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2007 Investment Forum & Technology Showcase Speakers & Panelists
Mark Anderson, CEO, Strategic News Service (SNS)
Mark Anderson is the CEO of the Strategic News Service (SNS), www.stratnews.com. SNS was the first subscription-based newsletter on the Internet, and is read by Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Mark Hurd, and industry leaders and investors in computing and communications worldwide. He is also founding chair of the Future in Review (FiRe) Conference, which The Economist has labeled the best technology conference in the world. He is the founding chair of SNS Project Inkwell, the first global consortium to address technology design changes for one-to-one computing in classrooms. He is the founder of two software companies, a hedge fund, and the Washington Technology Industry Association Investors Forum, Washingtons premier software investment conference.
Best known for his accurate forecasts of important technology market shifts, Mark has correctly predicted Steve Jobs return to Apple, the advent of a series of major PC market shifts and re-designs (including the CheapPC, the CarryAlongPC, and the Inkwell PC), and a decade of yen/dollar ratios. His 10-year, publicly graded accuracy rate is over 90%. His Congressional testimony on revising US broadband policy helped unlock the River of Money now fueling startups and media transitions in the U.S., and his well-known term AORTA (Always On RealTime Access) became the name of Europes first broadband net.
A member of the Merrill Lynch TechBrains Advisory Board, Mark is often retained by CEOs of leading technology firms to provide strategic advice, a service he also provides for foreign and domestic national political leaders. He is the author of occasional columns for Fortune and BusinessWeek magazines, and regularly appears on CNN-TV, CNBC, National Public Radio, and Wall Street Review, and in the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and the New York Times. He recently spoke throughout China as a guest of the U.S. Embassy, and is a frequently sought speaker around the world.
Paul Bialek, Managing Director, Frazier Technology Ventures
Paul serves on the boards of Smilebox, SNAPin, and W5 Networks. Paul has over 20 years experience in financial and operations management. From 1998 to 2001 he served as CFO and senior vice president, finance and operations at RealNetworks (NASDAQ: RNWK). Prior to joining RealNetworks, Paul served as CFO for Metapath Software Corporation, a venture-backed wireless communications software company. From 1993 to 1997, he served as CFO for Edmark Corporation, a Nasdaq listed multimedia software company, which was acquired by IBM in late 1996. Paul began his career at KPMG Peat Marwick, where he spent 11 years serving public and private technology companies.
Paul holds a degree in business administration from Seattle University (1982). Paul currently serves on the Washington Research Foundation. Paul also participates on the advisory board for Seattle Universitys accounting program and is a past director of the Washington Software Association (nonprofit trade association).
Stephane Dupont, CFA, Executive Vice President, National Venture Capital Association
Stephane joined the NVCA in May 2006. His primary responsibilities include senior representation and member services on the West Coast, coordination of regional outreach initiatives, industry focus initiatives, international and LP liaison.
Prior to the NVCA, Stephane was Managing Director with the Private Equity Group at Silicon Valley Bank. At SVB, Stephane created and ran the Venture Exchange program, which helped early stage VC source deals from the Banks portfolio of client companies. Over a two year period, Stephane sourced and helped close 24 early stage transactions totaling more than $100M.
Prior to joining SVB, Stephane was director of the Venture Capital Advisory Group for Ernst & Young in Palo Alto, California. During his five years with E&Y, Stephane coordinated the calling activities of Ernst & Young on Sand Hill Road. As such, he led a number of sales and business initiatives that increased E&Ys portfolio market share of the most promising and best-funded venture-backed companies.
Stephane began his career in Canada where, for a period of eight years after graduating from college, he held a variety of relationship and credit positions for Banque Nationale de Paris and Scotia Bank. During this period, Stephane structured and negotiated scores of financial transactions involving debt, equity and derivative products. His clients consisted of Canadian blue chip companies from a cross section of industries.
Stephane earned a bachelors degree in administration from the HEC - University of Montreal in 1990 and an MBA from the University of British Colombia in 1991. Stephane is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Stephane is a former board member of the California Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC) and a current board member of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs (SVASE).
Steve Elfman, Executive Vice President, Technology and Operations, Managing Director, Europe, InfoSpace
Steve Elfman is the Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations at Infospace. He joined InfoSpace in July 2003.
