Lisa Alderson
SVP and GM, 4D Global Partners, LLC
Lisa Alderson has more than 15 years experience building media and technology businesses. She is an advisor, board member, investor and founding partner to early-stage companies with a focus on digital media, consumer Internet and web services. She founded her first company at the age of 19 and has now been involved with six early-stage ventures.
Lisa is the former CEO and President at CrossLoop, Inc., a venture-backed consumer Internet company that connects computer users with trusted, qualified service providers to deliver remote computer support and training. Prior to that, Lisa was the president of Cinema Circle, Inc., a pioneer in subscription based home entertainment for independent filmmakers, where she oversaw content, original production, marketing, distribution, fulfillment, customer service, legal, and finance. Cinema Circle, Inc. was acquired by Gaiam, Inc. (NASDAQ: GAIA). Lisa has managed three other venture backed start-ups through funding and market launch, including Omnilux, Inc. (now Clearmesh Networks), Genomic Health (NASDAQ: GHDX), and iExchange.com (now Placemark Investments). Lisa is a former manager of Strategic Planning at The Walt Disney Company where she developed long-term strategy and new business initiatives for ABC, ESPN and Disney’s other cable assets. She is also a former strategy consultant.
Lisa holds an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Colorado State University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.
Danielle Allen
Director of Global Brand Management, Iron Mountain
Danielle Allen joined Iron Mountain Product Marketing in 2006 and has been leading the development and execution of the Global Brand since 2008.
Prior to Iron Mountain, Allen held several senior marketing positions in industry leading high technology companies such as Intel and Sun Microsystems.
Allen has a Bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Santa Clara.
Dave Armanasco
President, Armanasco Public Relations, Inc.
David founded Armanasco Public Relations, Inc. (APR) in February 1985. With his years of experience in marketing, public relations, community relations, public affairs and crisis management he leads a team of professionals in addressing clients’ needs and goals. He is well-known for his expertise in land use, agriculture, tourism, foodservice, banking, transportation, the arts, and utility industry issues.
David began his professional career at the age of 21 when he became the first sales representative for Oakville Vineyards in the Napa Valley. He then went to work for A.L. Romano Wine Company of San Francisco as a Sales Representative and later was promoted to Sales Director and Brand Manager. During the 8 years at the A.L. Romano Wine Company, he worked closely with Robert Mondavi on marketing initiatives for their Napa Valley wines. Later, he helped launch the J. Lohr brand for Jerry Lohr and Bernie Turgeon. In 1980, David became the General Manager of Durney Vineyards in Carmel Valley, a wine estate founded by the wine pioneers of the Carmel Valley, William and Dorothy Durney. While in the wine business, he was Co-Founder and Master of Ceremonies for the California (Monterey) Wine Festival, Wine Advisor for the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, President of the International Wine & Food Exposition in Washington, D.C., Founding Commander of the Monterey County Knights of the Vine, Vice President of the Monterey County Vintners and Growers, and Marketing Committee Member of the Wine Institute of California.
David attended Monterey Peninsula College, San Diego State University and Golden Gate College. David served on the California Coastal Commission (1996-1999) and has received the Congressional Award and the California State Senate and Assembly Leadership Awards. In addition to his role as president of APR, David is an active participant in numerous charitable, community, arts and educational organizations.
Tom Armstrong
Partner at the law firm of White & Lee, LLP
Tom Armstrong has over 26 years of experience representing emerging companies, angel groups, business incubators, and venture capital funds. He is a Partner at the law firm of White & Lee, LLP (www.whiteandlee.com) which represents and advises numerous angel groups and investors including Maverick Angels (www.maverickangels.com), Band of Angels (www.bandangels.com), Golden Seeds (www.goldenseeds.com) and TechBA (www.techba.com). His practice includes representation of companies and investors in various industries including life sciences, medical devices, software, internet, consumer goods, clean tech and entertainment.
Mr. Armstrong has invested in over 20 emerging companies and has acted as a consultant to numerous emerging companies including Tesla Motors (www.teslamotors.com), Bookfinder.com (www.bookfinder.com), Kimochis (www.kimochis.com), Driversed.com (www.driversed.com) and SOS Online Backup (www.sosonlinebackup.com). He is also on the Advisory Board of Ion Partners (www.ion-partners.com), an investment banking firm specializing in assisting emerging companies in capital raising and mergers and acquisitions, and an eight–year member of The Keiretsu Forum (www.keiretsuforum.com). He is a member of the faculty of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and has spoken widely on representation and financing of emerging companies and is past Chairman of the Business Section of the Alameda County Bar Association.
