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Global Early Stage Investing |
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David Fann - U.S.Trust Michael Prozen - My General Counsel Group Vish Mishra - Clearstone Venture Partners Alexandra Post, PhD Howard Lee - Crystal Ventures Jermey Woan - Bampton Group Five years ago, if you asked experts about outsourcing, they would tell you that the cultural and logistical barriers would keep it from ever being huge. How fast things change. Today, investing in far off countries is fraught with peril and early stage investors usually invest close to home no matter where their homes might be. But with so much manufacturing taking place in China, back office in India, R&D in Israel and so on could that change? After all, most startups are created by the employees of bigger companies acting on innovation that the bigger company can't or won't develop itself. We have assembled experts in financing with expertise on a global basis who are currently active in Asia and Europe including China, India and England. Find out what is happening globally in an area that is hot. Join us in a dinner and panel discussion. THE PANELISTS Alexandra Post, PhD During her graduate studies Alexandra Post served as a financial and marketing consultant for major corporations in India, Thailand, and Indonesia. While running a European company in mergers and acquisitions, Alexandra taught university finance and management courses. Upon return to the San Francisco Bay Area, she has specialized in venture and angel investment. Clients and associates have included: - ABC-Amro London - Standard Chartered Bank London - CoopersLybrand London - Kanematsu-Gosho USA - State Trading Corporation India - Bankers Trust Thailand - JR Simplot Boise - Corporate Events London - Documents International Seattle - Flynn Associates San Francisco - Metasound San Jose - CEO Interactive San Jose - The U.S. State Department Washington, DC Alexandra Post has authored several publications including: ANATOMY OF A MERGER - THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS, a guide for acquiring or selling a company that reveals the key factors for success and failure. DEEP SEA MINNG AND THE LAW OF THE SEA, a financial and legal guide describing investment opportunities and risks during the largest land acquisition in human history of the Exclusive Economic Zones. The global land grab for offshore oil and mining resources incited the restructuring of the law that governs five-sevenths of the earth's surface, the sea. She studied at the following universities: - Cornell University and University of Paris, BA - University of California at Berkeley, MA - IMEDE, Switzerland, Business Studies - University of Munich, Ph.D. Post was also a faculty member at Sussex University in the UK, Howard Lee - Crystal Ventures Howard was previously Vice President at Crimson Ventures, a global venture capital firm, where he led communications infrastructure investments in the US and served on the boards of DMW Worldwide, a market support solutions company and Geyser Networks, a SONET access equipment company. Prior to Crimson, he was Vice President and co-founder of Volendam Capital Advisors, a venture fund that invests in emerging growth high technology companies in the US and Europe, including communications and interactive software. His investments at Volendam included Bookham Technologies, an optical components and subsystems company (NASDAQ:BKHM), and CopperCom, a voice over broadband access solutions company. Howard has held management positions in product marketing at Applied Materials and has worked as a research investigator in optoelectronics and semiconductor materials at the US Army. Howard has also held engineering positions at IBM and Unisys. Howard has BS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. About Crystal Ventures: Crystal Ventures was founded in 1997, and has grown into a family of funds with over $240 million under management. The firm conducts value-added venture capital investing in the United States and Asia from locations in California, Ohio, Singapore, and Taiwan. The management of the Crystal family of funds views today's technological innovation as a global event with strong localized flavor. The team is focused on facilitating the pervasive growth and development of that innovation worldwide - with special focus on North America and Asia. Crystal is also interested in companies that have trans-Pacific synergetic operations with proven technology and products, market potential, exemplary management teams, and other unique resources particular to Silicon Valley, Taiwan, Singapore, and Mainland China. Crystal Ventures invests in early- and development-stage technology-based opportunities. Its three primary areas of focus are infrastructure and communications, enabling technologies, and vertical applications and content. Currently, it is interested in enabling technologies and application solutions in broadband, wireless and vertical applications that are based on existing infrastructure and platforms. Jeremy Woan - Bampton Group Within his 20 years in technology Jeremy has spent the past 10 working cross-culturally between the USA and UK. He is CEO of Bampton Group, a firm with offices in San Francisco, London and Stockholm that since 1997 has provided interim management and consulting to, and sometimes invested in, small and medium European and US technology companies seeking to expand transatlantically. Each company in the Bampton investment portfolio has gone onto either IPO or successful trade sale and Jeremy himself has served as interim CEO or board member of companies across enterprise software, internet security, healthcare systems, online banking and e-commerce, and online media and marketing. These companies have received funding from VC's and other investors in both the USA and Europe. Before Bampton, Jeremy was Chairman and CEO of Clinical Computing, a UK healthcare solutions provider for whom he established the US operations that came to generate the majority of the company's revenues with a 40% share of its market in North America. He also led the company through successful IPO and secondary offerings. Prior to Clinical