David holds a BA in computer information processing from Boston College. He is presently the Co-Chairman of the New England Venture Network (NEVN).
Bard Salmon
Chairman of the Board - Perillon Software Inc. He is Chairman & CFO of Perillon Software Inc., an enterprise software company delivering Operational Compliance Management solutions to manufacturing enterprises; and Chairman & CEO of Lexent Technologies Inc., a wireless security company. Bard is also President & CEO of Beaver Worldwide LLC of Groton, MA, a firm providing services including Mentoring Entrepreneurs; Advising Investors; and Merger, Acquisition and Valuations for Businesses.
Bard is a serial entrepreneur, mentor and investor in early stage, fast growth information technology companies. He has founded six companies and has patents in the fields of multimedia matching of goods and services and in wireless security. He holds a BSCE from MIT and an MBA from Northwestern University.
Phil Sanderson
Managing Director - IDG Ventures SF. Phil joined IDG Ventures SF as a Managing Director in September 2006. He was previously a General Partner at WaldenVC for 10 years. Phil focused on early stage investments in new media and IT at WaldenVC. Phil currently sits on the Boards of TuneUp Media, Vivox, Telltale Games, Simply Hired and i2we and was responsible for investments in VitalStream (VSTH), Bamboo.com (IPIX), NIKU (NIKU), Sina.com (SINA), Adknowledge, and People3 (IT).
Prior to WaldenVC, he worked as an investment banker in Robertson Stephens' New Media and Information Technology Groups. At Robertson Stephens, Phil managed initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions assignments for CBT Systems, Computer Learning Centers, Electronic Arts, Fritz Integrated Logistics, Spectrum HoloByte, Sierra On-line, and Vantive, among others. Prior to Robertson Stephens, he worked in Goldman Sachs' corporate finance group. Phil has also founded and operated three companies in the retail, non-profit, and manufacturing industries.
He is also Co-Chairman/Founder of the VCNetwork (www.vcnetwork.org) and the YVCA (www.YVCA.com); two non-profit organizations consisting of over 1,000 venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Each year Phil manages social networking events which include the participation of 50% of the Valley's General Partners. In addition, Phil serves on the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC, www.wavc.net).
Phil received his Master of Business Administration with Honors from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Hamilton College.
Angelo Santinelli
Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship - Babson College. Mr. Santinelli is an experienced leader and innovator in creating
business strategy, marketing and delivering results. His more than 20 years of business experience covers a broad range of disciplines and
responsibilities: including business development, strategic planning, M&A;, IPO, private equity financing, customer service, all aspects of
marketing and international operations. Mr. Santinelli has served on numerous boards of directors participating in both audit and
compensation committees. He has served as an executive and officer of a public company. Mr. Santinelli is the founder of Dakin Management, a
strategy consultancy focusing on small to medium size businesses. He was previously a partner with North Bridge Venture Partners, where he
began his investing career in 1998. North Bridge is a leading seed and early stage venture capital firm headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. His investment interests ranged from communications, wireless, software and Internet infrastructure. Prior to joining North Bridge, he was a senior executive of the Shiva Corporation, a leading provider of Remote Access Networking products. Mr. Santinelli served as Senior Vice President Worldwide Marketing and Business Development. He joined Shiva when it was private and was part of the management team that led it through a successful IPO, several acquisitions and rapid growth phase. At Shiva he was responsible for building and managing the
product management, product marketing, marketing communications, knowledge management, business development and Web groups. He served on
the company's executive committee and ran North American sales for a period of time. Prior to Shiva he was with the Boston Consulting Group
where he participated in the high-tech practice group, focusing on both business strategy and business process re-engineering for Fortune 500
companies. Mr. Santinelli also spent several successful years in sales with International Business Machines, selling both large and small
systems and software to financial institutions. He has been a Senior Lecturer at MIT, Sloan School of Management, where he taught
Entrepreneurship. He received a BS from Fordham University in 1984, and an MBA from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration in 1989.
Ben Saren
CEO - CitySquares.com. An entrepreneur and high-tech veteran with more than a dozen years of industry leading experience, Ben's credentials include entrepreneurship, management, business development, consulting, and engineering. He has performed in such roles at start-ups such as Delphi Forums, Prospero Technologies as well as at multinationals such as Bell Atlantic, Digital Equipment Corporation, GE Capital, RSA, and Parametric Technologies Corporation. Ben is currently founder and Chief Executive Officer at CitySquares.com, a local search company.
Steve Schoenberger
Account Executive - Mason & Mason Insurance Agency. Steve is a member of the firm's technology practice. He works with a wide range of technology, Internet and professional services businesses. Steve's specialties include professional, intellectual property, and management liability insurance products. He also leads the firms cyber risk practice, focusing on the security and privacy risks of networked computers and the Internet. Prior to joining Mason & Mason, Steve was the Regional Underwriting Manager for AIG's Technology and Professional Liability Group in Boston. He is also experienced in worker compensation insurance, having managed this line of business for AIG in Boston and ManagedComp nationally. He started his insurance career with The Hartford Insurance Group, underwriting commercial general liability, property, automobile and excess liability insurance. Steve received his BA from Hobart College and his MBA from Boston College with a concentration in Finance. He also holds an Associate in Reinsurance from the AICPCU/IIA.
