Themes: General Information and Overview of VC Industry

David Ahlers is a former managing partner and founding participant of Cayuga Venture Funds. In addition, Dr. Ahlers is a former Cornell tenured professor and holder of the Berens Chair of Entrepreneurial Management at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management. While at Cornell, he was a Director of the Johnson School's Executive Development Program, Director of the Cornell Research Foundation which markets all Cornell intellectual property, and Director of Student Agencies, a privately funded corporation which helps enterprising Cornell students run businesses to work their way through Cornell.

Prior to coming to Cornell in 1972, Dr. Ahlers was a Vice President of Bankers Trust Company and head of its corporate planning activities. Dr. Ahlers left Cornell in 1985 to devote full time to DMA Associates, Ltd., an executive education and consulting firm in the financial services industry with a client list including Chase Manhattan, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and M&T Bank, where he is currently a member of the Directors' Advisory Council for the Southern Region.

David Ahlers received his Ph.D. in management and computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He received an MA in Operations Research from the University of Washington. His undergraduate degree is in physics from Ohio State University.

Judy Albers is the Chief Operating Officer at Excell. Albers has been instrumental in the establishment of many start-up companies based upon technologies spun out of Upstate NY universities and corporations, particularly in analyzing the commercial potential of the new technologies, developing commercialization strategies, positioning and planning early business operations, and providing seed stage capital. Her current focus is on co-managing the Excell Partners Fund and structuring equity-based deals.

Prior to joining Excell, Albers was a Vice President at Trillium Group, another Rochester-based Venture Capital firm, where she co-managed the University Technology Seed Fund, now fully invested. Albers also previously taught Environmental Chemistry at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Her classes were the largest in the department, teaching over a hundred non-majors every semester in lectures and laboratory. Prior to that, she served for several years at the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, D.C. as a defense analyst. Her job was to develop and link analytical conclusions on Navy systems, tactics, and operations to practical recommendations for implementation by the Navy's top-level decision makers at the Pentagon.

Judy Albers holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Duke University, a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Brandeis University, and completed her post-doc in Chemistry at Princeton University.

Mark Brandt is a Partner and Founder of The Maple Fund which invests in emerging technology - specifically nanotechnology.

Prior to his involvement with the Maple Fund, Mark Brandt was working at Notiva, a retail financial software company where he served as Cofounder, Board Member and Vice President of Corporate Development. Prior to Notiva, Mark worked at Andersen Consulting and Cargill Incorporated.

Mark Brandt is a graduate of Cornell University.

Philip Erdoes is the founder and CEO of Bear Ventures LLC. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in creating new enterprises. He works closely with the presidents and bsuiness managers within each of the companies which Bear Ventures funds.

Philip Erdoes holds an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University, a J.D. from University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Peter Hamilton is a Senior Analyst of Plebys Venture Development. In this role, he is responsible for coordinating and sourcing deal flow for Plebys.

Hamilton has worked as an engineer, researcher, marketing strategist, and consultant in a dozen countries. His clients and employers have included Solar Turbines (a Caterpillar company), Lockheed Martin, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, the California Air Resources Board, early and mid-stage startups, and several non-profits in the developing world.

Peter Hamilton holds degrees from Swarthmore College (BS, Engineering), UC Davis (MS) and Cornell University (MBA).

Paul Joseph is currently in a leadership position at Netegrity, a technology company which is a leading provider of security software solutions that securely manage identities and their access to enterprise information assets. Netegrity was acquired by Computer Associates in October of 2004.

Prior to his role at Netegrity, Paul was a Vice President at Simon Management Group, a management consulting firm that specializes in assisting senior executives and operating managers of technology-based companies.

As an undergraduate student, Paul consulted to two, Ithaca-based companies, wrote three business plans, and was the co-founder and manager of a profitable business providing server training and risk management certification services to the hospitality industry. Paul continued to run the company as a sole proprietorship for 4 years, prior to attending graduate school.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Kevin McGovern is the Chairman and CEO of McGovern Capital LLC, which provides Intellectual Property Rights Strategy, and originates, structures and implements capital formation, joint ventures and business alliances. In addition, he is also the principal of McGovern & Associates, which specializes in corporate law and intellectual property strategy with an emphasis on emerging businesses, mergers and acquisitions, securities, patent enforcement, corporate and partnership joint ventures, capital formation and R&D financing.

