Judy Albers, Chief Technology Officer, Excell Partners, Inc.
Ms. Albers has been instrumental in the establishment of many start-up companies based upon research from area universities and corporations, particularly in analyzing the commercial potential of new technologies, developing commercialization strategies, positioning and planning early business operations, and providing seed stage capital. Her current focus is on co-managing a state-supported fund at Excell that provides pre-seed and seed stage capital to start-up companies across Upstate NY.
Prior to joining Excell, Judy was a Vice President at Trillium Group, another Rochester-based Venture Capital firm, where she co-managed the University Technology Seed Fund, now fully invested. Judy also previously taught Environmental Chemistry at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Her classes were the largest in the department, teaching over a hundred non-majors every semester in lectures and laboratory. Prior to that, she served for several years at the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, D.C. as a defense analyst. Her job was to develop and link analytical conclusions on Navy systems, tactics, and operations to practical recommendations for implementation by the Navy's top-level decision makers at the Pentagon. For two years, Judy was assigned to the Commander ASW Forces U.S. Sixth Fleet in Naples, Italy where she provided quantitative assessments to the Admiral’s staff on the effectiveness of anti-submarine warfare systems and platforms in the Mediterranean theater. She was also previously a research chemist at 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Judy holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brandeis University, and completed her post-doc in Chemistry at Princeton University. In addition to her current work at Excell, Judy is a co-developer and co-facilitator of the Upstate N.Y. Pre-Seed Workshop currently serving Rochester, Ithaca, Buffalo, and Syracuse.
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Glenn Ballman, CEO, Genesis Exchange
Mr. Ballman founded Onvia in 1996 and raised over $USD 70 million in private funding from venture capital, institutional and strategic investors including GE Capital, Van Wagoner Capital and Comerica Bank. As Chairman and CEO, he lead the company to $USD 150 million in annual sales in FY 2000; and through a $USD 240 million IPO on NASDAQ. He successfully negotiated major alliances with such entities as America Online, E*Trade, and Visa and has been frequently interviewed on CNN Moneyline and MSNBC as a leading expert in e-commerce and B2B marketplaces. Mr. Ballman was educated in Canada at the University of Western Ontario Business School (Ivey).
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Brian Bell, President, First Wave Technologies, Inc.
Brian Bell began his career as a technology analyst for several mutual fund companies, including PIMCO Advisors ($180 billion in assets under management), where he was directly responsible for $1 billion in investments. He later served as an Assistant Portfolio Manager for M&T Capital Advisors ($5 billion under management) where he helped restructure and manage the research staff and was responsible for investment recommendations across all industry sectors, including healthcare and technology. Most recently as Senior Associate with Seed Capital Partners, LLC, an early stage venture fund with backing from Softbank Corporation and JP Morgan Partners, Brian’s responsibilities ranged from due diligence, development of an executive network of industry experts, and investment recommendation, to hands on business development, strategic planning, and merger and acquisition activity on behalf of specific portfolio companies. He is formerly director of the WNY Venture Association, and a founder of the Buffalo Angel Network.
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Rich Bendis, President and CEO, True Product ID, Inc.
Mr. Bendis has distinguished himself as a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, investment banker, and consultant in the technology and healthcare industries.
He currently serves as President and CEO of True Product ID, Inc., a global publicly-traded technology company (NASDAQ, TPDI) headquartered in Philadelphia that produces integrators for anti-counterfeiting and security surveillance applications and is a provider of integrated tracking devices. Most recently, Mr. Bendis founded and served as the first President and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia (IP), a public/private partnership dedicated to growing the wealth and workforce of the Greater Philadelphia Region. IP manages an umbrella of programs under four distinct areas: Direct Equity Investment/Financing Assistance; Technology Commercialization; Global and Regional Economic Development; and Market Research and Branding. Mr. Bendis will serve on the IP Board of Directors. He also founded Innovation America, LLC., a for profit technology based development corporation.
Previously, Mr. Bendis successfully leveraged a career in the private sector (with Quaker Oats, Polaroid, Texas Instruments, Marion Laboratories and Kimberly Services) and the venture capital industry (RAB Ventures) to build the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC). As its president and CEO, he developed KTEC into a globally-recognized model for technology-based economic development. Mr. Bendis also successfully built an Inc. 500 healthcare software company, Continental Healthcare Systems, Inc., which he took public on NASDAQ and later sold to an international conglomerate. In addition, Mr. Bendis managed his own venture capital fund, RAB Ventures, which made 15 investments in early-stage technology and healthcare companies.
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James Bourdeau, Partner, Nixon Peabody
James Bourdeau concentrates on business law matters related to the formation, financing, expansion and dissolution of corporations and limited liability companies. He is experienced in mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, venture financing, secured transactions, and technology licensing.
Prior to earning his law degree from Syracuse University, Mr. Bourdeau studied analogue and digital communications and was first employed as an electrical engineer responsible for maintaining and expanding a broadband computer network for an aerospace company. Later he was employed as an applications engineer responsible for supporting a color printer sales team. His prior experiences included computer networking, programming color printer device drivers, and lecturing at industry trade shows and user group meetings on color-matching techniques.
James is a member of the Steering committee for the Rochester Business Ethics Award, Leadership Rochester class of 2004, American, New York State and Monroe County Bar Associations, and Order of the Coif.
