Symposium Advisory Board & Speakers:

Symposium Advisory Board:
Pascal Levensohn, CEO and Co-Founder, Generation Strategic Advisors LLC 
Rick Hayes, Managing Partner, Oak Hill Investment Management, L.P.
Anita Ng, Senior Consultant, Cambridge Associates 
Mark Mushkat, Senior Advisor, GenSpring Family Offices
Nicole Belytschko, Director, Private Equity, CM Capital Advisors
Ira Ehrenpreis, General Partner, Technology Partners
Frank Foster, General Partner, Gideon Hixon Fund  
Thomas T. Groos, Partner, City Light Capital
David J. Lam, Managing Director, WestSummit Capital
Alan Chang, Partner and Managing Director, Capricorn Investment Group, LLC

	Nicole Belytschko, Director, Private Equity, CM Capital Advisors Nicole Belytschko (Portfolio Manager, Private Equity) leads C.M. Capital’s investment activities in venture capital and leverage buyout funds. Prior to joining C.M. Capital, Nicole was an investment manager with Comprehensive Financial Management, a large West Coast multi-family office. At CFM, Nicole assisted in both portfolio management and new manager selection for a $1 billion portfolio of private equity, hedge fund, and public equity investments. Previously, Nicole worked with Scient Corporation in developing the firm’s corporate venture arm and leading direct investments in technology companies. Prior to Scient, she spent several years as a member of Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette’s Private Fund Group, where she marketed and distributed alternative investment (private equity) products to the institutional investor community. Nicole began her career as a business law paralegal with Sullivan & Worcester, focused mainly on their private equity industry clients. Nicole has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, and a BA in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara (Phi Beta Kappa).
	Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution Co-Founder, America Online Chairman, The Case Foundation Steve Case is one of America’s best-known and most accomplished entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and a pioneer in making the Internet part of everyday life. Steve co-founded America Online (AOL) in 1985, when the Internet was in its infancy. Under Steve’s leadership as Chairman and CEO, AOL became the world’s largest and most valuable Internet company. AOL helped drive the worldwide adoption of a medium that has transformed business and society. AOL’s early focus on ease of use and social media set the stage for its rapid growth, and at its peak nearly half of Internet users in the United States used AOL. In 1992, AOL became the first Internet company to go public, and was the best performing stock of the 1990s, with a 11,616% return. At the peak of the Internet boom, Steve negotiated what remains the largest merger in business history, bringing together AOL and Time Warner in a transaction that gave AOL shareholders a majority stake in the combined company. To facilitate the merger, Steve agreed to step down as CEO when the merger closed in 2001. He served as Chairman of the Board of the combined company (then known as AOL Time Warner) until 2003.
	Jenny Chen, Vice President, Oak Hill Investment Management, L.P.   Jenny Chen is a Vice President at Oak Hill Investment Management and has responsibility for manager selection in private equity. Jenny joined OHIM as an Associate in 2005, left to earn her M.B.A., and returned in 2010. Prior to OHIM, she worked as a product analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, developing the group’s quantitative hedge fund platform. Jenny holds a B.A. in Economics, M.S. in Management Science and Engineering, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University, where she was awarded the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for exceptional contributions to undergraduate education.