Mr. Armstrong received his undergraduate degree from Pomona College and his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where he was an Editor for the Communications and Entertainment Law Journal.
Brad Barbeau
Professor, CSUMB School of Business & Member, Central Coast Investor's Roundtable
Brad Barbeau's career has spanned a wide variety of activities, including being a faculty member at a top business school, a company executive, founder of several businesses, and consultant. His forte is the development of innovative financial and strategic business models and building organizations to effectively execute those models. He is currently on the faculty of the School of Business at CSU Monterey Bay where he teaches courses in economics, marketing strategy, and entrepreneurship.
Brad's consulting practice includes business model development, strategic planning processes, and organization development. In 2000, Brad founded and ran The Monterey Beverage Company, which became a regional distributor of over 50 brands of beer and soft drinks in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties in California. Prior to Monterey Beverage, Brad was a founding partner in Global Natural Brands, Ltd. Global was formed to undertake investments, acquisitions and mergers in the food and beverage industry, focusing on small-to-medium sized natural and organic manufacturers. During this time he also served as Vice President of Marketing for Organic Food Products, Inc. of Morgan Hill, California.
During his earlier academic career, Brad was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business for twelve years and director of the school's Leadership Exploration and Development (LEAD) Laboratory. Brad holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. He also received his MBA and a master's degree in economics from the University of Michigan, and his B.A. in economics and history from Michigan State University.
Brad is a founding member of the Central Coast Investor's Roundtable in Monterey County, California, and a member of the Monterey Rotary.
Alan Barich
Partner, Barich Business Services
Alan Barich’s 30 years of engineering, sales, marketing and general management experience include having complete profit and loss responsibility for business success in the power industry, manufacturing and logistics and 15 years working inside start-up companies. He has run small, privately owned businesses as well as large divisions of publicly held enterprises. Alan is a consultant for the California Energy Commission assisting alternative energy technology developers to commercialize their discoveries and developments.
Alan has turned around small companies by managing cash flow and customer confidence. He worked up the ranks of the Enterprise Engine Company, an engine-manufacturing division of both Transamerica Delaval and, later, IMO Industries, from field engineering to sales and marketing to customer service to general manager of the division. He was then recruited to create the TurboCare Division of IMO Industries, now a cash cow for Siemens, from 5 former competitors servicing the after-market needs of turbo machinery world-wide.
After successfully positioning TurbCare in the market, Alan worked with start-up companies in Silicon Valley, then provided turn-around general management for a failing aftermarket engine company in northern California, managing their cash flow and client relations to bring them back to profitability. Alan’s experience also includes 10 years as vice-president of a privately held warehousing and logistics company managing all aspects of the business. Alan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo.
Susan Barich
Partner, Barich Business Services
Susan Barich has more than 18 years experience working with start-up companies and business incubation in the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay areas, particularly in the areas of business communications, strategy and project development, including 10 years working with small and emerging companies.
Since 2003, Susan has been executive director of the Marina Technology Cluster, an economic development project of the City of Marina and part of the Fort Ord closure plan.
Susan is the former director of communications and client services for the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. She was the director of the Regional Environmental Business Resource and Assistance Center at Mission College in Santa Clara, and she was the associate director of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network’s environmental initiative. Susan also spent one year with the TEN/NASA incubator, assisting technology start-ups with marketing, as well as designing and implementing the incubator’s outreach to colleges and universities.
Susan sits on the board of directors of Goodwill Industries of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties and on the advisory board of the San Jose Environmental Business Cluster. She was founding chair of the Silicon Valley Industry Education Advisory Board, and is a founding member of the Pacific Incubation Network. Susan holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis on public relations from San Jose State University.
Gary Bjorklund
Band of Angels
Gary C. Bjorklund did his undergraduate work at M.I.T., where he majored in Physics, and his Ph.D. research at Stanford University in the Department of Applied Physics.
In the early part of his career, Bjorklund worked at two major industrial research laboratories. From 1974-1979, Bjorklund was a member of the Technical Staff at Bell Labs, Holmdel, where he performed research in quantum electronics and nonlinear optics. From 1979-94 he worked for IBM Research in San Jose in a variety of management positions where he directed technology development efforts on a variety of applications of photonics for information technology.
Since 1994, Bjorklund has been involved primarily with small companies. He has served as an executive, consultant, and board member for a number of photonics startups. From 1994-98 he was Director of Advanced Development at Optivision/Optical Networks and from 2000-01 he was Chief Technology Officer at Nanovation Technologies. As a consultant, he has done work for a numerous photonics industry clients, including both companies and investors. From 2006-09, he served as Consulting Director for the Stanford Photonics Research Center (SPRC). Since 2009, he has been active as an angel investor in a number of high technology start-up companies in the areas of photonics and clean technology.
