Professor of Legal Studies, The Wharton School
Adjunct Professor of Law, Penn Law School
President, Global Strategy Group
Mr. Diamond has founded or directed entrepreneurial ventures in sectors ranging from wireless technologies to cargo airlines to bananas in Bolivia. He was an executive of a Wall Street energy futures brokerage firm and worked at Sullivan & Cromwell and Morgan Stanley. He holds a law degree from Harvard and M.B.A. from The Wharton School and has taught and advised on negotiation to corporate and government leaders in more than 40 countries, including half of the Global 100 corporations. He has been chairman of a public high-technology company and represented the borrower in the largest foreign sourced financing in Ukraine's history. In previous career he won a Pulitzer Prize as a reporter for The New York Times for an investigation of the 1986 crash of the space shuttle Challenger.
Partner & National Director, Deloitte & Touche LLP (Moderator)
Mark Jensen is a Partner and the National Director for the Venture Capital Services group at Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, where he focuses on both venture capital firms and venture-backed companies. Prior to joining Deloitte & Touche, Mark was the CFO for a venture capital firm providing services and capital for pre-seed and seed-stage technology companies. Mark joined that company after serving as the global high-technology industry leader for another international professional services firm, where he was responsible for building their technology industry program worldwide.
Mark is a frequent speaker on issues facing the venture capital industry and has recently been appointed to the SEC Advisory Committee for smaller public companies. The committee is reviewing the impact of regulation on smaller public companies and companies going public.
Managing Director, MentorTech Ventures
Michael Aronson was a founding shareholder and/or co-founder of 5 successful software companies. Of these, 2 were acquired by public entities, 2 by private investors, and 1 has a NYSE-listed corporate investor. He was an investor in 2 additional software companies, 1 was acquired by public company, and 1 had a successful IPO.
He possesses a 25+ year career as entrepreneur and investor with significant expertise in company formation around business school concepts, software development, capital raising, strategic alliances and joint ventures, financial reporting and tax issues, executive compensation, employment matters and copyright law. He was the co-founder, CFO, EVP & Board Member of SMG, Inc., a $28M simulation software company, named three times to "Inc. 500" fastest growing companies list.
He was a Board, Executive and Investment Committee Member for 15+ years on Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a Chairman of LP advisory board of Rustic Canyon SBIC Venture Fund and held LP and GP positions in three Israeli early stage technology funds. He has broad business school alumni network amassed over 25-year teaching career at Wharton.
Vice President, Bessemer Venture Partners
Alex Ferrara is a Vice President in the Larchmont office, focusing on investments in financial services technologies, software, technology enabled services, and digital media. He serves on the boards of Quadriserv, SelectMinds, Sparter, and Yodle. Alex is also involved with Bessemer's current investments in Quadriserv, Zopa, Revver, Pure Networks, Gerson Lehrman Group, and Soleil Securities, and was part of the investment team for SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee) and Skype (acquired by Ebay).
Prior to BVP, Alex worked at Goldman Sachs in Technology Investment Banking, where he was involved with merger advisory and corporate finance, primarily in the IT services and software sectors. He came to Goldman Sachs from his MBA studies, during which he served as part-time associate with both RRE Ventures and Apax Partners.
Alex was a member of the founding team of two companies: Mainline Marketplace, an online auction business, which was acquired in 2000 by Sales Online Direct; and Boston Technical, an IT consulting group. He started his career in the financial sector as a systems developer for Salomon Brothers and then as a derivatives trader on the New York Board of Trade.
Co-founder, Contour Ventures Partners
Bob Greene is a co-founder of Contour Venture Partners and has been a venture capitalist since the late 1980's. He has invested in all stages of venture capital across several industry sectors. Prior to launching Contour, Bob was a managing partner of Flatiron Partners. The firm backed over 50 companies with over $500 million of venture capital. Prior to joining Flatiron full time in 1999, Bob was a General Partner at Chase Capital Partners (also known as JPMorgan Partners) since 1994. Bob started his venture capital career in 1988 with Prudential Equity Investors. Bob received a BS from the Wharton School of Business and an MBA from The MIT Sloan School of Management.
Vice President, Edison Ventures
Michael Kopelman is Vice President & 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.
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 (a.k.a. Wit Capital). 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; NeatReceipts, a business productivity tool; Satori Group, a business performance management company; and Sonicbids, an eCommerce platform for emerging musicians.
Michael is active in regional venture, entrepreneurial and technology organizations, including MAC Alliance, M&A East and Early Stage East. He is on the Executive Board of Wharton's private equity alumni association and past Co-Chair of the Wharton Business Plan Competition and the Wharton Private Equity Conference.
Michael 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 son.
Founder & CEO, Pixily (Moderator)
Prasad Thammineni is a serial entrepreneur and founder of four ventures. His latest venture, Pixily, launched in August 2007 and is in stealth mode. Prior to Pixily, Prasad founded and grew jPeople into a well-regarded, high-end consulting firm in Boston that provides technology leadership for clients such as Fidelity Investments and IBM. Prasad's other entrepreneurial experiences include his leading roles at Indolis.com and Specialized Software. Prasad earned his MBA with honors from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 2007.