	Carolyn Choi, Managing Director, Private Capital, Sterling Stamos Carolyn Choi is a Managing Director on the Private Capital team at Sterling Stamos. Carolyn is responsible for managing the Firm’s investments in venture capital, growth equity, and buyouts on a global as well as fund operating and management activities. Prior to joining Sterling Stamos, Carolyn was a Vice President at Banc of America Capital Access Funds, a fund of funds focused on underserved markets in the U.S. Prior to that, Carolyn was a Vice President at DFJ ePlanet Ventures, DFJ's first global information technology/life sciences venture capital fund which included investments such as Baidu (BIDU) and Skype (acquired by eBay). Carolyn’s previous experience also includes roles at Salomon Smith Barney, Deutsche Banc. Alex Brown, The Yankee Group, and the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea. Carolyn received a BA and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA from The Fletcher School at Tufts University where she was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
	Stuart Davidson, Managing Partner, Labrador Ventures   Mr. Davidson has been involved in investing in early stage companies for the past 17 years. He is a managing partner of Labrador Ventures. Mr. Davidson is the Labrador representative with portfolio companies Integrated Materials, iPV, Shotspotter,Solaicx, Ultriva, Ustream, and Wired Benefits. Prior to Labrador, Mr. Davidson founded and served as CEO of Combion, Inc., which was acquired by Incyte (Nasdaq:INCY). He also served as President of Alkermes, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALKS), a biotechnology company focused on drug delivery. He managed the development of this company from concept stage through the initiation of human clinical trials. This growth phase included raising over $13 million from the venture capital community and R&D partnership sources prior to the company’s initial public offering. Mr. Davidson also worked for MCI Communications and for Warner Communications, where, in different management capacities, he was responsible for the development of a number of information technology business opportunities including electronic messaging, data networking, interactive cable TV, and on-line services.  Mr. Davidson is a graduate of Harvard College (1978) and Harvard Business School (1984)
	Chris Douvos, Managing Director, Venture Investment Associates  Chris Douvos joined VIA in 2011 as a Managing Director. He is a member of the Firm’s Investment Committee and has responsibility across all facets of the firm, including the management of relationships with the funds’ managers and its limited partners, as well as, the identification and development of new relationships for the firm. He previously spent seven years co-heading the private equity program at The Investment Fund For Foundations (TIFF). In this role, he was responsible for over $1 billion in new capital commitments and stewarded a program that was ranked in the top 5% of its peers. Chris represented TIFF on over a dozen VC and LBO partnership advisory boards. Prior to joining TIFF, Mr. Douvos worked on Princeton University’s endowment team, where his duties included selection and evaluation of external managers, risk analysis, and asset allocation modeling. Previously, he was a strategy consultant at Monitor Company working with clients in the financial services, healthcare, and telecom sectors and as an analyst for Monitor’s principal investing activities. Mr. Douvos authors an acclaimed blog, www.SuperLP.com, that explores topics in investing and human nature. He has been profiled in Venture Capital Journal and Private Equity Analyst and regularly speaks at industry conferences and business schools. Chris earned his BA with Distinction in history from Yale College in 1994 and an MBA from Yale School of Management in 2001. He was awarded the CFA Charter in 2004. He currently serves on the Board of the Palo Alto Community Fund and sits on the investment committee of the Castilleja School.
	Ira Ehrenpreis, General Partner, Technology Partners Ira Ehrenpreis is a General Partner with Technology Partners. He has been with the firm since 1996. Ira leads Technology Partners’ Cleantech investment practice, investing in Energy Technology, Water Technology, and Advanced Materials opportunities. Ira is a recognized leader in both the venture capital industry and the Cleantech sector, and in 2007, was named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Men Under 45” by Details Magazine. In the venture community, Ira has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and on the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC). He served as Chairman of the 2010 NVCA Annual Meeting. Ira also serves as the Co-Chairman of the VCNetwork, the largest and most active Bay Area venture capital organization. In the Cleantech sector, Ira has served on several industry Boards, including the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Advisory Committee (ERAC), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Advisory Council, the Clean-Tech Investor Summit (Conference Chairman in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012), Cleantech Venture Network (Past Chairman of Advisory Board), ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy), Energy Investors Forum (Past Conference Chairman), Energy Venture Fair, and California Climate Change Advisory Board. He has also served on the Advisory Boards of the Southern California Tech Coast Alliance, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), and the Comerica Venture Capital Advisory Board. Ira is also an active leader at Stanford University, where his contributions have included teaching the course on Venture Capital and serving on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. Ira received his JD/MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of Stanford Law Review. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude. Technology Partners is a 27 year venture capital firm that has managed approximately $750 million of investment capital with current investments being made from Technology Partners Fund VIII. Technology Partners has invested in more than 100 companies in a variety of industries serving principally as a lead investor. The firm invests approximately half of its capital into Cleantech companies and the other half into companies focused on the Life Sciences.