Bjorklund has also been active in the leadership of several non-profit organizations. He served on the Board of Governors of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-optics Society from 1982-87 and was President of that organization in 1986. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Optical Society of America (OSA) from 1989-99 and was President of that society in 1998.
In 2010, Bjorklund was elected to the Board of Directors of the Monterey Symphony and he is currently serving as a member of the Development Committee and the Strategy Committee of that organization. Bjorklund is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the OSA. In 2010 he was the recipient of OSA’s Distinguished Service Award.
Chuck Boggs
Principal, Paladin Venture Development
Chuck works with early stage, high-technology clients to develop and execute funding campaigns, recruit senior executives and establish early customer and strategic relationships Chuck is a co-founder of Centegy Corporation, an internet-business solutions provider focused on supply-chain management.
Previously, as Vice President of NovaLink USA, he designed, sold and managed the development of more than 60 Website projects for clients: American Express Travel Services, Harvard’s Deaconess Medical Center, Digital Equipment Corporation, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Meissner & Wurst GMBH, Norton Corporation and Silicon Valley Bank. Chuck’s management career spans more than 25 years, during which he served as a Senior Executive in a public company, took a company public as CEO, served on the senior team of several start ups and authored several articles on telecommunications management and technology.
Chuck is a San Francisco native who attended San Francisco State University and majored in Radio, Television and Film Production. Chuck is a member of Golden Gate Angels, the Central Coast Investor’s Roundtable, an Advisor to the Marina Technology Cluster, and a member of the Parkinson’s Institute Advisory Board.
Rock Clapper
Band of Angels
Rock left his professorship at Brown University and came to Silicon Valley in 1994. The move coincided with his first look at an Internet application called a 'browser'. His doctorate in applied social psychology was a perfect background for creating web-based consumer and business environments. At the time, Rock had done years of research, published many papers on persuasive communication and was a sought-after speaker in the U.S. and internationally.
Rock holds a B.S. in Psychology from Arizona State University, a Masters and Doctorate in Applied Social Psychology from the University of Houston, and is an alumnus of Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program. Rock has been the CEO of several successful Internet and software companies in Silicon Valley. He is a veteran of company acquisitions, having negotiated such for each company he led, as well as having led a company to the position of a public offering.
As a member of the Band of Angels, the oldest formal private investor group in the U.S., he actively participates in company screening, due diligence and investment decisions.
Erik Cushman
Publisher, Monterey County Weekly
Erik Cushman's kids love him. As for the rest of the world, the jury is still out. Cushman imagines that his kids see him as a renaissance newspaper executive. His first newspaper job was with the Washington Post in 1973--he was the paperboy on the Bethesda route.
Today he's publisher at Monterey County Coast Weekly, the largest circulation newspaper in one of the nicest places on the planet. In between those two gigs he was a founding partner in the first alternative weekly in Montana -- the Missoula Independent -- in 1990. Cushman sold that paper in 1996, was promptly fired by the new owner, moved to Colorado to work as General Manager at Colorado Springs Independent and then made his way to California in 1999.
In previous lives Cushman worked as a rock 'n' roll promoter and commercial fisherman, he has had work published in Rolling Stone and Worth magazines, he holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Montana. These days in addition to pitching ad contracts and criticizing the editorial staff he's also become, somewhat to his chagrin, an authority on boring stuff like workplace law and employee benefits. He and his wife Kristin and two young daughters live in Pacific Grove.
Susan Duggan
Founder & CEO, Duggan International
Susan J. Duggan is the founder of the Silicon Valley World Internet Center, a think tank for internet related technologies, and president of Duggan International.
Susan is the senior strategist for The Language Flagship, an advanced foreign language learning initiative sponsored by the Department of Defense. From 1993-1998 Susan served as the senior policy consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense's National Security Education Program. In 1992, she co-founded and managed an international education agency with program development throughout Eastern Europe and Latin America.
A Fulbright Scholar to Germany and Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, Susan holds a Ph.D. and Masters in Education/Political Science, and a B.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University. She also earned a Masters in Political Science/International Relations from Université Laval. She has served on several advisory boards of Silicon Valley start-up companies. Susan is conversant in five languages; fluent in German and French.
Elliott Easterling
CEO and Co-Founder of Redricks Media
Elliott is an innovator, leader and digital savant who delivered RBM from boutique search marketing firm to global interactive agency. In 2003 Elliott launched the company and has been instructive in leading its faced-paced growth and regional expansion, servicing the needs of some of the world’s biggest brands. Elliott’s relentless pursuit of innovation and excellence has produced a sequence of new services lines that have consistently set the pace for the digital advertising industry. He brings over 15 years of digital marketing to his stewardship of the firm.