Founder & CEO, Nutripharm
Founder & CEO, Devine Foods
Ms. Devine is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nutripharm, Inc. Ms. Devine has extensive professional experience in both consumer foods and consulting organizations. A licensed CPA, she began her career with Arthur Andersen & Co., where she was a member of the firm's national closely-held business team. She then held several management positions at Campbell Soup Company where she was responsible for negotiating, pricing and executing financings, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. Ms. Devine is a guest author and often quoted in trade and consumer publications. She has been frequently invited to speak at industry conferences, including Nutracon and the National Functional Foods & Beverage Conferences. Ms. Devine was honored by the Governor of Pennsylvania in 1999 with the "Best 50 Business Women in Pennsylvania" Award and was awarded the Year 2000 Villanova Alumni Gold Medal, the highest honor bestowed on a graduate of Villanova University. Ms. Devine is also a nationally recognized professional leader. She was elected to the American Institute of CPAs Board of Directors and appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania and chaired The State Board of Accountancy, the ethics and licensing Board for Pennsylvania's 20,000 CPAs. In 2004, she was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Pennsylvania Blue Ribbon Business Tax Reform Commission. Ms. Devine served as Entrepreneur in Residence at The Wharton School in 2003 and 2004. In 2007 she was honored by The Girls Scouts of America with the "Take the Lead" Award and is a named co-inventor on nineteen U.S. and international patents. Ms. Devine received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Taxation from Villanova Law School, and a B.S in Accounting from Villanova University, where she graduated first in her class.
Co-founder & Managing Director, Lab49
Vivake Gupta is a founder and Managing Director at Lab49. He is based in the London office, and works with a number of existing clients overseeing Lab49's engagements and advising them on technology direction across a wide range of areas within capital markets. Previously, Vivake co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer for Simile Software, where he led the development of the company's unstructured data and content management technologies, ran technology operations, and directed original research initiatives in the area of statistical natural language processing. Vivake holds a B.A. in the Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
CEO, Commerce360
Prior to heading Commerce360, Lucinda had led several successful business start-ups including TurnTide, an anti-spam technology company, which was acquired by Symantec for $28 million in only six months and Lucinda Destiny WebSolutions. She was named America's 17th Most Influential Consultant by Consulting Magazine, won the Eastern Technology Council's Enterprise Award for CEO of the Year, and was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Philadelphia. She graduated cum laude from University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from the Wharton School in Entrepreneurial Management.
Co-founder & Former CEO, PriceGrabber.com
Kamran has over 25 years experience in developing and managing technology, system integration and software development companies. Prior to being CEO and co-founder of PriceGrabber.com, which was acquired by Experian for $485 million in 2005, Kamran was President and CEO of Syseca Inc. an information technology provider and a U.S. subsidiary of Thales Group (formerly Thomson), an $8 billion multinational corporation. Kamran joined Syseca in 1992 and was instrumental in developing the near start-up company into a market and technology leader, prior to selling the company in 1999 to GE Transportation (formally Harmon Industries). Kamran is member of the board of directors for Legalzoom.com and Oversee.net. He holds a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Colorado.
President, Intellifit Corporation
Rob Weber has focused his career around starting and building emerging growth technology businesses. As President of Intellifit, he is leading the company in the custom made apparel industry through the deployment of patented Virtual Fitting Rooms that take measurements of a fully clothed customer in under 15 seconds. Prior to Intellifit, he had held various leadership roles in a number of successful firms including Antiphony, knoa, Elastomeric Technologies, Inc. and ENSONIQ Corp. He also served as Lecturer and Senior Fellow for the Fisher Program in Management & Technology at the University of Pennsylvania. Rob holds a BSE from the Wharton School and a BAS from the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Assistant Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Moderator)
Grace Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Real Estate Department at the Wharton School. Her research centers on the housing market behaviors. She has written on overreaction of the housing market to the 2003 SARS epidemic, the role of media and politics in speculative housing bubbles and the effects of social capital and green-city strategy on housing prices. Her current research includes a study on an international comparison of the risk premium in residential housing markets and the relationship between housing consumption and well-being. She received a BSc and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Economics from Princeton University.
Managing Partner & Co-founder, Fifth Square Partners
David L. Berger is a co-founder and managing partner of New York-based real estate development company, Fifth Square Partners, a developer of residential and commercial properties throughout the northeastern United States.
Berger co-founded Fifth Square Partners, formerly Northstar Property Group, in 2002 with Wharton School of Business classmate, Greg Belew and together they have undertaken more than $150 million in development projects in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Jersey and Connecticut.
As one of the managing partners, Berger's responsibilities include handling projects in the New York and Baltimore areas while overseeing the strategic vision and direction of the company in all aspects of organization including acquisition, development, construction, accounting and marketing.
Prior to Fifth Square Partners, Berger was an assistant vice president at Rockwood Capital Corporation, a real estate private equity firm in Greenwich, Conn. Berger was responsible for capital market activities including sourcing and negotiating acquisition financing and property refinancing. In 2003 Berger sourced financing and closed loans totaling more than $1 billion in projects ranging from condominium construction and hotels to mezzanine transactions.
Berger previously spent four years in construction project management working for the Clark Construction Group, a national commercial general contractor. At Clark, Berger worked on project sites managing large scale commercial projects such as a biomedical research facility and airport expansions.
Berger received an MBA in Real Estate and Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Civil Engineering from Cornell University.
