Download - May 2014 TCN Fast Track Faculty and Mentors
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Jon Adani
Sales Consultant
TriNet @TriNet
Jon is an experienced sales manager with a specialty in business development and an outstanding record of success and growth throughout his ten-‐year career. He has leveraged his diverse skills, including prospecting, needs analysis and creative sales and marketing strategies and tactics into a highly profitable and consistent pipeline of Fortune 1000 business. His expertise lies in his ability to truly understand the business needs of each prospect and through an effective and focused approach build relationships at all organizational levels including senior management. Most importantly, his consultative and productive approach has led to:
· Consistently open new target markets and companies while managing existing business · Close some of the largest accounts acquired by his organization
· The ongoing renewal and growth of over 90% of his accounts
· Advancement to expanded roles and responsibility throughout his career
Laurie Anglin
Regional Sales Consultant
TriNet @LanglinTrinet
Extensive experience in the Small-‐Midsize marketplace. Consultative approach selling for Payroll and Human Resource Solutions. Specialties: Capital Equipment, Aesthetic Laser, Payroll, Human resources, Retirement, Insurance
Jeffrey Arnold
Mass Med Angels & Boston Harbor Angels
Mr. Arnold is the president of Arnold Strategies, LLC, a strategic advisor to early and growth stage CEO's. With prior experience running R&D, marketing and operations for large and midsized corporations, Mr. Arnold then spent 20 years as the CEO of multiple technology and life science companies. As CEO he raised over $140 million in venture capital, IPO and post IPO financings and achieved considerable returns for investors. He has founded, grown, turned around, bought and sold companies and taken them public. He now applies what he has learned to helping business owners and entrepreneurs improve the performance of their companies and avoid mistakes. Mr. Arnold is a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School, member of the MIT Venture Mentoring Society, on the Grant Review Board of the MIT Deshpande Center and an investor with Boston Harbor Angels and Mass Medical Angels. He was formerly Chairman of the Greater Boston Chapter of the American Heart Association. He received a BSEE from MIT in 1972.
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Mirena Bagur
Founder/President
The CONTeXO Group @mirenabagur
Mirena Bagur founded the company in 2005. During almost two decades of marketing and communications experience, Mirena has counseled a wide variety of technology-‐inspired companies. In addition to executing marketing programs for clients, Mirena is the Course Co-‐Director of the joint Harvard-‐MIT Division of Health, Sciences, and Technology course HST.921 "Information Technology in the Heath Care System of the Future". Prior to this, Mirena was a senior vice president at Weber Shandwick, a leading global communications agency. She collaborated with emerging and enterprise companies to conceive and execute strategic marketing and PR programs. Mirena’s capabilities to grasp not only clients’ brand issues, but also understand the challenges associated with educating the influencers on the adoption of complex concepts and technologies in business environments, translated into leading roles in numerous technology and healthcare accounts. She led teams that thoughtfully coordinated marketing programs with strategic partners, led communications campaigns for industry analyst firms, and was chosen to lead national-‐level initiatives designed to elevate Weber Shandwick’s brand and to increase visibility in new markets (start-‐ups and healthcare businesses, boomers’ market) resulting in numerous referrals and revenue increase.
Mory Bahar
President & CEO
Personal Remedies
@MoryBahar
Innovative, energetic and a hands-‐on CEO and marketing executive with proven track record in sales & marketing, business development, and product management. Last ten years as the President/CEO of three different start-‐ups. Led the marketing and business development teams at two market share leading companies which went public. Considerable fund raising and international experience. Knowledge of several foreign languages. Top rated speaker and presenter. Specialties:Marketing; Guerrilla Marketing; Go to Market execution & growth; International expansion; Biz Dev; Start-‐ups; Fund Raising; M&A; Mergers; Company/Product Positioning; Entrepreneur; Public speaking; Explaining complex subjects in simple terms; Coaching; Getting results; Enterprise software (applications & tools); Mobile apps; Mobile; SaaS; Web 2.0; Google AdWords; SEM/SEO; Social Media
Kent Bennett
Partner
Bessemer Venture Partners @kentbennett, @BessemerVP
Kent Bennett, a Partner in Bessemer's Cambridge, Mass. office, joined the company in 2008. Kent focuses on investments in the "big data", data-‐infrastructure sectors as well as tech-‐enabled consumer service models.
At Bessemer, Kent has been involved in investments including data-‐management companies Endeca (acq. by Oracle), Streambase (acq. by TIBX), Vertica (acq. by HP), Hadapt, Infinio Systems, Netuitive and Portrait Software; mobile-‐communications companies BroadSoft (IPO), Millennial Media (IPO) and Enforta; as well as in Blue Apron, a subscription food business and Goal.com (acq. by Perform Group) the world's largest soccer portal.
Prior to joining Bessemer, Kent was a creative executive for an entertainment-‐production company, where he developed and sold original material including a network television pilot and a feature film. He began his career with Bain & Co., where he worked on projects in industries spanning IT, retail, consumer products, healthcare and biotech.