Prior to RBM he was VP of Sales and Account Management at Digital Impact (now Acxiom Digital) and oversaw 60% of the company’s accounts. Armed with a B.A. from Amherst College and a Masters in International Technology Management from UC San Diego, Elliott’s abiding interests include fluency in two languages, an appreciation for painting and photography, and extensive world travel.
Chuck Erickson
President & Founder, CECO Consulting
Chuck Erickson is a business consultant, coach and mentor specializing in assisting start up companies in Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay Area. During his 10-year tenure as Executive Director of the Environmental and Software Business Clusters in San Jose, he advised more than 15 companies in successful market entry. In those 10 years client companies raised over $750 Million USD in growth capital.
Chuck’s 25 years of management experience focused in the areas of innovative software and hardware development, international business and corporate operations. He has extensive international experience in software and hardware development, marketing, and manufacturing. In 2006, Chuck added the role of CEO and Executive Director for the US Market Access Center, developing an effective program to assist foreign companies in their quest to open channels of business in the United States. He assisted a number of those clients in raising $160 million of US investment capital. Chuck is also a consultant to foreign governments for the creation of effective programs for technical commerce export. Previously Chuck was a business consultant specializing in start-up or start-over operations and activities involving interim CEO positioning or CEO coaching. He has held positions as Corporate Founder, President and CEO, Managing Director, and Technical Director of entrepreneurial management teams in start-up and turnaround companies.
Chuck holds a BSEE from Illinois Institute of Technology, has done post-graduate studies at The University of Chicago, and has been a frequent guest lecturer at Illinois Institute of Technology, Penn State University and San Jose State University.
Will Griffith
General Partner of Technology Crossover Ventures
Will joined TCV in 2000 and became a General Partner in 2003. He brings over thirteen years of financing experience to TCV. Will primarily focuses on wireless, infrastructure and internet opportunities. Since joining TCV, Will has worked on investments in Adknowledge, Fandango (acquired by Comcast), kgb, Lynk Systems (acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland), Orbitz (NYSE: OWW), Riskmetrics (NYSE: RMG, acquired by MSCI), Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL, acquired by Intersil), thinkorswim (acquired by Investools), Tiny Prints and Travelport among others. He currently serves as a Board Member at Adknowledge, Orbitz (NYSE: OWW), Money Expert, Tiny Prints, Travelport and Whitepages.
Prior to TCV, Will was an Associate at The Beacon Group, a private equity firm that was acquired by JP Morgan Chase in 1999. Before joining The Beacon Group, Will was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.
Will received a B.A. in Engineering and History from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dave Hodgin
Chairman, The Pathfinder Companies
Dave Hodgin, Chairman of The Pathfinder Companies, is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) with degrees in Economics, International Trade, and extensive experience as a business manager.
Mr. Hodgin served as the Vice President Administration & Finance for Paul Hardeman S.A.(building sections of the Pan American Highway in Argentina, VP Administration & Finance for Fibraglas S.A (manufacturing & licensing management, Owens Corning Fiberglas) in Colombia; General Manager for the Fandrich Companies (paint & chemical distributors), Sport Data, Inc.(statistics), Eco Bio Systems, Inc.(household chemicals), American Made Manufacturing, Inc. (metal fabrication), Sunset Recreation, Inc. (resort management); President of American Powerwash Corporation (cleaning systems, supplies and services), Compustudy, Inc.(computer software education), American Holiday Resorts, Inc. (resort management); Chairman of California Microelectronic Systems, Inc. (computer systems); In most of these assignments Mr. Hodgin’s primary task was to organize the business and select and train a management team.
Currently he has completed 40 years as a professional Business and Management Consultant, has earned the CMC designation (Certified Management Consultant) and continues to serve a variety of clients throughout the United States and overseas. In addition he serves on the Board of various companies, associations and community organizations, as well as chairing the Monterey Bay Consultants Group.
Chris Khan
Principal, Khan-Bernier
Chris Khan is the principal of Khan-Bernier, a business services consultancy to private start-up companies and government entities. He has worked with nearly two hundred incubator clients since 2003 and has been serving as Associate Director of the Marina Technology Cluster since 2007. He serves on the steering committee for the Project 17 Agricultural Technology Regional Innovation Cluster and on the steering committee for the Monterey Bay Regional Business Plan Competition.