Computing, he was Deputy CEO of Tadpole Technology, a Cambridge (England) based supplier of high performance board level computing systems and developer and manufacturer of the SparcBook with the majority of its operations and business in the USA. In addition to his operational responsibilities, Jeremy re-structured the company's financial base and positioned it for and led it through a highly successful IPO. Previously, he spent 8 years as technology analyst working for a number of leading UK and US investment banks, focusing on small and medium technology companies. During this period he achieved a number of top 3 ratings in annual institutional investor surveys. In addition to his work with Bampton Jeremy has lectured and presented at events on the US West Coast on management issues and challenges in early stage venture backed technology companies, especially those seeking to expand their businesses internationally. He has also been asked to write articles on these topics, including one commissioned by Corporate Board magazine in the USA. Alongside his professional commitments and dividing his time between San Francisco and London he is an internationally competitive sailor who has coached a number of California high school and college students to medal wins in national championships in recent years. Jeremy holds graduate degrees in law and international law from Cambridge University. Mike Prozan - My General Counsel Group MGC's founder, Mike Prozan, has practiced law for over 15 years, as General Counsel to a publicly traded Silicon Valley Company, in the corporate departments of both large and small law firms, at the Division of Corporation Finance at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as a state and federal prosecutor. Mike has written extensively on corporate and securities law in general circulation newspapers such as the San Jose Mercury News, trade journals such as The Recorder and the Daily Journal, and in law journals at Columbia and Hofstra Universities. He has also been quoted as an expert on corporate and securities law matters in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Daily Journal, and thestreet.com. While at the SEC, Mike played a major role in regulating the bond offering by Donald Trump to finance the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City which resulted in a securities law case validating the work done by the SEC and Mr. Trump's attorneys on the offering. The case is currently taught in law schools today. When not practicing law, Mike enjoys bike riding and writing. He completed two AIDS rides, one from San Francisco to Los Angeles and a second from Fairbanks, Alaska to Anchorage, Alaska. He is currently at work on a novel titled "Murder Dot Com." He also serves as President of Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo, California, a Jewish synagogue with approximately 3500 members. Mike is married and has one son in college. David I. Fann - US Trust David I. Fann is Managing Director of U.S. Trust Company, N.A. Mr. Fann serves as President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of UST Private Equity Investors Fund, Inc. and Excelsior Private Equity Fund II, Inc. and is Co-Chief Executive Officer and President of Excelsior Venture Partners III, LLC. Prior to joining United States Trust Company of New York in April 1994, Mr. Fann served in various capacities for Citibank from 1986 through 1994, including, as a Vice President of Citibank and its small business investment company subsidiary, Citicorp Venture Capital Ltd. from 1991 until 1994. While at Citicorp Venture Capital Ltd., Mr. Fann invested in buyout and venture capital transactions and venture capital funds and served on the board of directors of several of its portfolio companies. Mr. Fann holds a B.A.S. degree in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Stanford University. Mr. Fann serves on the United States Trust Company of New York Portfolio Policy Committee and Strategy Review Committee. Mr. Fann is the Chairman of Pilot Software Corp. and is on the boards of Accrue Acquisition Corp.,Curon Medical and Tensys Medical. Vish Mishra - Venture Partner, Clearstone Venture Partners Mr Mishra brings over 26 years of Silicon Valley technology leadership experience as a CEO, COO, EVP/VP and Director to his venture capital position at Clearstone. With nearly $500M under management since 1998, Clearstone is a top-performing firm which has created economic value worth several billion dollars and several thousand in employment. Mr Mishra actively evaluates, and manages investments in communications and software companies, providing board oversight and executive coaching. His career highlights include service as co-founder/board member of Telera, Inc which sold to Alcatel in 2002;founding VP of operations/COO of Excelan, an internet and networking company which sold to Novell in 1989 with Excelan's products adding over a $1B to Novell's subsequent revenues; EVP of iPlanet( a unit of AOL/Sun Microsystems) and CEO of four technology start-ups. His civic role is serving as a charter and board member of The Indus Entrepreneurs( TiE), chairing it's largest annual convention of entrepreneurs, involving thousands of delegates and hundreds of world-class leaders as speakers. In September 2003, he was one of 35 U.S. business leaders selected to participate in a CEO Summit hosted by India's President to advise the President on India becoming a fully developed nation by 2020. In September 2003, he was also honored by California Senate as one of 25 prominent Indo-Americans who have contributed to California's development. Mr Mishra is known for his belief in people who is widely recognised for his abilities to organise and lead diverse set of people to build businesses and enterprises. His educational background includes a BSEE( 1967) from Banaras Hindu University, India and MSEE from North Dakota State University, Frago, North Dakota, U.S.A. He lives in San Jose,California, is married to wife Coomie for 32 years and has three children Usha, Reena and Rohit. Don Steiny - Moderator Don Steiny is president of Central Coast Angel Network, Institute for Social Network Analysis of the Economy and InfoPoint, Inc. |
| copyright 2006 |