Founder & Managing Director, Enterprise Heights
Omowale Crenshaw is the Managing Director of Enterprise Heights Real Estate Development Company. In this role, Mr. Crenshaw is responsible for executing Enterprise Heights' $250MM vision to pursue market driven mixed-use real estate development initiatives, commercial corridor redevelopment and community revitalization activities throughout University City and West Philadelphia. His activities include land use planning, acquisition, budgeting, community engagement, zoning, financial packaging and elected official interface. Omowale brings over 15 years of both domestic and international economic development experience to the organization.
Prior to joining the Enterprise Heights team, Mr. Crenshaw headed Real Estate and Business Ventures for Universal Companies, a South Philadelphia-based community development corporation founded by legendary music mogul Kenneth Gamble. During his tenure at Universal, Mr. Crenshaw directed over $100MM of residential, commercial, and mixed-use development and was also responsible for Universal's restaurant and entertainment-related real estate ventures.
Mr. Crenshaw formally pursued several entrepreneurial ventures throughout the African continent. These included agribusiness opportunities in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d'Ivoire. He also served as Senior Vice-President of Commerce at an Africa-targeted South African-based internet company. He was predominately focused on developing commerce-related activities for the organization. His responsibilities included business development initiatives, marketing/promotional activities, as well as selection and management of third-party fulfillment vendors.
As a consultant to the African Private Sector Development Group of the World Bank in the late 1990's, Omowale provided support to various projects in Moçambique targeting several business development initiatives. Omowale also assisted a Washington, DC based NGO with creating an economic development plan to support micro-enterprises and eco-cultural tourism in the communities of African descent throughout the Americas. His work has taken him to various countries including Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Prior to his entrepreneurial activities, Omowale was an Associate in the mergers and acquisitions practice group of the strategic management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company in their Washington, DC office. During his tenure with McKinsey, Omowale served clients in the shipping, steel, publishing, public radio, and the agricultural processing sectors.
Omowale is a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). He serves on the Board of Directors for KIPP Charter School Philadelphia and on Board of Habitat for Humanity's Philadelphia affiliate. He holds a B.B.A. in International Business from Howard University and a M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Senior Vice President, Grasso Holdings
Walker joined Grasso Holdings in 2002 and is primarily responsible for analysis and due diligence for new projects. Walker is also involved in the negotiation, structuring and financing of new acquisitions and ongoing management of development projects. Walker has direct oversight of 50 Pine Street and 245 Tenth Avenue, both mixed-use residential/retail condominium projects in New York City, and is primarily responsible for 1601 Vine Street, a 1.5m square foot mixed use project in Philadelphia that includes a 255 key luxury hotel and 275 residential units in a 40+ story tower, along with 120,000 square feet of retail space anchored by Whole Foods Market and Best Buy.
Prior to joining Grasso Holdings, Walker spent three years in London and New York as an investment banker with Schroder Salomon Smith Barney (Citigroup) and two years with Stephens Inc. in investment and merchant banking. Notable transactions include advising Banco Santander as part of the multi-billion dollar takeover of NatWest by Royal Bank of Scotland and advising CGU in the successful hostile take-over defense of Societe General against BNP-Paribas.
Walker graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Senior Managing Principal & Founder, Rubenstein Partners
A graduate of The Penn Charter School and Duke University, David began his real estate career in 1987 as an acquisition specialist for JMB Realty Corporation in Chicago. Upon successfully completing his studies at The Wharton School for an MBA, he joined The Rubenstein Company, L.P. as Director of Acquisitions. He was later named President in 1997 and became CEO in 2001. From 1991 to 2004, David was instrumental in transforming The Rubenstein Company into one of the largest privately held commercial real estate firms in the Mid-Atlantic, increasing the value of the firm's holding from approximately $200 million to more than $1.2 billion. After spearheading the successful recapitalization and disposition of The Rubenstein Company and its assets throughout 2004, David founded Rubenstein Partners. Rubenstein Partners is the fund manager for Rubenstein Properties Fund, a $475 million value-added office private equity fund focused on investing in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States.
President & Founder, GoldenTree InSite Partners
Tom Shapiro is the president and founder of GoldenTree InSite Partners. In addition, Mr. Shapiro is the portfolio manager and oversees all investment activities and strategy of the firm. He is also chairman of the General Partner's Investment Committee.
GoldenTree InSite is a real estate private equity firm headquartered in New York with an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil which currently manages over $700 million of equity. GoldenTree InSite Partners has made investments in office, retail, industrial, residential and hotels in both the US and Brazil.
Prior to starting this venture, Mr. Shapiro was a Senior Managing Director at Tishman Speyer Properties. He sat on the firm's Investment and Management Committees. Previously, Mr. Shapiro ran GTS Properties, an acquisitions joint venture between Tishman Speyer and Goldman Sachs.
After joining Tishman Speyer in 1988, he worked in the leasing, capital markets, acquisitions, asset management and development areas. Mr. Shapiro is on the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Procedure. Mr. Shapiro received a B.S. from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
CEO, Managed Healthcare Associates (Moderator)
Doug Present is CEO of MHA, the largest Group Purchasing Organization in the country focused on alternate site/non-acute settings with over $3.5 billion in pharmaceutical sales to providers. In 2006, MHA founded the MHA Long Term Care Network, Inc. to negotiate reimbursement for MHA pharmacies with the new Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) under the Medicare Part D program.
Before joining MHA, Doug was Senior Vice President of Medsite, Inc., a pharmaceutical services and e-marketing company where he ran the Medsite Rewards program.