Recent presentations include “Fundamental Deal Terms Governing Risk Allocation in M&A Transactions,” Web-based seminar hosted by Nixon Peabody LLP, May, 2006.
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Graham Burnette, Fund Manager, Red Capital Partners
Graham Burnette is the fund manager for NASA's Red Planet Capital Partners and holds graduate degrees from the University of Virginia (JD and MBA) and a BS in commerce from Washington and Lee University. Prior to joining the SBV/EuroAmerica family of funds in 2000, Mr. Burnette served as an executive in two companies financed by EuroAmerica. He brings to Red Planet Capital Partners considerable expertise in the area of finance, technology and venture capital law.
Mr. Burnette was chief financial officer and vice-president for business development at Mercury Interactive Corporation from 1992 to 1996. He managed Mercury’s IPO on NASDAQ 15 months after joining the company, and ran all interactions with public market investors and business alliances for three years after the IPO. EuroAmerica-I was the first venture investor in Mercury Interactive.
In 1996, Mr. Burnette co-found HolonTech Corporation, where he was chief operating officer and member of the Board of Directors. HolonTech, a portfolio company of EuroAmerica-II, was a pioneer of server clustering and acceleration products. Its technology was purchased by Lucent in 1999. Prior to his tenure with Mercury, Mr. Burnette was a Corporate Attorney with the firm of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto from 1987 to 1992, providing legal and business advice for high- growth technology companies. Particular emphasis was on business alliances, public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, technology in-licensing and out-licensing, and corporate governance.
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William Bygrave, Frederic C. Hamilton Professor for Free Enterprise, Babson College
Dr. Bygrave joined The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College in 1985 and directed it from 1993 to 1999. He was also the director of the annual Babson College-Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Research Conference in 1994 and 1995. He teaches and researches entrepreneurship, specifically financing of startup and growing ventures.
Dr. Bygrave has founded a venture-capital-backed high-tech company, managed a division of a NYSE-listed high-tech company, co-founded a pharmaceutical database company, and was a member of the investment committee of a venture capital firm. He was the 1997 winner of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the supporter category for New England, and one of the three finalists in this category nationwide.
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Kristie Chadwick, CEO of the University of Central Florida’s Venture Laboratory
Kirstie Chadwick has been Director of the UCF Ventire Lab since 2004. She has nineteen years of experience in the high technology industry, and has worked for a variety of technology organizations, both large and small. For the past fourteen years, Kirstie has worked almost exclusively at small startup technology companies, many of them based out of Silicon Valley. Kirstie’s career at entrepreneurial startups cumulated in 1999 when Kirstie co-founded her own software company, DigitalOwl. As the CEO of DigitalOwl, Kirstie successfully raised $13.2 million in venture capital and angel financing, grew the company to 35 employees, and gained high profile clients such as McGraw-Hill, Time Warner, and SwissRE Insurance. As a result of her varied startup experiences, Kirstie has worked for companies that went public, that were purchased, and that failed. These experiences have provided Kirstie with an incredible amount of expertise in the dynamics of how successful startup technology firms grow and gain market share.
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Joni Cobb, President, Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC) PIPELINE
Joni Cobb is the President of the KTEC PIPELINE, a newly-minted technology entrepreneurship program in Kansas, sponsored by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation. Cobb was hand selected to lead the KTEC PIPELINE by Trish Costello - program founder and former CEO of the Kauffman Fellows Program – which trains venture capitalists around the globe.
Cobb comes to this position after spending the past six years building her
own Kansas company, Cobb Communications LLC, which provides comprehensive business planning, public affairs and strategic communications services to technology and bioscience companies, as well as regional nonprofits. In 2005, she was recognized as one of Ingrams Magazine’s “40 Under Forty” for her company’s work in this competitive and complex field.
Cobb received her bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and thereafter earned her law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
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José Coronas, General Partner, Trillium Group, LLC
Mr. Coronas is a General Partner in Trillium Group, a Rochester based venture capital firm. He also serves as Fund Manager of the University Technology Seed Fund. He is a member of the Board of Directors of CPAC, Inc., ESL Federal Credit Union, and several start-up companies in the Trillium portfolio.
In January 1997, Mr. Coronas retired as President of Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. Prior to his two years with Johnson and Johnson, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Clinical Diagnostics Division of Eastman Kodak. In this capacity he led the sale of the division to Johnson and Johnson for $1B. As an Eastman Kodak employee from 1966 to 1994, Mr. Coronas served in a number of management positions with the company in the US and Europe. He also served as the initial President and CEO of Genencor International, Inc., a joint venture of Eastman Kodak Company and Cultor Ltd. of Finland which he helped engineer.
A native of Cuba, Mr. Coronas graduated from the University of Miami where he earned a BS in Industrial Engineering. He attended the University of Rochester Simon School Executive Development Program, where he was the recipient of the Hugh H. Whitney Award for Academic Excellence, and earned an MBA in Business Administration in 1975. He currently serves as a member of the school’s Executive Advisory Committee. Mr. Coronas and his wife Karen, reside in Pittsford, NY.