	Frank Foster, General Partner, Gideon Hixon Fund  Frank H. Foster is a Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliated venture capital fund with $80M under management focused on seed and early stage technology companies on the westcoast. Frank also manages the Gideon Hixon Fund, the venture capital investment vehicle for the Hixon Family. The group's venture capital investments include Apple Computer and Dell as well as more recent successes including CORSolutions (acquired by Matria), Sensitech (acquired by Carrier), Medior (acquired by AOL), Security Dynamics (acquired by RSA), WebCal (acquired by Yahoo) and Xiotech (acquired by Seagate). Prior to that, he was a General Partner of Allen & Buckeridge PTY LTD, a leading Australian venture capital firm with approximately A$250 million under management. At Allen & Buckeridge he led investment efforts into Hitwise (acquired by Experian), eKit (acquired by Jersey Telecom), Wishlist and Next Generation Entertainment. Frank is currently a director of Prolacta Bioscience, HydraDx (Chairman), DX Biosciences, Marval Biosciences, Buyology, Predixion Software, Swink and Zadspace (Chairman). He is also serves as a venture partner for Southern Cross Venture Partners a $150M international venture capital fund focused on bringing Australia/NZ technology to the US. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cancer Center of Santa Barbara and the Pacer Foundation.
	Charles Froland, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Performance Equity Management, LLC Mr. Froland is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Performance Equity and a member of its Investment Committee. Prior to joining Performance Equity, Mr. Froland was the head of General Motors Investment Management (GMIMCo) Private Equity Group and a member of the General Motors Investment Management committee that makes private market investment decisions for the General Motors Investment Management Clients (the “PEIAC”). Prior to joining General Motors Investment Management in 1995, he was Managing Director of Investments for Stanford Management Company, which is responsible for the investment activities of Stanford University. During his eight years at Stanford, Mr. Froland was responsible for a variety of private market investment activities as well as managing an internal portfolio management team. Mr. Froland has published several journal articles and was a member of the Board of Editors of the Journal of Portfolio Management. He is a member of the CFA Institute and has served on the Board of the Institutional Limited Partners Association as well as the Investment Board of Boys Town. Mr. Froland received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, his MBA from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.
	Thomas T. Groos, Partner, City Light Capital Tom Groos is a partner at City Light Capital, an early stage venture capital firm based in New York City.  City Light is a pioneer in Impact Investing, seeking not only excellent financial returns for its investors, but in doing so only investing in companies providing significant social or environmental benefit to the United States.  The firm focuses upon making investments in safety and security, energy efficiency and educational innovation. Tom’s family office, Tyden Ventures, was a foundational investor in the firm originated by Josh Cohen and Marc Weill. Tom graduated from Hastings (MI) High School, received a BA from Cornell University and an MBA from the Columbia Business School.  He worked for WR Grace in New York and Boston before returning to western Michigan for a 26 year career at Tyden Group, a security products and fire protection systems company, which later spun out Viking Group. During his tenure, where he moved through various positions to CEO, revenues grew more than 50 times.  Tyden Group was sold to private equity in 2006, and in 2010, Viking Group merged with Minimax GmbH to form the world’s second largest fire protection systems company.  Tom remains Chairman of the combined firm now known as Minimax Viking and based in Hamburg, Germany. He is a member of the Deming Center Advisory Board of Columbia Business School, and is a frequent guest lecturer there on topics of operational excellence. Tom is a member of the Board of the Salvation Army of West Michigan, the Board of Directors of the National Fire Protection Association, and is a member of Cornell University Alumni Council.  With two children in their mid twenties, Tom and his wife of 31 years, Lisa, live in New York City and Middleville, MI.
	Craig Jacoby, Chair, Emerging Companies Group, Cooley LLP  Craig Jacoby specializes in representing high growth companies and their investors and is the Chair of Cooley’s Emerging Companies group. He has helped to form, finance and advise hundreds of emerging businesses in areas such as Internet and digital media, consumer products, clean technologies, software, medical devices and business services, and he has led more than one hundred financing transactions in the past five years, with an aggregate value of more than $1 billion. Mr. Jacoby has also handled more than 30 merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Jacoby received a J.D., with distinction, in 1996 from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif. Following law school, he was a judicial clerk with the Honorable Charles A. Legge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Mr. Jacoby also holds a M.A. in International Studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in English and Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also studied Italian cinema as a Fulbright scholar in Rome, Italy. He is a member of the California Bar Association and is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He co-founded and serves as Board Chair for the non-profit organization VolunteerMatch. He is also a member of Cooley’s Pro Bono Committee.