He has an MBA in finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his current role at MHA, Doug has a faculty appointment at the Wharton Business School where he teaches a course on health care services.
Doug also sits on the Board of Directors of American Radiology Services, Inc. and MDEverywhere, Inc. as well as the Board of Directors of a non-profit organization dedicated to funding research and education for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Doug was a Finalist for the 2007 New Jersey Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
CEO, Protem Pharma
Anne-Marie Corner is a biotech entrepreneur, specializing in drug development particularly in the areas of infectious disease and reproductive health. Currently she is CEO of ProTem Pharma, an early stage drug discovery and development company focused on cancer and infectious disease.
Formerly, Ms. Corner was Senior Vice President of Cellegy Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded bio-pharmaceutical company. While at Cellegy, Ms Corner was responsible for the overall strategic direction of Cellegy's Women's Health division (75% of company product pipeline). She oversaw all areas of product development, including new drug development, clinical and regulatory affairs, financing, manufacturing operations and business development. Additionally, she oversaw relocation of Cellegy's corporate headquarters from California to Pennsylvania and the integration of their finance and reporting systems.
Prior to Cellegy, Ms Corner was the CEO of Biosyn. As CEO, she oversaw the development of a pipeline of HIV and reproductive health drugs. She led the company through several private equity, grant and other financings totaling over $50 million; oversaw pipeline expansion through product acquisitions; led the development and progression of several HIV-related drugs from post-discovery through to phase III clinical trials; and negotiated the sale of the company to Cellegy Pharmaceuticals.
Ms. Corner sits on the Board of the Pennsylvania Bio Association; the Alliance for Microbicide Development in Washington DC; WIN (the Women's Investment Network), where she currently serves as President; the Board of Trustees of Springside School and the Board of the Northwestern Equestrian Facility. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors for her work in the entrepreneurial world, including the Distinguished Alumna Award from Wharton, the Woman of Distinction Award, and the Ernst & Young Life Sciences Entrepreneur of the Year. She has testified before the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, and has attended meetings at the White House and Capitol Hill on HIV/AIDS policy. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BSc with honors in chemistry and biology from Manchester Metropolitan University. She is married with two daughters.
President & CSO, Integral Molecular
Dr. Doranz is President and Chief Scientific Officer of Integral Molecular. His scientific expertise focuses on retroviruses and membrane proteins, and he has published in numerous journals including Cell, Science, and Nature. Dr. Doranz earned his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral fellow. While a graduate student he co-discovered CCR5 as the coreceptor for HIV.
Prior to co-founding Integral, Dr. Doranz directed the biotechnology program at the Port of Technology business incubator in Philadelphia, supporting the launch of newly created biotechnology and healthcare companies. He previously worked at the Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Pennsylvania in technology licensing and in startup development. Dr. Doranz earned his B.A. at Cornell University, graduating summa cum laude, and earned his MBA at the Wharton School of Business, graduating with honors, majoring in health care and entrepreneurship, and winning the Wharton Business Plan Competition.
Co-founder & CEO, MicroMRI
Mr. Ganel co-founded MicroMRI, a medical imaging company which originated as the winner of the 2002 Wharton Business Plan Competition. He served as its CEO until March 2007. Previously, Mr. Ganel accumulated extensive experience in healthcare sales in Europe, working for an Israeli telemedicine company. Mr. Ganel also worked for an early stage private equity fund, preparing early stage companies for 1st round institutional funding. Mr. Ganel is a licensed attorney, and has a Healthcare and Finance MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently Director, Discovery at Edwards Lifesciences, a medical device company based in Irvine, Ca.
Director of Investments, Life Sciences, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania
Jennifer Hartt is Director of Investments, Life Sciences, at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA (BFTP). BFTP was established in 1982 to stimulate economic growth through innovation, entrepreneurship and the development and adoption of new technologies.
Jenn directs all of the BFTP life sciences investments in those early stage companies with technologies ranging from medical devices and diagnostics to therapeutics. She holds a non-voting board observer position on many portfolio company boards. Jenn holds a Bachelor's, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a Master's in Biology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She has experience in business consulting, licensing and equity management. Jenn joined BFTP in late 2005 after nearly five years working in technology commercialization and equity portfolio management at the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director of Business Development & Equity. She has been active as a member in the Licensing Executive Society and as an invited conference speaker nationally and internationally, such as at Association of University Technology Managers events and at BIO -- on the subjects of financial modeling of partnerships and licensing, valuation and start-ups.
Founder, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals
Dr. Skovronsky founded Avid Radiopharmaceuticals in late 2004. Dr. Skovronsky has more than 20 peer reviewed publications and is principle investigator on four funded NIH small business grants on Alzheimer's disease research and Diabetes. Prior to establishing Avid, Dr. Skovronsky served as Scientific Director of High Throughput Screening and Drug Discovery at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Skovronsky trained as a resident in Pathology and completed a fellowship in Neuropathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Skovronsky received his MD and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and did his undergraduate training in molecular biochemistry at Yale University.
Dr. Skovronsky is a leader in the molecular imaging community and has given numerous invited talks and is the recipient of many local and national awards, and was recently named by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of their "Forty under Forty" business leaders in the region in 2006 and by PharmaVoice magazine as one of the 100 top pharmaceutical business leaders in 2007.