Sheryl Schultz
Managing Director - Golden Seeds. Sheryl Schultz is an expert in the launch of startup companies, with nearly 30 years of experience in helping them define and communicate their key messages to the market. She has a keen understanding of the marketing dynamics and organizational challenges faced by early stage companies, and has designed and managed the launch of some of the most successful companies in the networking industry, including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications. During her career, Sheryl has helped create companies and markets, providing sound and innovative communication frameworks that have shaped how networking companies develop and deliver their messages. She is accustomed to working closely with senior-level entrepreneurs and board members, and she drives clients to articulate company, product and technology value propositions at each stage of their organizational evolution. Sheryl sits on the board of Crimson Hexagon, Inc., and is a board advisor to Connect2 Communications. She holds a degree in English and Communications from the University at Albany.
Jay Schwartz
Member - Boston Harbor Angels. Dr. Schwartz received his Ph.D in Biochem and Molecular Bio from New York Medical College. He was a Post-doctoral fellow at the M.I.T. Dept. of Biology / Harvard Medical School working on many aspects of cardiovascular molecular medicine, bioassay development, gene therapy. Subsequently as a Research Scientist Faculty at the M.I.T. Center for Biomedical Engineering where his laboratory worked in the field of protein and peptide engineering and non-viral gene therapy. In his latest startup, he was co-founder and Principal Scientist of engeneOS, Inc. a bio-nanotechnology company where he co-designed the scientific and business vision of the company which led to $7MM in funding. Dr. Schwartz is a member of the M.I.T. Venture Mentoring Service. He is also an active member of Keiretsu Forum, an angel investment group, where he is a private investor and serves as the Boston chapter co-chair on due diligence committees dealing with biomedical, therapeutics and medical device investment opportunities. Dr. Schwartz is scientific advisor and business consultant to a drug delivery, two diagnostics companies and a laparoscopic medical device company. Dr. Schwartz is a named inventor on four patents.
Arnie Scott
Member - Hub Angels. . Arnie currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Asset Link International (ALI), a strategic consulting firm he co-founded in 2003. He was General Counsel for MFS Investment Management and created the International Division of MFS and led its international expansion efforts for the next decade. Arnie also has been active in the local "Angel Investing" community as a member of Hub Angels and as an Adviser to start-up companies Webster Capital and Vestmark. The last 15 years, he was a member of the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the Investment Company Institute of the US mutual fund industry. He has also been a lecturer at Boston University Law School's Morin School of Banking and Finance.
Rob Seaver
Founder & CEO - Vivox. Rob Seaver brings extensive experience in communications and online services to Vivox. Before joining industry pioneer Jeff Pulver in launching Vivox, Seaver was head of strategy, chief financial officer, and a member of the management board of Einsteinet AG, where he helped build the company from start-up to Euro 65 million in revenue and 440 employees. As managing director of Madrid-based Jazzya Investments, he planned and executed the launch of new communication and media ventures. Prior to that, he held positions in investment banking at Goldman Sachs International and as an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell in London.
Seaver holds a JD from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB degree from Harvard College.
Rudina Seseri
Principal - Fairhaven Capital. Rudina is a Principal at Fairhaven Capital. Previously, she was a Senior Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corporation. In this position, Rudina was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and negotiating Microsoft's acquisitions and strategic investments including acquisitions such as iView Multimedia, Deep Metrix, Lionhead Studios. Prior to Microsoft Corp., she worked as an investment banker in the Technology Group at Credit Suisse. Rudina executed transactions in mergers & acquisitions and capital markets.
She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics and International Relations, and received her MBA from The Harvard Business School.
She has been elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Albanian American Council.
Rudina is the co-chair of the New England Venture Association (NEVN), the largest young venture capital organization on the East Coast.
Alex Shah
Chairman of the Board - Get Solo. Ashesh (Alex) C. Shah serves as Get Solo's Chairman, bringing over fifteen years of industry expertise managing successful technology and Internet start-ups. His interest in loyalty programs derives from his experience with The Partnering Group, where he designed and product managed the Category Manager, a multi-million dollar data mining application that evolved into what we now know as loyalty programs. Prior to Get Solo, Mr. Shah served as co-founder and CTO of PLEJ, a next-generation payment technology company, and as Chairman and CEO of Wallaware, Inc. He holds a degree in Political Economy from Williams College (MA).
Chris Sheehan
Managing Director - CommonAngels. Chris is a managing director of CommonAngels, joining the group in 2005. Within CommonAngels, Chris manages deal flow, due diligence and the investment process. He also guides the group's strategic direction and works closely with portfolio companies. He is also a managing director of the group's two $10M venture funds.
Previously, Chris founded Newburyport Partners, a consulting firm that works with investors and their portfolio companies. Chris also served as a venture partner at Industry Ventures where he was actively involved in the acquisition and management of secondary venture investment portfolios.
Prior to starting Newburyport Partners, Chris was a Director of Corporate Development for BEA Systems, a leading enterprise software company with over $1B in sales. At BEA, he was a key member of the corporate team responsible for all venture capital investing and M&A; activity. He was also part of the executive team for one of the company's product divisions. Prior to BEA, Chris led the private equity practice for the Cambridge based research firm, Stax Inc. Chris also spent six years with the top ranked investment bank in Australia. He started his career as an equity analyst focusing on the oil and gas sector.
Chris is currently either a board member or observer at Carbonite, Polnox, Outside the Classroom, Most Effective Media, Xconomy and GateRocket. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Queensland, Australia.