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Will Bernat
Senior Associate
Nutter McClennen & Fish
@NutterLaw
William J. Bernat is an associate in the Business Department and a member of the firm's Emerging Companies and Commercial Finance practice groups. His practice is focused on private equity, venture capital and angel financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance issues. Will represents clients in a broad range of industries, including life sciences, technology, social media and consumer products. His representation of emerging and entrepreneurial companies spans the companies’ entire lifespan, from initial planning and formation to operations and exit. Will also has significant experience representing major lending institutions and companies in complex multi-‐party financings and asset-‐based/commercial lending transactions. Will is a frequent lecturer for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
Monica Brady-Myerov
Founder & CEO Listen Edition
@bradymyerov, @ListenEdition
Monica Brady-‐Myerov is a 25-‐year veteran public radio journalist and host. Before founding Listen Edition, she was Senior Reporter and Assistant Managing Editor at WBUR in Boston and her reports have been heard on NPR, Marketplace and numerous other outlets nationally and internationally. Monica’s reporting on education won two 2005 Edward R. Murrow Awards for her stories on closing the achievement gap and First Prize from The Education Writers Association in 2009 for her series on the high school dropout crisis. Monica’s work has also been recognized with a 2001 Carter Center Fellowship on Mental Health Journalism and a 2002 Journalism Fellowship in Child and Family Policy with the University of Maryland. In 1999 Monica was named to the Board of Directors of Brown University’s radio station, WBRU-‐FM in Providence where she served as the Alumni Relations Committee Chair and as President of the Board from 2006-‐2010.
Anita Brearton
Vice Chairman of the Board
MassVentures & Golden Seeds
@massventures, @GoldenSeeds
Anita Brearton is an experienced start-‐up executive, skilled at addressing the strategic operational and marketing challenges faced by high growth, early stage businesses. She has spent over 30 years in the United States and throughout the Asia Pacific, working with a range of technology and internet-‐based companies as a senior operations executive, marketer, advisor and investor. Anita serves on the board of MassVentures as Vice Chairman and is a member of Golden Seeds and Launchpad Venture Group. She served for two years (2009-‐2011) as Golden Seeds’ Boston Forum Co-‐Leader. Anita is an advisor to Prosperity Candle and Connect2Communications. She also regularly works with startup companies as a marketing and strategy consultant, helping shape the go-‐to-‐market strategies that enable her clients to achieve their marketing and business goals. In this capacity Ms. Brearton has worked with A123 Systems Airvana, Azuki Systems, Altruik and others.
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Win Burke
President & CEO and Co-‐Founder
iGetBetter
@iGetBetter
Win began working with Stephan and Christian on the iGetBetter project as an advisor several years ago, and became the CEO of iGetBetter, Inc. when it was established in February, 2013. Win is a serial high tech entrepreneur experienced in building early stage companies. His previous experience includes six early-‐stage companies, most recently as CEO of Incentive targeting, which was sold to Google. Other early stage companies include Bungee Labs (Co-‐Founder & CEO); ViryaNet (CEO, successful IPO); ViewSoft (SVP of Sales & Marketing, sold to Citrix); ObjectLink (Founder and CEO, sold to SunSoft); and Oberon Software (SVP of Sales & Marketing, sold to OnDisplay). He is also experienced in larger company operations, having held senior executive sales and marketing positions at Orbotech, Gentia Software, Applix, Wang Labs, Apollo Computer and Prime Computer. Following his training as an EE/Computer Scientist at MIT, Win began his career as a software engineer at MIT Draper Labs, MIT Lincoln Labs and Data General. Win’s healthcare IT experience includes selling IT systems to hospitals while at Wang Labs and operational support systems to healthcare system vendors such as GE Healthcare while at ViryaNet, as well as participating as a staff member of the joint Harvard-‐MIT HST program course HST.921 "Enabling Technology Innovation in Healthcare and the Life Sciences". Win is a PSIA certified part-‐time ski instructor at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire.
Joe Butt
Launchpad Venture Group @LaunchpadVG
Joe Butt has examined the convergence of media and high technology for his entire career. Prior to founding Blackfriars Communications with fellow Seeking Alpha contributor Carl Howe, Joe led entertainment and consumer research teams at Forrester Research and explored the relationship between user experience and system infrastructures as a senior analyst. Prior to Forrester, Joe helped lead the creative department at the Strategic Interactive Group, creating and executing Internet strategies for companies such as Mobil, IBM, and Lever. Joe had previously spent 15 years in the New York creative community, where he was active as both director and producer. Joe is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Harvard Business School, and he is a member of the Directors Guild of America.
Lauren Celano
CEO Propel Careers
@Propel_Careers
Lauren Celano is Co-‐founder and CEO of Propel Careers and has nearly a decade of experience working with emerging drug discovery & development biotechnology companies. Prior to Propel Careers, she was a senior account manager for SNBL USA, where she worked with emerging biotech companies in Europe and the US to help characterize and advance their drug molecules. Prior to SNBL USA, she held business development positions with Aptuit and Quintiles, where she focused on IND enabling studies to advance therapeutics from discovery into the clinic. At Absorption Systems, Lauren held positions as a marketing manager and account manager managing clients in the north eastern United States. She has a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Gettysburg College and an MBA with a focus in the health sector and entrepreneurship from Boston University. Lauren is on the membership committee of the North Shore Technology Council and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and on the programming committee of The Capital Network.
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Jeff Chin
Cofounder
Mortgage Auction @MrJeffChin, @LendersBid
Experienced entrepreneurial professional with a broad knowledge of mortgage origination, software applications, and business development. Specialties: -‐ Startup Practitioner with a proven track record in Vision Formulation to Product Launch/Sales with bootstrapped resources. -‐ Proven Online Marketing skills that include Social, Web, and Mobile "Growth Hacking". -‐ Financial Vertical Knowledge Depth in Mortgage Lending and Consumer Payment Systems.
Barry Coffman
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG
Barry is an active Angel investor and nonprofit leader, former professional institutional portfolio manager and hedge fund manager.
Experience:
Fidelity Investments 1986-‐2001: Portfolio Manager High Income Group Boldwater Capital Management 2001-‐2007: Co-‐Founder, Portfolio Manager of Boldwater Credit Opportunities Hedge Fund, Boldwater Partners Hedge Fund.
