Industry Speakers
Venture Capital Executive Program
This lists the speakers from the May 2009 program. Check back soon for a final list of speakers for the upcoming session.
Christopher Albinson is a co-founder and Managing Director of Panorama, where he focuses primarily on internet technology investments. Mr. Albinson was also a General Partner at JPMorgan Partners running the technology venture capital practice. Prior to JP Morgan Partners, Mr. Albinson helped grow four start ups most recently as Chief Strategy Officer for Digital Island, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISLD; acquired by Cable & Wireless, Inc. in 2001). Previously, Mr. Albinson held corporate development roles at Newbridge Networks, Inc. where he was involved in a $217 million corporate venture fund, which invested in 27 companies, including Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:JNPR), Cambrian Systems Corporation (acquired by Nortel Corporation), Abatis Systems Corporation (acquired by Redback Networks Inc.), Fastlane Technologies Inc. (acquired by Quest Software, Inc.), BNI Systems (acquired by Nortel Corporation), and PixStream Incorporated (acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.). Mr. Albinson has been a speaker, panelist, and judge at Web 2.0 Summit, Next Generation Networks, Red Herring Top 100, Canada’s Top 10 Technology Start Ups, and the Gilder’s Telecosm conference.
Amy Belt, Vice President of Advanced Technology Ventures, joined ATV's healthcare practice in 2006 where she focuses on investments in the medical device sector in the firm's Palo Alto, CA office.
Prior to joining ATV, Amy was at Guidant Corporation (later Abbott Vascular) leading the international launch of the Xience drug eluting stent. The launch marked the company’s entrance into the $5 billion worldwide DES market. Amy has launched and managed product in the US, Europe and Asia working closely with clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, R&D, and sales. In addition, Amy spent time in Bristol-Myers Squibb's international group working on several cardiovascular and neuroscience projects. She began her career as a Management Consultant for APM/CSC Healthcare where she worked on projects with almost 40 hospitals across the US and Canada. Amy holds an M.B.A from the Walter Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Yale University. She is also a Kauffman Fellow.
Matt Caspari is CEO of Aurora BioFuels, Inc., an alternative energy company developing an innovative feedstock for the production of biofuels. Prior to Aurora, Matt was a management consultant with Cambridge Pharma Consultancy, where he provided strategic advice to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Matt’s professional experience also includes time with Hana Biosciences, where he was involved in Business Development and Marketing, with Bloomberg, LP, where he worked in Mergers and Acquisitions and with The Student Media Group, Inc., where he was a Co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing.
Matt holds an MBA with a Certificate in Entrepreneurship for the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BS in Biochemistry from Georgetown University.
Will Coleman is a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) focusing on energy and cleantech investing. Prior to MDV, Will worked in Washington, DC as a legislative advocate where he built state and federal level coalitions to support renewable energy legislation, and as a consultant to private equity and project finance clients focusing on the energy sector. In 2004, Will sat on the California Energy Commission's Biofuels Working Groups to formulate strategies for reducing California's dependence on petroleum. Will has also worked for GE Wind in the commercial operations group and Xseed Capital. Will is on the Venture Fund Advisory Board for the ASE, which operates the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is on the advisory committee for the California Energy Commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, an $840m fund to stimulate deployment of low carbon transportation technologies. Will also served on the advisory board of the Western Governor’s Association’s Transportation Working Group in 2007.
Will has an MBA and an MS in Energy & Resources from University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley Will co-founded the Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) and the Center for Energy & Environmental Innovation (CEEI). Will earned his AB from Harvard University.
Leo de Luna is the Vice President of Saints. Mr. de Luna was previously a Business Development Manager in AMD's Flash memory group, Spansion LLC, where he evaluated, structured and negotiated strategic partnerships, investments and acquisitions. Prior to AMD, Leo worked as an investment professional for St. Paul Venture Capital with a focus on consumer technology and software and services opportunities. He completed ten early-stage investments which included stakes in BigFix, Ecast, HireRight and Visage Mobile. Leo began his career in the San Francisco office of Lehman Brothers' Global Technology Group as an Investment Banking Analyst. In addition, Leo was also a Lieutenant in the Singapore Army where he served as a platoon commander. Leo focuses on semiconductor opportunities and is a Board Observer at Forte Design Systems, Inapac Technology and Wintegra. Leo earned his BBA in Business Honors and Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley where he was selected to be a Price Institute Venture Capital Fellow.
