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Dear Visitor,
Our confirmed
speakers and participating investors are listed below. It is a long
list so please keep scrolling!
Matt Noah,
Conference Chairman,
matt@mnvcc.com
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Speakers and Panelists To Date |
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Deborah E. Powell, M.D., Dean of the
Medical School,
University of Minnesota is a member
of the distinguished National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Medicine. She also has served as president of United States and
Canadian Academy of Pathology. She joined the UofM in October 2002.
She served as executive dean of the Kansas Medical School since 1997.
Prior to that she taught at Georgetown University and the University
of Kentucky. |
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Barb Peterson, Vice President of
Reimbursement,
Alquest. Alquest is a
full-service Contract Research Organization offering regulatory,
clinical and compliance services for medical devices, biologics, and
combination products. Alquest exists to provide efficient,
meaningful services to their clients. Alquest has a unique,
modular approach allows the client to meet aggressive schedules and
maintain project control. |
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John Hodgert, EVP,
Lombard Life Sciences
(See below for more information) |
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John Hoesley, Investment Manager,
Prism Capital
(See below for more information) |
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Brad Lehrman, President,
Portage Capital
(See below for more information) |
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Molly Simmons, VP,
Gemini Investors
(See below for more information) |
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Roger Fischer, CEO,
Fischer Health
brings over 20 years of networking, alliance building and
strategic insight to healthcare communication, with the agency's
clients benefiting from his rich experience. Under his
leadership, Fischer Health has grown into one of the most successful
public relations firms in the category and was recently named
"Healthcare PR Firm of the Year" by the distinguished Holmes Report. |
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Tom Martin, Partner,
Dorsey & Whitney LLP |
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Trevor J. Moody, Partner,
Frazier Healthcare Ventures
(See below for more information) |
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Andrew Humphrey, Partner,
Faegre & Benson |
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Tony Carideo, VP,
Padilla Speer Beardsly PR |
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Tom Brady, Partner,
KPMG |
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Timothy Kraskey,
Managing Director,
YankeeTek Ventures
(See below for more information) |
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Mike Berman,
entrepreneur & past President of Scimed |
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Mark Sides,
Partner,
Faegre & Benson |
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Mark Cree,
CEO,
Firevue |
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Chris Heim, CEO,
HighJump Software |
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Tom Kieffer, CEO,
Agiliti |
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Craig Weinstock, Principal,
White Pine Consulting |
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Lizabeth Converse Wilson,
Principal,
White Pine Consulting |
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Investors To Date |
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Dennis Anderson, Founder and
Principal,
Andcor 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. |
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David Arnstein, Venture
Associate,
Venture Investors, focuses on IT
investment opportunities and portfolio companies. His duties include
assisting in the initial screening of investment opportunities,
performing various aspects of due diligence, and other day-to-day fund
management responsibilities. He holds a BBA degree in Accounting
and a MBA degree with concentrations in Entrepreneurship and Finance
from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. |
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Stuart Auerbach, General Partner,
Ampersand Ventures, joined Ampersand
in 1991 following 3 years of consulting experience at Bain and 5 years
in manufacturing and engineering at Lever Brothers. He is the
current Chairman at Eigner and is a board member of Northfield
Acquisition (dba Sheldahl), Percision Pharma Services and Tomah.
He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and a
Harvard MBA. |
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Donald Back,
CTO,
Lombard Life Sciences
has
an extensive academic science background with broad expertise in
biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology. Dr. Back is responsible
for identifying and screening new investment opportunities, ensuring
that the scientific experimental proposals and protocols, under which
the investee companies operate, meet the business model expectations. |
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Michel Bayard,
Director, Equity/Capital Sourcing,
BioEnterprise, is a former
investment banker. BioEnterprise is a business formation and
acceleration company committed to being a leader in supporting the
growth of bioscience companies. BioEnterprise provides mission
critical senior management and support services. Its founding and
equal partners are The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospital Health
Systems, and Case Western Reserve University. |
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Rick Brimacomb,
Partner,
Sherpa Partners,
has helped early-stage companies develop into “investment grade”
opportunities and attain venture funding. He is active in the business
community and is assisting the University of Minnesota incubate new
technologies and bring them to the private sector. Mr. Brimacomb
has been an advisor to and an investor in early-stage information
technology companies since 1993.
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Dan Broderick,
Managing Director,
Mason Wells Private Equity,
joined Mason Wells in July 2000 as a founding partner of the Mason
Wells Biomedical Fund I, after completing an 18-year career at the
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He played a key role in the
launch of the Mayo Clinic’s $25 million venture investing program.