Chris’s background includes more than 18 years experience in the semiconductor industry in the areas of production, engineering, and management. He was CEO of Epitaxy, Inc., where he led the company to successful acquisition by LG of Korea. He has consulted in the development of software design for Washington and California-based companies including his work as a standards research fellow for the Department of Defense in Seaside, California. He is retired from the School of Information Technology and Communications Design at CSU Monterey Bay after 10 years as a program coordinator, lecturer, and graduate advisor.
Chris holds an MS degree in Management and Information Technology and a BS degree in Telecommunications, Multimedia, and Applied Computing, both from CSU Monterey Bay. His latest effort is the development of SEED Microenterprise, a non-profit organization focused on connecting microenterprise business start-up and support resources with people starting microenterprise businesses.
Jefferson B. Kise
Lecturer, CSUMB
School of Business
Jeff has over twenty five years private operations and financial leadership experience. He teaches Finance and Entrepreneurship at CSUMB and is also a Consultant for Regional Government Services.
His past responsibilities include COO roles in group health plan and pension operations; CFO roles including high growth company venture capital fund raising; growth and turn around Consulting engagements; and various Commercial Banking positions.
Jeff has a dual MBA in Finance and Information Systems from Drexel University and a BA in Economics from Trinity College (CT).
Colleen Langevin
Senior Vice President, Marketing at Iron Mountain
Colleen Langevin joined Iron Mountain in 2001 and has responsibility for go-to-market strategy for Iron Mountain’s services and solutions portfolio within North America.
Prior to Iron Mountain, Langevin held a number of senior marketing strategy and market management positions within the software, consumer marketing and automotive market sectors.
Langevin holds a Bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and an MBA from Babson College.
Dan Lankford
Managing Director, Wavepoint Ventures
Dan brings more than 30 years of experience in the telecommunications equipment, software, semiconductor, and energy technology industries to Wavepoint, including senior leadership roles at AT&T/Bell Labs/Agere Systems and several early-stage companies. Prior to Wavepoint, Dan was Chairman and CEO of BOLDER Technologies, where he took the company from early-stage through IPO and raised more than $100 million in the private and public markets. Before joining BOLDER he was the CEO of AT&T Microelectronics (Agere Systems) Europe, where he increased revenues from $15 million to $250 million in five years and established the company as one of the leading chip, opto-electronic, and power systems suppliers to the European electronics industry. Prior to moving to Europe, Dan served as vice president of marketing for AT&T's $2.5 billion worldwide microelectronics business. He was also part of the team that commercialized the UNIX business at Bell Labs. He has been involved with early-stage technology ventures for more than 20 years as an investor, board member, executive, and consultant.
Dan has a master's degree in management from Stanford Business School where he was a Sloan Fellow; he also has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering (with honors) from John Hopkins University and has attended the Senior European Executive Program at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. Dan is a former commissioner on the Colorado Governor's Commission on Science and Technology and has presented at the White House Conference on Alternative Energy.
Carol Lauffer
Partner, Business Cluster Development
Carol is a Partner at Business Cluster Development (BCD), which specializes in incubation and innovation projects based upon sector or cluster-based economic development. Carol’s work at BCD includes consulting assignments with universities, economic development organizations, non-profit organizations, and corporations. Her recent consulting engagements have included a market analysis and best practices study for a cleantech business incubator at Hunters Point for the City of San Francisco; the creation of a business plan for a technology commercialization center at Arkansas State University; and advising Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on developing a regional innovation cluster around energy efficient buildings.
Prior to joining BCD, Carol was the Managing Director of the Panasonic Incubator, a corporate venture-backed incubator in Silicon Valley, California, as well as a Principal in Panasonic Ventures, the direct investment arm of Matsushita Electric Industrial. Previously, she was the Associate Director of the Software Development Forum, the largest organization for software start-ups in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she forged strategic partnerships with leading Silicon Valley technology companies and developed a full range of entrepreneurial business programs for software start-ups.
Carol currently serves as First Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). She began her career at the University City Science Center, one of the oldest incubators and science parks in the United States, and has more than 20 years of experience in economic development and non-profit management. Carol earned a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Northwestern University.
Brooks McChesney
President & CEO of Vidient Systems
Brooks McChesney has been an entrepreneur and senior executive in technology companies for more than 30 years. Most recently he served as the President & CEO of Vidient Systems, a Company he founded and whose core technology he spun out of NEC’s Multimedia Research Lab. The lab produces intelligent video surveillance software used to secure critical infrastructure both civilian and military, transportation hubs and other sensitive facilities worldwide. Previous management experience includes being on the founding executive team of Businessland (NYSE:BUSL); Founder & President of Hands On Technology; EVP & COO IVN Communications; President & CEO Colossal Pictures and VP Business Development/Sales Bizfinity. He served for many years on the Board of Directors of the San Jose Software Business Cluster where he was active in mentoring start-up companies from inception to Series A funding. Notable graduates of the Cluster include Callico, Agile and eGain. He has served as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Callidus Software and has been a member of the Board of Advisors of The Enterprise Network. He was a Founding Board Member of the Internet Services Initiative and has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars.