Paul Cronin
Partner
Nutter McClennen & Fish @paulcronin, @NutterLaw
Paul J. Cronin is a partner in the Litigation and Intellectual Property Departments of Nutter McClennen & Fish, and a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation practice group. His practice focuses on trial work in cases involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright disputes. He also counsels clients with respect to the licensing and procurement of intellectual property rights, due diligence studies, and product clearances.
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Ken Deckinger
Co-‐Founder
Jess, Meet Ken @KenDeckinger, @JessMeetKen
Co-‐Founder -‐ Jess, Meet Ken -‐ Ken Deckinger is a serial entrepreneur with close to ten years experience in the online dating space. He previously co-‐founded, and was CEO of HurryDate pioneering the global speed dating concept in 45 cities throughout the US, UK, and Canada. Eventually expanding the idea to include an online dating site, HurryDate was acquired by Spark Networks (parent company of JDate.com & ChristianMingle.com). He spent three years at Spark Networks managing HurryDate and overseeing JDate’s travel & events business.
Ken has appeared in media around the world including Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, CNN, BBC, and Dateline NBC. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he was honored with the University’s Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year Under 40 award and sits on the Board of Directors for the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and has an MBA from Boston College. He’s a Mentor at TechStars Boston, actively advises entrepreneurs nationwide and is the subject of a Harvard Business School case study.
Charles de Gaspe Beaubien
Founder
Groupize @charlesdgb, @groupize
Charles de Gaspe Beaubien is a Group Travel Guru. His 25 year career in the travel industry has included experience in every aspect of group travel. Whether guiding group tours, welcoming thousands of guests to the rafting company he co-‐founded, helping planners select Montreal as their destination while at Tourisme Montreal or serving in executive positions for major group tour operators including Yankee Holidays and Group Voyagers Inc. (Globus, Cosmos, Monograms and more); Charles understands the complications of planning and booking group travel. His hands on planning experience, combined with his extensive experience in travel technology fuels his passion to bring efficiencies to the difficult processes involved in booking and managing a group.
Mark DeMello
Regional Sales Consultant
TriNet @TriNet
An experienced versatile sales professional with consistent career achievement in enterprise sales and sales management in the technology, information services, and healthcare industries providing services, software, and hardware technology solutions. Strong ability to maximize sales and transform market position by building solid relationships, developing strategic partnerships, and executing sound business plans. Innovative, passionate and resourceful, with excellent understanding of today’s demanding business environment.
Seasoned sales and business development professional with a specialty in building and fostering customer relationships.
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Jack Doherty
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG
Jack is a private Angel Investor and member of Launchpad Ventures and Bay Angels. He has founded 2 companies, Ion Beam Technologies and Micrion Corporation. Guided the growth and development of one of these companies (Micrion) from business plan, venture financed start-‐up, IPO and acquisition. He remained a member of the board of Micrion Corporation from 1984 to 1999. He also was the Non Executive Member of the Board of Andor Corporation (UK). Served as Independent Non Executive Director during offer period in 2008. Jack is a seasoned executive with 30 years experience in global sales, marketing and engineering.
He holds a B.E.E. and M.E.E. Degrees, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Matt Douglas
Founder & CEO
Punchbowl @mattdouglas
Matt Douglas is the Founder & CEO of Punchbowl, and has guided the company through all stages of growth. Matt has raised three rounds of capital from Intel Capital, Contour Ventures, and prominent angel investors. Matt has 15+ years in product management and marketing with expertise in software product development. At Adobe Systems, Matt was responsible for Premiere where he grew revenue from $15M to $50M in four years. At Bose Corporation, he was a senior manager in the professional division where he led a hardware and software product team. Matt has a degree in music from the University of Rochester and an M.B.A. from UNC Chapel Hill. Matt's favorite reason to celebrate is Groundhog Day – he and his wife held their 16th annual Groundhog Day party in 2012. Follow Matt Douglas on Twitter (@mattdouglas) or read his startup CEO blog, Startup Swami.
Martin Flusberg
CEO PowerHouse Dynamics
@eMonitorSystem
Martin has been a technology entrepreneur and executive for more than 30 years, with the past 20 focused on energy and clean tech. He currently is the CEO of Powerhouse Dynamics, a pioneering, CommonAngels-‐funded company in the energy management space. Prior to that, he was co-‐founder and President of Nexus Energy Software, a global provider of enterprise software solutions for the utility industry, addressing smart grid and energy efficiency. Nexus was successfully sold in 2005 and integrated with its sister companies into Aclara Technologies.
Martin previously served as Director of Commercial Systems for TASC, with responsibility for the firm's Lodestar® product line for the utility industry (later spun out as LODESTAR Corporation and sold to Oracle in 2007). He was also founder and CEO of REALink Systems, a software company serving the real estate industry, and CEO of Multisystems, a software and management consulting firm focused on transportation. Martin has a Masters of Civil and Environmental Engineering from MIT and a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from CUNY.
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Adam Ghander
Partner Nutter McClennen & Fish
@NutterLaw
Adam B. Ghander focuses his corporate finance and securities practice on private equity, venture capital, and emerging companies representation; mergers and acquisitions; and securities regulations. He represents clients in a wide variety of industries, including banking and financial services, telecommunications, social networking, manufacturing and professional sports. Adam previously served as in-‐house counsel for a publicly-‐traded manufacturing and technology company. Prior to his in-‐house experience, he spent many years as a corporate attorney at the Boston office of an international law firm. Adam lectures frequently on corporate finance and teaches at the Boston University School of Management.