Mayo Medical Venture made ten investments and reviewed over 300
business plans during his tenure. |
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Ryan Busch, VP,
Mellon Ventures, focuses primarily on
financial services, technology infrastructure and software companies.
Current Board and Observer seats include Plan4Demand and THINQ.
Prior to joining Mellon Ventures, Ryan was a relationship manager in
Mellon’s Global Corporate Banking Department. Ryan received a
bachelor’s degree in finance from Pennsylvania State University and an
MBA. from Pittsburgh. |
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Pete Chung, Vice President,
Morgan Stanley Venture Partners,
joined Morgan Stanley in 1993 in the Technology Corporate Finance
Department, and joined Venture Partners in 1995. After graduating in
1998 with a Stanford MBA, Mr. Chung rejoined Morgan Stanley. He
continues to focus on technology investments in MSVP's Menlo Park
office. |
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Norman Dann, Angel Investor, has
invested in numerous Minnesota-based medtech companies including
Atritech, Aperio Medical Technology, Carepoint Diagnostics, Incisive
Medical and Viacor Medical. |
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David F. Dalvey, Partner,
Brightstone Capital, has 21 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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Mark Ellis, Managing Partner,
1to1 Venture Partners is an
entrepreneur and turnaround specialist. Mark served in key
marketing and top management positions at General Mills, Mattel, Ideal
Toys, and the Franklin Mint. At 1to1 Venture Partners, he is the
Managing Partner of the fund, which provides financing for early-stage
companies. Mark has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business
and a BS in Business from the University of Minnesota. |
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Saul Felman,
Partner,
Telemark Group, has been an investor
in numerous start-ups in areas including digital radiographic imaging,
electronic trading and data mining. In addition, he has developed a
patent pending information inquiry method. Mr. Felman received an
M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a
B.A. from Yeshiva College. He currently serves on the Board of
Directors of NeuroTrax and Chiral Photonics. |
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Bill Geary has been with
North Bridge Venture Partners since
inception. Prior to joining North Bridge, he was a general partner at
Hambro International Equity Partners. From 1987 through 1990 Bill was
the CFO of MathSoft, an applications software start-up, now
publicly-traded on the NASDAQ. Prior to that, he was at Congoleum
Corporation where he helped raise the capital and structure the
successful $500 million private buyout of the company. |
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Jon Goldberg, Managing Director,
Israel American Discovery Fund,
and Managing Partner of
IADF Venture Capital. Previously,
Mr. Goldberg was a founding team member and Director of Business
Development at Batterson Venture Partners' Venture Capital Online (vcapital).
Prior to vcapital, Mr. Goldberg was a senior associate in the
Institutional Equity Research department at Zacks Investment Research. |
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Esperanza Guerrero-Anderson,
President,
Milestone Growth Fund, is a long-time
Minnesota investor. Milestone is a $21 million SBIC fund.
For companies too small for venture capital financing and too risky
for bank lending, Milestone is able to step in. Portfolio
companies include CrossWorks, ION and iXmatch. Typical funding
levels lie between $250,000 and $500,000. |
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John Gustafson, Principal,
Odin Capital Group, works with all
facets of the investment process, including evaluating new investment
opportunities, performing due diligence, and assisting with portfolio
management after an investment has been completed. John joined
Odin Capital Group in 2001 as a vice president and was promoted to
principal in September of 2002. |
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Cathy Harms, Manager,
St. Paul Capital Fund |
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Kent Hawryluk,
General Partner,
JEGI Capital, has 14 years of publishing, television
and Internet operating and finance experience. Prior to becoming a
General Partner of JEGI Capital LLC, Mr. Hawryluk served as Managing
Director of Jordan Edmiston, where he was responsible for starting and
managing its Internet/new media practice. Mr. Hawryluk joined Jordan
Edmiston from Dow Jones where he was Director of EBN. |
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Tom Hiatt, Managing Director,
Centerfield Capital Partners, has
served as director of a number of public and private companies. In
1999, Mr. Hiatt was named by Governor O'Bannon as one of nine members
of Board of Directors of the Twenty-first Century Research and
Technology Board, a $50 million fund (from the State) charged with
investing the capital in projects which speed Indiana's transition to
a knowledge-based economy. |
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Jeff Hinck, General Partner,
Crescendo Ventures has invested in
companies in both the network infrastructure and enterprise
infrastructure fields. He is currently focusing on emerging
opportunities in the enterprise networking and data storage markets.