Kathy Sherbrooke
Founder and CEO - Circles. Responsible for translating the Circles vision into strategic business objectives and financial results, Kathy Sherbrooke has propelled Circles to a leadership position in the customer and employee loyalty space among Fortune 1000 companies.
Kathy is wowed by the change Circles is able to make in peoples' lives. For example, by fulfilling a customer's request to help achieve her sister's life-long dream of riding an elephant while in remission from breast cancer, we were able to create a profound impact in her family's life. Kathy is also moved by "putting together groups of people who love working together, have real friendships, and are passionate about what they do."
Previously, Kathy was Product Marketing Manager for INC. Magazine's business products division. In this role, she had direct responsibility for helping small businesses run effectively and caught the entrepreneurial bug.
A graduate of Stanford Business School, Kathy co-founded Circles in 1997 to address the needs of time-starved professionals and corporations that rely on these professionals as high-value customers or employees. Two things she didn't learn in school: the "power and importance of good decision making" and the "complexity in managing an organization full of people."
Kathy believes Circles' mission is to make peoples' lives richer. "We are making a difference in the lives of the people who work here, the members who call in each day and our clients and partners."
Kathy was a finalist for the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was recognized as one of Boston Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40. Circles received the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award for 2003.
Brian Shin
Founder & CEO - Visible Measures. Brian Shin is the founder and CEO of Visible Measures. Brian has co-founded several successful Internet software companies, including web-based collaboration technology vendor Creative Aspects, which was acquired by Medsite Inc. (now WebMD); and The Cambridge Intelligence Agency, a Web-based e-mail response management solution provider that was acquired by marketing services company MSGi. Brian also co-founded technology strategy consulting firm Infraweb, Inc., where he served as President, and was an early member of the team at Allaire Corp. which went public in 1999 and was subsequently acquired by Macromedia.
Brian enjoys trying new foods with his wife, occasionally updates Twitter and his blog, holds an undergraduate degree from Tufts University, and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management as part of the dual-degree Harvard-MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program.
Adrian Shulman
Partner - Bingham McCutchen. Adrian Shulman has a broad range of experience in private and public company merger and acquisition and joint venture transactions as well as equity and debt financing. She advises public and private technology, life sciences, and other clients in a wide range of matters, including licensing, manufacturing and development agreements; research and collaboration arrangements; intellectual property protection; corporate governance compliance; securities registration and reporting requirements; equity and executive compensation issues and general corporate advice. She represents private equity firms in complex structural finance transactions as well as early and late stage financings. In addition, she represents venture capital firms in connection with their investments in portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Bingham, Adrian was an associate at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary and Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault.
Adrian received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from the University of New Hampshire and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Boston College Law School.
Lauren Silverman
Managing Director - Novartis Option Fund. Dr. Lauren Silverman is a Managing Director of the Novartis Option Fund
in Cambridge, MA, USA.
Prior to joining the Option Fund she was Global Head of Oncology Research Operations for Novartis. Previously, Lauren spent much of her career in Licensing & Business Development, first at OSI Pharmaceuticals and later at Pfizer with responsibilities in the areas of CNS, ophthalmology and oncology. Lauren was also a Director of Strategic Alliances and Head of Cell Biology where she led multiple research teams after having been a founding scientist of Cadus Pharmaceuticals. Lauren was a postdoctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Princeton University and earned her PhD in molecular biology from the University of Utah. She is the author of multiple scientific publications and several issued patents and serves on the Business Advisory Board of the Epilepsy Research Foundation's Epilepsy Therapy Project and National Cancer Institute's SBIR review panel. Lauren currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Anchor Therapeutics, Proteostasis Therapeutics, Cequent Pharmaceuticals, Viamet Pharmaceuticals, and Pulmatrix Inc.
Simeon Simeonov
Founder & CEO - FastIgnite. Simeon (Sim) Simeonov is the founder and CEO of FastIgnite where he helps entrepreneurs shape promising ideas, raise capital, build teams and execute across all stages of the startup lifecycle. Sim is also co-founder of San Francisco-based Thing Labs (makers of Brizzly and Plinky) and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the MIT E-Center.
Prior to starting FastIgnite, Sim spent seven years as technology partner at Polaris Venture Partners where he made investments in the online, enterprise and mobile sectors and helped start four companies that Polaris invested in. Prior to joining Polaris, Sim was vice president of emerging technologies and chief architect at Macromedia (now Adobe). Earlier, Sim was a founding member and chief architect at Allaire, one of the first large Internet platform companies. Sim's expertise covers the gamut from startup creation and financing to strategy definition and positioning to R&D; execution to go-to-market and alliances development. He has played a key role in more than twenty v1.0s and M&A; and spinout transactions. Sim's innovation and leadership have brought about category-defining products with significant market impact: the first Web application server (ColdFusion), a precursor to Web services and AJAX (WDDX), the best open-source Web services engine (Apache Axis) and the first rich Internet application platform (Flash/Flex).
Sim's past investments include 8th Ring (a consumer mobile company he co-founded), Allurent, Archivas (a digital archiving company he helped create which was sold to Hitachi Data Systems), Meridio (sold to Autonomy) and Veracode (a SaaS application security spin-out from Symantec he helped create). He serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX), the largest technology non-profit in New England, and on the advisory boards of DubMeNow and the Nantucket Conference.