Chuck Goldman
Entrepreneur in Residence
Great Hill Partners
@chuckyg
Chuck brings over 20 years of experience in enterprise application development and mobility platforms. He founded Apperian in 2009, and has spent the past four years working with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bessemer Venture Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Launch Capital and CommonAngels to build Apperian into the market leader in Mobile Application Management (MAM). As Apperian's founder and early CEO, Chuck raised over $28 million in venture capital and built a mobile ecosystem of developers, brands, retailers, enterprises and integrators. Prior to Apperian, Chuck was a Director at Apple. There, he helped launch the iPhone in 2007 and managed Apple’s iPhone Enterprise Beta Program. Chuck also served as Apple's project lead to bring Steve Job's vision of 1:1 computing in education to life by deploying the State of Maine's 1:1 Laptop Program. Prior to Apple, Chuck founded and sold two technology companies.
Mike Gordon
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG
CEO, The Center for Competitive Success, a results-‐oriented consulting firm with expertise in Angel and Venture Capital Funding; Transformative Entepreneurial Strategies; Win-‐Win Leadership Training; Development of Corporate Culture; Negotiation; Focused Execution; Governance and Boards of Directors / Advisors. Multiple Entrepreneur -‐ Started 5 businesses: Plastic Injection Molding; Static Control; Face-‐to-‐face Angel Network; Virtual Angel Network; and The Center For Competitive Success. Specialties:Entrepreneurial Leadership, High Potential Ventures, Sustainable Growth, Gaining Competitive Advantages, Corporate Transformation, Entrepreneurhial Corporate Culture
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Jeremy Halpern
Partner
Nutter McClennen & Fish @startupboston, @NutterLaw
Jeremy Halpern, is a Partner, and the Director of Business Development, Emerging Companies Group, at Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP. As a former entrepreneur in mobile and entertainment, Jeremy concentrates on connecting with and supporting the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in New England, working with current entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and corporate strategic partners. In addition to his work with TCN, Jeremy is an angel investor, and serves on the Boards of MassVentures, a MicroVC firm and Pintley, a next generation marketing company for the brewing industry. Jeremy is a member of or participates at Launchpad Venture Group, Boston Harbor Angels, Golden Seeds, TiE-‐Angels, MassChallenge, Web Innovators Group, MassTLC, Mobile Mondays and other area industry groups. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the UCLA School of Law.
Rick Harris
Launchpad Venture Group
@rchphd, @LaunchpadVG
Richard C. Harris is a consultant to companies and professional service firms, helping them raise performance by aligning around a core mission and strategy.
A consultant for more than 25 years, clients have recently used his services to…
• Build strategic alignment within senior leadership teams • Coach executives on how to achieve higher levels of individual performance
• Provide high-‐stakes facilitation for functional teams (sales, engineering, etc.)
Dr. Harris is also active in the greater Boston start up community. As a member of Launchpad Venture Group, he is an active angel investor. Launchpad, the largest angel investment group in the Northeast, is focused on investments in technology and life sciences. In addition to investing he acts as a mentor to start up teams and provides advice on how to communicate with potential investors. Ina this latter capacity he co-‐chairs a joint venture with The Capital Network that brings together Launchpad mentors with TCN members.
Paulina Hill
Senior Associate Polaris Partners
@paulinahill
Paulina Hill is a Senior Associate at Polaris Partners. Paulina joined Polaris in 2011 and focuses on investments in healthcare.
Prior to joining Polaris, Paulina completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Chemical Engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the laboratory of Bob Langer, Paulina worked on developing novel biomaterial scaffolds and drug delivery systems for neural applications. Paulina is the founding president of the MIT Postdoctoral Association, was nominated to and serves on the MIT Intellectual Property Presidential Committee, and is on the fundraising committee of the nonprofit Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology.
Paulina completed her PhD in Molecular Medicine with a Tissue Engineering focus at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Her graduate school work resulted in over 40 published abstracts, awards and peer reviewed manuscripts. Her research contributed to numerous patents and the formation of the startup KeraNetics to commercialize the platform technology. Paulina graduated magna cum laude from East Carolina University with a quadruple major in biochemistry, neuroscience, biology and chemistry.
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Gail Hoffman
Managing Director
Golden Seeds
@GoldenSeeds
Gail Hoffman is an active angel investor and mentor in the New England entrepreneurial ecosystem, sharing her expertise in finance and strategic planning. At Golden Seeds New England, Gail focuses on new member growth, investment analysis, capital deployment, and investor education. Golden Seeds is the nation’s fourth-‐largest angel investment firm and provides early-‐stage and growth capital to women-‐led businesses. She is also a member of Launchpad Venture Group, New England’s largest angel investment group.
Gail began her career in the Corporate Finance Department of Dean Witter Reynolds. After receiving her MBA in Finance with High Distinction from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Gail joined Boston Ventures Management Inc., a private equity firm specializing in the communications, media, and entertainment industries. She was involved in a number of successful portfolio company acquisitions and divestitures, including Motown Records, The National Enquirer, and CPP/Belwin Entertainment.
Gail is a frequent start-‐up judge, mentor, and speaker for such organizations as The Capital Network, The Angel Capital Association, MassChallenge, Boston University, Harvard Business School, and
IBM. She is a Board Director for Groupize and has served for or led numerous volunteer efforts for the schools and colleges of her four children, as well as several Boston area healthcare organizations.
Jennifer Jordan
MassVentures and Golden Seeds
MassVentures is a venture capital firm focused on fueling the Massachusetts innovation economy by funding early-‐stage, high-‐growth Massachusetts startups as they move from concept to commercialization. Jennifer is Vice President at MassVentures, where she identifies and vets companies in the areas of big data and analytics, enterprise software, robotics, crowdsourcing and healthcare IT that meet the fund’s target criteria for seed and early-‐stage investment. Most recently she was a member of the Golden Seeds angel investor network. She has also provided start-‐up mentoring for entrepreneurs through Springboard and the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. She is the founder of the Reed College Start-‐Up Lab and has served as a first round judge for the MIT $100K and Mass Challenge business plan competitions. She served as Entrepreneurship Lead for the MIT Accelerating Information Technology Innovation program sponsored by Google in Cali, Colombia, where she lead 30 young entrepreneurs in a six week lean start-‐up program to form ten new mobile technology companies, and connect them to mentors, angel and venture investors in the region. Previously, Jennifer served as Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations at Cadence Design Systems and spent 10 years building an investment research practice in early search, ecommerce, mobile, Internet software applications, video game software and technical software as a Senior Vice President and Senior Equity Research analyst with Black & Company through its acquisition by Wells Fargo Securities. She is a black belt in the Indonesian Martial Art of Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen and holds the title Mas Goeroe.