East Coast Development Manager, Kiva.org (Moderator)
Rupa Modi is the East Coast Development Manager for Kiva.org, which is the world's first online person-to-person lending platform for microfinance. Kiva.org allows individuals to lend in increments of $25 to specific entrepreneurs in the developing world. Since Kiva.org's launch in October 2005, over 130,000 Americans have lent $13.5 million to micro-enterprises in 40 developing countries. Rupa is specifically responsible for developing east coast operations in efforts to create strategic partnerships, build awareness, raise funds, and seek new business opportunities. Since joining Kiva.org in March of 2006, Rupa has utilized social networking sites to expand the Kiva.org community; and successfully driven a project which led to Kiva.org's nomination in the category of alleviating global poverty on MySpace.com in October of 2006. Rupa, alongside with CEO Matthew Flannery, has contributed to raising over $1.5M in program funds from renowned institutions and foundations in 2007.
Outside of Kiva.org, Rupa is the Founder and CEO of ModiaDesigns, an initiative with a focus on leveraging digital media to develop visual content in the medical education and pharmaceutical space. Rupa carries a deep interest and responsibility in utilizing her technology to highlight causes, including tsunami relief efforts and educational funds in the U.S. and India. Rupa is presently working on a social project in the healthcare space.
Rupa is currently pursuing a Certificate in Strategic Decisions and Risk Management from Stanford Univeristy. She holds an MBA in International Business at Drexel University and a B.A. in Computer and Information Sciences and Biology from Temple University's Honors Program.
Principal, Commons Capital
Elizabeth Bailey is a Principal at Commons Capital, a socially-responsible venture capital fund based in the Boston area. Since the fall of 2001, she has focused on investment opportunities in health care, education and natural consumer products. Ms. Bailey manages the fund's health care investments and has worked with numerous companies in the medical device, biotech, services and IT segments, with a particular emphasis on those developing solutions for diagnosing and treating neglected diseases and women's health. In the fall of 2005, Ms. Bailey organized “A Workshop: Financing Global Health Ventures” which was funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations – the event brought together venture capitalists, foundations, NGOs and entrepreneurs to explore new financing models for global health. Before Commons Capital, Ms. Bailey was a Consultant with Stax, Inc., a Cambridge, MA-based management consulting firm, where she worked with the firm's venture capital clients and their portfolio companies. Ms. Bailey began her career in Massachusetts state government and holds a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a BA from Brown University.
Managing Director, DFJ Element Ventures
Michael Bevan is a Managing Director of Element Ventures, a $300 million venture fund focused on the broad clean technology markets. Mr. Bevan has more than 10 years of venture capital experience all of which has been focused on environmental technology companies. Prior to helping to found Element in 2005, Mr. Bevan was a Partner with Advent International a private equity fund with over $10 billion in assets under management. At Advent, Mr. Bevan helped to manage Advent's two venture funds focused on environmental technology companies. His primary areas of investment focus include water purification, renewable energy, emissions control and abatement, networking and monitoring technologies, and advanced fuels and materials. While at Advent, Michael also served as acting CFO of Catalytic Solutions, Inc.
Before Advent, Mr. Bevan was a Principal at EnerTech Capital Partners. He first joined and helped to found EnerTech in 1996, and rejoined the firm after receiving his MBA in 2001. While at EnerTech, Mr. Bevan was responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio company management. He also served as acting COO for a software company in EnerTech's portfolio.
Prior to EnerTech, Mr. Bevan worked for SEI Investments Co., a financial services firm, holding a variety of business development, product management and sales management positions. While at SEI, he helped to conceptualize and design two investment-related software products, which helped to increase SEI's assets under management by over $1 billion.
Mr. Bevan received a BA in English from Denison University; and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Mr. Bevan is a member of the Board of Directors of Seven Seas Water, Corp., GarretCom Inc., and PPT Research Inc., and an observer to CoalTek Inc. Previous boards on which Mr. Bevan has served as a Director or observer include: Catalytic Solutions, Inc.
President & CEO, Sun & Earth
Joe Connors is the President and CEO of Sun & Earth, a leading brand of environment-friendly cleaning product. Mr. Connors is a veteran in the consumer products industry with over twenty years' experience as a senior executive serving as the CFO, COO, and a founder of various consumer products companies. As a Certified Public Account, Mr. Connors started his career at Earnst and Young, a global public accounting firm, and is currently a member of Financial Executives Institute.
Sun & Earth formulates cleaning agents from plant, fruit and vegetable oils to create cleaning products safe for the people sensitive to chemicals and safe for the environment.
Founder, President, RecycleBank
Patrick K. FitzGerald is the President and Co-Founder of RecycleBank, LLC. Through its partnerships with over 200 local and national retailers (Starbucks, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Coca-Cola, Target, White Dog Café, Reading Terminal Market, etc.), RecycleBank financially rewards households that recycle, provides cities and municipalities with landfill/incinerator fee savings, and promotes socially responsible businesses.
Prior to RecycleBank, Patrick was an attorney in the Wall Street office of Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP. Patrick's practice specialized in mergers & acquisitions, corporate governance, and the long-term valuation of target markets. Patrick received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law where he was President of the Irish Law Students Association and a member of the Urban Law Journal. Prior to Fordham Law School, Patrick was a Clerk for the United States Tax Court in Washington, D.C.