Currently he consults with a variety of venture funds and start-up companies, providing management and consulting services and helping them secure funding and develop successful sales and marketing strategies. He is a member of the Naval Postgraduate Foundation in Monterey, California; a member of the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team; a founding member of the SOSSEC Consortium; and Chairman of the Continuing Education Committee of the Monterey Museum of Art.
Bob Mellino
Lecturer, Monterey Peninsula College
Bob Mellino has spent the past four years as a Business Instructor at Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) teaching everything from financing (where and how to get the money) to Business Plan Writing and Oral presentations to Angels of Industry and Venture Capitalist. He also provides consulting services to such companies as JETRO (Japanese External Trade Organization) on everything from promoting joint venture deals to investments.
In the past he has lectured for Crittenden (a Division of McGraw Hill) on various topics as ”How to Raise Foreign Capital”, and Large Commercial Financing. Bob has also worked in such areas as Marketing, MIS (Management Information Systems) team member, Licensed Investment Broker, Finance, etc. for such companies as IBM, General Electric, Clayton Brokerage Co., World Savings, and Bank of New York to mention a few. He also spent time working with Nihon Gingko (Bank of Japan-Federal Reserve Bank) in Tokyo.
Bob is an active investor in multiple investment clubs such the MSGN Club which made 33% annually in a down market. He enjoys attending events held by such groups as the Band of Angels and Life Science Angels, and attending such conferences as the C21 Conference on Bio-Technology Future Investments.
Bob holds an AA Degree in Business from Community College Upstate NY, a BS Degree in Marketing and Economics from SUNY, and an MBA in International Finance and Business from Golden Gate University.
Todd Miller
CEO and Founder of Gwabbit
Todd Miller is CEO and Founder of gwabbit.com, maker of the award-winning series of gwabbit contact capture and cloud products. Declared a ""Head-slappingly simple solution to a grating problem"" by BusinessWeek, gwabbit has received numerous awards and accolades, including two DEMOgods, winner of the CES Mobile Apps showdown 2010, and Inc Magazine's list of top smartphone apps for 2009.
Prior to gwabbit, Miller was president and founder of WebFeat, maker of the highly successful WebFeat federated search engine (sold to ProQuest in 2008), as well as President of Knight Ridder SourceOne. Early in his career, Miller was responsible for the launch and rapid growth of the highly successful InfoTrac search system at Ziff Communications' IAC subsidiary.
Miller also writes a blog for The San Francisco Chronicle. His articles focus on business and technology and include interviews with Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley, Emmy and Peabody award-winning astrophysicist Brian Greene, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Miller’s upcoming book The Virtual Company, discusses the compelling potential of virtual officing for businesses to boost productivity and slash carbon emissions.
Miller holds four patents in the field of search technology and authentication and session management. He has received awards from the Gartner Group, Reed Publishing, CES, The DEMO Conference, and others. Miller has been a featured speaker on IBM's eBusiness Tour and was featured in IBM's ""Success Stories"" campaign. In his abundant spare time, Miller is a competitive horseback rider. He resides in Carmel Valley, CA with his wife and their rescue dogs, horses, and other quadrupeds.
Peter Neumeier
President & Senior Partner, Neymeier Poma Investment Councel, LLC.
Peter Neumeier, CFA, is President and Senior Partner for Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC. Founded by Mr. Neumeier in 1985, in Carmel, California., NPIC is an institutional money manager specializing in smaller, publicly-traded companies. Prior to his work in the institutional investment arena, Mr. Neumeier served in a variety of financial roles in the computer and airline industries.
He received his B.A. in Economics from UC Santa Barbara in 1974, and his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 1987.
Mark Peterson
Principal, Peterson Communications
Mark Peterson is a marketing, public relations and strategy consultant who has worked with more than 40 companies, organizations and charities ranging in size from start-up, venture-backed technology companies to industry stalwarts Microsoft, Seagate and Micron.
He has more than fifteen years of marketing experience working as both an outside agency and on “the client side,” guiding marketing and communications programs at a number of leading companies and headed the marketing of technology industry initiatives, including his responsibility for global corporate communications and events at Brio Software and numerous marketing positions at Seagate.