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Brad Kayton
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG
Brad is a serial entrepreneur turned parallel, and an angel investor. He is working towards building a boutique and cutting edge equity capital fund, part angel part hedge fund, along with some colleagues. He is also spending heavy time with some of my portfolio companies, in particular one of them, as an advisor, Board member, and/or time-‐sliced executive.
Specialties: Starting and growing companies, making a market, P&L management, product category creation, product management & marketing, strategic planning and forecasting, running PR programs, identifying and developing business partnerships, recruiting talent, team leading
David Kessler
Walnut Ventures
I am a management consultant, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, digital artist and photographer. You can see some of my art and learn more about me at my web site: http://DavidKessler.biz. I worked in the software industry for more than 35 years. During that time, I founded or co-‐founded a number of for-‐profit companies and one nonprofit. I started and ran VieAbility for 14 years during which time I created and brought to market a number of products including FAST! and CD Speedway. VieAbility also provided software consulting services and we worked on some prominent products including Quicken and Lotus 1-‐2-‐3. I also created and operated a business consultancy and executive coaching practice for a number of years. After 9/11, I worked for a time teaching TSA baggage screeners at airports how to find bombs in suitcases.
Mike Koeris
Founder
Sample6 Technologies, Inc @mkoeris, @sample6tech
Founder of for-‐profit (Sample6) and Not-‐for-‐profit ventures (BiotechStart.org) in Biotech / Lifesciences. Avid interest in bringing lean/virtual to biotech, startup culture, biotech, VC/PE, O&G, finance, basketball and all things Boston. Specialties: Biotechnology, startups, venture capital, technology transfer, management consulting, and the pick 'n roll.
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Ben Littauer
Boston Harbor Angels and Walnut Ventures
@littweb
Mr. Littauer is a business and technology management consultant with expertise in Internet and communications technologies, as well as healthcare IT. In addition he is an active angel investor, member of Boston Harbor Angels.
Mr. Littauer was Technology Strategist for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he defined the architecture for PatientSite, a system that allows patients to communicate securely with their healthcare team and view their own medical records. He also was a consultant to the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium on healthcare data security projects.
Mr. Littauer was co-‐founder, President, and CTO of Baranof Software, the leading vendor of service-‐level management software for messaging and Internet applications. Baranof was sold to Tally Systems in 1997.
Beth Marcus
CEO & President
Playrific
@startupdoc, @playrific
Beth has been Founder and CEO of several successful startups, most notably EXOS, Inc., which was venture capital backed and sold to Microsoft in 1996. Since then she has been involved in 20 start-‐ups in a variety of fields as a founder, investor, or advisor. She was an advisor and investor in Leap Frog and has been involved in entertainment and mobile companies. Beth is an acknowledged expert in the hand-‐device interface space and has been an expert in support of prior patent litigations. Dr. Marcus has a Ph.D. in biomechanics from the Imperial College in London, England where she was a Marshall Scholar. Her first two degrees were from MIT in the department of Mechanical Engineering. She has served on the faculty of MIT in the department of Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Marcus has been member of the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum and the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee in Mechanical Engineering. She is also a current member of the Council for the Arts at MIT.
Michael McCarthy
Founder
Budi Products LLC @BudiBar
Michael McCarthy graduated cum laude from NYU in Management and Finance. He worked on Wall Street since he was only 18. His experience includes working as a researcher for a famous money manager who pioneered market timing. Michael started his own investment firm at 26 and was ranked the #1 market timer in the US every year for 10 years (1994-‐2004). He retired from Wall Street at 36. Michael McCarthy struggled with anxiety problems for years. The anxiety was so bad it led him to get a formal education in the fields of psychology and nutrition. That is why he is so familiar with the food remedies for common addictions found in this fascinating article. Michael explored several nutritional anxiety remedies and discovered his nutrition deficiencies. Once he resolved those issues, he was fine. He started a food company and made a Superfood Nutrition Bar he called Budi Bars (www.BudiBar.com).
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Jess McLear
Launchpad Venture Group
@launchpadVG
Jess is an angel investor and member of Launchpad Venture Group. Her family has been investing in and mentoring startup companies for over 20 years in both Canada and the US. Her portfolio companies fall into many sectors, including manufacturing, IT, medical devices, and consumer goods. She is an observer or serves on the board for various non-‐profits as well as portfolio companies. She has served as an investor and mentor for several companies throughout the New England area. Jess earned a BA from Williams College and MEd from Harvard University
Joanna Meiseles
Senior Director of Operations
MassChallenge
@joannameiseles, @masschallenge
Joanna works in all aspects of the Accelerator Program, from applications to judging to curriculum and events. She works with the whole team helping them achieve excellent results and grow both personally and professionally. Joanna enjoys coaching the startups at MassChallenge too. Prior to joining MassChallenge full-‐time, Joanna was a volunteer expert, serving as a judge and mentor to several teams in 2011 and 2012.
Joanna is the founder of Snip-‐its, a franchised chain of hair salons specializing in children. She holds a BA from Duke University and an MBA from Babson. She lives in Wayland with her husband and four children, and she loves yoga, drumming, and shoes.