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Keith Crandell, Co-Founder and Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners
Mr. Crandell is responsible for ARCH investments in Apropos Technology (APRS – acquired by Syntellect, Inc.), ALIS (acquired by Carl Zeiss NTS Beteligungs GmbH), Ahura, Crystal-IS, Teach.com (acquired by Intellinex, Inc.), CelebrateExpress (BDAY), NEON Software (NEON – acquired by Sybase, Inc.), and Alfalight among others. Mr. Crandell played a key role in the formation and initial funding round of Eichrom Industries, Nanophase Technologies (NANX), and Illinois Superconductor (ISCO), while focused on innovations from Argonne National Laboratory.
Mr. Crandell previously served as Senior Manager with ARCH Development Corporation with responsibilities for ARCH Venture Fund I’s activities at Argonne National Laboratory. Prior to joining ARCH in 1987, Mr. Crandell worked with Hercules, Inc., a specialty chemical and polymer company. Mr. Crandell serves as Chairman of the Treasurer’s Fund, a fund-of-funds focused on Illinois private equity partnerships. He also serves as a Director of the NVCA and as Chairman of the IVCA. He holds an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago, an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Arlington, and a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from St. Lawrence University.
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Laurie Davis, Managing Angel, Ottawa Angel Alliance
Laurie graduated from the University of Alberta with a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering. Upon graduation, he joined Bell-Northern Research (BNR), where he specialized in the development and
introduction of new products. He held increasingly more senior positions within BNR, and later Nortel Networks, ultimately becoming Vice-President responsible for a number of new product launches.
Laurie was initially involved in the development of voice switching products. In the early 90's he took a leadership role in Nortel's entry into the optical networking business, holding positions in both Canada and the United Kingdom. Since the mid 90's he has been involved in data communications, initially with frame relay and ATM networks, and later with IP networking. For the past several years, as a member of Purple Angel and the Ottawa Angel Alliance, Laurie has been an active angel investor.
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Michael Finney, President and CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK
SPARK is a public-private partnership whose mission is to advance innovation-based economic development in the greater Ann Arbor region. SPARK recently merged with the Washtenaw Development Council to form one integrated flagship economic development group to assist businesses at every stage, from those that are established to those working to successfully commercialize innovations.
SPARK represents all communities in the Washtenaw County region of Michigan and collaborates with business, government, academic, and not-for-profit partners.
Prior to taking the helm at Ann Arbor SPARK, Michael served as president and CEO of Greater Rochester Enterprise, Rochester, New York; he also served as Vice President for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation; Senior Vice President and General Manager, Thomson Saginaw; and as Assistant City Manager, Saginaw, Michigan.
Michael currently serves on the University of Michigan, Office of Technology Transfer National Advisory Council and the Life Sciences Institute National Advisory Council, Board of Directors for the State Science and Technology Institute and the Michigan Venture Capital Association. Michael was appointed the 2005 Minett Distinguished Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology
Michael holds a Master of Arts from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Saginaw Valley State University.
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Richard Fox, Principal, Astralis Group, LLC
Richard Fox has twenty years of experience in the creation of new companies from well funded defense and aerospace technology.
Richard's first company was a spin-out of an operation of Westinghouse, with a machine vision system derived from a military target recognition system. Based on that success, Richard pioneered innovative concepts for nurturing and growing entrepreneurial high tech businesses. As President of the Central Florida Innovation Corporation, Richard guided the launch of several companies based on military technologies.
Richard Fox was also the co-founder of MetaTech Ventures, LLC. MetaTech works with existing corporations to identify core competencies, adjacent market opportunities, and potential spin-outs. Client companies have included Lockheed Martin, SAIC, Agere Systems, and high growth potential entrepreneurial companies.
Fox was a member of the senior management team of ENDOlap, Inc., a medical products company that designed and marketed products used in minimally invasive surgery. Six years after its founding, ENDOlap was recognized as the 13th fastest growing company in the State of Florida, and three years later, it was acquired by Cardinal Health, Inc., a Fortune 100 company.
Richard served on the Florida Seed Capital Board and has been a member of several task forces for the State of Florida on venture capital and seed capital investing. He is presently a member of the board of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.
Richard is a frequent speaker on the subject of new company creation by professional teams. He earned his B.S. degree in physics from M.I.T., and holds 16 patents on the application of computers to industrial processes, and on medical devices.
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Lynn Gellerman, President, Adena Ventures
Lynn Gellermann is the President of Adena Ventures, the nation's first New Markets Venture Capital Company. He is also a partner in Woodland Venture Management, a fund management company devoted to the development of investment vehicles in underserved regions of the country.
Mr. Gellermann serves on the Boards of Directors for Ed Map, Inc., SecureMethods, Inc., Emergent Game Technologies, Inc. and is a Senior Business Fellow for Ohio University's Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs.
Earlier in his career, Gellermann spent fifteen years in the banking industry where he developed a number of innovative approaches to the marketplace, including the creation of a "fund of funds", which invested in venture capital companies throughout the country. As part of this initiative, Gellermann served on the board of directors and investment committee for one of the first venture funds in the nation to focus on women-owned firms.
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Steven Gersz, Partner, Underberg & Kessler, LLP
From mergers and acquisitions to emerging technology companies, Steve has immersed himself in business and corporate law his entire legal career. As chair of the firm's Corporate & Business Practice Group, he has extensive experience in the organization and development of business and professional entities; mergers, acquisitions and dispositions; corporate financing; and Federal and State securities law.