Sim has a master's degree in computer science from Boston University and bachelor degrees in computer science, economics and mathematics from Macalester College. His research interests have ranged from microcode simulation to soft artificial intelligence to shared multi-user virtual environments to economic modeling of Russian privatization. He was named one of Technology Review's young innovators.
George Simmons
Member - Launchpad Venture Group and Cherrystone Angel Group. George Simmons has over 20 years of executive experience in Finance and in Operations at both public and private companies growing 30% to 70% per year.
At Derby Management, George specializes in working with early stage and middle market manufacturing, distribution and service companies providing a variety of services including creating financial plans, managing fundraising campaigns, interim financial management, and interim operations and general management
George is an expert in creating and executing on product line profitability scenarios and lectures frequently on turnaround strategies. He has been an officer of numerous venture backed enterprises that were successfully acquired by larger firms.
George's broad background in finance, operations, organization, and Mergers and Acquisitions planning has allowed him to assist entrepreneurs and senior executives solve the most difficult business problems in a wide variety of industries.
Prior to joining Derby Management, George's experience included positions as CFO of Zoom Telephonics when they grew profitably from $12M to $65M in three years. George also served as the CFO of Digital Products during its growth years as it became a market leader in network printing. George has additionally managed a number of successful turnarounds as President of several private manufacturing companies in New England.
Deepak Sindwani
Principal - Bain Capital Ventures. Mr. Sindwani joined Bain Capital Ventures in 2009. Prior to joining Bain Capital Ventures, Mr. Sindwani was a senior investment professional with Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), the venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corp., where he led numerous early-stage and growth-stage investments in the media and communications sectors. Prior to CIC, Mr. Sindwani was a business development consultant to three telecom-related startups and was a product manager at Lucent Technologies, where he helped launch a new web switching product. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sindwani was a co-founder of an Internet software startup named ikimas, inc. and an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston Technology Group.
Mr. Sindwani received a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dan Smith
CEO - go2 Media. Smith joined the company when 80108 Media, where he started as a founding team member, merged with go2. Earlier, Smith was involved with a string of tech startups ranging from computer telephony to performance-based marketing. He helped build Comet Systems, a New York City-based consumer software company that was founded in 1997. The founders grew Comet from a three person startup to a $35MM acquisition by MIVA, Inc. Smith stayed on as GM of MIVA Direct and grew the consumer division from a run rate of $10MM to $40MM+ with over 100 percent growth in subscribers, site visits, annual revenue, and earnings. Smith holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Merrimack College. He is also a board member and volunteer of the American Red Cross.
Jeffrey Solomon
CPA & Partner - Levine, Katz, Nannis & Solomon, P.C. Jeffrey D. Solomon, C.P.A., C.V.A. received a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His public accounting career includes extensive experience from both "big four" and other large, regional firms.
Jeff is recognized as a leader in the emerging business industry and with start-up companies, and helps to head the technology/emerging growth practice for the Firm. He is on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants, is a former Chairman of the Accounting and Auditing Board and currently sits on the audit committee for the Society. He is a former Director of SBANE (the Smaller Business Association of New England), and has chaired several seminars for SBANE. He is also a Certified Valuation Analyst and heads the Valuation Department at LKNS. Jeff is a former Editorial Advisor to the Journal of Accountancy and has published numerous articles in both Mass High Tech and The Boston Business Journal.
His most recent joint venture is the Emerging Business Forum that is co-hosted by LKNS. The Forum provides monthly in-depth presentations and speakers discussing current hot topics and issues in the venture capital arena and the high-tech emerging growth industries.
Rob Spalding
Business Development Officer - PENSCO Trust Co. Rob Spalding is PENSCO's East Coast Business Development Officer. He gives frequent presentations on the topic of self-directed IRAs and how investors can increase their wealth-building potential with real estate, private equity and other investments in their retirement accounts. He works closely with financial professionals, attorneys and real estate professionals, teaching them how they can grow their business by incorporating the concept of Self-Directed IRAs into their marketing plans.
Eric Spitz
CFO - Narragansett Beer Company. Eric joined Narragansett in September 2008 as its CFO in order to focus on building the plan for the company to regain its spot as the regional beer of New England. Previously, he was President and Co-CEO of the UFood Restaurant Group, which operates 11 resaurants throughout the U.S. Prior to that, Eric was CEO of Trakus, which he founded while he was finishing his MBA. Trakus builds tracking systems for the real-time re-creation of live sporting events. Eric is one of four operating partners in JETS, which owns and operates franchised units of Planet Fitness branded gyms. He has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Carl Stjernfeldt
General Partner - Castile Ventures. Carl Stjernfeldt has an investment focus on wired and wireless communications technologies and services, on advanced mobility solutions that provide secure high quality access to content and applications, and on next generation video delivery capabilities.
Prior to joining Castile, Mr. Stjernfeldt was a partner at Battery Ventures where he spent seven years investing in leading IT companies. He currently serves or participates on the boards of Agito Networks, Funambol, and VisibleGains (formerly PermissionTV). He has served on the boards of Arbor Networks, Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola), Cedar Point Communications, and Tejas Networks, and was a board observer of Optium (NASDAQ: OPTM, acquired by Finisar).
Prior to Battery Ventures, Mr. Stjernfeldt was a client partner and project manager for Cambridge Technology Partners, delivering large mission-critical system implementations for Fortune 100 clients. Mr. Stjernfeldt started his career as an engineer at Summa Four, developing telecommunications solutions for domestic and international service providers, later rising to engineering management before starting an application development department.