Patrick serves on the Board of Directors of Philly Car Share and the Advisory Board for Philadelphia Distilling, makers of Bluecoat Gin. Patrick has been a guest lecturer and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Wharton School of Business and a mentor in the Columbia University Lang Center for Entrepreneurship Program and University of Pennsylvania Fox Leadership Program. He has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Waste News, Fox News, NBC and other media outlets. He is also a member of the Young America Political Action Committee based in Philadelphia.
CEO, Meltwater
Jørn Lyseggen, 38, is a Norwegian entrepreneur and patent inventor with four start-ups, two trade sales and one IPO behind him. He established Meltwater News, a B2B media search engine company offering business intelligent services, in 2001 with a starting capital of only $15,000. Today Meltwater News has 33 offices, 500 employees, and 10,000 corporate clients across Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the US. Meltwater News has from its humble beginnings always been profitable and cash flow positive. The company has grown organically without bringing in external funding and has no debts.
Through the creation of Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) in Accra, Ghana, Jørn will apply Meltwater’s unique ability to develop young talent in a not for profit technology and business training program. The overall objective is to create wealth locally in Africa by developing young Africans into successful entrepreneurs in the global software industry. Jørn hopes that successful African software start-ups with origins from the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology will inspire entrepreneurial individuals all over Africa to follow and ultimately create a new, prosperous African industry creating wealth and jobs locally.
Founder, Khayelitsha Cookies
Alicia founded the Khayelitsha Cookie Company in South Africa in 2004. Polak founded The Khayelitsha Cookie Co. in the township of Khayelitsha (located outside of Cape Town) using only her own savings. She started with only herself and one employee. The company now employs a total of 11 persons and bakes cookies and brownies that are distributed to top hotels, restaurants and coffeehouses throughout South Africa.
After successfully securing contracts with South Africa's leading hotel chain, coffee shops and a variety of local stores, Alicia successfully transitioned ownership of the Khayelitsha Cookie Company to local South Africans.
In 2007 she founded the Khaya Cookie Company to meet the demands of the U.S. Export Market with the guidance of Wharton's Societal Wealth Generation Program. Khaya Cookies are produced in South Africa strictly for the U.S. export market. The aim of the Khaya Cookie Company is to replicate the successful model of the Khaya Cookie Company in South Africa and Create Opportunity One Bite at A Time not only for the disadvantaged in South Africa but in America as well. The Khaya Cookie Company is exploring the possibility of opening baking facilities in Camden, New Jersey and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Khaya Cookie Company was recently awarded Food Networks Edible Entrepreneur of the Year Award and has recently been featured in Financial Times.
Prior to starting the Khayelitsha Cookie Company, Alicia worked as an International Consultant specializing in logistics and Project Management for the Freeplay Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa and traveled extensively throughout Africa. Before leaving the United States for South Africa, Alicia worked at BlackRock and Merrill Lynch specializing in Initial Pubic Offerings.
Alicia worked at Merrill Lynch as an Analyst in Investment Banking, specializing in Closed End Funds and also as a Product Manager in Merrill Lynch's International Private Client Group. While at BlackRock Alicia was a Vice President specializing in Initial Public Offerings of Fixed Income Closed End Funds.
Alicia earned an MBA/MPA from New York University and The University of Capetown, South Africa. Ms. Polak earned her BA from New York University in 1991.
Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (Moderator)
Prasanna is an Associate at Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Prior to joining DFJ, Prasanna worked as a Program Manager at Microsoft on WinFS - a new storage system for next generation Windows PCs. She defined the product design for storage and search capabilities, managed cross-functional teams, and worked with leading media software and document management companies to persuade them to adopt WinFS. Prasanna was selected into the Microsoft Select Fast-track Program as one of 15 employees who demonstrated potential to be future leaders at the company. She also worked at McKinsey & Company in their Philadelphia office, at Internet Capital Group and at Novell Software Development Ltd in India.
Prasanna holds an MBA from the Wharton School where she graduated as a Palmer Scholar. She has an MS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was a Siebel Scholar, and received the C.W.Gear Outstanding Graduate Student award for research and service. Prasanna holds a B.E. in Computer Science from BITS, Pilani, India where she received the University Fellowship awarded to the top 10 undergraduates each semester. She was also awarded the BITS Alumni Association's "30 under 30" award.
Founder, Jazel
In 1998, he became the first non-Russian American to receive a five-year degree in mathematics from Moscow State University, the Department of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics. In 2003, Nathan co-founded Jazel, an application service provider of an enterprise marketing platform that includes website management, lead capture and delegation, business process management, email marketing, online advertisement management, and customer relationship management. In 2005, Nathan organized Jazel's first offshore development center, in Moscow, Russia. Prior to that he was the Senior Technical Architect and Development Manager at the consulting company eFORCE Global.
Founder, Atidan
David J. Rosenthal founded Atidan in 2005 and currently serves as the company's President. He brings to Atidan more than 14 years of experience in technology, marketing and business development, with a particular focus on software, e-business and new technologies. Prior to founding Atidan, David was a Partner and Vice President at Brivea LLC, an international business-intelligence services firm. He has also held senior IT management roles at CDI Corp., a recruiting, employment and engineering-services company, and worked in product management, product marketing and IT services at Ameritech Corp.
David has a BA in Economics from Northwestern University and has completed coursework in the Executive MBA program at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He is a member of the New Jersey Technology Council, the New Jersey Entrepreneurs Forum, Greater Philadelphia Senior Executives, and the Project Management Institute.