Previously, Elfman was The Executive Vice President of Operations at Terabeam, a provider of fiberless optics communications, where he oversaw New Product Development, Engineering and Manufacturing and Quality for both Free Space Optics and Millimeter Wave products.
Prior to joining Terabeam, Mr. Elfman was Chief Information Officer of AT&T Wireless Services where he was responsible for Information Technology, Business Security and Supplier Management. He has also served as Senior Vice President and CIO for GE Capital Fleet Services and IT Manager of International Operations for 3M.
Mr. Elfman graduated from the University of Western Ontario in Canada with a degree in Computer Science and Business.
Larry Feinsmith, Executive Director, Morgan Stanley Information Technology Division
Larry Feinsmith is an Executive Director in Morgan Stanley's Information Technology Division. Leveraging 23 years of business and technical experience in the software and technology industry, Larry focuses on strategy, partnership, and business development in the technology sectors such as Information Management, Knowledge Worker and Productivity solutions, as well as in Enterprise and Corporate Applications. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2002, Larry held senior management positions at Sybase, CrossWorlds Software (now IBM) and Vitria Technology.
Brian Goffman, Venture Partner, Madrona Venture Group
Brian focuses on companies building consumer and mobile applications, online advertising infrastructure, and Internet-enabled services. He joined Madrona as a Venture Partner in April 2006.
Previously, Mr. Goffman led business development as part of the launch of the unified communications business group at Microsoft, including a significant expansion of Microsoft's presence in enterprise instant messaging, web conferencing, and VoIP. Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Goffman was a principal at Austin Ventures, one of the leading venture capital firms in the US. At Austin Ventures, he was a board member or active advisor to companies including TechRepublic (acquired by C|Net), Listen.com / Rhapsody (acquired by RealNetworks), Motive (public), BroadJump (acquired by Motive), Ineto (acquired by Siebel), and BenefitMall (acquired by Allied Capital).
Prior to Austin Ventures, Mr. Goffman led business development for PointCast and was a product manager at Reuters. He was also a consultant at McKinsey & Company, concentrating on strategy and marketing in the media, consumer electronics, and financial services industries.
Mr. Goffman graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Jeremy Jaech, President and CEO, Trumba
Jeremy has founded and led two successful and market-creating consumer software companies in the past 20 years. Jaech was co-founder of Visio Corporation, the developer of the first mass-market business drawing and diagramming software, and served as its President, CEO and Chairman of the Board from 1990 until its acquisition by Microsoft Corporation in 2000. Post acquisition, Jaech served as Vice President of the Business Tools Division at Microsoft until June 2000. Prior to founding Visio Corporation, he co-founded Aldus Corporation, the first company to create graphical design software for the end-consumer. At Aldus, Jaech was the technical leader for the original development of PageMaker and went on to serve as Vice President of Engineering, managing Aldus' product development. Aldus was acquired by Adobe in 1994. Jaech serves on the Board of Directors of Seattle-based RealNetworks, Inc. and of Alibre Inc., a privately funded company located in Richardson, Texas. He holds a BA in mathematics and an MS in computer science from the University of Washington.
Paul Kwan, Executive Director, Morgan Stanley Technology Banking
Paul Kwan is responsible for Morgan Stanleys Software and Internet Banking practice on the West Coast, providing strategic advisory and financing services to leading private and public technology companies. Paul has been focused exclusively on the software and Internet industry for over eleven years. Paul and his team have had the privilege to work with category-defining companies spanning all segments of software, technology and digital media. Most recently, Paul helped lead the initial public offerings of Isilon Systems, the leader in clustered storage systems and software for digital content, and Omniture, the leader in online business optimization software. Recent strategic assignments have included work for AKQA, Allyes, Cadence, Documentum, Hyperion, Intuit, Macromedia and Oracle. Over the course of his career, Paul has been involved in over fifty technology transactions representing $40 billion in aggregate transaction volume including IPOs, capital markets financings, leveraged buyouts, and mergers and acquisitions. Paul received bachelor degrees in computer science and economics from Stanford
Bill McAleer, Managing Director, Voyager Capital
Bill has over 30 years of business experience and 18 years of senior executive and equity financing experience in the information technology industry.