Mr. Stjernfeldt holds a dual MS in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Northeastern University in Boston, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.
Mr. Stjernfeldt is active at MIT serving as a Catalyst for the Deshpande Center, judging MIT's 100K competition, and teaching an entrepreneurial finance class at the Sloan School. He is also a Charter Member with TiE and serves on the University of Michigan's Technology Transfer National Advisory Board. Mr. Stjernfeldt is the Treasurer of the New England Venture Capital Association and is a board member of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, where he also serves as co-chair of the Mobile Cluster.
Paul Sweeney
Partner - Foley Hoag LLP (Boston office). 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.
Adrienne Sweetser
VP, Human Capital - Catalyst Venture Partners. As Vice President, Human Capital at General Catalyst Partners, Adrienne Sweetser focuses on identifying world-class innovators and operators at the management team, VP and Director levels to help build and run General Catalyst's portfolio companies.
Before joining General Catalyst, Adrienne served as Recruiting Manager at Polaris Venture Partners where she recruited top executives for their information and life science portfolio companies. Prior to that, she was a recruiter at British Telecom Conferencing and a sales manager at the Bowdoin Group. Adrienne earned a B.S. from Ithaca College.
Hamid Tabatabaie
President & CEO - lifeIMAGE. In the last 25 years Hamid has led four successful healthcare information technology companies through multiple rounds of funding with positive return, most notably the pioneering web-based PACS company AMICAS, which was sold for $65M in 2006. He was the founder of System Concepts Associates, which helped more than 300 hospitals implement automated clinical and financial systems, and was also a senior leader at both HealthGate and Data General.
Jay Teich
Founder and CEO - Seahorse Bioscience. Jay incorporated Seahorse Bioscience (formerly Thermogenic Imaging) in 2000, completed the technology licensing and initial funding in 2001 and in 2004 completed the acquisition of Innovative Microplate which became Seahorse Labware. Prior to forming Seahorse Bioscience, over a seven year period, Mr. Teich led the growth, management buyout, and sale of Inframetrics Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of thermal imaging systems for industrial and law enforcement applications. In 1999, he negotiated the merger of Inframetrics with FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR) to form the world's largest supplier of commercial thermal imaging systems. During a twenty-five year career, Mr. Teich has led engineering and marketing teams in the development and commercialization of a diverse range of electro-optical, ultrasound, and biochemical instruments for Honeywell, Damon Corporation and Ciba Corning Diagnostics Inc.
Mark Terrell
President and CEO - SepSensor, Inc. Mark currently serves as President and CEO of SepSensor Inc, a wireless sensor and remote monitoring start-up targeting the Food Service Market, and has held C level executive positions at Sionex Corp., Image Engineering Group, and Inframetrics Inc. (now part of FLIR Systems). Mark is an experienced entrepreneur and senior executive of seed and early stage high tech firms. He has participated on numerous boards, and has over 30 years in general corporate management, business development, operations, and engineering management. He started and ran companies whose products included raster scanned cameras, displays, and laser vector projectors including electro-optic sensing and projection systems, working from the far infrared through the visual spectrum. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (5 year) and a Certificate of Advanced Engineering Study from Cornell University.
Frances Toneguzzo
Director of Research & Licensing - Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Frances is Executive Director of Research Ventures & Licensing at MGH. Her team oversees the management and licensing of intellectual property and serves as the entry point for all industrial relationships relating to research, support of research or technology transfer at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to coming to MGH, Frances served as Director of the Office for Technology and Industry Collaboration at Tufts University/New England Medical Center and as Associate Director, responsible for intellectual property relating to the life sciences at Harvard University. She comes from the biotech industry, having played various technical and business development roles at big pharma (E. I Dupont & Co) as well as mid-sized (E.G.&G.Biomolecular;) and startup companies (One Cell Systems). She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from McMaster University in Canada.
David Verrill
Founder & Managing Director - Hub Angels Investment Group, LLC. David's professional career began as a research scientist at the Center for Blood Research in Boston focusing on the MHC of genetically engineered mice. After receiving his master's degree from Sloan, he joined MIT's Office of Corporate Relations where he spent a decade connecting industry with research at MIT. David then became Manager of International Sales and Business Development at Xerox Adaptive Products which was sold in 1997. Since then he has helped found two businesses in technology consulting and third party marketing in the financial services industry. David Verrill is a co-founder of the Hub Angel Investment Group. He was educated at Bowdoin College (AB 1983) and the MIT Sloan School of Management (SM 1987). Born and raised in Maine, David now lives in Carlisle, MA with his wife and their two children. He is an adventure skier and frustrated golfer.