Kevin McGovern received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his law degree from St. John's University School of Law. He has also studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Bryan Pearce is a partner in the technology and life sciences practice of the firm, based in Boston MA, where he leads the firm's New England Venture Capital Advisory Group ("VCAG"). VCAG focuses on development and delivery of value added services to the venture capital industry, including core audit and tax services as well as deal flow, knowledge and thought leadership, and access to our alumni and extended enterprise networks and perspective on current venture capital fundraising trends. In addition, Bryan spends a substantial portion of his time with Emerging Growth companies providing counsel in the areas of fundraising, business models, preparing for a liquidity event, etc. He also is a member of the Global Steering Committee for this important component of the Global E&Y strategy.

Bryan began his career with the firm in 1981 after graduating from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and obtained his Canadian Chartered Accountant designation in 1983. Between 1995 and 2000 Bryan was seconded to the Caribbean practice, based in Barbados, where he was responsible for developing and running the Caribbean firm's Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurial Services' practice.

Dave was a Principal at R.E. Pinard & Co., Inc., which focused on Management Consulting and sell-side transaction service for small businesses. He subseqently left to become CEO of one of his client companies, Annalee Mobilitee Dolls, Inc.

Prior to joining R. E. Pinard, Dave was co-founder and President of a start-up company providing specialized value added manufacturing services to the worldwide appliance industry. Dave has also held several executive positions with a Fortune 500 electrical/electronic components' company including VP/General Manager of an entrepreneurial high tech fiber optic division, VP of North American sales and marketing and Director of the company's European operations.

Dave received a B.S. from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Colorado in Organizational Development. He also attended Columbia University's six-month Executive Development Program in Organizational Dynamics.

Rob Ryan earned national attention when he grew his 1989 start-up company, Ascend Communications, Inc., to more than $500 million in sales by 1995. Lucent Technologies acquired Ascend in 1999 for $23 billion, in what was termed at the time, the "largest technology merger ever."

Back surgery sidelined Ryan from Ascend in June of 1995, but soon after his recovery he reinvented himself as a "boot camp mentor" at his Montana ranch and began helping budding high-tech entrepreneurs formulate winning business plans and teaching them how to sell their ideas. Since Entrepreneur America began, Ryan has counseled dozens of aspiring entrepreneurs and as a result, 18 companies have been founded and mentored by his organization. Three of those companies rose to billion-dollar valuations.

Ryan received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University.

Richard Saltz is the founder of Business Innovative Strategies International. His consulting company provides custom-tailored financial management, interim CFO, public relations and marketing management services to its clients who consist of emerging and middle market companies. He is also CFO for the Westport YMCA in Connecticut.

Richard Saltz has a B.S. and an M.B.A. from Cornell University. Richard currently serves as an Advisory Council member to Cornell's Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program.

Zack Schildhorn is an Associate with Lux Capital, based in the firm's New York headquarters. Zack has been working with Lux since 2006, focusing on investments in energy and novel materials.

Before joining Lux, Schildhorn received his B.S. cum laude from Cornell University's College of Engineering, where he developed his own curriculum to study materials science engineering and business entrepreneurship. After being accepted into a highly selective dual-degree program, Schildhorn pursued his MBA at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, where he helped teach in the entrepreneurship and private equity immersion program.

Johannes C. "Hans" Severiens earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Johns Hopkins. He worked as a scientist at Perkin-Elmer, Columbia University, the Atomic Energy commission, and the Niels Bohr Institute.

He eventually began a "second" career in finance and became a Vice President in investment banking with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Merrill Lynch, and Paine Webber.

Over the last 10 years, Severiens has been an officer in three venture capital funds. In 1995, he co-founded the Band of Angels, a Silicon Valley investor group of over 100 executives, which invests in tech companies.

Dr. Severiens passed away on February 3, 2004 in Sonoma, California, after battling lung cancer for more than a year. He was 74.

Dan Simpkins founded Hillcrest Labs in 2001 with a team of experienced technical and business professionals to create a revolution in entertainment.

Prior to founding Hillcrest, Simpkins was vice president and general manager of the SALIX Switching Division of Tellabs, Inc., which was established in 2000 when he sold Voice over IP leader SALIX Technologies to Tellabs for $300 million. Simpkins founded SALIX in 1990 and continued as president and CEO through the sale.