Bill has participated on the boards of 17 companies, including 12 portfolio companies, focusing on business software and services, digital media, and wireless. Seven portfolio companies, Amplitude, Clear Commerce, Kadiri, Netpodium, SeeCommerce, Valchemy and Tegic, were sold for exits, and he currently serves on the boards of Attenex and Melodeo. He also sits on the board of Avocent (NASDAQ: AVCT), a public technology company with over $500 million in revenues.
Prior to co-founding Voyager in 1997, Bill was President of e.liance Partners, a consulting firm that advised information technology companies on strategy, venture financing and corporate partnering.
He served as Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of Aldus from 1988 to 1994, when the company's revenues grew from $39 to $240 million. He was responsible for global finance, legal, operations, and acquisition activities, including completing the merger with Adobe in 1994. He also served as a senior executive with Westin Hotels from 1979 to 1987.
Bill is active in several industry organizations, including serving as a director for the Washington Software Alliance. He is the chair of the Advisory Board for the University of Washington Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He also serves on the Advisory Board for Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Business and a member of the Cornell Council. He has been a featured speaker at industry conferences and panels. Bill earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.
Matt McIlwain, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group
Matt McIlwain focuses on a broad range of software-driven companies for Madrona. He currently serves on the boards of Farecast, iConclude, Illumita, Isilon Systems (ISLN), PayScale, Mixpo, and World Wide Packets. He was on the boards of Performant (acquired by Mercury Interactive) and Nimble (acquired by Actuate) and was actively involved with TeamOn Systems (acquired by Research in Motion).
Previously, he was Vice President of Business Process for the Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC), a Fortune 250 company. He also was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, concentrating on strategy and marketing in the telecom, supply chain and financial service industries, and worked in investment banking at CS First Boston.
Mr. McIlwain is a Technology Advisor to the Discovery Institute, a board member of Villa Academy, and advisory board member for Families Northwest. He and Greg Gottesman teach an annual course on venture capital in the University of Washington Executive MBA Program. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Larry Orr, Managing General Partner Trinity Ventures
Larry Orr is Managing General Partner of Trinity Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded in 1986 and focused on building leading-edge information technology companies.
Larry has been with Trinity Ventures since 1989, and currently oversees the day-to-day operations of the firm and its strategic investment direction. Larry is also an investor and active member of the Board of Directors for several technology companies within the Trinity portfolio, including DVC Labs, Identity Engines, MSpot, Network Physics and Vimo. Throughout his career at Trinity, he has invested in numerous successful technology companies including Aruba Networks (IPO), BackWeb (IPO), Bix (acquired by Yahoo), Crescendo (acquired by Cisco), Digital Market (acquired by Agile Software), Extreme Networks (IPO), Forte Software (IPO), MetaReward (acquired by Experian), Net Effect Systems (acquired by Ask Jeeves), Network Alchemy (acquired by Nokia), Wall Data (IPO). Larry is also a member of the board of directors of Entrepreneurs Foundation, a community non-profit organization.
Prior to joining Trinity, Larry held various marketing and management positions with Hewlett-Packard's Information Network Group. Earlier in his career, Larry worked with New York investment firm Niederhoffer, Cross and Zeckhauser on mergers and acquisitions, and with Bain & Company, a leading management consulting firm.
Larry is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University where he majored in mathematics. He is a 1982 MBA graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and earned the Deloitte, Haskins and Sells award as the top accounting student.
Jodi Sherman Jahic, Principal, Voyager Capital
Jodi Sherman Jahic is a Principal at Voyager Capital in Menlo Park, California, where she leads Voyagers wireless sector team. Prior to joining Voyager in 2001, she was a senior associate at Battery Ventures where she invested in early-stage companies in wireless data, semiconductor process control, and communications software. In 1999 she was selected as a Kauffman Fellow in venture capital by the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Before entering the venture capital business, Jodi was on the founding team of several successful startups such as Prague-based executive search firm Personnel Select (now a division of Hudson). She has also worked in the technology industry group at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where she led projects for clients such as Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector, Pacific Bell, and Sun Microsystems.