Lou Volpe
Managing General Partner - Kodiak Venture Partners. Lou Volpe has over 25 years of technology industry experience. As an operating executive, his career includes many successful IPOs and acquisitions such as the multi-billion dollar purchases of ArrowPoint Communications and GeoTel Communications by Cisco Systems. At Kodiak, one of his portfolio companies had a successful acquisition when IMLogic was acquired by Symantec in January 2006. In his key role as Kodiak's Managing General Partner, Lou sets the strategy and growth initiatives for the firm. He focuses on investments across the spectrum of the firm's technology sectors, concentrating on software and services. He is a member of the boards of directors for Kodiak portfolio companies including airwide solutions; Azimuth Systems; Bentley Kinetics; Egenera; GTESS; HighRoads; and SpaceClaim. Lou joined Kodiak from ArrowPoint Communications, where he was President, Chief Operating Officer, and a member of the board with responsibility for all of the company's functional organizations and for managing worldwide operations. Under his leadership, ArrowPoint had a successful IPO in March 2000, and subsequently was acquired by Cisco for $5.5B in June of that year. Before ArrowPoint, Lou was Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales & Marketing, and a member of the board of GeoTel Communications. He joined the company early in its developmental stage, was a major contributor in building its worldwide sales and marketing presence, and was instrumental in guiding the company in its IPO and eventual $2 billion acquisition by Cisco in June 1999. In previous positions, Lou served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Operations for Parametric Technology Corporation and also was an executive at Prime Computer. He also has been an active investor and board member for a number of companies including Atria (acquired by Pure) and Softdesk (acquired by Autodesk). Lou is an enthusiastic golfer and has run the Boston marathon. In addition to being involved with his local community, he is a member of the Board of Overseer's at the New England Aquarium. Lou holds a B.A. from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from Boston University.
Dan Von Kohorn
Founder - Beacon Angels. Dan Von Kohorn founded Beacon Angels along with William Swiggart and Alexander Kelso, and leads the screening committee. He is a VP and portfolio manager at VKRA where he manages a commodities fund, is a member of the investment committee for two global equity funds, and publishes an investment commentary. He is also Director of Technology Investments for Mediatech Capital Partners and a member of the investment committee for Analytic Capital. He graduated from Princeton University (A.B./Economics, Cert/Applied and Computational Mathematics) and worked in the Applied Research Group of JP Morgan Investments where he built asset allocation models implemented for the allocation of $4.2 billion. Dan participated in the development of an internal hedge fund strategy and taught internal classes on fixed income analytics, derivatives pricing, and asset allocation for the JP Morgan Private Client Group. In 1999, Dan founded ThoughtStore, Inc., an electronic open-market for patent licenses which was acquired in September, 2000. He is a member of the U.S. Secret Service NY Electronic Crimes Task Force.
Claire Wadlington
Partner & CFO - FA Tech Ventures. Claire joined FA Technology Ventures after a series of operating roles at venture-backed companies, most recently as VP of Finance & CFO of Cayman Systems, Inc. (telecommunications equipment). Claire was a member of the management team that sold Cayman to Netopia, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTPA). Prior to joining Cayman, Claire was CFO of a publishing and an Internet company. She had a primary role in the sale of the publishing company to United News & Media PLC (UNMPC). In addition to her operating roles, she worked as an investment banker for nearly a dozen years at First Albany Corporation, Lazard Freres & Co. and The First Boston Corporation.
Claire serves as Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge; the Board of Trustees of Christopher House, Inc., Christopher House Assisted Living; and is a Director of the Crittenton Women's Union. She is also a member of The Boston Club. She earned her BA from Yale University and her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Roger Walton
General Partner - Castille Ventures. Roger has an investment focus on advanced computing and components and subsystems. He leads Castile's theme-based investment program which identifies the most productive segments for early-stage investment in upcoming technology and market cycles. He currently participates on the boards of Sandbridge Technologies and Whaleback Systems. Prior to joining Castile in 2000, Roger advised start-up and established businesses--both solution vendors and service providers--on market, product/service, and partnership strategies. Previously, Roger was a senior marketing executive at Netlink, Inc. and helped craft the strategic roadmap guiding the success of its frame relay solutions. After the acquisition of Netlink by Cabletron in 1996, he joined Cabletron to lead its carrier marketing initiatives. Mr. Walton holds an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University.
Roger Walton
General Partner - Castile Ventures. Roger Walton focuses on portfolio development, providing strategic guidance to Castile companies in their formative stages and at critical stages in their development. He also leads Castile�s theme-based investment program, which identifies the most productive segments for early-stage investment in upcoming technology and market cycles. He currently participates on the boards of RatePoint, Vgo Communications and Whaleback Systems and has previously served on the boards of Neah Power (OTC BB:NPWS), Quantiva (acquired by NetScout), Sandbridge Technologies (acquired by an undisclosed public company) and Stargus (acquired by C-COR).
Prior to joining Castile, Mr. Walton advised start-up and established businesses � both solution vendors and service providers � on market, product/service, and partnership strategies. Clients included Comverse, SBC, Altiga, Salix, and Xedia. For IT analyst Ovum, he researched and authored several reports on information services markets, developed forecasting models and scenarios for emerging segments, and wrote about a broad range of technologies.
Previously, Mr. Walton was a senior marketing executive at Netlink, Inc. and helped craft the strategic roadmap guiding the success of its frame relay solutions. After the acquisition of Netlink by Cabletron in 1996, Mr. Walton joined Cabletron to lead its carrier marketing initiatives. Prior to Netlink, Mr. Walton was a senior executive at Motorola and Octocom Systems, where he was responsible for marketing a wide range of networking products, and has considerable experience working with service providers to define, develop, and deploy leading-edge communications systems.
