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Investor Profiles
2005 MN VC Conference
Sheraton Bloomington Hotel
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Speaker
Profiles
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Entrepreneur
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Investors (To Date) |
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Peter Allison, Managing Partner,
BioGenetic Ventures
(WA) has over 30 years experience
in real estate development, investment and venture capital. His passion is
biotechnology with special interest in how critical diseases are
treated, sequencing the human genome, and adult stem cell research.
Peter has a Baccalaureate in Economics from the University of
Washington and a Juris Doctorate with concentration in corporate
securities and tax law from the University of Puget Sound. |
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Dennis Anderson, Founder and
Principal,
Andcor (MN) recently served as the
National Chairman of the CEO Roundtable, an international organization
for CEOs of fast growth, emerging companies. Dennis founded MMP,
Minnesota Management Partners, a first-time venture fund based on the
investment philosophy of investing in Minnesota based companies.
In 1993, Dennis was named Entrepreneur of the Year by the TwinWest
Chamber of Commerce. Dennis is an angel investor. |
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Buzz Benson, Managing Director &
Founder,
SightLine Partners (MN)
focuses on
emerging companies across the healthcare industry. Prior to SightLine,
Buzz founded Piper Jaffray's dedicated venture activities in 1992. Prior
to 1992, he co-headed Piper Jaffray's Investment Banking activities
focused on the healthcare industry for six years. In addition to his
over 16 years of venture capital experience, Buzz has been actively
involved in a broad range of transactions for healthcare companies. |
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John Borchers, General Partner,
Crescendo Ventures (CA)
joined Crescendo Ventures in 1997 and has played a
leading role in developing the firm's international presence. After
spending nearly three years working in Crescendo's London
office, John relocated to Palo Alto in 2003 where he focuses on
investment opportunities in the enterprise infrastructure market.
John received his MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's
degree from the University of Richmond. |
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Anthony Buffa, Managing Partner,
Endeavor Capital Management (CT)
has over 20 years of experience in the venture capital industry. He
founded Endeavor in 1988 and has been actively involved in all of the
firm's investments. His notable successful investments include Supply
Tech, efax.com, Catalina Marketing, and Timberjack Holdings. He
serves as a Director of many private company boards of directors. |
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Tony Cannestra, Principal,
IGNITE Group (CA)
focuses his efforts on the software industry, and emerging technologies
in the supply chain industry. Prior to joining IGNITE, he spent five
years as a business consultant with Ernst & Young Consulting (now Cap
Gemini Ernst & Young), rising to the position of Senior Manager. Mr.
Cannestra lived in Japan for 2 years. Mr. Cannestra currently serves on
the Board of Directors of Gearworks, Inc., Cymbet Corp., and Perquest.
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Matt Chua, Analyst,
LFE Capital (MN)
holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Minnesota and completed
the Carlson Ventures Enterprise program. Mr. Chua previously founded
Leapfrog Endeavors where he served as general manager. LFE Capital
is a private equity management firm providing flexible financing
solutions for smaller middle-market companies located primarily in the
Midwest. Our firm is an operations-oriented investor specializing in
expansion and buy-out capital. |
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Mark Cree, Venture Partner,
Vesbridge Partners (MN) was previously the GM of Cisco’s Storage
Router Business Unit. Prior to Cisco, Mr. Cree was the Founder, Chairman
and CEO of NuSpeed, a developer of storage-over-IP products, which was
acquired by Cisco in September 2000. Prior to NuSpeed, Mr. Cree was the
VP of Marketing at Terabit router developer NEO Networks. Mr. Cree also
worked as the Director of Marketing at Switched Network Technologies.
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David F. Dalvey,
Partner,
Brightstone Capital (MN) has 23 years
of corporate finance and VC experience. He has completed 40 public
common stock offerings and 90 private placements totaling over $750
million in equity growth capital for technology companies. He is a past
or current Director of eight companies. Since inception in 1985,
Brightstone Capital has managed 10 VC funds and made investments in over
80 early stage Minnesota businesses. |
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Norman Dann, Angel Investor (MN),
has invested in numerous Minnesota-based medtech companies. After a career in the medical device industry including
Medtronic (VP Marketing and Sr. VP Development) he was a co-founder of
Pathfinder Venture Capital. Since retiring in 1995 he has been an
active angel investor. |
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Brad Fogg, Manager,
HB Fuller Ventures (MN),
has extensive experience in business development, sales & marketing and
international business. Since joining HB Fuller, Brad has been involved
in many projects. Most recently he was the program manager for Smart
Packaging where the novel Simply SecureSM business strategy was
developed. Prior to Fuller he held positions as Regional Sales
Representative and Sales Manager for Latin America in the packaging
machinery industry. |
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Robert Garber, Managing Director,
KB Partners (IL)
focuses on investments in software, hardware, Internet infrastructure,
and communications. He currently serves on the Board of Compliance and
Ethics Solutions (dba
Midi, Inc.)
