Here are the Investor speakers from our Sold-Out PA Early-Stage Venture Event, sponsored by Wolf Block. This event was in Philadelphia on Wednesday, March 25, 2009.
Larry Chaityn is President of the New York Tri-State Chapters of The Keiretsu Forum, the largest global private equity investment network of accredited angel investors, venture capitalists, and corporate/institutional investors. Keiretsu Forum members invest in high-quality, diverse investment opportunities in emerging technologies, healthcare/life sciences, real estate, consumer products and other industries with high growth opportunity. Our community is strengthened through education on angel investing, as well as charitable and social activities.
Larry is an expert in the development and execution of performance management and corporate acceleration strategies that help organizations achieve their financial and operational goals. His 18 years of experience consulting in industries such as Technology/Software, Healthcare, Life Science and Manufacturing on multi-million dollar engagements has helped shape the vision and strategy for True North Global Partners.
Larry is an active member in the National Association of Health Services Executives, Turnaround Management Association, and The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Health Leaders of NY, The American College of Healthcare Executives, and the American Society for Quality's Healthcare Division and the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce in NYC. He often speaks on topics of change, systems thinking, effective communication, and causal problem analysis. Larry held senior management positions with the consulting practices of Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young and Oracle Corporation. Larry graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and a Masters in Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He has completed additional executive education programs in Management from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.
Maneesh is a Director of investments at Connecticut Innovations and is responsible for sourcing, evaluating, investing in and managing portfolio companies, primarily in the information technology sector.
Connecticut Innovations was an investor in a Shelton-based software company that Maneesh co-founded and was instrumental in growing, NeuVis (acquired by IBM Rational). He has over fifteen years of hands-on operational experience with technology start-ups including DataEase (acquired by Symantec) and Vendavo. Maneesh has worked with Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. He has held positions in corporate and business development, enterprise sales, product marketing and executive management.
Maneesh graduated magna cum laude from Ohio Wesleyan University with a BA in economics management and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He is actively involved with, and is a speaker for, events hosted by the Connecticut Venture Group (CVG), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) TriState, Yale Entrepreneurial Society (YES), Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and Columbia Business School.
Howard Lee Morgan is President of Arca Group Inc. in Villanova, PA, a Director of Idealab the Pasadena, CA based creator and operator of internet companies, where was a founding investor in 1996 and served as President of idealab! New York, a partner with First Round Capital, and a member of the New York Angels. He received a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University in 1968, and a B.S. in physics from City College of the City University of New York in 1965. He is helping to nurture a number of Idealab companies, including CarsDirect.com, the leading internet seller of automobiles, Partsearch, providing back end solutions for finding parts in the electronics field, Evolution Robotics, Enery Innovations, Newbury Networks and Picasa, Inc., offering digital photography acessing and sharing solutions.
Jeanne M. Sullivan has been investing in and growing tech companies since 1990! She has 17 years of private equity experience and has spent 27 years in the technology sector encompassing both extensive operating and investing experience with technology companies. Jeanne is a co-founder and General Partner of StarVest Partners, L.P. a New York City based venture capital firm with over $300 million under management. The firm invests in technology-enabled business services companies. As a General Partner of StarVest Partners and previously with Olivetti Ventures, Ms. Sullivan has served on the boards of many technology company boards.
Ms. Sullivan has extensive experience creating 'go to market' plans for expansion stage companies. Her expertise also includes strategy, a keen understanding of the technology landscape and industry trends.
Ms. Sullivan is a sought-after industry speaker on the subject of investing in and building technology companies and serves as an adjunct professor of marketing at the graduate level. Her credentials also include: lousy golfer, Yankee baseball and sports addict, and oldest of eight kids where she learned the most about managing people and getting results.
"I see CEO's get their PhDs in best practices for how-to-get-funded techniques. This is accomplished through FundingPost's well orchestrated and accomplished conferences – great for learning from and networking with the money sources."
- Jeanne M. Sullivan, StarVest Partners
John Ason has been an angel investor for over 15 years specializing in early stage pre-revenue companies. He
has made over twenty eclectic investments in the areas of e-commerce, technology, advertising and
entertainment. John was at AT&T Bell Labs for over 25 years, first involved in software and technology
development, then in marketing and business management of large telecommunications projects overseas. He is
a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is a guest lecturer at the Rothman Institute of
Entrepreneurial Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
John's hobbies include traveling, golf, GO (oriental game) and mentoring companies.