He received his J.D. from Harvard and B.A. from Northwestern.
Investments include Airband, Algety (Corvis), Broadsoft, Compellent,
Cyneta, Endwave, Magis Networks, NuSpeed and Stonefly Networks. |
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John Hodgert, EVP,
Lombard Life Sciences
provides senior level management and
strategic directional support to the life sciences industry. Mr.
Hodgert has an extensive business and entrepreneurial background in
finance, merchant banking, and, more recently, the life sciences.
Previously held positions including President and founding partner of
Bannatyne Financial and President and partner of Montrose Mortgage
Corporation Ltd. |
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John Hoesley, Investment Manager,
Prism Capital,
joined Prism in November of 2001. Prior to Prism, he served as
the CFO of Legato Partners and the CEO/COO of eVincio Corporation, a
provider of enterprise-class content management software. Mr. Hoesley
also served as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston for
four years, specializing in Internet and broadband wireless
businesses. |
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Brian P. Johnson, Director of Private
Equity,
ArrowHead Capital Management and
General Partner, Pathfinder Venture Capital
Funds, has
invested in such companies as Dermatrends, Excorp Medical, Infrared
Solutions, VisualGold and August Technology. He has twenty years
of successful venture capital investing experience, concentrating on
Information Technology and Healthcare companies. |
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David Kim, MD, Associate,
MPM Capital
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. |
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Matthew Kolling, Venture
Associate,
Morgan Stanley Venture Partners,
joined Morgan Stanley in 1999 as a
Financial Analyst in the Investment Banking Division. In 2001, Mr.
Kolling joined Venture Partners in New York, where he focuses on the
communications technology, infrastructure software and Internet
infrastructure sectors. Mr. Kolling received a B.S. in Accounting from
The University of Minnesota in 1999. |
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John Koo, Venture Associate,
Summit Accelerator Fund, has prior
experience with bill24 Solutions,
CIBC Oppenheimer,
Banque Paribas Advisory Services
and Vitelic Semiconductor and TrelliSoft.
Summit Accelerator Fund is a venture
capital fund that focuses on rapidly growing, profitable companies
with capital needs of $2 million to $10 million. John holds a B.S. and B.A.S.
from the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Timothy Kraskey,
Managing Director,
YankeeTek Ventures,
Boston, was one of the founders and VP of Sales & Marketing for Sahara
Networks, acquired by Cascade Communications and later Ascend. He
served as VP of Marketing in Ascend Core Systems Division. Tim has
also worked for ADC, Newbridge Networks and General DataComm in key
sales and marketing roles. He holds BA in Economics from the UofM. |
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Brad Lehrman, President,
Portage Capital
began his professional career as a corporate attorney. He
founded Portage in 1993, a business and venture capital consulting
firm serving a select number of emerging companies with business
management and investor relation services. He is also a founder and
fund manager of Portage Equity Investments I, LLC and Portage Equity
Investments II LP, early stage accredited venture capital seed funds. |
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Michael Leidesdorff, Principal,
Questmark Partners, assists the Fund
Managers with transaction sourcing, due diligence investigations and
financial analysis with a focus on information and telecommunications
technology companies. He received his Masters in International
Business from the Copenhagen Business School in 1998 after completing
course work at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute. |
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William Lyman, General Partner,
Alliance Technology Ventures, joined
ATV in 1999 and focuses on seed and early-stage investments in
semiconductor and communications technology. Bill led ATV's investment
in and serves on the board of SyChip and Cygnal Integrated Products.
Bill is an active board observer with Ziptronix and has previously
been active with and a board observer at XtremeSpectrum, Nitronex, RF
Solutions and SecureWorks. |
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Ian MacLeod, General Partner,
ABS Capital, focuses on investment
opportunities in enterprise software and services. He serves on the
boards of ABS portfolio companies Aptegrity, Inc. and Cyveillance,
Inc. and is an observer on the board of Workscape, Inc. Prior to
ABS, Ian spent three years as an associate in the Technology
Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Goldman
Sachs. |
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Christopher Markgraf,
VP,
Summit Partners, is part of the
Boston office of Summit Partners in 1997. His investment experience
includes EMED Co., Freedom Scientific, Hemophilia Resources of America
and Net to Net Technologies. Summit Partners is a leading
global private equity and venture capital firm. The firm has a capital
base of in excess of $5 billion, with offices in London, Palo Alto,
and Boston. |
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Timothy J. Mathison, Vice
President,
Baird Venture Partners, joined
Baird's Private Equity Group in 2000. Most recently, Tim
established a new private equity office for Baird in Madison,
Wisconsin. He is focused on identifying life sciences investments,
conducting due diligence and supporting portfolio company management
for Baird Venture Partners. He received a BS degree from the UofM and
an MBA from the University of Chicago GSB. |
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Kevin McGarry,
CEO,
Lombard Life Sciences
has an extensive business background including being a founding
partner and CEO of Keystone Technologies Inc., an early-stage
biotechnology venture fund. As CEO of Lombard Life Sciences, Mr.