Tim Diffenderfer is an Account Executive focusing on corporations at Dow Jones. Tim was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California and graduated from Sonoma State University with a degree in Economics and Government (Political Science) in 2002. He worked for three years at Genentech before moving into a sales role at Dow Jones.
Tim primarily sells data sources such as VentureSource and PE Source, but also sells a suite of publications which are targeted and designed as private market resources.
Sean Doyle, Sector Director, Intel Capital, leads the firm’s investment efforts in support of the Technology and Manufacturing Group (TMG) at Intel, the worldwide manufacturing arm of the company. Mr. Doyle's areas of responsibility include investment strategy development and execution in semiconductor capital equipment, strategic supplier relationships and emerging silicon device and process technologies.
Since January 1999, he has structured, negotiated and closed over 60 equity investments and debt placements totaling more than $700 million of invested capital for Intel Capital and the Intel 64 Fund. Mr. Doyle and his team make strategic investments in companies ranging from startups to industry leaders such as Micron Technology, Inc., Nikon Corporation, Elpida Memory, Inc. and FormFactor, Inc. Previously, Mr. Doyle worked within Intel Treasury as a manager in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Intel in 1997, Mr. Doyle worked as an associate in corporate finance at the investment bank, Laidlaw Equities, Inc. and in marketing at Oracle Corporation. He earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA in Finance from UCLA.
Andrew Farquharson, Managing Director, DFJ InCube Ventures, LP is an investor and entrepreneur with 17 years of experience building, restructuring, and acquiring companies in the life sciences arena. A founding member of the InCube venture fund, Andrew is also an active advisor to InCube Labs, LLC. Prior to joining InCube, Andrew was an active investor with the Angel’s Forum and a Partner in the Halo Funds where he completed a Kauffman Fellowship and led investments in a portfolio of life science firms. Earlier in his career, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of sales, marketing and research for QIAGEN Operon. During his tenure there, Andrew built a global sales force from scratch and launched the world’s first microarray products for whole-genome analysis of the malaria and tuberculosis genomes. Along the way, he grew revenues of synthetic DNA products from $13 to $40 million in two years, and played a key role in selling the business for nine figures. He subsequently acquired a company in Japan for QIAGEN, and restructured the genomics sales force of the merged entities. In his earlier career, Andrew held several roles in research operations at Genentech, Inc. and co-founded a gene design business in agricultural biotechnology. He has also founded several other companies, sat on several boards, and developed strategies for healthcare firms as a consultant. Andrew holds a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University and Bachelor’s with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley.
Steven R. Gerbsman is an internationally recognized crisis/turnaround professional and private investment banker who has been involved in maximizing enterprise, stakeholder and shareholder value in a broad variety of industries. He has worked with a wide spectrum of senior and junior lenders, bondholder groups, venture capital and equity sources, private investors and institutional groups. He has acted in the capacity of Crisis/ Turnaround CEO, Crisis Consultant, Private Investment Banker, Examiner for the Office of the United States Trustee, a member of the Board of Directors of various companies and Advisor to stakeholder groups.
Mr. Gerbsman has over 37 years of senior management, marketing, sales and finance experience and has been involved in various business and investment ventures as an officer, director, consultant and investor, both in the US and internationally.
Since 1980, he has been in the business of maximizing enterprise value for highly leveraged, under-valued, under-performing and under-capitalized companies and their Intellectual Property, as well as assisting Mobile 2.0 companies with strategic alliances, M&A, distribution of content and licensing. To date, Mr. Gerbsman has been involved in over $ 2.1 billion of restructuring, financing and M&A transactions. In 2000, he also began focusing on Israeli and European technology and life science companies, with the objective of providing access to the US capital markets and developing strategic alliances, M&A and licensing opportunities for them.
In 1999, Mr. Gerbsman expanded Gerbsman Partners' "Board of Intellectual Capital" as a resource to rapidly identify business and marketing strategies, strategic alliance candidates and financing for its client companies and their Intellectual Property. This distinguished group includes nationally and internationally recognized financial, communications, media, advertising, public relations and technology operating executives.
Mr. Gerbsman has also assisted numerous Venture Capital/Equity Investors in terminating/restructuring their real estate and equipment lease executory contracts. To date, Gerbsman Partners has restructured/ terminated in excess of $ 725 million of real estate, sub-debt and equipment lease executory contracts and has maximized enterprise value for numerous technology and life science companies and their Intellectual Property.