As both an attorney and a community volunteer, Steve is actively involved in healthcare matters. He has represented physicians, medical groups and other health care providers on a wide variety of legal matters. He currently serves as vice chair of the Jewish Home of Rochester, and has served as president of the Mental Health Association of Rochester and Monroe Counties, as a member of the Board of Directors of Temple Beth El, and as past chair of the Business Law Section of the Monroe County Bar Association.
Steve is the author of the 2006 LexisNexis® AnswerGuide™ New York Business Entities and is an Editorial Board Member and revision author for White New York Business Entities, a law treatise which provides an in-depth statutory and case law analysis of the New York Business Corporation Law, Limited Liability Company Law, Partnership Law and Not-for-Profit Corporation Law.
A 1982 graduate of the University of Michigan School of Law, Steve practiced corporate law with Rosenman & Colin in New York City before joining Underberg & Kessler in 1986. He became a partner of the firm in 1992. He is a recipient of the Rochester Business Journal's "40 Under 40" Award, an annual tribute to emerging leaders of Rochester.
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James Geshwiler, Chairman, Angel Capital Education Foundation
As chairman of the Angel Capital Education Foundation, James works with angel investors, venture capitalists, academic leaders and entrepreneurs around the country to foster better understanding of patterns and practices in angel investing. He is the former chairman of ACEF’s sister organization, the Angel Capital Association, which is a trade group formed to promote angel groups and their best practices. He is a contributing author to Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing, published in October 2003 by Darden Business Publishing of the University of Virginia, has written papers on angel investment processes published by the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, and regularly speaks on entrepreneurship and private investing.
James joined CommonAngels in 1999, and since that time has participated in funding 24 companies through over 60 rounds of financing totaling over $100 million as well as five M&A events and two shutdowns. He has also raised two $10 million co-investment funds managed by CommonAngels. Within CommonAngels, James manages deal flow, due diligence and the investment process. He also guides the group's strategic direction and works closely with follow-on investors. He was Phi Beta Kappa and holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors from the Liberal Arts Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin, a master's degree in political science from UCLA, and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.
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Patrick Govang, Industrial Partnerships Director, Cornell University
Mr. Govang leads the Industrial Partnerships Office for the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR). His team leverages over $80M in annual materials research funding to develop research collaborations with large corporations, support New York State small business through an innovative outreach model and foster start-up companies. Prior to joining the university he worked for 12 years in the automotive industry in a variety of leadership roles including product development, quality/manufacturing management and purchasing. He’s also been a lead consultant in corporate strategic planning, lean manufacturing and Chapter 11 turnarounds working for Deloitte Consulting and a small New York firm. In 1999, he founded ProjectPoint.com, a start-up company focused on collaborative project management in the automotive industry. Mr. Govang has a degree in Product Development from Bowling Green State University, has completed various executive MBA courses and is a NIST-certified Professional Business Advisor.
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Steve Grizzell, Managing Director, InnoVentures Capital Management
Steve Grizzell is a 20-year veteran in entrepreneurship, finance, innovation and economic development. His experience began in the mid-1980s when he consulted for the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development. He is currently Managing Director of InnoVentures Capital Management, a licensed Small Business Investment Company that invests approximately $5 million annually in venture debt to early stage companies. To date, Steve has been directly responsible for more than 100 transactions, the majority involving technology-based companies. He maintains regular communication with some of the more significant companies in which he has invested, and provides counsel on matters like financial strategies and fund raising; board formation; and personnel recruitment.
Steve is Chairman of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF) and serves on the boards of the Wasatch Venture Fund, MountainWest Capital Network and the Utah Valley Entrepreneur Forum. He is a member of Utah Angels and Olympus Angels. Steve has consulted around the world in countries such as Romania, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. He holds an MBA from the University of Utah, a Masters of Computer Applications in Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and a BS in Anthropology from Michigan State. He is married with three children. Steve speaks Indonesian and is an avid skier.
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John Hart, President, Lumentrics, Inc.
John has over 30 years of engineering, business development and general management experience with Fortune 500 firms such as Bausch and Lomb and Allergan. John also has extensive expertise in startup companies with the development of Lumetrics, ASE Instruments, and Holotek, all companies in the field of Optics, Photonics and Imaging.
John was an early Board member of the Rochester Regional Photonics cluster, a not for profit trade association, and is its current Board President. In addition, John sits on the Boards of the Infotonics Technology Center, New York Photonics and Lumetrics.
In March of 2003, John and his 3 other founding partners successfully licensed novel technology from the research labs of Eastman Kodak and formed Lumetrics to develop and commercialize a series of products. Lumetrics received initial pre-seed funding from High Technology of Rochester, seed funding from University Technology Seed fund (managed by Trillium), 2 angel investor rounds of convertible debentures and in late 2005, an “A” round of investment led by Stonehenge Capital, New York State Small Business Technology Investment Fund and the Rochester Angel Network.
Lumetrics is now manufacturing and selling its products (trade name OptiGauge) into its 3 primary markets; Optics, Medical devices, and Ophthalmics, and has moved sales beyond initial first unit installations into multiple purchases and rollout into the customers factories.