McGarry will ensure that the science of the diverse bio/medical
technology companies under Lombard management is fully integrated with
the relevant business model. |
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Carter McNabb, Principal,
River Cities Capital Funds, joined
River Cities in 1999 after completing his MBA in Finance at the Owen
School at Vanderbilt University. River Cities Capital Funds is a
$300 million family of three venture capital funds based in
Cincinnati. They invest primarily in early to middle stage companies,
located in the Midwest and Southeast, that operate in a variety of
high growth industries. |
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Trevor J. Moody, Partner,
Frazier Healthcare Ventures, works
primarily on medical device investment opportunities. He came to
Frazier Healthcare in 1999 with a strong background in product
development and the assessment of medical devices and healthcare
information technology. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and
an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management. |
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Hany Nada,
Co-founder, Managing Director,
Granite Global Ventures is
actively investing in software, wireless applications, and
multimedia. From 1991 to 2000, Hany was a Managing Director and a
Senior Research Analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, specializing in
software and e-Infrastructure. Hany is a graduate of the University of
Minnesota where he earned a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in political
science. |
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Gerald Okerman, President,
Sota Tec Fund, served 3M from
1983-2001 prior to joining Sota Tec. 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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Jim O'Reilly, VP,
Space Center Ventures
focuses on deals in the software, medical
device, bio-tech, and computer related technology sectors. He sits on
the board of Magnum Technologies, Inc. (MN) and participates on the
Board as an observer for Four51 (MN).
He is often a guest
speaker in venture capital and emerging technologies classes at the
University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Business as well as the
Carlson School of Business. |
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Todd Ortberg, Venture Partner,
Coral Ventures, focuses on
investments in the technology sector, with particular emphasis on
telecommunications. Todd joined Coral in 2001 from ADC
Telecommunications, where he was VP and GM of their Cable Access
Systems division. He also served as VP of engineering while at ADC. He
received his M.B.A. from the University of Iowa, and a Bachelor of
Science in Engineering from Iowa State University. |
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Hannah Park, Associate,
JMI Equity Fund, joined the firm in
1999 and was previously from Forrester Research and Gemini Consulting.
JMI's strategy is to focus exclusively on enterprise application and
infrastructure software and services companies with proven business
models. In other words, JMI invests only in markets we know well and
in opportunities where their skills and expertise, not just our
capital, help build industry-leading businesses. |
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Bea Rothweiler, Executive Vice President,
Portage Capital
has over twenty years of experience working with early stage,
emerging and growing companies in the US and internationally.
Rothweiler is a founder, or advisor for companies such as Reliastar
Investment Research, Demand Video Inc., Iconoculture Inc., and Chart
Industries. Rothweiler graduated a BA in political science from the
UofM in 1976 and her JD from Hamline in 1979. |
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Serafin Samson, Analyst,
Affinity Capital Management,
prior to joining, was Vice President of Business Development for
Steris Corporation. In addition to Business Development
responsibilities, he held senior marketing positions within Steris’
Healthcare Division. He also was an investment banker at McDonald &
Company, where he specialized in working with healthcare related
companies. Dan has an MBA from Columbia University. |
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Daniel Sheehan, Venture Partner,
Affinity Capital Management,
prior to joining, was Vice President of Business Development for
Steris Corporation. In addition to Business Development
responsibilities, he held senior marketing positions within Steris’
Healthcare Division. He also was an investment banker at McDonald &
Company, where he specialized in working with healthcare related
companies. Dan has an MBA from Columbia University. |
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Molly Simmons, VP,
Gemini Investors, joined Gemini in
2001 from Divine interVentures. Molly holds a BS from Northwestern and
an MBA from Harvard. Gemini invests in established companies
with experienced management teams. Candidates should have at least 3
years of operating history and trailing revenues of at least $5
million. Gemini has 3 Minnesota investments including HighJump SW.