Prior to forming Gerbsman Partners in 1980, he was president of four operating divisions of ITEL Corporation with responsibility in the leasing, business and technology sectors. Mr. Gerbsman began his business career at the IBM Corporation in 1967. Mr. Gerbsman received a BS degree in Accounting from Hunter College, New York and attended the Baruch Graduate School of Business.
Phil Giesler is Director of Innovation at Unilever Corporate Ventures. Seconded to Physic Ventures by Unilever as a full-time member of the Physic operating team. Mr. Giesler is responsible for leveraging Unilever’s technical and marketing resources to the full advantage of the Physics team and its portfolio companies. In his role as Director of Innovation, Mr. Giesler bridges Physics Ventures to the vast resources at Unilever, including access to more than 5000 scientists and engineers involved in new product development, access to deal flow, market research, scientific data, marketing and distribution expertise, due diligence capabilities, and a broad network of contacts. Formerly, Mr. Giesler led Unilever’s Global Technology Center for Household Care in Milan, responsible for global research and development. Mr. Giesler has had a long history at Unilever, mainly focused on its Home and Personal Care Business. He gained expertise in Supply Chain roles at Elida Gibbs, Unilever’s UK Personal Products company, before joining Unilever Research Port Sunlight in 1992. At Port Sunlight, he was responsible for developing the next generation of processing equipment for the global Personal Care business. Mr. Giesler also has experience building a network of global innovation centers for Personal Care, mainly in Asia and Latin America. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Chemistry from York University and an MBA from Bradford University.
Chris Groves joined Centric Software in 1997 as President and CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Before coming to Centric, Chris was VP and GM of Computervision's Workgroup Products business unit in Boston, where he drove rapid growth of the company's industry leading product data management software. The business unit served global customers in the aerospace, automotive, and manufacturing industries. Chris also held executive positions within Computervision's marketing, operations and indirect sales organizations. Previously, he held various executive roles at cellular pioneer Novatel Communications, including SVP of Product Development and VP of Manufacturing. Chris began his career as a research and development manager at Mitel Semiconductor. He received a BASc in Engineering Physics from the University of Toronto, and is a graduate of the Executive PMD Program at Harvard Business School.
Martin Haemmig specializes as international researcher, lecturer and advisor in "The Globalization of Venture Capital", covering 13 countries in Asia, Europe, Israel, and the United States. His research and/or teaching are in conjunction with leading schools in California (Stanford), Europe (ETH Zurich, Insead-Fountainebleau, UniBW Munich), China (Tsinghua, Peking, Renmin, Fudan, SH-Jiaotong) and India (IIT Delhi & IIT Bombay, IISc and IIM in Bangalore, ISB in Hyderabad). Martin Haemmig is involved in various programs as advisor and expert on venture capital for the World Economic Forum. He co-chairs the Swiss National PhD Coaching Program for dissertations on Venture Capital for all Swiss universities, and was trainer at America’s NVCA on “Globalizing Venture Capital”. He joined the advisory board of the Renmin University Venture Capital Policy Research Institute, and the Thunderbird Private Equity Center. In November 2007, he was appointed "Senior Advisor on Venture Capital" at Stanford University (APARC-SPRIE).
Dr. Haemmig has both his doctor degree in business and his MBA from California and an engineering degree in electronics from Switzerland. During his 20 years industry experience as technologist and business executive, he became Swiss national marketing champion in 1994.
Stefan Heuser is President and Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Technology-To-Business Center, a subsidiary of Siemens Corporate Research that identifies and develops innovative technologies and converts them into new Siemens products or businesses or independent companies. Prior to this role, Stefan served as chief financial officer for TTB and was responsible for strategy, performance measurement, project controlling, budgeting and managerial accounting. He was also actively involved in developing processes for start-up investments and spin-in projects, coached start-ups and developed relationships with selected venture capital companies and business angel organizations. From 1997-2002, Stefan worked at Siemens Capital Corporation in New Jersey, Siemens’ in-house bank for North America. He held the positions of vice president, Cash Management and senior vice president, co-managing the company.
Stefan is a member of “The Angel Forum” (TAF) in Silicon Valley, California, and a member of Financial Executive International (FEI). He is also a board member of the German School of the East Bay (GSEB) in Oakland, California. Stefan graduated in 1991 with a Master’s Degree in Economics and Business Administration from the Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich.
David Hornik, Partner, August Capital joined August Capital in 2000. He invests broadly in information technology companies, with a focus on enterprise application and infrastructure software and consumer facing software and services. Prior to joining August Capital, David was an intellectual property and corporate attorney at Venture Law Group, Cravath Swaine & Moore, and Perkins Coie LLP. In his legal practice, David represented high tech startups in all aspects of their formation, financing and operations, including Yahoo!, When.com (AOL), Sonique (Terra Lycos), Pure Payments (Excite@Home), BuyDirect (Beyond.com) and Ofoto (Kodak).