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Mark Heesen, President, National Venture Capital Association
As President of the National Venture Capital Association, Mr. Heesen is responsible for all Association activities, including leading its professional staff, working closely with the NVCA Board of Directors and venture capital community, developing Association policies and strategies, and directing the Association's national legislative and regulatory efforts. In addition, Mark oversees the management of NVCA's affiliate organization, the American Entrepreneurs for Economic Growth, which now represents 14,000 emerging growth companies.
Since 1991, Mark has worked on behalf of the venture capital community to enact a wide range of policies that benefit the venture capital and entrepreneurial communities, including a significant capital gains differential, securities litigation reform, accounting treatment of stock options and merger accounting, reform of the FDA pre-market approval process, among others.
Prior to coming to the NVCA, Mark was an aide to a former Governor of Pennsylvania and was Deputy Director for Federal Funds reporting to the Texas Legislature. Mark received a law degree with an emphasis in taxation from the Dickinson School of Law in 1984.
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Marianne Hudson, Director, Angel Initiative and Entrepreneurship, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Marianne Hudson oversees many of the Foundation’s entrepreneurial education and mentoring programs designed to ensure that more entrepreneurs develop sustainable, innovative businesses. She serves as Executive Director of the Angel Capital Education Foundation, which promotes education and research in the field of angel investing. Ms Hudson has worked in entrepreneurial support for twenty years. She holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from the University of Kansas and an M.A. in Public Policy from Rutgers University.
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Tim Keane, Director, Golden Angels Network
Tim Keane writes a blog for entrepreneurs, at www.timkeane.org. He is the founder and director of the Golden Angels Network at Marquette University, a group of 75 members in Chicago, Il and Milwaukee, WI. He is also the current Entrepreneur in Residence at Marquette University, in the graduate school of business, where he teaches courses in new business formation and business growth strategies.
Tim was the founder and CEO of Retail Target Marketing Systems, Inc., a marketing automation software and consulting services company. Tim founded this business in 1989. He sold it in 2000. Prior to RTMS, he was the founder of a variety of small businesses, and was in marketing at General Electric Medical Systems from 1977 to 1984. He is an active Angel investor and business advisor, and a director of First Business Bank.
He is past chairman of the board of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a member of the board of Taliesin Preservation, Inc., with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and holds degrees from Marquette and Seattle Universities.
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Karen Kerr, Managing Director, Agile Equities
Karen Kerr founded Agile Equities in 2005. Prior to that, she was a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners and managed the firms New York Office. Prior to joining ARCH in 1996, Ms. Kerr was an associate at Patricof & Co, Ventures in New York.
Ms. Kerr has extensive experience in seed and early stage investing in life science, information technology, communications and semiconductor companies. She has invested in such companies as Amberwave Systems, Silverstorm Technologies (fka InfiniCon Systems), Teach.com (Intellinex/E&Y), Ensemble, Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN) and Diversa (NASDAQ: DVSA).
Ms. Kerr is a director of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds and a member of the National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee. She is a director of the Chicago Public Education Fund and serves on the Physical Sciences Division Visiting Committee at the University of Chicago. Ms. Kerr is a Trustee of Bryn Mawr College. Previously, she served on the Executive Board of the Bryn Mawr College Alumnae Association and the planning committee for the 2001 Springboard Midwest Venture Capital Conference. Kerr is a member of the C200 leading business women and in 2000 was selected by Crain’s Chicago business as one of the 40 under 40 leading business professionals in Chicago.
Ms. Kerr holds a PhD. in Physical Chemistry from The University of Chicago and an A.B. in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College. Ms. Kerr was a member of the Charter Class of Kaufman Fellows.
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Deb LaBudde, The Entrepreneurs Network
Debora has over 10 years of investment banking, venture development and management experience in the life science and technology sectors. She is co-founder and Director of The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN), a nonprofit organization modeled after MIT Enterprise and The Capital Network of Boston, providing hands on education, training and networking for high tech entrepreneurs.
Prior to founding TEN, Debora was Vice President and General Manager of a Boston-based consulting and outsourced management firm where she consulted with numerous other early stage companies in the medical device, telecom and internet search industries providing assistance with business model development, customer acquisition, strategic partnering and financing strategies.
Earlier in her career, Debora was Director of Business Development for Bausch & Lomb, Inc. At Bausch & Lomb, she was involved in over a dozen successful M&A and licensing transactions representing more than $1.5 billion of aggregate value for the company.
Debora was also co-Founder and Director of Business Development for a venture capital backed technology solutions company. The company was spun-off from Bausch & Lomb, Inc. with a $50 million capital commitment from financial and strategic investors. While with the company, Debora developed key customer relationships and led the acquisition of a $7 million international e-commerce company providing the company with access to international markets and sought after industry partners.
Debora holds a Masters in Business Administration from the William E. Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Rochester.