Jodi is a director on the board of Airlink Communications and represents Voyagers investments to the boards of Tropos Networks, Melodeo, and Contivo.
Jodi graduated magna cum laude from Pomona College with a concentration in physics and holds an MBA in finance and marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is a frequent speaker and panelist on the topics of wireless communications and venture investment at a wide variety of industry conferences. She serves on the Executive Council for the Womens Technology Cluster in San Francisco and is a member of the Alumni Advisory Board for the Kauffman Fellows Program. She also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Springboard Silicon Valley. Jodi is an avid traveler and has visited over 45 countries around the globe.
Susan Sigl, General Partner, SeaPoint Ventures
Susan co-founded SeaPoint Ventures in July 1997. She is involved in all aspects of the Firms venture capital activities including deal-flow generation, review of proposals, due diligence, deal structuring and portfolio management. Susan is also actively involved in public relations, investor relations and the management of the firms financial and administrative functions.
Susan began her career at Price Waterhouse in Houston, Texas. She subsequently held financial executive positions in several privately held, entrepreneurial companies in both Houston and Seattle.
Susan is actively involved in Northwest organizations. She was the past President of the Evergreen Venture Capital Association and an originating Board member for the Northwest Chapter of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs. Susan has been a long-standing mentor in the University of Washingtons MBA Mentor Program and was previously an Advisory Board member of Seattle Universitys Entrepreneurship Center. Susan is a Board Director of Entomo, Inc. She served as the Interim Chief Financial Officer of SNAPin Software, Inc. between 2004 and 2006 and remains a financial advisor to SNAPin. Susan is currently the Interim Chief Financial Officer of ZenZui, Inc. Susan received both her BA and MBA from the University of Washington.
Mike Slade, Partner, Second Avenue Partners
Mike Slade retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Starwave Corp., Paul Allen's trailblazing venture into the Internet and multimedia products arena, upon the completion of its sale to the Walt Disney Corp. in late 1998. Since that time he has divided his time between strategic consulting to various high-tech firms; working with various startups with his partners at Second Avenue Partners; and working closely with the management of the Professional Bowler's Association, of which he is a co-owner. From 1998 until 2004 Slade consulted 1/2 time for Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, where he sat on his executive team. In 2005 he became a strategic advisor to Real Networks' CEO, Robert Glaser and consulted with the NBA and Starbucks as well. He is currently a strategic advisor to Disney and the NFL. He and his wife, Megan, have a one-year-old son who adores his sisters ages 11 and 13.
While at Starwave, Slade launched ESPN.com, ABCNews.com and the Go.com network, among other premier websites that have now become household names. Slade joined Starwave in 1993 after briefly serving as vice president of special projects for Asymetrix Corp., reporting to Paul Allen. He spent 1991-92 as the VP-Marketing for NeXT Computer, Inc., reporting to Steve Jobs. Slade began his career at Microsoft in 1983 and spent seven years there in a variety of product marketing roles.
Products he introduced to the market at Microsoft include Excel (1985), Works (1987), and Microsoft Office (1989). He served as director of corporate marketing in Microsoft's systems software division before leaving in late 1990. He formerly served on the boards of two public companies; Metricom, Inc (1994-96); and The CKS Group (1996-98). Slade earned a B.A. in Economics from Colorado College in 1979, and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 1983. He currently serves on the boards for aQuantive, Inc. (AQNT), the Professional Bowlers Association, Azaleos Corporation, Atomic Moguls, Got Voice, Sports Technology, Inc., and Newsvine Inc. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Colorado College, and locally serves on the board of Broadway Bound Children's Theatre.
Adrian Smith, Principal, Ignition
Adrian is a principal at Ignition. Adrian invests in telecommunications and wireless companies and represents Ignition as a director on the board of Singlepoint and Twisted Pair Solutions.
Prior to Ignition, Adrian spent 12 years in leading technology roles at Nextlink, AT&T Wireless, McCaw Cellular Communication and British Telecom Research Laboratories. Adrians responsibilities have included the radio architecture and evolution of the LMDS broadband fixed wireless technology, the browser transport mechanism for integrated cellular voice and data solutions and the TDMA air interface design and specification.
