Here are the Investor speakers from our Sold-Out PA Venture and Angel Conference, sponsored by Ameritech Media, RMSC Law. This event was in Philadelphia on Thursday, July 29, 2010.
Michael joined CVP as Principal in 2006 and has more than 14 years of experience from engineering and product management to venture advisory, angel investing and venture capital. In 2002, he founded Blue Angel Ventures, a Research Triangle Park, NC-based seed funding and venture advisory firm focusing on wireless IT, advanced materials, nanotechnology, and medical devices. He has served in interim management and board positions of several technology start-ups and is also a founding board member of Long Island Angel Network. From 1994 to 2002, Michael held engineering, technical sales, and product management roles in fiber optics, smartphones, public safety and next-generation technologies at Nortel Networks, Ericsson, Siemens, and Nextel Communications. He also worked as an avionics software developer at Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm / DASA, an aerospace defense contractor in Munich, Germany.
At CVP, Michael focuses on investments in MEMS and Nanotechnology as they apply to communications, sensors, and power & energy, and actively supports CVP's portfolio companies. He has led investments and represented investors on the Board of Blue Angel Ventures' portfolio companies.
Michael earned an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, MS in Electrical Engineering and Management of Technology from Georgia Institute of Technology, and BSEE (magna cum laude and Eta Kappa Nu graduate) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is also fluent in Mandarin, Taiwanese, and German.
Carter Caldwell is a Principal at Cross Atlantic who is involved in investment due diligence, deal sourcing, as well as other Cross Atlantic operational efforts. Prior to joining Cross Atlantic, Carter founded and served as COO of Quazant Technology, Inc, the developer of the Transaction Accelerator, a high-speed transaction processing database. Prior to Quazant, Carter helped start Acorn Systems, Inc. and was integral in taking that company from pre-revenue to profitability. At Acorn, he served in the capacities of Director of Corporate Development, Product Manager and Engagement Manger. His experience is derived from positions at Acorn Systems, J.P. Morgan, Bear Stearns, and Business Philadelphia Magazine.
While at Acorn Systems, and working with distributors in the Semiconductor, Electronics, Fluid Mechanics, Chemical, Food Service, and Steel industries, Carter succeeded in returning numerous businesses to profitability using a variety of methods, including activity-based costing.
JP Morgan recognized Carter for creating a novel software analysis tool for all equities under their coverage. This tool, which utilized data such as equities' respective median volatilities and average daily volumes, enabled JP Morgan's institutional traders to make more informed trading decisions. Ultimately, this tool was used to alter the mix of equities that JP Morgan held in its Institutional Portfolio.
Ross is a member of the Board of Directors of Mimeo.com, Lumeta, ContextWeb, and Searchandise Commerce. Ross is also a Board Observer at IZEA.
Prior to co-founding DFJ Gotham Ventures, Ross was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Interactive Imaginations, Inc., one of the East Coast's pioneering Internet companies, and the predecessor company to 24/7 Media, Inc. Ross helped manage Interactive Imaginations through the challenges of the early Internet advertising and eventually toward its successful merger and IPO as 24/7 Media.
Prior to joining Interactive Imaginations, Ross was with Morgan Stanley for 13 years, where he had most recently been a senior banker responsible for equity financings for the firm's technology, telecommunications and media clients. Ross also serves on the Board of Directors of New York Cares, a non-profit volunteer service organization based in New York City.
Ross received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics-Economics, magna cum laude, from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Michael Kopelman is a Principal with Edison Venture Fund, an expansion-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology companies. His primary investment focus is in the financial services and eCommerce areas. He also leads Edison's investment team in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Michael began his career as an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston, where he advised clients on numerous M&A and financing transactions. In 1999, Michael left CSFB to start E*OFFERING, the San Francisco-based online investment bank of E*TRADE. Approximately one year after launch, E*OFFERING was acquired by SoundView Technology Group. Michael remained with the company following the acquisition and ran the firm's Internet & eCommerce investment banking franchise.
Michael is a Director of Correctnet, a financial reporting company; The Neat Company, a scanning business productivity tool; Satori Group, a business performance management company; SellMyTimeshareNOW, an eCommerce marketplace for timeshares; Sonicbids, an eCommerce platform for emerging musicians; and TrueCommerce, an EDI software company.
Michael is active in regional venture, entrepreneurial and technology organizations. He is Co-President of Wharton Private Equity Partners (WPEP), the private equity organization serving over 2,000 Wharton alumni, and serves on the Board of Directors of MAC Alliance. He was also past Co-Chair of the Wharton Private Equity Conference.
He holds a BA in Economics, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA, with honors, from The Wharton School. He resides in Villanova, PA with his wife and two children.
