Speakers
Bio & Investments
VC-Meet IX, December 11, 2003
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Buck French |
Buck French: Mr. French is the General Partner responsible for JPMorgan Partners' software venture investments. Prior to JPMorgan Partners, Mr. French was vice president and general manager for Siebel Systems Interactive Selling Group. Before joining Siebel, Mr. French was co-founder and CEO of OnLink Technologies, where he grew the company from two to 210 employees, secured funding of more than $37 million and won significant contracts with Fortune 2000 companies. In August of 2000 Siebel Systems acquired OnLink for $609M. Previously, Mr. French served as a Captain in the U.S. Army where he received several citations for outstanding performance, leadership, and initiative. Mr. French earned his MBA from Harvard University and his BS degree in Economics and General Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
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Josh Wolfe |
Josh Wolfe : Josh Wolfe is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital focusing on the firms' venture investments in Nanotechnology. Before forming Lux Capital, he worked in Salomon Smith Barney's Investment Banking group, where his experience included a $4 billion hotel merger, and a defense against an unsolicited LBO. Josh has also worked in capital markets while at Merrill Lynch on its Financial Futures & Options/Government Strategy desk and at Prudential Securities in its Municipal Finance department. Prior to venturing into the financial world, Josh conducted and published
cutting edge AIDS/immunopathology research. He has been published in
Nature Biotechnology, Cell Vision and The Journal of Leukocyte Biology,
leading medical/immunology journals. Josh graduated with distinction
from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Josh is also a columnist at Forbes magazine, author of
the 500 pg book "The Nanotech Report" and Editor of Forbes'
fastest growing monthly investment publication, the "Forbes/Wolfe
Nanotech Report." He has been an invited speaker on nanotechnology
to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Capitol Hill, the NSF, FDA and
other government labs and Recent
Investments: xxxxx |
David Wassong |
David K. Wassong: David K. Wassong, Partner-New York, has been with SPEP (Soros Private Equity Partners) since July 1998 and focuses on the media, entertainment and telecommunications industries. Prior to joining SPEP, Mr. Wassong was with Lauder Gaspar Ventures from 1997-1998, where he participated on teams which invested approximately $60 million in private equity transactions in the telecommunications industry. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Wassong was in investment banking with Wertheim Schroder. Mr. Wassong earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and received his M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business
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David Lee |
David Lee: David Lee is the Managing Director at Investor Growth Capital. David joined Investor Growth Capital's New York office in 2000 from Moore Capital Management, where he was a principal in their private equity group and focused on technology-related investments. Prior to Moore Capital, David was a principal at Eos Partners, and a consultant at McKinsey and Company. David graduated with an M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Harvard College. David focuses on investments in enterprise hardware/software and semiconductors. He currently serves on the Board of Gator Corp. and Invesmart, Inc. and is a Board observer to Sandburst and Ntru.
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Dan Burstein |
Dan Burstein: Daniel Burstein is Managing Partner of Millennium Technology Ventures Advisors. Prior to founding Millennium, Dan had been Chief Investment Officer for PS Capital Holdings and PS Capital Ventures, the predecessor funds of Millennium. From 1997 to 1999, Dan was responsible for making all the portfolio investment decisions for those funds. By July 2000, the PS Capital portfolios included investments in 15 companies that had returned to their investors approximately $250 million in publicly-traded company capital gains, representing returns on total capital invested in the funds of over 20x (PS Capital Holdings) and 7x (PS Capital Ventures). For twelve years from 1988 to 2000, Dan was Senior Advisor at The Blackstone Group, one of Wall Streets leading private merchant banks. Over the course of his career he has served as a consultant to the CEOs and senior executives of major global corporations including Sony, Toyota, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems. In January 2000, Dan helped found the Millennium Technology Ventures fund. The fund invested at a conservative pace in the 2000-2001 environment and currently has over $50 million in capital still available for new investments. The fund has one successful public market realization to date, through the sale of portfolio company Phobos (on whose Board of Directors Dan served) to publicly-traded SonicWALL. Dan is the author of five books on new technology trends and global economic issues, including Road Warriors, a 1995 book about the birth of digital media and the Internet. He has also written books about the future of China, Japan, and the European Union. His 1988 book on Japanese finance (YEN!) was an international sensation, landing on best-seller lists in the U.S., Japan, Australia and 15 other countries where it was translated into foreign language editions. Dan has been a forum fellow at the World Economic Forum in Davos and has been honored many times for his books and journalistic work, including awards from the Overseas Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi. He is a frequent guest expert on television programs ranging from CNBC, CNN, Fox, and Bloomberg to Charlie Rose and Oprah |
Daniel De Wolf |
Daniel
De Wolf: Daniel I. De Wolf is the Director of Venture
Capital Funds for SoundView Technology Group and a Managing Director
of SoundView Ventures and the Dawntreader Funds, which were established
in 1998. Mr. De Wolf is also an Adjunct Professor at the New York University
Law School, where he teaches venture capital law.