Mr. Walton speaks frequently on financing and start-up strategies to entrepreneurs and is an advisory board member for The Capital Network. Mr. Walton holds an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University
Matt Westover
President and CEO - Newton Peripherals. Matt Westover joined Newton Peripherals as President and Chief Executive Officer in mid-2005, his latest executive position in a successful career spanning almost 22 years in key roles at high-technology firms. He previously served as an executive consultant to the CEO at Certance, helping lead that firm's transition away from Seagate and into its own operation, which resulted in its acquisition by Quantum Corporation. Matt founded Storability, and served as its Chairman and CEO, prior to its acquisition by StorageTek. He has also served in executive roles at StorageNetworks, Connected Corporation, and Andataco.
Matt is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he was on the school's football team. He has been a featured speaker at leading business schools, such as Sloan, Babson and Mendoza, as well as at numerous technology conferences.
Bill Whelan
Co-Chair, Life Sciences Practice Group - Mintz Levin. Bill is a member of the Corporate practice at Mintz Levin. Currently, he serves as Co-Chair of the Life Sciences Practice Group.
Bill's practice is focused primarily in the areas of securities law, venture capital and mergers and acquisitions. Bill regularly represents technology-based companies, principally in the areas of biotechnology, medical technologies and software. He routinely counsels these clients on many aspects of their corporate development, from initial organization and acquisition of technology, through private financing and initial public offering, to strategic alliances and business combination transactions. Bill also regularly represents venture capital firms in portfolio investment activities and underwriters in public offerings and private placements of equity securities.
Bill has lectured at various Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education seminars on topics relating to corporate organization and mergers and acquisitions. He serves as a member of the MIT 10/250 Committee, which organizes presentations of the MIT Enterprise Forum.
Bill is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and is a member of the American, Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and Boston University School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Boston University Law Review. Bill is a former law clerk to the Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Geoff Whitehead
Sr. Associate - Flagship Ventures. Geoff Whitehead joined Flagship Ventures in 2008 as a Senior Associate.
Prior to Flagship, Geoff was with PRTM, a worldwide operational strategy management consultancy, most recently as a Manager in their Life Sciences group. At PRTM, Geoff helped create and lead the molecular diagnostics team and managed multiple strategic and operational engagements with leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostics companies. Previously, Geoff worked at Myriad Genetics, where he performed research on identifying drugable targets, enhanced DNA sequencing capabilities and performed human genetics analyses for obesity and diabetes.
Geoff holds a PhD in Genetics from the Biological & Biomedical Sciences program at Harvard Medical School and a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Utah. His PhD research was done in the laboratory of Professor Mark Keating at Children's Hospital Boston in the fields of regenerative medicine, genetics and developmental biology. His PhD research, showing fgf20a to be required for initiation of fin regeneration in zebrafish, was published in the journal Science.
Calvin Wilder
Co-Founder & President - SmartBooks Corp. Calvin Wilder is the co-founder and President of SmartBooks Corp., a provider of bookkeeping and controller services to small and midsize businesses that utilizes technology and process expertise to provide clients with higher quality yet cost effective bookkeeping and controller services. Calvin has worked in executive positions in finance, investment management and operations for more than 12 years including co-founding Thrive Networks, Inc., which grew to become New England's leading provider of outsourced IT services to small businesses. As Chief Financial Officer and Chairman, Calvin built and managed Thrive's financial and accounting operations, helped drive the company's strategic development, and ultimately managed Thrive's acquisition by Staples, Inc. Calvin has designed and managed accounting policies and procedures for numerous small and mid-size businesses and is trusted to effectively balance client accounting needs, reporting priorities, operational requirements, and budget constraints. Calvin has a B.S. in biology and a minor in chemistry and graduated summa cum laude from Duke University. He serves on the programs committees of The Capital Network and Financial Executives International.
Leslie Williams
CEO - ImmusanT. Recognized in 2006 as one of the top 100 leaders in life sciences by PharmaVOICE magazine, Leslie Williams has more than 20 years of industry experience in healthcare, management, commercial product development and marketing. Her two decades-plus career runs the gamut from critical care nursing to corporate executive leadership positions, including president and chief executive officer of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals. Williams joined the specialty pharmaceutical company, Ventaira, in 2003 in the dual roles of vice president of business and commercial development, and chief operating officer. She was quickly promoted to president and chief executive officer, a job she held from 2004 to 2007. Under her leadership, the company became a significant player in the pulmonary-drug-delivery market and the company was sold at the end of 2007. Prior to Ventaira, Williams was director of marketing for INO Therapeutics, Inc., where she played a significant role in the development of INOmax (nitric oxide), a drug for treating pulmonary hypertension. Among her many accomplishments she helped orchestrate the New Drug Application submission to the FDA for INOmax for inhalation.
Responsible for the commercial aspects of INOmax's U.S. market introduction, from setting objectives and strategy to developing key constituency groups and expert advisory boards, as well as representing INO Therapeutics on Capitol Hill, 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.) Williams's prior pharmaceutical industry experience includes commercial positions at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, and drug-delivery and monitoring experience at Datex-Ohmeda (formerly Ohmeda, Inc.) where she also discovered, developed and managed "OptimizOR", an efficiency and scheduling tool utilizing mathematical modeling.
Leslie was a Venture Partner with Battelle Ventures. As a venture partner she sourced and evaluated deals and assisted early-stage technology companies with strategy, management, business development and M&A; strategy and execution. Williams serves on the Board of CDI Bioscience, a company that has developed an innovative technology for increasing the yield of bioproducts. She also serves on the board of Hepregen, an MIT spin out, which has developed a stable and highly functional micro- liver model to be used for ADME/Toxicity testing and drug screening.