and previously served on the boards of
Cognitive Concepts,
Corona
Optical Systems,
iLink Global and
Performics. Robert has over 13 years of management experience
growing and investing in technology companies and is well versed in the
challenges they face. |
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James Garvey, CEO &
Managing General Partner,
SV Life Sciences (MA) oversees
the funds approximately $900m investment activity. Prior to joining SVLS, he was Managing Director
for the $600m Venture Capital division of Allstate Corporation. He has held
several senior management positions in companies with multinational
operations including Kendall (TyCo) & Millipore. He was also
President/CEO of start-ups Allegheny International Medical Technology
and National Teledata. |
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Jon Goldberg,
Managing Director,
Israel America Discovery Fund (IL).
Before co-founding IADF Venture Capital, Mr. Goldberg was a founding
team member and Director of Business Development at Batterson Venture
Partners' Venture Capital Online (vcapital). As a founding team member,
Mr. Goldberg's responsibilities included formulating the initial
business strategy and raising three rounds of venture capital financing.
IADF focuses on investments in Israel and US firms with ties to Israel. |
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Gene Greiner, Director,
The Carlyle Group (UK)
is focused on European venture opportunities in the software sector. He
is based in London. Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Greiner was
Chief Executive Officer and President of Asera Europe, a software
company delivering on the promise of the Real-Time Enterprise. Prior to
that, Mr. Greiner was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of
Chicago Management Consulting and a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young. |
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Cathy Harms, Manager,
St. Paul Capital Fund
(MN). The Saint Paul Capital
Fund is an early stage equity fund that invests in high growth
businesses that have innovative products or technology in Saint Paul.
We invest in opportunities where we can partner with other investors
to get the capital and business needs. We typically invest
$50,000-$75,000 in any single company. |
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Stephen Harris, General Partner,
MidCoast Capital (PA)
has 20 years of direct venture capital investing experience as a
principal. He is a founder and VP of Private Equity Management Company
(“PEMCO”), which has been responsible for the management of over $70
million of venture capital investments made through a series of TDH
investment funds for which he was a general partner. He has an MBA
from the Wharton School and an AB from Duke University. |
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Robert Head, Partner,
Rearden Securities (MN)
is a Fellow of the Securities Institute in London. He was a partner at
Panmure Gordon & Co., a leading firm of British stockbrokers for many
years, where he latterly managed significant institutional funds.
Since moving to the U.S. in 1989, he has been involved with
international equity sales and corporate finance for investment banks
in Dallas and Minneapolis. His career spans buy and sell sides of the
securities profession on both sides of the Atlantic. |
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Rob Heimann, Associate,
River Cities Capital Fund (OH)
joins River Cities with operations and investment experience in
venture-funded technology companies with particular expertise in M&A
transactions, channel development and corporate strategy.
Prior to joining River
Cities, Rob was VP of Corporate Development at Intelliseek, Inc., a
business intelligence company backed by River Cities. Prior to that,
he worked as certified public accountant with Arthur Andersen & Co. |
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Eric Hender, Senior Director,
AAVIN Venture Capital (IA)
has over 30 years experience
in corporate finance and management. Mr. Hender is a co-founder and
Managing Member of a venture capital and private equity fund that
focuses on investment opportunities in the Midwest. Mr. Hender has
been actively making venture capital investments over the last 21
years. In 1997, Mr. Hender co-founded Marshall Venture Capital,
L.C. where he is Managing Member and President.
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David Henderson, Managing Partner,
Triple Tree (MN)
founded TripleTree with the vision of providing industry leading
financial advisory services based on senior-level, hands-on
involvement. He has assisted numerous business owners and executive
teams in planning and executing successful transaction strategies to
create and maximize the value of their firm. Prior to forming
TripleTree, Dave spent 22 years in venture capital, business
development and as a senior operating executive |
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Harlan Jacobs, President,
Genesis Business Centers (MN)
is the founder and president of Genesis Business Centers, Ltd., a
diversified high tech, for-profit incubator program. Mr.