For about half if his investments, John has been the lead angel devoting a significant amount of his time to
mentoring the companies. A typical company consists of one or two people in a garage or kitchen with minimal
or no revenues. Average investment from the angel network for the first round is $275K. Any low capital
industry with high growth potential qualifies with the exception of medical and biotech.
Chris has extensive healthcare, technology, and operating experience managing companies from their start-up through their growth phases. Chris has a track record as an aggressive company builder and market entry strategist. In the late 1980's, Chris combined his proficiency and commitment to medicine with his background in engineering to develop clinical communication tools dedicated to empowering physicians in the practice of medicine. Chris founded several physician-centric healthcare companies headquartered in Westchester, NY (including Physicians’ Online, Inc., Med-E-Systems Corporation, Advanced Health Corporation, and vPORT). Chris founded The Verticom Group in 1996 and works closely with numerous healthcare and non-healthcare portfolio companies. A board-certified internist, bioengineer, and physicist, Chris received his clinical training at Columbia, Hahnemann, Mt. Sinai, and Lenox Hill hospitals.
Jung Yun has more than fifteen years experience in the areas of finance, banking, operations, sales, consulting, and as an entrepreneur. She is currently the Managing Director for Yun Capital. She also serves as a Fund Manager and Partner of Global Media Fund with over $400M under assets. In addition, Ms. Yun is a partner of Boston First Capital, a boutique Investment Bank focused in International Transactions in such countries as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, China, Montenegro, Kingdom of Tonga, and the Bahamas.
Ms. Yun's experience has been in the capacity of both Fund Manager and Investment Banker. She has worked with many public/private companies in transactions ranging from $1M to $8B. She has completed over $300M in mergers and acquisitions, and serves as both designer and architect in these ventures. She also delivers financial strategy, business consulting, operations, implementations and strategic alliance expertise to the companies she invests in. In addition, her career has included setting up and managing Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards. She has served as President and Chairman of Global Life Line, a telecommunications company and President of Mindography Inc, an eduportal for the education market.
Ms. Yun's accomplishments on the operational side include building direct sales channels, managing a team of 300, business development, Joint Ventures and mergers & acquisitions. The list of companies to which she has contributed to their growth include: JPMorgan, Reed Elsevier, The Village Companies and many others. She graduated with honors from the University of Tennessee and is a proud member of the MENSA organization.
"I thought the event was excellent as always. Thank you for including me in your wonderful event. I thought companies really benefited. I am following up with 3 companies from the event and one that we recommended for the event :)"
- Jung Yun, Yun Capital
JB Lockhart joined Greenhill SAVP in 2006. Previously, he was a Manager in The Walt Disney Company's Strategic Planning Group, where he worked on the acquisition of Pixar, the sale of Disney's stake in E! Networks, and the evaluation of investments in early-stage digital media companies. Prior to Disney, JB worked at Lehman Brothers in both investment banking and technology strategy. In the latter role, he managed the development of web-based products and analyzed strategic investments in financial technology companies.
JB currently serves as a Board Observer at Mobile Commons and Pontiflex. He is also a junior Board Member at The Beginning with Children Foundation, a non-profit charter school organization. JB received a BA with honors from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Moderator: David Gitlin, Chair Corporate/Securities, Wolf Block
Mr. Gitlin joined the firm in 1981 and became a Partner in 1989. He is Chairman of the Corporate/Securities Practice Group and Chairman of the Life Sciences Practice Group. His areas of specialty are corporate acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, corporate finance, venture capital, and technology development, licensing and distribution agreements. Mr. Gitlin handles a large and diversified number of corporate and commercial transactions every year, both domestic and international. He has handled over 150 corporate acquisitions and divestitures, including transactions in more than 15 different countries. Mr. Gitlin has written and lectured on a variety of legal topics, including corporate acquisitions, exit strategies, venture capital and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Mr. Gitlin is a member of the firm's Executive Committee and has served on the firm's Administrative Committee. An honors graduate of the Tel Aviv University Law School, Mr. Gitlin went on to earn his LL.M. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he specialized in international business transactions. He is a recipient of the Gowen Award. Mr. Gitlin is a member of the Israel, New York and Pennsylvania Bars.