Molly is a native Minnesotan. |
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Mark Solovy, Managing Director,
Israel American Discovery Fund,
and Managing Partner of
IADF Venture Capital. Previously,
Mr. Solovy was Director of Venture Capital at Batterson Venture
Partners' Venture Capital Online (vcapital). Prior to joining vcapital.
Mr. Solovy was a senior associate in the venture capital group of
Holleb & Coff. Mr. Solovy serves on the Board of the America-Israel
Chamber of Commerce Chicago. |
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Edson W. Spencer, Jr.,
Managing Partner,
Affinity Capital Management
invests primarily in seed and early-stage
health care companies. Prior to founding Affinity Capital, Ed was
principal and co-founder of Peterson-Spencer-Fansler Company, the
predecessor of Affinity Capital. He has been in the venture business
since 1993. Ed has an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from
Williams College. |
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Kevin Spreng, Investment
Professional,
Crescendo Ventures, is located in
Crescendo's Minneapolis office and is responsible for all of Crescendo
Ventures' legal and administration functions, including the management
of Crescendo's accounting, human resources, and IT groups.
Kevin joined Crescendo after ten years of experience as a
securities and venture capital attorney serving both venture capital
investors and early stage companies. |
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David Stastny, Managing Director,
Osprey Ventures,
had its first closing in 1999 and was closed to new investors in early
2000. The Fund currently owns equity or convertible debt
positions in fifteen private and three public companies. Their
first investment, BuyDirect.com, was acquired by Beyond.com [BYND]
after less than a sixty-day portfolio holding period.
Osprey has
co-invested with a prestigious group of venture capitalists. |
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Carl-Johan Torarp, Managing Director,
International Technology Group,
Allison Williams Company, joined
Allison-Williams Company in early 1999 to strengthen their Information
Technology (IT) and International capabilities. He focuses on
financing transactions and in private placements, debt and equity,
plus M&A activities, in the technology and international sectors. He
also provides venture mgmt. services to emerging high growth IT
companies. |
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Christopher Volker, Principal,
The
Mercanti Group has seven
years of experience working in private equity and investment banking
with an emphasis on the healthcare and technology industries. Most
recently, Chris was with Crescendo Ventures in Palo Alto. Chris has
experience with several types of transactions, including principal
investments, public equity and debt offerings, private placements and
buy-side and sell-side M&A. |
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Tom Von Kuster, Angel
Investor,
AMEX, Inc.
was a
founding Director of Cymbet; a solid state battery firm
and FibreStream; 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 (purchased by Entegris) and SurvivaLink (purchased by Cardiac Science). |
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Shelly L. Wall,
Associate,
Morgan Stanley Venture Partners,
joined the New York health care investment team of MSVP in May 2002.
Prior to MSVP, Shelly was a Sr. Associate and Kauffman Fellow at
Tullis-Dickerson & Co, an early-stage health care venture capital
firm. Shelly earned her MBA from The Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor's degree in physiology, with
an emphasis in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. |
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Jeremy Wolfe, Principal,
ABS Capital Partners focuses on
investment opportunities in West Coast technology companies.
Prior to joining ABS, Jeremy was the CFO at Found, Inc., an enterprise
software company providing inventory management solutions to major
retailers and manufacturers. Before that, he worked at Goldman Sachs
in both the High Tech Principal Investment and Technology Investment
Banking groups. |
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Joan Wurzer,
Investment Manager,
Minnesota Investment Network,
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. |
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Charles Yie, General Partner,
Ampersand Ventures, joined
Ampersand's predecessor in 1985 and has sat on over a dozen boards
including being Chairman of Kroy Building Products, Moldflow and Nuvex.
He is a board member at Eigner, Endeca, Ensemble Communications and
Silicon Wave. Charles was a system engineering at HP and has
both a BSEE and MS in Management from MIT. |
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Peter Zaballos, Vice President,
Midwest,
Frazier Technology Ventures
previously 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 holds a BS in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from the University of
California, Berkeley, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. |
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Junaid Zeb, Investment Manager,
Space Center Ventures,
sources and evaluates
business plans, analyzes financial statements, performs valuations,
drafts term sheets, conducts due diligence and assists in managing the
portfolio companies and making investment decisions. He
maintains a pipeline of Accountants, Angel Investors, Attorneys,
Bankers, Consultants, Entrepreneurs, and Other VC’s for “Deal Flow.”
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