Jacobs
is a seasoned CFO with over 20 years experience.
In 1993 he founded one of the most
progressive high-tech business incubator programs in Minnesota, if not in
the U.S., by offering to barter rent and "Acting CFO" services for a
negotiated equity position in its incubatee companies.
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Brian Johnson, COO & Investment
Manager,
Minnesota Investment Network
(MN) joined the firm in July 2004
and has 20 years of successful venture capital investing
experience concentrating on Technology and Healthcare companies. He
has served as General Partner or Principal for Pathfinder Venture
Capital Funds, ArrowHead Capital Management, Capstone Ventures SBIC,
and FBS Venture Capital Funds. He has served on the board of
directors of 17 high technology companies. |
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Kristine Johnson, Managing
Partner,
Affinity Capital (MN)
concentrates on health-care related ventures. Prior to joining
Affinity Capital, Kris was most recently SVP and Chief Administrative
Officer of Medtronic. During her 17 years at Medtronic she was also
President and General Manager of Medtronic's Vascular business and its
Tachyarrhythmia Management business. Prior to Medtronic, she spent 9
years in various executive positions at Cargill. Kris received
her BA from St. Olaf College. |
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Clint Jurgens, Angel Investor,
I/O Solutions (MN)
is an active angel investor, supporting his investment companies as a
director or business advisor. He was a co-founder and CTO of NuSpeed,
acquired by Cisco Systems in September 2000. He was VP of High
Performance Networking for Ancor Communications where he introduced
Fibre Channel into Japan and Europe. He was on the Fibre Channel
Association Board of Directors and vice president of the Fibre Channel
Association. |
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Michael Kaswan, Managing Director,
KBL Healthcare Ventures (NY)
is an active participant in sourcing, leading and monitoring several
of the firm’s investments. In addition, he is a co- founder of Lumenos,
one of the leaders in the emerging field of consumer driven healthcare
and a KBL portfolio company. He currently serves on the board of
directors of Scandius BioMedical and Remon Medical Technologies and is
a board observer on several other KBL companies. |
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David Kim, MD, Associate,
MPM Capital
(CA)
was a Senior Research Analyst covering medical devices at Pacific
Growth Equities. His other experience in financial services include
positions as Senior Equities Analysts for Firsthand Capital Management
evaluating biotech and device companies and Medical Device Research
Associate at Banc of America Securities.
He
received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
and his MBA from Stanford Business School. |
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Ron Leaf, Chief Investment Officer,
LFE Capital (MN)
has broad responsibilities ranging from deal origination to portfolio
company oversight and execution of exit strategies. His background
includes 11 years as the founder and manager of Wells Fargo Mezzanine
Capital and four years in corporate development at Liberty Enterprises,
a former Wells Fargo portfolio company. Mr. Leaf has directed the
origination, portfolio management, and exit of over 40 junior capital
investments. |
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Derek Lee, Principal,
SV Life Sciences (MA),
joined SVLS in 2000 and is primarily focused on
Medical Device and Therapeutics Investments. He is actively involved as
a board observer at Aderis Pharmaceuticals, Achillion Pharmaceuticals,
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Insulet, Micromed Technology, Quick Study
Radiology and Sunrise “At Home” Assisted Living.
Before joining SVLS,
Derek was an Associate with the Global Healthcare Group at UBS Warburg
in the life sciences sector. |
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Pamela Lund, Partner,
Rearden Securities (MN)
has more than 20 years' experience in research and corporate finance
with sell-side firms in New York and Minneapolis. Her expertise in life
sciences began with her years as founding co-editor of Scrip, World
Pharmaceutical News in London, England, before she was recruited by
Bristol-Myers Corp. and moved to New York. There she subsequently
covered the pharmaceutical industry as a research analyst for Drexel
Burnham Lambert. |
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David Milne, General Partner,
SV Life Sciences (MA)
joined SVLS in 2005. With over 21 years of
operating experience in leading therapeutic and diagnostic medical
technology corporations. Since 1999, he has held the position of
VP of Corporate Business Development at Boston Scientific Corporation
and was responsible for over 50 transactions totaling nearly $2 billion
in acquisitions, equity investments and development partnerships.