Adrian joined British Telecom Research Laboratories in the UK in 1989 and worked on the ETSI standards for the Digital European Cordless Telecommunication (DECT) technology, developing DECT testbeds for voice, data and wireless video applications.
Adrian is the author of a number of patents associated with cellular technology as well as co-author of the book "IS-136 TDMA Technology, Economics and Services."
Gus Tai, General Partner Trinity Ventures
Since joining Trinity in 1996, Gus has specialized in funding early stage companies pioneering new market categories. He particularly enjoys getting involved at the time of company formation, working with founders to help build the team and refine the business model.
Gus focuses on consumer services and consumer enabling technologies, and maintains an interest in enterprise software. Representative companies that Gus funded, most for which he led or co-led the first institutional round, include the following:
Consumer Services: Blue Nile (NILE); eSurance (acquired by White Mountains Insurance: WTM); mSpot; Photobucket; PlayFirst; scanR; Wetpaint
Consumer Enabling Technologies: Amalfi Semiconductor; Modulus Video; SpeedEra Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies: AKAM)
Enterprise Software: Aventail; Invio Software (acquired by Veritas: VRTS); Jobster; KIVA Software (acquired by AOL/Netscape: AOL); Sygate Technologies (acquired by Symantec: SYMC)
Prior to Trinity, Gus began his operational career in engineering management at Digital Equipment Corporation. He also worked at Bain & Company, consulting to technology firms on new product development and business strategy.
Gus is a graduate from Harvard University where he majored in Applied Mathematics. In 1989, he was awarded a Leaders for Manufacturing Fellowship to attend MIT, where he received an MBA from the Sloan School of Management and an MS from the Department of Materials Science. Gus is a Director of the MIT Club of Northern California and the Chinese Software Professionals Association.
Dr. Reed Thorkildsen, Vice President of Technology and R&D, InfoSpace
Dr. Reed Thorkildsen is the Vice President of Technology and R&D for InfoSpace. In this role, Dr. Thorkildsen is responsible for identifying and applying emerging technologies to advance InfoSpace's products and partnerships, and to continue to build market share.
A valued past member of senior management teams for many communications technology and telecom companies, Dr. Thorkildsen brings more than 25 years of technology and strategic business development experience and key relationships with the major North American carriers, infrastructure partners and handset manufacturers to InfoSpace. Most recently, Dr. Thorkildsen was director of technical business development at CoCo Communications Corporation, an early-stage Seattle company, where he managed technology and business relationships with customers and partners involving its secure, interoperable communications technologies for wireless and wired networks.
Previously, Dr. Thorkildsen served as vice president of wireless for British Telecom subsidiary BT Syntegra, and drove the company's wireless growth through new business development. Prior to that, he enjoyed a long and distinguished telecom career working for Lucent Technologies and AT&T Bell Laboratories. At Lucent, Dr. Thorkildsen's responsibilities spanned areas from joint technology roadmap development with customers to business development and sales. After receiving a PhD in Physics from the University of Virginia, Dr. Thorkildsen went to Bell Labs in 1981 and worked with pioneers in speech recognition developing algorithms and implementations that culminated in one of the first systems for recognition in the mobile environment. He continued work in speech processing by representing AT&T at U.S. and international standards bodies for speech coding for digital cellular systems. The team he led developed the Enhanced Variable Rate Coder for CDMA in 1995.
As part of his duties at InfoSpace, Dr. Thorkildsen represents the company on the Wireless Internet Caucus Leadership Team within CTIA - The Wireless Association. He has published articles and given lectures on such topics as the wireless Internet, wireless multimedia and speech coding.
Peter Wilson, Engineering Director, Google Seattle
Peter Wilson is an Engineering Director at Google's Seattle/Kirkland engineering center, where he is responsible for research and development activities across real-time communications, media and advertising projects.
He joined Google in 2005. Prior to Google, Peter held various roles at Microsoft where he worked on a variety of operating system and online services projects.
In addition to directing Google's engineering efforts in Seattle, Peter is actively involved in a number of Google's community-related activities including the Washington Technology Alliance.
Peter earned a B.Sc. in Computer Science from London University's Imperial College. |
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