Norm Meisner
Launchpad Venture Group @LaunchpadVG
Angel investor associated with Beta Fund and Launchpad Venture Group, making angel investments in high tech start ups in the greater Boston area. -‐ Principal in the Beta Fund, a Micro VC fund investing in early stage high tech and biotech companies. -‐ Active member of the Launchpad Venture Group, the Boston area's largest and most active angel investment group -‐ Board observer for Covocative, a company providing salesforce performance improvement via continuous coaching. -‐ Board observer and adviser for MoFuse, a company providing mobile websites for SMB. -‐ Former Board observer at SmartCells, acquired by Merck. -‐ Former Board observer and adviser for Copiun, a company providing endpoint data management for tablets, smartphones and laptops successfully acquired by Good Technology. -‐ Held Business Development and Sales Management positions at 9 startups in security, enterprise software and telecommunications leading to 5 acquisitions and 1 IPO.
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Christopher Mirabile
Managing Director Launchpad Venture Group
@cmirabile
Christopher Mirabile is the co-‐Managing Director of LaunchPad Venture Group. Christopher is a full-‐time angel and an active member of the Boston-‐area angel investing community with investment more than 25 start-‐up companies. He was named one of XConomy's "Top Angel Investors in New England" for 2012. Christopher is an adjunct lecturer in the MBA program at Babson College, a regular advisor and mentor to start-‐ups, and a frequent panelist and speaker. He is a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of numerous start-‐up companies as well as several non-‐profits, and he is an Entrepreneur-‐in-‐Residence at Babson's Olin School of Business.
Christopher has served as a public company CFO with IONA Technologies PLC, a corporate and securities lawyer with Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault and as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse's Strategic Consulting Group.
Christopher earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A., with honors, from Colgate University.
Gerard Murphy
Co-‐Founder Mosaic Storage Systems
@gerard_murphy3, @mosiacarchive
Gerard has had a passion for photography since borrowing his Mom’s Pentax as a kid on family vacations. Later, Gerard turned this passion into Mosaic which he co-‐founded. Gerard grew Mosaic from a PowerPoint and a dream into a service used by tens of thousands of Lightroom users daily.
He is also an avid Lightroom advocate and teacher of Lightroom tips and tricks. His Lightroom videos have been seen by hundreds of thousands of photographers. Gerard has been featured on many national podcasts and large photography publications teaching Lightroom and talking about the future of photography. He has also been featured in Forbes Magazine as a young entrepreneur.
Vinit Nijhawan
Managing Director, Technology Department
Boston University @vinit44
Vinit Nijhawan has over 25 years experience building five startups: as CEO of three, four were acquired, and the fifth has grown to over 300 people. Recently, Vinit was Venture Partner at Key Venture Partners and over two years sourced over 200 deals and made one investment which was acquired for $430M. Vinit is an advisor and board member to several technology startups and was a Mass High Tech All-‐Star in 2005. Vinit has participated in over 120 panel discussions and paper presentations, and is a Board of Trustee of TiE Global, a non-‐profit that fosters entrepreneurship globally. Vinit is Managing Director, Office of Technology Development, and Director of Enterprise Programs at ITEC (Institute of Technology, Entrepreneurship & Commercialization) at Boston University. Vinit also teaches an MBA course on Entrepreneurship at BU. Vinit earned a B.A.Sc in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
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John O’Brien
Founder BVC Group
John is the founder of the Business Valuation and Consulting Group (BVC). John has almost 25 years experience as a business owner, Chief Financial Officer and business advisor. His extensive background in corporate finance enables him to understand the issues from both sides of the desk: as a service provider and consumer of professional services. John believes the success of any business is the direct result of client/service provider collaboration because it fosters a positive and productive working environment. His dedication to clients has earned him trusted business advisor status. Before starting the BVC Group, John spent the past three and a half years as Director of the Valuation Practice for a leading, forward thinking regional CPA firm in Massachusetts. John managed the execution of 100+ plus engagements per year. He was instrumental in revamping the firm’s valuation deliverables and improved the practice’s efficiency by almost 40%.
Greg Pierce
Director of Business Development Northstar
Greg serves as NorthStar’s Director of Business Development. While responsible for helping to implement NorthStar’s overall sales and marketing strategy, Greg also serves as “Account Executive” for his clients and is responsible for the delivery of risk management and property and casualty insurance solutions for clients within a number of targeted industries. One of Greg’s major areas of focus is working with emerging growth technology companies to develop and implement comprehensive, cost-‐effective risk management plans throughout all stages of corporate growth.
Prior to joining NorthStar, Greg spent four years as an associate in the Boston office of Ernst & Young, LLP, a “Big 4” professional services firm. Greg graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Notre Dame with a Master of Science in Accountancy, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics & Business from Lafayette College, where he played on the varsity lacrosse team. Greg is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), as well as a Massachusetts Licensed Insurance Advisor (LIA).
Adam Pool
Owner & CEO Environmental Investment Partners
With over 16 years experience being an early stage investor in central European environmental, cleantech and renewable energy SME’s Adam knows how to both provide capital (debt and equity) as well as coach management teams into being growth stage companies. Of the 20 environmental and renewable energy companies Adam has invested in and mentored: 6 have been listed, 4 have been sold, 3 remain private, 3 have been liquidated and 4 are still partially owned by Adam. Equity stakes have ranged from 2% to 50%. Recently, Adam has been applying his start up mentoring and transition economy skills in America and Myanmar where he has been assisting in the establishment of renewable energy businesses.