Dan Simpkins received undergraduate and Master's degrees in engineering from Cornell University.

Tom Szaky is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCycle, Inc., producer of the worlds first product made from and packaged in waste.

At 14, Szaky started his first business, a web design company called Flyte Design, which employed three associates and earned its young proprietor a five-figure income. Szaky then engaged in the start-up of three small dot.com companies: Werehome.com (an online home improvement site), piority.com (an online fundraising school), and studentmarks.com (an online grade tracking software).

In 2002, Szaky took a leave of absence from Princeton University to dedicate himself full-time to starting TerraCycle, Inc., beginning as a 2 man outfit in the crowded basement of an old office building in Princeton. Today TerraCycle occupies a 20,000 sq. ft. factory in an urban enterprise zone in Trenton, NJ, where it employs over 20 workers and makes and ships its unique consumer products to WalMart Canada, Whole Foods, Home Depot, and other major retail stores.

Jay Walker is one of America's best-known inventors and entrepreneurs and is one of a dozen or so living inventors worldwide to hold 200 patents in multiple fields.

Walker, and a team at Walker Digital, LLC, his invention laboratory, created the central ideas behind priceline.com, the groundbreaking "name-your-own-price" company for airline tickets and hotel rooms.

Walker has also created a number of other successful businesses, including New Sub Services (now named Synapse) a company he co-founded and that revolutionized the magazine subscription industry and was recently sold to AOL Time Warner for $600 million. Walker also co-founded Target Communications, a conference and publishing company which was sold to Primedia in 2000.

Mr. Walker is currently chairman of Walker Digital, LLC, a Stamford, Conn.-based laboratory that invents entirely new ways for businesses to operate and serve consumers. Walker Digital is not a consultancy, but a privately funded active research laboratory that use long-term interdisciplinary invention teams to create solutions in the same manner and style as the original Edison laboratory. Successful inventions are licensed to industry or used as the core intellectual property of innovative startups for which the laboratory provides both personnel and funding. To date, Walker Digital has invented over 600 proprietary business methods addressing dozens of significant business problems in a wide range of industries such as travel, data security, retail, automotive, restaurants, groceries, financial services, gaming and entertainment.

Walker's inventions and innovations have been widely recognized. He has twice been recognized by the editors of TIME magazine as one of the 50 most influential business leaders in the digital age. Business Week selected Jay as one of its 25 Internet pioneers most responsible for "changing the competitive landscape of almost every industry in the world." Newsweek named him as one of three executives at the forefront of the Internet commerce revolution.

Walker and his wife have two children and live in Connecticut. He holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Relations from Cornell University.

Carl Weissman is a Venture Partner at MPM focusing particularly on the operational aspects of MPM portfolio companies. He is currently serving as the President and CEO of Accelerator, an MPM led effort, in affiliation with Dr. Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology, to invest in and manage emerging biotechnology companies. Accelerator has facilitated Series A investments in, and is managing the operations of, three companies - VieVax, VLST, and Spaltudaq. Prior to Accelerator, Mr. Weissman represented MPM as the President and CEO of Centagenetix, an MPM portfolio company. In that role, Mr. Weissman led the February 2003 merger of Centagenetix, with Elixir Pharmaceuticals, and remained on the Board of Directors of the combined entity until January 2005. Prior to joining MPM, he spent six years at Prolinx, Inc., where he held a number of positions, culminating as the head of both Finance and Business Development.

Josh Wolfe is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, focusing on investments in nanotechnology, semiconductors and life sciences. Wolfe manages Lux Capital's investments in Nanosys and Cambrios, and serves on the Board of Directors of Crystal IS and Lux Research.

Before forming Lux Capital, Wolfe 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.

Josh Wolfe graduated with distinction from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance.

Eric Young was a co-founder of Canaan Partners and has served as a General Partner since its inception. At Canaan, Young has concentrated on opportunities in communications systems and enterprise automation, having led its investments in Argon Networks, Copper Mountain Networks, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, INS, Kalpana, ONI Systems, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Prior to Canaan, he was a Senior Vice President of GE Venture Capital. During his five years there, he was responsible for several successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Young joined GE in 1979, holding successive managerial positions in sales, marketing and manufacturing within two GE industrial product businesses before joining GE Venture Capital.

Eric Young is a graduate of Cornell University with a BS in mechanical engineering and received his MBA in finance from Northwestern University.