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
Marc has over 20 years of private equity and venture investment experience and was a founding Director of Metamorphic Ventures before joining as a Managing Partner. Marc was formerly Group Head at TD Capital (USA) in New York, TD Bank's $500 million private equity fund focused on the media and communications sectors. Prior to joining TD Capital, Marc was the Managing Partner of EOS Partners SBIC, a $60 million venture capital fund focused on business services and communications. Marc began his career at Merrill Lynch Interfunding, a $1.3 billion middle market buyout fund. Marc has spent his entire career helping entrepreneurs build their businesses across the entire lifecycle of over 45 businesses. He has helped management teams build their executive teams, develop their operational and corporate finance strategy and assisted them with executing financings of every type both public and private. Marc has served on numerous boards of directors in partnership with management and co-investors.
Marc has been involved in many successful companies including Coinstar, Accrue Software, CADIS Software, Open Development Software, DTS Systems, Precyse Solutions, Telemundo, Robb Report, Reiman Publishing, Alaska Native Wireless, Tritel PCS, Triton PCS, Wireless One, Mountain Union Telecom, Brooks Fiber, Bresnan Cable, and FrontierVision Cablesystems.
Marc graduated with a BA degree from Emory University in 1983 and a MBA from Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987.
For more than 13 years, Michael Kelley has been executing and managing principal investments in venture capital and real estate. He is the founder and principal of Formation Capital, Inc. (“Formation”), which currently manages in excess of $50 million in equity invested in 30 investments. Formation’s venture portfolio includes Foxfire Printing and Packaging, iProcess Online and Performance Systems Development. Formation also manages investments in multi-family developments utilizing the Low-income Housing Tax Credit. At Formation he personally developed an online fund management system that allows all stakeholders to collaborate, upload or access information based on permissions. Prior to Formation, Mr. Kelley was a principal with HK Special Situations Group, where he provided advisory services to the US Small Business Administration regarding a troubled Small Business Investment Company. He was also a principal with GSA Management and with Intrust USA. At Intrust he was responsible for raising and investing 4 real estate tax credit funds and one venture capital fund. In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Innovation Fund, Mr. Kelley sits on the boards of Foxfire Printing, Early Stage East, and the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League. Mr. Kelley received his BA degree in History magna cum laude from the University of Delaware.
Gil Beyda is managing partner of Genacast Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund formed in partnership with Comcast Interactive Capital. Genacast invests up to $500,000 in new media, digital marketing, consumer Internet and web x.0 companies.
Prior to Genacast, Gil was CTO of TACODA, the first and largest behavioral targeted, online ad network. TACODA was acquired by AOL in 2007.
Gil helped pioneer Internet advertising in 1995 as founder and CTO of Real Media, one of the first online ad networks and ad server companies. Real Media was acquired by 24/7 Media in 2001.
For ten years prior to Real Media, Gil was a highly sought-after software consultant in Asia, Europe and the U.S.
Moderator: Andrew Calderon, RMSC Law
Andrew M. Calderon has over 15 years of experience in the intellectual property field. Mr. Calderon’s practice includes counseling clients regarding the procurement, enforcement, licensing and evaluation of patents, particularly in the mechanical and electrical fields. Representative technologies include:
Air pollution control systems including mechanical control systems for coal fired power systems;
Automotive equipment including anti-lock braking systems, fuel injection systems, automotive control systems, power steering systems, seal and gasket technologies and tire technology;
Bowling systems including bumper systems, game scoring consoles, entertainment and multimedia systems, flooring systems, and pinspotters;
Building materials including glueless flooring systems and panels, composite structures, fastening devices and mounts, and prefabricated concrete components;
Consumer electronics including disk drives, electronic displays (LCD) and components for gaming consoles;
Consumer products including baby bottles, strollers, car seats, furniture units, barbecue equipment, bedding systems, sporting equipment, and photocopy and printing machines;
Integration systems including mail and postal systems;
Heavy machinery including paper forming machines, earth moving equipment; automated machinery for the automotive industry;
Medical devices including liposuction devices, various orthopedic devices; surgical saw blades and screws, collets and drills;
Semiconductor devices and fabrication for analog systems and various memory devices including SRAM, DRAM, EEPROM and ZRAM, and radiation hardened devices;
Computer related systems including bioinformatics, digital rights management, eCommerce and financial systems, search engines, voice recognition systems, relational and non-relational database systems, interactive learning systems, and telecommunication applications; and
Wastewater treatment systems including filtering systems and septic systems.
Mr. Calderon has a particular focus on reissues, ex parte and inter partes reexamination proceedings and appeals to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. Mr. Calderon also provides patent invalidity and non-infringement opinions, as well as patentability reports and freedom-to-practice assessments. In addition, Mr. Calderon has experience in the drafting and negotiation of technology transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, joint defense agreements, settlement agreements for complex litigation matters, and joint development agreements.
Legal History: Partner, McGuireWoods; Of Counsel, Greenblum & Bernstein, PLC.
Education: Touro Law Center, J.D. (1992)
Polytechnic University, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering (1989)
Admitted: New York, Commonwealth of Virginia and District of Columbia; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia. Registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