His passion includes inspiring innovation and entrepreneurship and is part of the planning team for the 2011 Monterey Bay Regional Business Plan Competition, a tri-county program with the support of 30+ local city and regional organizations that received more than 60 applications in 2010. He also worked on a project, Monterey County Federal Business Opportunities, to help regional businesses become qualified as registered government contractors. He is a board member of Leadership Monterey Peninsula, on the board of advisors for the Marina Technology Cluster, chairman of the Shugart Scholarship Fund and serves on the Stevenson School Alumni Council, the MPC Foundation President's Club and volunteers on the Hospice Foundation Golf Scramble Committee.
Peterson holds an MBA from Santa Clara University and a BA in Communications from Oregon State University and currently is a lecturing professor in the School of Business at California State University, Monterey Bay.
T.M. Ravi
Chief Marketing Officer, Iron Mountain Digital
Responsible for marketing and strategy for the company's cloud, on-premises and hybrid information management solutions that span data protection, archiving, eDiscovery and compliance. Ravi joined Iron Mountain through the acquisition of Mimosa Systems, the leader in enterprise content archiving, where he was founder, president and chief executive officer.
Before Mimosa, Ravi was founder and CEO of Peakstone Corporation that provided performance management solutions for Fortune 500 companies. Prior to his role at Peakstone, Ravi was vice president of marketing at Computer Associates (CA), Ravi he was responsible for the core line of CA enterprise management products, including CA Unicenter as well as the areas of application, systems and network management, software distribution, help desk, security, and storage management. Ravi joined CA through the $1.2 billion acquisition of Cheyenne Software, the market leader in storage management and antivirus solutions. At Cheyenne Software, he was the vice president responsible for the company's successful Windows NT business with products, such as ARCserve backup and InocuLAN antivirus.
Earlier in his career, Ravi worked in Hewlett-Packard's Information Architecture Group, where he did product planning for client/server and storage solutions. Ravi earned a MS and PhD from UCLA and a Bachelors of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, India.
Jim Robbins
Principal, Business Cluster Development
Jim Robbins is a Principal in Business Cluster Development. Jim has significant experience in the following areas: • Incubation strategy, development and management • Corporate innovation and incubation • Technology transfer and commercialization • Entrepreneurial programs and new business formation Jim is also Co-Founder and past Executive Director of the Software Business Cluster, the first software incubator in California. The Software Business Cluster was named Incubator of the Year for 2000 by the National Business Incubation Association. Over $450 Million in venture investment was been made in SBC companies during the early 2000s, and three SBC companies went public.
Jim is also past Executive Director of the Panasonic Incubator and is a Principal in Panasonic Ventures, a $100 Million dollar investment fund. The Panasonic Incubator has offices in Cupertino and San Francisco, CA. Jim is also past Director of the Environmental Business Cluster, with offices in San Jose, CA and China. The EBC was the first environmental incubator in the U.S. when it was formed in 1994. Recent BCD projects include a Bioscience Cluster and Innovation Center, a technology incubator in Annapolis, MD, as well as work with a university-based commercialization center and incubator in Montana.
Other incubators that BCD has helped to create include the Women's Technology Cluster, the Communications Technology Cluster and the Foundation Incubator. Jim has 30 years experience in the fields of new business formation, organizational design, technology development and management, business operations and law. In addition to starting his own business to assist communities in the development of sector-focused incubators, he worked for Digital Equipment Corporation and was business manager for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Denise Ryan
VP Worldwide Marketing, ATIRA Systems, Inc.
Denise currently serves as the VP Worldwide Marketing for ATIRA Systems, the only full-service, sustainable fire fighting system available for agency, industrial and commercial applications. ATIRA Systems offers completely non-toxic fire fighting solutions that are highly effective in fighting large wild land and industrial fires --without doing any harm to the environment or fire fighters. http://www.atirasystems.com
As the Founder and CEO of California-based Blue Marble Marketing, Denise also continues to deliver market strategies that ensure competitive advantage, sustainable growth, commitment and brand loyalty. Blue Marble works with companies in the technology, renewable energy, complementary and alternative healthcare, and natural products industries.
Denise's background includes VP Worldwide Marketing, Director of Channel Marketing, International Major Accounts Marketing and Line of Business Product Marketing for leading technology companies including Oracle, MicroPro International, and The Santa Cruz Operation. Denise served as Executive Director for The Enterprise Network, one of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurial incubators. Denise also co-founded the first woman’s technology incubator at Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts. Denise serves on the Advisory Boards of several early stage organizations. Recently, Denise served as the Communications Strategist for Ocean Champions, the only political voice for ocean health and sustainability.