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Dimitri Racklin
Launchpad Venture Group
Dimitri Racklin is the founder and principal of RacklinLaw LLC, a boutique corporate law practice he started at the beginning of 2013, focusing on emerging growth and other privately held companies; venture capital and private equity; M&A; corporate partnering, strategic alliances and licensing/technology transactions; project development/finance; and general corporate work. Prior to starting RacklinLaw, Dimitri was a corporate partner at WilmerHale (formerly Hale and Dorr) since 1995, where his practice followed a similar focus and included clients in biotech/pharma, health care, technology and telecommunications, energy and power, financial services, gaming, professional services, food and beverage and other industries. In 2007, Dimitri joined Fidelity as a Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel (supporting Devonshire Investors, Fidelity's private equity arm), returning to WilmerHale in 2008.
Dan Relihan
Launchpad Venture Group
@dan_relihan, @LaunchpadVG
Dan Relihan is a quantitative analyst / software engineer with deep experience modeling complex financial instruments and designing & building robust, automated processes to help people be 10x more productive. He is an angel investor with Launchpad Venture Group and has other notable investments in local companies such as Ministry of Supply and Privy. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT and enjoys exploring the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
Heather Repicky
Associate
Nutter McClennen & Fish @NutterLaw
Heather is an associate in the Litigation Department of Nutter McClennen & Fish, and a member of the firm's Intellectual Property Litigation group. She focuses her practice on civil litigation, with an emphasis on patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret disputes. She represents clients in all stages of the litigation lifecycle—pre-‐trial, trial, and appeal—in both state and federal courts. Heather also currently co-‐edits the Patent & Trademark Bulletin for the District of Massachusetts, which Nutter publishes on a bi-‐monthly basis.
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Derek Roller
Associate Nutter McClennen & Fish
@NutterLaw
Derek P. Roller is an associate in the firm’s Intellectual Property Department involved in multiple aspects of intellectual property law. Exemplary areas of experience include the preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications, as well as more specialized procedures, such as inter partes reexaminations and trademark concurrent use proceedings in front of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Derek also has experience in a wide variety of other IP projects, including strategic portfolio planning, preparing opinions on patent infringement and validity, as well as conducting freedom to operate and inventorship studies on behalf of clients.
Derek is a graduate of Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, as well as Boston College Law School.
Rick Rundell
Senior Director
Autodesk @rcklr, @autodesk
Rick Rundell is a Senior Director at Autodesk leading a product line targeting cloud-‐based and mobile services for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. He is active in acquiring companies, products, and technology supporting this mission, including four acquisitions in the last two years. Rick previously held senior roles in strategic technology, strategic marketing and product marketing at Autodesk. He joined Autodesk with the acquisition of Revit Technology Corporation, where he was director of product marketing. A registered architect as well as a high-‐tech marketer, Rick holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Harvard University and a B.A in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College.
Bardwell Salmon
Chairman & CFO
Perillon Software
@PerillonSoft
Bard is Chairman & CFO of Perillon Software Inc., an enterprise software company delivering Operational Compliance Management solutions to manufacturing enterprises; and Chairman & CEO of Lexent Technologies Inc., a wireless security company. Bard is also President & CEO of Beaver Worldwide LLC of Groton, MA, a firm providing services including Mentoring Entrepreneurs; Advising Investors; and Merger, Acquisition and Valuations for Businesses. Bard is a serial entrepreneur, mentor and investor in early stage, fast growth information technology companies. He has founded six companies and has patents in the fields of multimedia matching of goods and services and in wireless security. He holds a BSCE from MIT and an MBA from Northwestern University.
Steve Saunders
Launchpad Venture Group
@LaunchpadVG
Steven is an angel investor and member of two local angel groups— Hub Angels Investment Group and Launchpad Venture Group. As an active participant in the angel investor community, hears dozens of presentations from early stage entrepreneurs each year and regularly conducts extensive due diligence on potential target companies, analyzing both their core businesses and their intellectual property issues. Steven has delivered numerous lectures on intellectual property and its impact on business at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston University, Boston College, and Northeastern University, and currently serves as a mentor for both BU’s Kindle Mentor Program, and MIT’s 100K Business Plan Competition.
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Katie Schuller Bleakie Golden Seeds
Prior to receiving her MBA from Simmons Graduate School of Management, Boston, Massachusetts, Katie graduated from University of Texas at Austin, with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. She owned and operated an Advertising Agency in Austin, Texas before moving to Boston Massachusetts where she ran multiple non-‐profit events and served on non-‐profit boards. For twenty years she was a co-‐manager of Fish Investments, LLC, Houston, Texas, where she managed a multi million dollar stock portfolio and oversaw, oil and gas projects, real estate partnerships, and other investment interests. Simultaneously, she worked for several privately owned Fashion companies, recruiting, and building sales forces, overseeing operations and manufacturing. In 2005, with partners, she founded Bill Blass New York. Bill Blass New York owned the bridge line license for Bill Blass Couture. Bill Blass New York designed, manufactured and sold their product across the United States thru a network of private sales people with over 300 sellers nationwide.
She is currently, consulting with several start-‐up companies, is a board member of Proxy Apparel, and Gracious Eloise. She serves on the Entrepreneurial Outreach Committee at Simmons Graduate School of Management, where she is Executive in Residence in Entreperneurship. She is a Life Overseer at the New England Conservatory of Music, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Max Warburg Courage Curriculum, Boston.
Sheryl Schultz
Golden Seeds
@SherylSchultz, @GoldenSeeds
As the president of SRS Associates, Sheryl Schultz has participated in the launch of some of the most successful start-‐up companies in the networking industry including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications. During her career, Sheryl has helped create companies and markets, providing sound and innovative communication frameworks that have shaped how networking companies develop and deliver product and services messaging. Working with senior level entrepreneurs, Sheryl helps articulate company, product and technology value at each stage of a company's lifecycle. She holds a degree in English and Communications from the University at Albany.