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Frank Morgan, Partner,
Coller Capital (NY)
a US national, is head of Coller Capital’s New York office. Previously a
Partner at US law firm Dewey Ballantine, focusing on capital markets,
private equity/venture capital, investment management, and technology;
and formerly, a Partner at law firms Mayer, Brown & Platt and Gaston &
Snow. Frank is currently on advisory committees for Annex Capital,
New Venture Partners and Washington & Congress. |
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Donald Nelson, Chief Business Officer,
SV Life Sciences (MA)
serves as the Chief Business Officer. He oversees fundraising and fund
strategy of ILSFI, II and III as well as selected investment activities
and buy-outs. Donald was with Ernst & Young LLP prior to joining SVLS.
His background includes several years of providing services to
entrepreneurial, venture capital and LBO funded enterprises. Earlier in
his career Donald was a successful founder entrepreneur in the
hospitality industry. |
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Gerald Okerman, President,
Minnesota Research Fund, served 3M from
1983-2001 prior to joining Sota Tec; the predecessor to the Minnesota
Research Fund. As 3M's Investment and Business Development Manager he
was responsible for 3M’s Venture Capital Program committing over $175
million to 55 venture funds. He managed and directed 27 direct equity
investments totaling $150 million. Gerald is considered to be “the
Dean” of corporate venture capital in Minnesota. |
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Vijay Parikh, Managing
Principal,
Global Catalyst Partners (CA)
was VP and GM within the Public Carrier IP Group (PCIPG) at Cisco.
During his tenure he was responsible for developing and introducing the
10G solution on the 12416 GSR platform, which resulted in the sales
growth from $400 million in 1998 to several billion dollars in 2001.
Mr. Parikh is Chairman of Chelsio Communications and Ultradots, and on
the Board of Velio Communications and Teranetics. |
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Rick Pauls, Managing Director,
CentreStone Ventures (Manitoba)
was with Centara Corporation, an early stage focused venture capital
firm where his responsibilities included assessing business
opportunities, working with investee companies, sourcing new
opportunities, in addition to managing an equity portfolio. Mr. Pauls
has also worked as director of business development for both biotech and
technology companies. |
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John T. Perchorowicz, Vice
President, Business Development,
RCT BioVentures (AZ)
directs RCT's new and continuing business-development relationships.
He represents the company to companies and research institutions in
North America. RCT BioVentures provides venture capital to
companies whose technologies have the potential to become
significant biomedical products.
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David J. Raffel,
Managing Director,
Brass Ring Capital (MN)
was a VP at Agio Capital Corporation, a $42 million private
equity firm in Minneapolis. As one of Agio’s original two investment
professionals, he played an instrumental role in nine of the firm’s
fifteen transactions. Prior to joining Agio in 1996, Dave spent five
years working in small business consulting, investment banking, and
commercial lending. Dave began his career in private equity at New
York-based Harvest Partners. |
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John Risdall, CEO+Angel,
Risdall Advertising
(MN)
has been an active angel investor for many years. Since 1972, he
has been Chairman & CEO of Risdall Advertising serving 300+ clients in
14 countries with billings in excess of $110M in 2004. In 1995, he
created RAA Interactive, now the leading web design firm in Minnesota.
He also serves as chairman of RAA Business Incubator, the largest
incubator in Minnesota. |
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Francisco Salva,
Director,
CIBC Capital Partners (CA),
joined CIBC in 2001 and focuses on healthcare venture capital
investments, primarily in the biotechnology, medical devices and
healthcare IT industries. Previously, he served as Director of Private
Equity at INVESCO Funds Group, where he was responsible for all private
healthcare investments. Mr. Salva began his venture career at Patricof &
Co. Ventures with prior experience as an investment banker at
Wasserstein Perella. |
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Roy Scruggs, VP,
GRP
Partners (CA)
joined GRP Partners in
1999 and sits on the Boards of Emida Technologies and OnTech as an
Observer, and works closely with EMN8, Envestnet Asset Management,
eStyle ("babystyle"), PrePay, and UGO Networks. GRP Partners has $650
million under management and focuses on financial services/technology,
business/consumer services, and retail/consumer. Previously, Roy was a
Director at MPN and held media roles for the City of New York, the
United Nations and ABC News, Beijing. |
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Mark Solovy,
Managing Director,
Israel America Discovery Fund (IL).