President & Co-Founder, eMids Technologies
A co-founder of eMids Technologies, Saurabh has been instrumental in growing eMids and enabling it with a potential to service Fortune 2000 customers.
Having experience with majors like Northern Telecom, Nokia and Wipro, Saurabh has been able to develop a strong global delivery capability function within eMids. Saurabh has directly serviced several of eMids' customers and has been successful in establishing long standing customer relationships.
Currently, Saurabh continues to develop new customer relationships and expand the delivery capabilities of eMids.
Saurabh holds a Bachelor of Technology degree and is a regular speaker at several B-Schools on the topic of Entrepreneurship. He won an All-India Business Plan competition conducted by the Indian Institute of Management in 2002.
Investor, Orchid Asia Management Group
Mike has worked at Orchid Asia Management Group, a $720M VC company where he evaluated and executed more than 100 deals. He also worked at Hupomone Capital Parnters a late-state PE firm. Prior to Wharton, he worked as a Senior Consultant for Censoft, a joint venture by Microsoft and Stone Information Technology Co., and as the Senior Vice President of Stone Information Technology Co. in Beijing, China. He also was a founder of a food company in Beijing in early 1990's. Mr. Teng received an MEng from Beijing Institute of Technology.
President, The Chalfin Group
Robert J. Chalfin is an Attorney, Certified Public Accountant, and a Lecturer in Management at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches graduate-level courses on acquiring closely held businesses and venture initiation to MBA candidates. Mr. Chalfin is an owner/investor, corporate board member, and consultant to several businesses. Mr. Chalfin is the Chief Executive Officer of The Chalfin Group Inc., a Metuchen, New Jersey based firm that provides strategic planning and advisory services in connection with the purchase and sale of entrepreneurial businesses, most of which are in the information technology industry. Bob is the author of the book, Selling Your IT Business: Valuation, Finding the Right Buyer, and Negotiating the Deal, which is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2006)
Mr. Chalfin has spoken at numerous industry conferences, been cited in The Best Lawyers in America Directory of Experts as an expert in the area of business valuation and is listed in New Jersey Super Lawyers.
Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer, Fetch, Inc.
Natasha Ashton is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Fetch, Inc. a new Philadelphia-based pet health insurance company. Fetch is affiliated with Petplan the world's largest and oldest pet health insurance provider recommended by more pet owners, veterinarians and pedigree pet breeders than any other. Natasha conceived Fetch during her first year of her Wharton MBA, won the Wharton Business Plan Competition and spent the next year developing the business further. Natasha holds a BA with distinction and an MA from the University of Oxford and is a serial entrepreneur having established a number of small businesses across Europe prior to attending Wharton.
Serial Entrepreneur & Chairman, Main Street Lender
Robert Haft has founded five companies, taken three companies public, and been President of two different $1 billion revenue companies. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of: Imagine Schools (public charter schools educating 25,000 students), and Carestream Health (a $2.5 billion revenue provider of dental and medical imaging). He has founded MainStreet Lender (msl.com) in 2004 and is currently its chairman. He has founded Morgan Noble in 1997 and is currently its Managing Director. Morgan Noble makes private equity investments in small private companies. He has also founded Vitamin Superstore (Founder, Chief Executive 1997-2000), been the chairman and Chief Executive for Phar-Mor (1995-1997), been the President of Dart Group (1983-1993), Founder and CEO for Crown Books (1997-1993) and Founder and Vice Chairman for Trak Auto. He has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School (1974) and MBA from Harvard (1977), and a Masters Degree in Design from Harvard (1977).
Founder & President, Avanti Food Corp.
Marco Lentini is Founder and President of Avanti Food Corporation. Avanti Food's primary businesses are an all natural wholesome foods retail café concept (Già Pronto) and a catering operation (Savory Concepts). Marco was recently selected as Philadelphia's 2007 Young Entrepreneur of the Year, presented by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce for his outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the area. In 2002 Marco received his MBA from the Wharton School with a dual concentration in Entrepreneurial Management and Marketing. Prior to attending Wharton, Marco worked as an Associate for Deutsche Bank Capital Partners in London, where he focused on latter stage private equity investments, such as leveraged buyouts. Marco holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, with a dual major in International Relations and Italian Studies with Honors Distinction, and a minor in Economics.
CEO, GigaMob, Inc.
Gene Wade is CEO of GigaMob Inc., a startup Internet technology company that is developing a unique online community organized around learning. Gene is also the CEO and Co-founder of Platform Learning. Platform Learning is a leading provider of supplemental educational services to low-income students attending public schools that have been identified as being “In Need of Improvement” under the federal No Child Left Behind Law. Prior to co-founding Platform, Gene was Executive Vice President for Development at Edison Schools. Before joining Edison, Gene was the Chairman and CEO of LearnNow, Inc, an education management company that managed struggling public schools throughout the United States. Prior to LearnNow, Gene was a corporate and bankruptcy attorney at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn in Detroit, Michigan and at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison in New York City. Gene holds a BA from Morehouse College, a JD from Harvard Law School and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Founder & Chairman, buySAFE, Inc.