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John May, Managing Partner, New Vantage Group
John May is the founder and managing partner of New Vantage Group, a Vienna, Virginia-based firm that innovatively mobilizes private equity capital into early-stage companies. John is an authority on “angel” investors. New Vantage Group administers four regional angel groups—the Dinner Club, eMedia Club, Active Angel Investors, and the Washington Dinner Club, and has joint ventures with WomenAngels.net, the CEO Club, and Virginia Active Angels Network.. Mr. May is co-author of the book, Every Business Needs an Angel (Crown Business: 2001). In 2003, he co-edited the book and multimedia CD entitled State of the Art: An Executive Briefing on Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing (Darden Publishing: 2003). John also has extensive experience with venture funds—he is managing general partner of Calvert Social Venture Partners LP, the Mid-Atlantic Fund of Funds, LP, and is an advisor to the Women’s Growth Capital Fund, the Next Generation Fund, and Solstice Capital. John is the Chairman of the recently formed Angel Capital Association, which was formerly a program of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He is a lead instructor for their “Power of Angel Investing” seminars. He was founding co-chair of the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Technology Entrepreneurship Center, and a board member of Mindshare, Conservation International’s Verde Fund, Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology GAP fund, as well as a former board member of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association. In the fall of 2002, the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration appointed Mr. May as a “Batten Fellow” and in January 2004 he became the part-time director, Northern Virginia Initiative and a UVA faculty member.
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Bob Mechur, Parnter, Boylan, Brown, Code, Vigdor & Wilson
Robert F. Mechur, a partner, joined Boylan, Brown in 2002 as a member of the firm’s Business & Corporate Department. He practices general corporate law, with special emphasis on corporate finance, including public and private equity financings, debt financing, mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property matters. Mr. Mechur’s clientele includes a broad range of companies, including many technology companies.
Before joining Boylan Brown, Mr. Mechur was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Applied Theory Corporation (Nasdaq: ATHY), a provider of e-business solutions (including website development and hosting and Internet access). He began his career with a large New York City law firm. He was a longtime partner in the firm of Underberg & Kessler, LLP, Rochester, New York, where he was managing partner from 1989-1992. He helped found and served as the President of Omnicad Corporation, a software development company in which AT&T and several national venture capital firms were major investors.
Mr. Mechur is a graduate of Cornell University (A.B., 1965) and received his law degree cum laude from Syracuse University (J.D., 1968). He is a member of the New York State Bar Association and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit; the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York; and the U.S. District Court, Western District of New York. Mr. Mechur frequently lectures on corporate and securities matters.
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Steve Mercil, President and CEO, RAIN Source Capital
Steve Mercil is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of RAIN Source Capital. Under Mercil’s leadership, RAIN Source Capital has expanded from its predecessor organization, Minnesota Investment Network Corporation, into a regional and national organization recognized for its expertise in leveraging the power of angel investors.
Mercil is on the Board of Directors of the Angel Capital Association. He is a pioneer in bringing angel investment opportunities, which have historically been clustered on the coasts, to the Central states and to the often-ignored rural areas of those states. He is currently spearheading efforts to set up regional investment networks of angel investors throughout the United States. He is also a principle in the InvestAmerica NW, LLC, the General Partner of Invest Northwest, LP, which is a venture capital fund focused on middle market and later-stage companies located in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington.
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Claudia Fan Munce, Managing Director, IBM Venture Capital Group and Vice President, Corporate Strategy
Claudia Fan Munce has been the Managing Director of the IBM Venture Capital Group since March 2004. In addition to this role, she is also Vice President, Corporate Strategy. She has been a key business and technical leader since IBM began its outreach to the venture community in 2000.
Claudia joined IBM Research Division in 1985 and held many technical and business leadership positions. Prior to assuming her current position, Claudia was the functional manager in IBM Research overseeing technology transfer and licensing activities as well as defining new business opportunities with top IBM partners.
Claudia was born in Taiwan, grew up in Brazil, and came to U.S. for graduate studies. She holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Santa Clara University, and an MBA from Stanford University.
IBM Venture Capital Group seeks to proactively build mutually beneficial strategic relationships with venture capital firms and their portfolio companies within the global community focusing on growth markets and emerging technologies. Venture Capital Group's mission is to promote an innovation ecosystem engaging the full range of IBM resources and capabilities with that of its VC partners and other key innovation drivers to maximize growth opportunities.
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John Neis, Managing Director, Venture Investors, LLC
John Neis is the Managing Director of Venture Investors LLC, an early stage venture capital firm based in Madison with five funds under management that is focused on opportunities emerging from leading research universities in the Midwest. John heads the firm's Health Care practice. His twenty-one years in the venture capital industry has enabled him to experience several industry cycles, and to serve on the Board of Directors of companies from formation through IPO or sale. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at TomoTherapy, Inc., NimbleGen Systems, Inc., and Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He was appointed by the Governor to the Board of the Wisconsin Technology Council, the science and technology advisor to Wisconsin’s Governor and Legislature. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Weinert Applied Ventures Program in the School of Business and Tandem Press in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in finance from the University of Utah, and received a M.S. in Marketing and Finance from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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Marc Oettinger, Partnerships & Licensing, Los Alamos National Lab
Marc Oettinger has over 8 years of commercialization, product development, and startup experience. Marc serves Technology Transfer at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) with responsibility for pursuing and executing licenses, partnerships and collaborations with industry, academia, and other research institutions.
Prior to joining LANL, Marc worked closely with several Massachusetts technology startups while completing his MBA at Babson College. He is an active member of New Mexico Angels and mentor to LANL's MBA Affiliate Program. Marc also manages LANL's Technology Maturation Fund, a $0.5M internal seed vehicle that moves promising LANL technologies from early concept to proof-of-concept and/or prototype stage.