Before co-founding IADF Venture Capital Mr. Solovy was Director of
Venture Capital at Batterson Venture Partners' Venture Capital Online (vcapital).
As Director of Venture Capital, Mr. Solovy was responsible for sourcing,
evaluating, and promoting high-tech early-stage deals for venture
capital investments. In addition, Mr. Solovy developed relationships
with U.S.-based venture capitalists to build co-investment syndicates.
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Ed Spencer, Jr., Managing Partner,
Affinity Capital (MN)
founded the firm and co-founded its predecessor - Peterson-Spencer-Fansler
Company. He has been in the venture business since 1993. He also
spent eight years as a senior officer of Dyco Petroleum, a large
independent oil and gas corporation. Ed serves on several portfolio
companies boards of directors. He also serves on several non-profit
boards. Ed has an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from Williams
College. |
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Amit Srivastava, President,
Entrepia Ventures (NY).
Before joining Entrepia, he worked for 7 years at JP Morgan Chase,
including 4 years at JP Morgan Partners where his responsibility
included leading VC investments in the electronics sector, oversight of
private equity investments in India, and serving as the Portfolio
Manager of a direct private equity portfolio of over 700 investments in
the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, with a carried value
exceeding $10 billion. |
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Alexander Suh, Founding Managing
Director,
California Technology Ventures, LLC
(CA), is a Southern California venture
capitalist whose firm focuses its investments in early stage companies
in the fields of Life Sciences and Information Technology. He is the
managing director that invests in Life Sciences as well as Information
Technology.
Alex is also a founding Managing Director
with J.J. Jacobs Enterprises, LLC, a Pasadena-based venture capital
fund, and Jacobs Capital Group. |
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Joel Uchenick, General Partner,
Sherbrooke Capital (MA)
specializes in general management, cost reduction, acquisition strategy,
integration, and strategic planning. He has had a number of successful
engagements in the food, pharma and lifesciences industries with both
large and small companies.
Joel holds an M.B.A. in finance from McGill University. In addition, he
has authored two books on finance strategy. |
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Tom Von Kuster, Angel
Investor,
AMEX, Inc. (MN) was a
founding Director of Cymbet; a solid state battery firm
and NeuStream; a storage appliance company. In the past couple of years, companies for
which he has served as an early investor/advisor have been acquired
including NuSpeed (purchased by Cisco for $450 million), NT
International, and SurvivaLink.
Other investments include Infrared Solutions, KG Technologies, Cima
NanoTech, Apprise and Islet. |
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Joan Wurzer,
Investment Manager,
Minnesota Investment Network
(MN), is responsible for
developing and building Minnesota Investment Network’s portfolio. Ms.
Wurzer conducts business plan reviews, due diligence, and financial and
market analysis in the technology and manufacturing sectors. Ms. Wurzer
holds a BAS degree in Business from the University of Minnesota and
graduate studies from the University of St. Thomas. She also spent
12 years at Dain Rauscher. |
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Peter Zaballos,
VP,
Frazier Technology Ventures (WI)
currently serves as a board observer at Control4. Previously Peter
served as Senior Director of Marketing at RealNetworks, a $200M
Seattle-based company that pioneered the deliver of digital audio and
video over the Internet. Peter was VP of Marketing at Vivo
Software, a pioneer and leader of streaming video technology. Before
Vivo, Peter held key executive roles at FTP Software, C-Cube
Microsystems, and LSI Logic. |
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Bob Zieserl,
Managing Director,
KB Partners (IL)
focuses on medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare informatics.
Currently he serves on the boards of Chicago PT,
Mezzia,
Inc.,
Sarvega,
Inc.,
Ischemia Technologies, Inc., and is an observer on
Accumetrics, Inc. His career includes: co-founder and managing
director of an investment bank; president of a software company; founder
and CEO of a diagnostic imaging company; and President and COO of a
healthcare software firm. |
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Andrew Ziolkowski, Principal,
Forest Street Capital and SAE Ventures
(CT) has for the past seventeen years been
a principal in a variety of venture and leverage buyout transactions. In
addition, in his capacity as a director and investor, he has managed
numerous private placements, M&A transactions and IPOs. Over those
years, he worked on a variety of healthcare and technology related
investments ranging from start-up, seed capital ventures to later-stage,
buyout oriented situations. |
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