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Steve Brotman |
Steve
Brotman : Mr. Brotman founded Silicon Alley Venture
Partners in 1998. The fund's institutional investors control over $2
billion in venture capital and include TL Ventures, a Safeguard affiliate,
TD Capital and the principles of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Boston
Millennium.
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Yag Patel |
Yag Patel:
Yag is a Principal of Rho Ventures, a New York based venture capital
fund with over $750 million under management. He is currently on the
Board of Innerwireless. Other investments where Yag is actively engaged
include Vieo, ON24, Healthallies and Agora Media.
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Mike Rennock |
Michael J.W. Rennock: Michael J.W. Rennock is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's New York office. He is a transactional attorney whose practice focuses primarily on corporate finance and securities, mergers and acquisitions, and venture capital. He also counsels corporate clients on a regular basis with respect to corporate and securities law matters. He represents issuers, investors and investment banks in a variety of financing transactions, including public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities. He has worked on convertible and high-yield debt financings, various financing transactions in Latin America, mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, project financings, spinoffs, secured and unsecured borrowings and joint ventures. Mr. Rennock represents public and private companies in a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, wireless communications, electronic data transmission and fiber optic cable, retail, health care, child care, banking, energy and transportation. Mr. Rennock also advises various venture capital firms and private companies in venture capital transactions. Mr. Rennock received his B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1981 and his J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law in 1985. He is a member of the New York Bar and of the Diversity Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. He is also the chairman of the Diversity Committee in the New York office and is a member of the firm's Technology Strategy Committee. ____________________________________________________ |
Michael Carus |
Michael Carus : Mr. Carus is a General Partner and CFO at Jerusalem Venture Partners and his Investment focus is on Enterprise Software & Networking. Prior to joining JVP, Michael amassed his operational expertise helping to grow some of today's leading technology companies. He employs this extensive experience with numerous JVP portfolio companies, directing them to focus their business models to meet the specific demands of their customers. Michael also sources new investment opportunities in the enterprise software sector and is responsible for the fund's financial activities. He is a board member with BridgeWave, Bristol, Cogent and TeleKnowledge and advisor to a number of companies in the JVP portfolio. Prior to joining JVP, Michael served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Fundtech (Nasdaq: FNDT), a JPV I portfolio company. In addition to his various operating responsibilities, Michael managed the company's IPO, acquisitions and secondary offering raising $130 million. Through Michael's leadership, Fundtech grew from $3.5 million to approximately $50 million in sales through the company's U.S. and international offices. Previously, Michael held various senior management positions at Geotek Communications (Nasdaq: GOTK) and prior to this, he was a CPA and Manager of Business Assurance at Coopers and Lybrand. Michael holds a degree from Ithaca College in New York.
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Jay S. Rand |
Jay S. Rand : Mr. Rand is a partner in Morrison & Foerster's New York office and a member of the firm's Corporate Group. Mr. Rand's practice has been focused on the representation of emerging and growth-stage companies, private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions. His clients include private equity funds (both buyout
funds and venture capital funds), as well as companies in the information
technology, media (old and new), telecommunications, software, hardware
and life science industries. He is recognized as one of New York's leading
practitioners in the area of private equity financing, and in 1999 was
named by the Silicon Alley Reporter as one of Silicon Alley's "Top
50 Supporters," a list comprised of leading service providers to
New York's new media and technology community. Mr. Rand also has experience
in strategic investments, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures,
and private and public securities offerings. Mr. Rand graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The Johns Hopkins University in 1983, and received his J.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in 1987, where he was an editor of the Comparative Labor Law Journal.
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