David has an eclectic technology background. At Stanford, he studied and taught the impact of technology on music, earning a degree in Computer Music. At Cambridge, England, he explored the power of technology in tracking and combating bias crime, receiving an M.Phil. in Criminology. At Harvard Law School, from which he received a J.D., magna cum laude, David focused upon the convergence of technology and the law, serving as an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Technology and publishing papers on digital audio and software piracy. David has taught business and law internationally and is a lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. He currently sits on the board of directors of DoneRight, Nomis Solutions, PayCycle, Six Apart, Splunk Technology and VideoEgg. He previously served on the board of Evite which was acquired by Ticketmaster, and was a board observer with Tickle Inc. which was acquired by Monster and Actional which was acquired by Progress Software.
Robert Hughes is Associate Director of Dow Jones & Co., Private Markets. Robert has held positions at Morningstar and was a broker at American National Trading. He graduated from San Francisco State University’s College of Business.
Larry Lasky is an expert in biotechnology, a field that he has worked in commercially for over 27 years. In 1981, he was a founding scientist of Genetics Institute (acquired by Wyeth), one of the earliest biotechnology companies.
Prior to joining USVP, Larry was a leading scientist at Genentech for 20 years where he worked in various disciplines including vaccinology, immunology, stem cell biology, cellular signaling mechanisms, and monoclonal antibody therapy of tumors. Two of the vaccines that he worked on, for herpes simplex virus and HIV infection, entered Phase III clinical trials. He is a coauthor on over 135 publications and a co-inventor on 37 issued and pending patents, several of which generate significant licensing royalties [ see attached Curriculum Vitae ]. He was a standing member of the Research Review Committee that directed research across all product development areas at Genentech. Larry attained the company's highest scientific position, Genentech Fellow, before he retired in 2002.
Larry has also served on numerous NCI and NIH scientific review panels and has reviewed many papers for a number of prestigious journals. As a general partner of Latterell Venture Partners from 2002 to 2007, Larry was instrumental in the founding of Proteolix, Oncomed, Cellective (acquired by Medimmune), Tetralogic and Bioverdant. In addition to sitting on the boards of these companies, he was also involved with the Bayhill and CellBio boards as well.
Larry holds BA and PhD degrees in molecular biology from UCLA and completed his post-doctoral studies at The California Institute of Technology.
Andy Laszlo, Co-Founder & President, scanR, previously served as Sr. Vice President of Business Development for Internet Pictures Corporation f/k/a bamboo.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPIX). At IPIX, he led the development and execution of the company’s business development strategy and had primary responsibility for capitalizing the company, raising more than $25 million in private equity. Additionally, he played a principal role in taking the company public and in spearheading a billion dollar merger between IPIX and bamboo.com. With a background in venture capital, he has served as a Business Development Manager with Intel Capital. Additionally, he practiced law as a corporate attorney for more than a decade. Andy received an MBA degree from the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley; a JD degree, with high honors, from the George Washington University Law School; and a BA degree in English, with honors, from Wesleyan University.
Chip Lion, Partner, Morrison & Foerster, represents both public and private companies in a broad range of industries and sectors, including biotechnology, medical device and information technology. He also represents several venture capitalists in private equity financings and fund formation and operations. He currently serves as Chair of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Committee of the Business Section of the ABA. Mr. Lion has extensive experience in structuring, negotiating and advising clients on a wide variety of acquisition transactions and related matters, including stock acquisitions, asset acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, auction transactions, tender offers, defensive strategies, leveraged buy-outs and cross border transactions. Mr. Lion is nationally recognized for his work with Limited Liability Companies (LLCs). He has written extensively on LLCs and partnerships and has participated on many panels on LLCs, including the American Law Institute-American Bar Association LLC satellite telecast for the past five years. As former Chair of the Partnerships Committee of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar, he formed and participated in the Committee that helped draft the California LLC Act that became law on September 30, 1994.
Mr. Lion co-chairs the firm's Private Equity Group. He received a Bachelors Degree from The University of California, Davis and law degrees from Santa Clara University and New York University.
Gilman Louie is a partner of Alsop Louie Partners, a venture capital fund focused on helping entrepreneurs start companies. He is the founder and former CEO of In-Q-Tel, a non-profit company created to help enhance national security by connecting the United States Intelligence Community with venture-backed entrepreneurial companies and making venture capital style investments in promising new technologies.