Steve fell victim to ecommerce fraud in 2000 when he purchased a PDA on eBay that never arrived. Recognizing the need for a better trust and safety model for online shoppers, Steve turned his frustration into inspiration by developing the concept and vision for buySAFE, marking the first time surety bonds would be successfully used for e-commerce. Today, buySAFE is the world's leading e-commerce trust and safety company having bonded more than 14 million online transactions. As founder, chairman and senior vice president for product and strategy, Steve is responsible for leading its business intelligence, strategic planning, partner implementation, design, and product management teams. Prior to founding buySAFE, Steve was both a vice president of Assurance Capital Corporation and a director of the Financial Risk Solutions practice within the Rutherfoord Companies. He has also worked with PayMyBills.com, USF&G Insurance, and The Travelers.
Professor, The Wharton School, University of Philadelphia (Moderator)
Kartik Hosanagar is a professor at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. Professor Hosanagar's research activities are focused on Internet commerce, with an emphasis on online media and online advertising. He is a cofounder of Yodle Inc, a startup funded by Bessemer Venture Partners. His doctoral research received the William Cooper award for best thesis in Management Science (2004) and he was also offered the Castanga fellowship at University of California, Berkeley. Kartik and his colleagues received a $1.2M grant from the National Science Foundation to study the economics of the next generation Internet. Professor Hosanagar has a PhD and M.Phil in Management Science and Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University, a bachelors degree in Electronics and a masters in Information Systems, both from Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS, Pilani), India.
Co-founder & Managing Partner, Fifth Square Partners
Gregory Belew is a co-founder and managing partner of New York-based real estate development company, Fifth Square Partners, a developer of residential and commercial properties throughout the northeastern United States.
Belew co-founded Fifth Square Partners, formerly Northstar Property Group, in 2002 with Wharton School of Business classmate, David Berger and together they have undertaken more than $150 million in development projects in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Jersey and Connecticut.
As a managing partner, Belew handles projects in the New York and Philadelphia areas while overseeing the strategic vision and direction of the company in all aspects of organization including acquisition, design, development, construction, and marketing.
Belew was previously with JPMorgan's Real Estate and Lodging Investment Banking Group. At JPMorgan, Belew handled a wide range of corporate finance and advisory responsibilities for real estate companies including M&A and equity and debt financing.
Belew began his career with JPI Development, a prominent national apartment company, developing 300-to-600-unit luxury multifamily real estate projects in Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco.
Belew received an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Real Estate and Finance at Southern Methodist University.
Founder, Improvement Direct
Christian is the founder of Improvement Direct the 4th largest Internet Retailer in the Hardware/Home Improvement Category. Improvement Direct was sold in March of 2007 to Wolseley PLC of London. (NYSE: WOS). Wolseley is the leading supplier of construction products, materials and services across Europe and North America.
Christian has a BA in Political Science (Pre-law) and completed core graduate studies in Computer Science from California State University, Chico. He has also lectured frequently on Entrepreneurship at the California State University, Chico's Business School and help found two other local e-commerce companies.
Founder, OLX, Inc.
Fabrice Grinda is an entrepreneur who has successfully transposed and adapted business ideas between the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America. Fabrice is co-Founder and co-CEO of OLX, Inc. OLX is the next generation of free online classifieds. Prior to founding OLX, Fabrice was the Founder & CEO of Zingy Inc. Zingy was one of the largest mobile media company in the Americas, selling ringtones, wallpapers and games to carriers, media companies and consumers. The New York-based company had 120 employees and generated nearly $200 million in content sales in 2005. Prior to founding Zingy, Fabrice was the founder and CEO of Aucland, one of the largest auction sites in Europe and co-founder of Deremate, the largest auction site in Latin America. Until founding Aucland in 1998, Fabrice served as a consultant in the New York office of McKinsey & Company, where he worked for large financial institutions. Mr. Grinda has a B.A. in Economics from Princeton University.
Founder & CEO, Bazaarvoice
Brett Hurt is the Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, where he is responsible for guiding the company's strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations. Brett has extensive experience in the online marketing arena, especially as it pertains to the eCommerce industry. He founded Coremetrics in February 1999, which today serves over 1,000 clients across the world and is considered the leading Web analytics solution for eCommerce. Prior to Coremetrics, Brett was the founder and CEO of Hurt Technology Consulting and BodyMatrix, an online retailer. Brett has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and has developed multiple software applications, including Internet marketing analysis solutions, eCommerce platforms, multiplayer online games, and Bulletin Board System (BBS) software. Brett holds an M.B.A. in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.B.A. in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin.
Chairman & CEO, Interactive Digital Publishing Group
Mr. Penske is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Interactive Digital Publishing Group (IDPG). Under his leadership, IDPG has become one of the foremost digital media companies and today owns Mail.com, Movieline.com, MailTimes, and other leading digital properties; while providing private labeled services to some of the largest consumer and media brands.
Before founding IDPG, Jay co-founded Firefly Mobile Inc., which develops the firefly mobile phone for kids, and other youth targeted mobile products. Penske also owns Dragon Books Ltd., a rare and antiquarian bookstore in Los Angeles, and co-owns the Luczo Dragon Racing Team, with Seagate Technologies Chairman Steve Luczo. Jay received his Bachelors of Science from the Wharton School with concentrations in Finance and Management/Information Systems. In addition to the Wharton Entrepreneurial Advisory Board, Jay has served on the boards of IDPG, Firefly Mobile, Penske Corporation, The Quills Literacy Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania Library.
Copyright © 2007 Wharton Entrepreneurship Club. All rights reserved. The Wharton Entrepreneurship Club is an independent student run organization of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. All content is the responsibility of the club. Website design by Neuro-Designs.