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Rich Overmoyer, Consultant, GSP Consulting
Rich Overmoyer serves as the Director of GSP Economic Architecture and is based in the Pittsburgh office. Rich joined GSP in 2005 after serving the state of Pennsylvania for several years, most recently as the Deputy Secretary for the Technology Investment Office in the Commonwealth's Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The Technology Investment Office is the Commonwealth's center for funding and support for Pennsylvania's technology industry and community technology-related activities. While at the Technology Investment Office, Overmoyer managed several major initiatives including the Keystone Innovation Zones, the Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, the Life Science Greenhouses, Tobacco Settlement Investment Board, Industrial Resource Centers, and the CyberStart Initiative. Overall as Deputy Secretary, Rich managed over $82 million in annual appropriations and over $1 billion in funds under management with outside investors. Rich has a Master's Degree in Public Administration from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.
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Kim Pugliese, Director and Vice President, Kodak External Alliances
Kim has been an active leader in transforming Kodak’s venture capital group into an organization that now builds and leverages relationships with early stage firms, the venture capital community, universities, and research laboratories, accessing complementary technologies to accelerate and expand upon Kodak’s growth strategies. The group develops and executes alliances to acquire new technologies, gain market intelligence, and establish commercial relationships, including joint development agreements, license and equity agreements. Kim has negotiated and managed Kodak’s commercial relationships and strategic investments with several early-stage companies, is on the Board of Directors (or board observer) of four of Kodak’s portfolio companies, and has participated in numerous merger and acquisition transactions.
Kim has extensive experience in multi-functional positions, emphasizing business development and finance. In the late 90’s, Kim was instrumental in implementing a “direct investment approach” in support of Kodak’s venture capital program, versus the “fund-of-funds approach” which existed previously. Six months after initiating this change, she was promoted to Business Systems Manager/CFO of Kodak’s Digitization Business. In 2000, she returned to Kodak Venture Relations as a Director and as of August 2004, she assumed the role of Director & Vice President, Kodak Venture Relations.
Kodak External Alliances’ technology interest areas include computation and cognitive science, materials and processes, printing, and information management systems.
Kim’s educational background includes a University of Rochester, Simon School, MBA in finance and corporate accounting; and a Colgate University BA in mathematical economics.
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David Rose, CEO, Angelsoft and New York Angels
David S. Rose, the founder and Chairman of New York Angels, is an Inc 500 CEO and entrepreneurial investor. He has been described by Red Herring Magazine as "patriarch of New York's Silicon Alley" and by Crain's New York Business as one of New York's top 3 angel investors. New York Angels is the leading early stage investment consortium in the greater New York region, whose members have invested over $19 million in over two dozen companies in the past three years.
David has been dubbed "The Pitch Coach" by BusinessWeek for his work helping entrepreneurs perfect their fundraising skills, writes the angel investing column for American Venture magazine, and is an expert panelist for MSNBC-TV's show Your Business. He is Chairman and CEO of Angelsoft LLC, which operates the industry collaboration platform for early stage equity investing; Chairman of network security company KoolSpan, Inc., and Chairman of wireless network developer Ambient Devices. He is an active early stage investor in over 30 early stage companies.
Prior to founding AirMedia Corporation in 1988, for which he served as CEO for over ten years, he was co-founder and Chairman of The Computer Classroom and spent over ten years developing commercial and residential real estate. Earlier, he served as Deputy Director of the New York office of US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
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Sunil Selby, Managing Partner, Trellis Capital and Board Member of Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association
Sunil Selby is the Founder and Managing Partner of Trellis Capital Corporation, a private venture capital fund that provides growth capital and operational expertise to industrial, manufacturing, environmental, energy and material technology companies.
Prior to starting Trellis in May 2000, Sunil was Director of the Advanced Technology Fund of Royal Bank Capital Partners, the venture capital subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. During his eleven-year tenure with the company, he invested in approximately 35 companies, structuring and negotiating deals, playing an active role as a Director on the Boards of these companies, influencing senior management effectively, and ultimately negotiating optimal exits.
Sunil sits on the Board of various Canadian private companies as well as the Board of the Canadian Venture Capital Association. In his spare time, he teaches venture capital at the Michael de Groote School of Business, McMaster University.
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Joel Seligman, President, University of Rochester
One of the nation’s leading experts on securities law, Seligman is the coauthor, with the late Louis Loss, of the 11-volume Securities Regulation, the leading treatise in the field, and author of The Transformation of Wall Street: A History of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Modern Corporation Finance.
He also has served as reporter for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, Revision of Uniform Securities Act (1998–2002); as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Market Information (2000–01); and as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Professional Ethics Executive Committee. He is currently a member of the board of NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers).
He is the author or coauthor of 20 books and over 40 articles on legal issues related to securities and corporations. He is the co-author (with John C. Coffee Jr. of the Columbia University law school faculty) of the leading casebook Securities Regulations: Cases and Materials and author of the casebook Corporations: Cases and Materials.
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Albert Simone, President, Rochester Institute of Technology
Dr. Albert J. Simone became president of Rochester Institute of Technology in 1992. He is the eighth president in the university’s 177-year history.
Prior to coming to RIT, Dr. Simone was president of the University of Hawaii System and chancellor of the University of Hawaii at Manoa for nine years.