Larry Marcus is a Managing Director at Walden Venture Capital, a San Francisco based venture capital firm that specializes in first institutional rounds in the digital media, consumer and enterprise services, and eCommerce sectors. Prior to Walden, Larry was an equity research analyst in Digital Media and Consumer Technology sectors at Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown and Robertson Stephen, a media planner at Jordan McGrath advertising, and a consultant at Digidesign. He currently serves as a Director of Pandora, Comedy.com, Real Girls Media/Divine Caroline, Telekenex, and The Jazzschool in Berkeley, CA. He received both his Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. When not searching for new investment ideas or helping portfolio companies, Larry is an avid drummer.
Brian C. Patterson is a corporate and securities attorney in the Silicon Valley office of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP. Brian specializes in the representation of emerging growth companies throughout their lifecycles and in the representation of venture capital and private equity investment funds. Brian is broadly experienced with corporate formation and governance matters, equity and debt financing transactions (public and private), and a variety of M&A transaction structures. Brian also works with a number of venture capital and private equity funds in fund formation, special purpose investment vehicle formation and general fund administration matters.
Brian represents a wide variety of technology companies from consumer internet, software, telecommunications, entertainment technology, clean tech and life science industries, as well as a number of leading venture capital and private equity firms.
Rodrigo Prudencio is a partner with Nth Power and is involved in all aspects of the firm’s operations including investments, investor relations, and portfolio management. He sits on the boards of Synapsense and Thetus and is an observer of the boards of Terrapass and Lion Cells. Earlier in his career, Rodrigo worked for the Department of State where he worked on a variety of global environmental negotiations, including preparations for the Kyoto round of the Climate Change Convention. Rodrigo was also Director of the International Trade Program at the National Wildlife Federation where he led NWF’s environmental advocacy to reform the rules of international trade. Rodrigo received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley where he served as president of his class and concentrated on energy markets including outside research at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. His bachelor degree in international relations was earned from Middlebury College in Vermont.
Tim Recker is the Managing Director of Private Equity at the University of California Office of the President. He is responsible for the University of California Regents Private Equity program. Previously, Mr. Recker was Director of Alternative Investments for the Michigan Retirement System where he oversaw a $13 billion portfolio of Private Equity, Hedge Funds and Structured Products. Prior to that, he was a portfolio manager for GE Asset Management running a $5.5 billion multi asset portfolio. Mr. Recker is Secretary and an Executive Committee Board member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA). Mr. Recker is a Chartered Financial Analyst with an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a BA in Economics and Business Administration from Bellarmine College.
Ken Wallace, Senior Associate at Industry Ventures, LLC, focuses on originating and valuing secondary venture capital investments. Previously, Ken worked as an Associate Vice President in Bessemer Trust's Private Equity Funds Group in New York. In this role, he led the firm's venture capital fund investment strategy and due diligence process. Earlier in his career, Ken worked in Business Development with Bessemer Trust in its San Francisco, Menlo Park, Los Angeles and New York offices. Ken earned a MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in Economics from Wake Forest University.
Tim Wilson, a partner at Partech International since 2001, focuses on communications and components investments. Between 1997 and 2001, Tim was the Chief Marketing Officer for Digital Island, a Partech portfolio company. The company was acquired by Cable & Wireless in 2001 for $350M. Prior to Digital Island, Tim was a General Manager at Lucent Technology where he led the international voice communications product management team (now Avaya) with P&L for product lines generating over $2B in annual sales and coauthored a VOIP related patent. Before Lucent, Tim held a variety of senior management positions within AT&T (North America and Australia) and AT&T Bell Labs from 1983-1995.
Tim’s current portfolio companies include ARIO Data Networks, Discera, Invensense, Spudnik and Teknovus where he holds a board seat with each company. He graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin College receiving his undergraduate degree in Physics. He received his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business where he was named a Fuqua Scholar.
Abe Yokell is a Principal at RockPort Capital Partners and helped spearhead the opening of RockPort’s Menlo Park, CA office. He has worked in all realms of cleantech and on specific investments in solar, water, transportation, green buildings, the smart grid, efficiency, wind, lighting, and advanced materials, among other sectors. Abe is a frequent panelist and judge on topics including solar, cleantech, and advanced materials at industry conferences. He has been with RockPort for over five years and has been directly involved in over 18 initial investments. Abe graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied Economics, Chemistry, and Biology.