Arnie Scott
Director
Sevo Nutraceuticals
Arnie currently serves as Vice Chairman and a Director of First Commons Bank, NA, a national bank which he co-‐founded in 2008. He also serves as on the Board of Directors of Hub Management Co., Pneuron Corp. and Sevo Nutraceuticals, Inc. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of AI-‐Resource, LLC, Successimo and Vestmark.
Prior to 2001 he was a senior officer and a Director of MFS Investment Management. He also has been a lecturer at Boston University Law School’s Morin School of Banking and Finance.
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Prahar Shah
Mobee
@praharshah
A native of Toronto, Prahar is a serial entrepreneur and launched his first startup at 16. His experience includes supporting business development at Google, merchandising at Kraft Foods, and investing in early stage ventures at Bessemer Venture Partners. As a management consultant, Shah helped launch telecom & technology operations across North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Shah has degrees from the Richard Ivey School of Business (HBA) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MBA). While at MIT Sloan, he served as Entrepreneur In Residence at General Catalyst, where the concept of Mobee was born.
Gregg Stone
Launchpad Venture Group @LaunchpadVG
Mr. R. Gregg Stone serves as a General Partner at Kestrel Management, LLC. Mr. Stone serves as the Sole Manager of Kestrel Ventures, LLC, the general partner of two venture funds -‐ Kestrel Venture Partners, L.P., and Mass Ventures Equity Fund, L.P. He serves as a Manager of Kestrel Management, LLC. His investments have included healthcare, software, retail and manufacturing companies. Before founding Kestrel in 1996, Mr. Stone worked at Pell, Rudman & Co. Inc, a Boston-‐based investment adviser, and was the General Partner of its venture fund. Mr. Stone has been a Director of Cambridge BanCorp. since November 2009. He serves as a Director of PHT Corporation and Clarity Imaging Technologies, Inc. Mr. Stone serves as a Director of six private companies and as a Board Observer to three others. He serves as a Member of Launchpad Ventures. He served as a Director of IntraServer, Zeemote, Inc. and Progressive Technologies. Mr. Stone is a Trustee Emeritus of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He serves on the boards of Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and Camp Pasquaney. Mr. Stone practiced law at the firm of Hemenway & Barnes in Boston. He holds J.D. and A.B. degrees from Harvard University.
James Stuart
Walnut Ventures Principal with Lion Rock Capital, focused on venture capital/private equity, fund investments and special situations.
Previously, he was a Managing Director, based in Europe, of SOFTBANK Europe Ventures. Prior to SOFTBANK, he was based in the U.S. and Europe, at Insight Capital (now, Venture) Partners. Sectors in which he has invested include Information Technology: software and services, Telecom, Security, Financial Services, Consumer Products, Information Services, Retail and Energy.
Before moving to venture capital, James was an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs & Co. & Deutsche Bank Securities. James is a graduate of Brown University and has an MBA from the Graduate School of Business of the University of Chicago. He speaks English and basic French.
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Jean-Marie Vallet
Launchpad Venture Group @LaunchpadVG
Jean-‐Marie Vallet is a curious, technology enamored, data driven, transaction oriented French-‐American Life Sciences Executive with 30 years of experience in various roles, including R&D, sales & marketing, administration, corporate development and licensing. He worked many years at large companies (Warner Lambert, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pierre Fabre) before joining the more entrepreneurial world of the biotech industry in 2002, starting with Guilford Pharmaceuticals.
He arrived in the US in 1994 after starting his career in France, Switzerland and Germany. Jean-‐Marie retired in 2011 from EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, a fully owned Boston-‐based CNS company owned by Fidelity Investments to found Cyrma Ventures LLC, a small consulting firm providing corporate development services to emerging life science companies.
Catherine White
Golden Seeds
Catherine Friend White is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, and a director experienced of publicly-‐owned and private company boards.
Her career in investment management spans three decades, most recently as president of FinArc, LLC. White founded FinArc in 1990 to serve the growing needs of high-‐net worth investors wishing to incorporate ESG factors into their portfolios. She sold the firm in 2013. Prior to FinArc she was the portfolio manager of the International Heritage Growth and Income mutual fund. She is a director of FinArc Investments, Inc., a registered investment adviser and Chairman of the Steven D. Cutler Center for Investments and Finance at Babson College.
She holds the MBA from the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College where she served on the executive board.
Jill Wittels
Launchpad Venture Group @LaunchpadVG
Dr. Jill Wittels is CEO of Sostenuto Strategic Advisors and a Founding Partner and Chief Technology Officer of Terra Prima Partners LLC. She serves as Fiduciary or Advisory Director or Strategic Advisor to technology companies in a wide range of markets. Since launching SSA in July of 2011, Dr. Wittels has also done consulting work for several of the top rank Aerospace and Defense enterprises.
In July 2011 she retired as Corporate VP of Business and Technology Strategy at L-‐3 Communications, which she had joined in February 2001 to report to the CEO, Frank Lanza. During her tenure at L-‐3, Dr. Wittels had oversight responsibility for the Corporation’s $400M+ investment budget. She served for 10 years as a L-‐3’s Director of Innovative Microtechnologies Inc, a CA based MEMS company, as well as for 15 years as a Director on the Board of Overseers of DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL.
Jim Woodward
Serial Entrepreneur
James L. Woodward has over 30 years of high tech management experience. He has been a founder or the first CFO of eight successful companies including Iris Graphics (sold to Scitex for $31 million), Computer Access (Lotus), Exos (Microsoft), and ActualSoft (Palm). Jim has raised over $25 million in VC and has been CFO or Director of several public companies. He has been an angel investor for many years and was a member of Launchpad for more than ten years. He was involved in the MIT Enterprise Forum from 1980 until recently in a variety of roles including Chair. For ten years he wrote a monthly column on entrepreneurship for the Forum Reporter.