Leslie currently serves as Interim CEO for an early stage Cancer Therapeutics company in Cambridge, MA. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business, and a B.S. degree biology 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. Leslie left active patient care to seek and evaluate new technologies that impact health and the life sciences.
Alex Wilmerding
Director - Citigroup Private Bank (Boston office). Alex has more than 19 years of experience, primarily in venture capital and private equity investing as well as corporate and business development. Prior to joining The Citigroup Private Bank, Alex served for nine years as a principal and Partner at Boston Capital Ventures. Before this, he managed business-and-operations projects in Shanghai and Southeast Asia for Fednav Limited. In addition, he held four executive management positions with Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragon Airways, subsidiaries of the Swire Group.
Having lived in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia for seven years, Alex is fluent in Mandarin. Alex earned his bachelors degree in history from Yale University and an MBA in finance and organizational management from the Columbia Business School. He is the author of two books, Deal Terms and Term Sheets and Valuations. He also sits on the boards of family office Charles Pratt & Company and the Dosoris Turst Company, and he is trustee and officer of the Yale-China Association.
Susan Windham-Bannister
President & CEO - Mass Life Science Center. Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister is the first President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a quasi-public organization charged with administering the 10-year $1 billion life sciences initiative enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature in June 2008. The Life Sciences Center is the hub for all sectors of the state's life sciences community - biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnostics and bioinformatics. Since assuming the executive leadership of the Life Sciences Center in July 2008, Dr. Windham-Bannister has been responsible for the overall implementation of the life sciences initiative, including staffing the Center, developing policies and procedures, creating a brand, and formulating the investment strategy. The Center's portfolio of investments is promoting economic development, catalyzing innovation, strengthening Massachusetts' global leadership position in the life sciences, and accelerating the commercialization of promising treatments, therapies and cures. Under Dr. Windham-Bannister's leadership, in just three years the Center has invested $218 million, leveraged another $700 million in matching investment capital, and created over 7,000 new life sciences jobs in the Commonwealth.
Before assuming her role at the life Sciences Center Dr. Windham-Bannister was a founding partner of Abt Bio-Pharma Solutions, a boutique consulting firm serving life sciences companies. Within ABS, Dr. Windham-Bannister managed the Commercial Strategy Group. In her 35-year consulting career, she and has been instrumental in the successful launch of a number of well-known therapeutics, medical devices and novel biomarkers. Dr. Windham-Bannister has co-authored two books: Competitive Strategy for Health Care Organizations, and Medicaid and Other Experiments in State Health Policy. She also has written numerous articles on competition in today's health care marketplace. Dr. Windham-Bannister holds a B.A. from Wellesley College, a doctorate in health policy and management from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School. She completed her doctoral work under a fellowship from the Ford Foundation.
Matthew Witheiler
Principal - Flybridge Capital Partners. Matt is a Principal at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and experience broadly cover companies and technologies across the information technology sector including financial technology, digital media, semiconductors.
Matt currently represents Flybridge Capital Partners as an observer on the boards of DataXu, gamerDNA and Sand 9 and sits on the board of The Capital Network. He is also a Founding Executive Committee Member of FirstGrowth Venture Network, a network of venture and angel investors supporting first and second time entrepreneurs building exciting companies in the New York area.
Matt joined the firm in July 2008 after completing his MBA at Harvard School of Business (HBS). Prior to HBS, Matt spent seven years in various roles in the high technology industry. Most recently, Matthew was a Summer Associate at Jefferies Broadview in technology investment banking where he advised on sale, IPO and debt strategies of various companies in the technology industry. Prior to that, Matthew spent three years at ATI Technologies, a $4B 3D-graphics silicon provider. Before joining ATI, Matt served for four years as co-owner and Senior Hardware Editor of the successful hardware review website, AnandTech.com, where he helped build one of the world's largest hardware review sites.
Matthew holds a BS in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
James Woodward
Member - Launchpad Venture Group. James has over 30 years of high tech management experience. He has been the first CFO of eight successful companies including Iris Graphics (sold to Scitex for $31 million), Computer Access (Lotus), Exos (Microsoft), and ActualSoft (Palm). Jim has raised over $20 million in VC and has been CFO of several public companies. He is currently VP Finance or a Director of several companies and a member of the Launchpad Angel Group.
Bill Yucatonis
CEO - GoodTwo. Bill brings a unique blend of experience in group buying, fundraising and e-commerce to GoodTwo. His mission to bring the potential of a group buying platform to the hands of fundraisers drove the launch of GoodTwo and continues to power the team's vision for GoodTwo going forward. As CEO, Bill oversees the development of the GoodTwo brand and nurtures relationships with its fundraisers and business partners. A former vice president of marketing at online charity auction site BiddingForGood, Bill is accustomed to the unique needs of the nonprofit fundraising sector, and he believes that connecting group buying to the charity space with GoodTwo can fulfill a need for innovative, easy and cost-effective fundraising options. With over a dozen years of notable experience, Bill most recently served as the Vice President of Marketing at Cambridge Interactive Development Corp, a global software company specializing in social networking and interactive gaming, where he managed a global marketing team and the Everest Gaming family of brands across Europe. Bill has a BSBA in e-commerce from Northeastern University and a Master in Business Administration degree with a concentration in international business from The University of Connecticut School of Business.