Denise brings a unique combination of seasoned hi-tech marketing expertise with environmental sensitivity to her projects. She loves all things related to the outdoors including surfing, skiing, hiking, dancing, and yoga. Denise actively supports and volunteers for several environmental and community-based organizations.
Ernest Scalberg
Research Professor & Director of the GLOBE Center Monterey Institute of International Studies
Ernie Scalberg was Dean of the Fisher Graduate School of International Business and Associate Vice President at the Monterey Institute for International Studies from August 2001 to July 2009. Under Ernie's direction, the Fisher School was ranked 13th best business school in the nation by Entrepreneur Magazine and Princeton Review in 2007.
Ernie is currently director of the GLOBE Center, a federally funded research, consulting and training Center at the Institute that specializes in adapting products and services for foreign markets. Prior to his appointment at the Monterey Institute. Dr. Scalberg spent over 7 years in New York City as Dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration and Dean of Faculty of the Schools of Business at Fordham University. While at Fordham, he established the Beijing International MBA program at Peking University as the lead School in a consortium of 26 U.S. universities.
George Sidman
Founder & CEO, Webloq
George Sidman is a proven entrepreneur with a 25 year track record in launching and growing successful Internet and software companies.
In 1985, he founded INLEX, a major library automation company which provided solutions over 300 major libraries. Between 1994 and 1997 he developed large-scale enterprise software for web-based multi-media delivery, copyright compliance and intellectual property management, resulting in breakthrough technologies in complex knowledge automation. In 1997 he was a founding participant in raising $5 M in venture capital for Arista Knowledge Systems, a distance learning start-up, which recently sold to Digital Think. In 1998 he founded the Monterey Network Center which delivers a full range of wired and fixed wireless connectivity and managed Internet services for business, government, and education.
He is a recognized authority on complex large-scale object databases, and a public speaker on emerging computer and Internet technologies.
Doug Yount
Director, Development Services Department
City of Marina
Mr. Yount has nearly 25 years of experience in the public and private sector serving local government in a variety of management and financial capacities. Mr. Yount currently serves as the City’s Development Services Director, facilitating negotiations and administering project operations for the City’s 6 strategic development projects, currently estimated at $3.5 billion in future value and redeveloping nearly 1500 acres, including a significant portion of the former Fort Ord. Mr. Yount serves as the Department Director level to oversee the City’s Strategic Development Center, a one stop operation which process all aspects of development negotiation, entitlements, and permitting. Mr. Yount also serves as the Deputy Redevelopment Director for the City’s redevelopment agency, and oversees the economic development and affordable housing programs of the City.
Prior to this appointment, Mr. Yount served the City of Marina as Project Manager for the University Villages project, a $1.5 Billion 400 acre mixed used development project on the former Fort Ord.
Prior to the City of Marina, Mr. Yount served as Deputy City Manager for the City of Alameda, acting as project manager and lead negotiator for the $2 billion mixed use master plan development of the former Naval Air Station Alameda. Prior to appointment as Deputy City Manager, Mr. Yount served as the City’s Development Services Director, overseeing economic and community development of the city, including redevelopment, affordable housing, and business retention and attraction efforts.
Mr. Yount also has experience as City Manager and Redevelopment Agency Executive Director for the City of Lemon Grove, California, a community in San Diego County. During this period, the City underwent significant revitalization and redevelopment. Prior to that appointment, Mr. Yount served as Assistant City Manager.
Prior to public service, Mr. Yount served as a senior consultant with Deloitte Haskins & Sells of San Diego, California, an international public accounting and consulting firm with a state, regional and local government consulting practice.
Mr. Yount also is a part time instructor for the Master in Public Policy program at the Panetta Institute of Public Policy at the California State University Monterey Bay.
Andrew Zaninovich
Sunview Vineyards
Andrew Zaninovich is actively involved in a number of agricultural and business ventures, including Sunview Vineyards, one of California's largest family-owned and operated table grape operations. The company is known for applying decades of practical experience coupled with technological sophistication that has enabled them to produce the premium - quality products often associated with small family run businesses.
Aside from working with his father and two brothers in the family grape, wine and raisin businesses; Andrew is a Board Member for several industry affiliated organizations.
Andrew was born and raised in the Southern San Joaquin Valley and attended Stevenson School on the Monterey Peninsula. He received his Bachelors of Science degree in Plant Sciences from the University of California, Davis, and holds a Masters in Business Administration from Santa Clara University.
He lives with his wife, Katy, and their three children at their home in Bakersfield. Andrew is involved in the kids’ soccer and scouting activities, enjoys cooking and amateur artillery.
For More Information Call: (831) 582-9718