A native of Boston, Dr. Simone received his B.A. in economics from Tufts University and his Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Simone is the author of numerous books and articles, and has served on dozens of public and private boards over the years, chairing a number of them.
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John Spoonhower, Director, Kodak External Alliances
John P. Spoonhower is Director, Kodak External Alliances, of the Eastman Kodak Company. The Kodak External Alliances group creates and manages external technical alliances with the goal of technology acquisition for the Company. Alliance partners include University, Small Company, and Government institutions. He received a B.S. degree in Physics (Magna cum Laude) from the University of Notre Dame in 1972, and M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 1975, and 1977, respectively.
Dr. Spoonhower previously held the position of Chief Technologist for the System Concepts Center, a New Business development initiative in the Eastman Kodak Company. Additionally, Dr. Spoonhower is a past Technical Leader for Optical Spectroscopy in the Analytical Technology Division of the Kodak Research Laboratories. His technical background in spectroscopy includes Raman, fluorescence, and Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) methods applied to wide range of both organic and inorganic materials and devices. He is an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of Rochester. His most recent Research efforts concentrate on structural studies of point defects in technologically relevant optical glasses.
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Jeffrey Stamp, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of North Dakota
Dr. Stamp is Assistant Professor and Chair of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of North Dakota. Dr. Stamp provides extensive new product development expertise to technology ventures worldwide. He is skilled at marketplace and venture development and his research is focused on processes that result in opportunity identification, venture/intellectual property valuation, and market commercialization.
You will recognize Dr. Stamp by the products he has created while in corporate life. He was the inventor, creator, and brand manager of “Baked Lays”, for PepsiCo’s snack division Frito-Lay, which achieved $230 Million in 1st year sales and was named by Ernst and Young as the top brand introduction in the 90’s for the food sector.
Dr. Stamp is an experienced professor of Entrepreneurship. Dr. Stamp is also highly sought as a speaker, giving on average 45 keynotes nationwide each year. In 2003, he launched with his colleague Doug Hall, their 3rd book “Meaningful Marketing.”
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Dennis Stone, Assistant Manager of Commercialization, NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program
Dennis Stone is Assistant Manager for Commercialization in NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program in Houston. This Program is providing seed funding of $500M to Rocketplane-Kistler and SpaceX to demonstrate Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) which can then be purchased by Government and commercial customers. He led evaluation of business plans and due diligence supporting this investment decision by NASA. He currently leads NASA efforts to support the emerging commercial space transportation industry.
Mr. Stone spent 20 years in the management of NASA’s International Space Station program in system engineering, risk management, avionics, partnership development, and commercialization. Prior to joining NASA, he worked in Space Shuttle customer relations and in electronics hardware and software design for NASA contractors. He holds degrees from the University of Hawaii in electrical engineering and physics.
Mr. Stone is also volunteer President of Spaceweek International Association which supports the UN in the global coordination of World Space Week which inspires students in 50 nations.
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James Watters, Senior Vice President, Rochester Institute of Technology
Dr. Watters assumed his position at RIT in 1997. He is currently responsible for establishing the fiscal policies of the Institute and overseeing its financial affairs which includes the operating and capital budgets totaling $560 million, investments of $700 million, and publicly issued debt of $154 million. He is responsible for establishing the strategic direction for operational units comprised of over 700 full and part-time employees including Human Resources, Facilities Management, Risk Management and Insurance, Controllers, Payroll, Campus Safety, Housing, Food Service, Legal Services, Internal Audits, Information Technology Services, Telecommunications, and Institutional Research.
Dr. Watters provides volunteer services to the George Eastman House and International Museum, New York Wine and Culinary Center, and the American College of Management and Technology in Croatia where he is Treasurer of each organization. He is also a board director of the American University of Kosovo and the RIT High Tech Incubator. He received his B.S., M.A. and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.
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Christine Whitman, Chairman & CEO, Complemar, Inc.
Christine Whitman is the Chairman and CEO of Complemar Partners, Inc, a packaging and fulfillment company in Rochester, NY. She is also the Managing Partner in CSW Associates, where she manages a portfolio of equity investments. From 1990 to 2000, she served as Chairman, President and CEO of CVC, Inc., a worldwide supplier of thin film process equipment used in the manufacture of magnetic recording heads for disk drives, semiconductor devices and optical components. In 1999 she led a successful IPO for the company and in 2000, completed the sale of CVC, Inc. to Veeco Instruments.
Ms. Whitman also serves as Chairman of the Board of Soleo Communications, Inc, Fairport, NY, and Voiceport, LLC in Pittsford, NY. She serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Rochester Institute of Technology, serves as Chair of the Trustee’s Education Committee and serves as Vice Chair of the RIT High Tech Incubator. She also serves on the University of Rochester Medical Center Venture Advisory Board. She is Chair of the Rochester Angel Network. She serves as a member of the Greater Rochester Enterprise Board of Directors, the Al Sigl Partners Foundation Board of Governors, Halcyon Hill Foundation Board of Advisors and is Chair of the Rochester Museum and Science Center Board of Trustees.
She has previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of SEMI/SEMATECH. Additionally she has served on the Board of Directors of Frontier Telephone of Rochester and on the Board of M&T Bank.