	Jeff Kuhn, Managing Partner, FLG Partners  Jeff is the Managing Partner and a co-founder of FLG Partners, LLC.  Since the firm’s founding in 2004, Jeff has been instrumental in establishing FLG as the leading CFO services and board advisory firm in the western United States, providing unmatched financial expertise and leadership to companies ranging from seed-round startups to multi-billion dollar public companies. Most of FLG’s clients are technology and life science companies located in Silicon Valley, but the Firm has served clients elsewhere in the U.S. and around the world. He has over 35 years of operational, financial and capital markets experience in investment banking, financial services and technology companies. He has built particular expertise in the technology sector as CFO of and consultant to companies in the software, design services, electro-optical and telecommunications businesses, with significant international experience in Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom. As a CFO he has had responsibility for strategic planning,, budgeting, financial planning and analysis, investor relations and reporting, contracts, licensing, domestic and international tax compliance and reporting, and management information systems and reporting. In investment banking and financial services, Jeff has wide experience, including IPOs, project finance, leasing, mergers & acquisitions, private placements of debt and equity, and recapitalizations. Jeff holds a BA in Economics from the University of California, Davis.
	Holden Lee, Senior Investment Consultant, Cambridge Associates  Holden is a senior investment consultant in Cambridge Associates’ Menlo Park office, working with a range of clients across their portfolios and serving as a resource to the firm’s Mission-Related Investing Group. Prior to joining Cambridge Associates in 2008, Holden was the Chief Financial Officer of the Stupski Foundation, a private operating foundation focused on K-12 education reform, and the Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization. Previously, he was a principal at Aqua International Partners, a cleantech private equity fund of the Texas Pacific Group, and he held senior management positions in the Hopewell Holdings Group, a Hong Kong developer of large-scale private infrastructure projects throughout Asia. Holden received a MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Political Science from Princeton University.
	Pascal Levensohn, CEO and Co-Founder, Generation Strategic Advisors LLC  Pascal Levensohn is the CEO and co-founder of Generation Strategic Advisors LLC and the Managing Partner of Levensohn Venture Partners LLC. He has over thirty years of broad experience as a finance professional and has provided specialized strategic advisory solutions for complex issues in illiquid alternative investments to family offices and institutional investors for over sixteen years. In 2012 Pascal joined the board of directors of Austral Capital Partners, a technology and life sciences-oriented venture capital firm based in Santiago, Chile that focuses on identifying globally scalable high-growth entrepreneurs and technologies in Latin America. Pascal is a former director of the National Venture Capital Association (2007-2011). A graduate of Harvard University with a degree in Government, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former co-chairman of the Socrates Society Forum of the Aspen Institute (2007-2009). He is currently a member of the faculty of the Society of Kauffman Fellows and serves as a Trustee of the Truman National Security Project in Washington, D.C.
	Allan May, Chair, Angel Resource Institute  Allan is Chairman of the Board of the Kauffman Foundation’s Angel Resource Institute, a nonprofit devoted to the promotion and study of angel investing.  In 2012, ARI released the Halo Report, the first detailed data tracking early stage investment by angel groups. Allan is a founder of Life Science Angels (www.lifescienceangels.com ), the largest angel organization in the U.S. focused solely on early stage medical device and life science start-ups, and comprised solely of high net worth individuals from the medical device or biotech fields. In 2011, Allan launched the Life Science Angel Network, a consortium of angel groups throughout the United States, that will focus on increasing the syndication and capitalization of highly vetted healthcare startups. In 2007, Allan joined renowned inventor, entrepreneur and cardiac surgeon, Dr. Thomas Fogarty, in co-founding Emergent Medical Partners, a boutique venture fund focused on early stage medical device company creation and investing.   Allan has been founder, Chair/CEO, or investor in over 50 medtech and biotech startups.  Allan moderated the Entrepreneurship Track at the 2011-2012 FutureMed Programs at Singularity University, and is a member of the editorial board of Elsevier Windhover’s In Vivo magazine.  He speaks frequently at universities, conferences and government programs on trends and developments affecting early stage biotech and medtech investing.
	Dave McClure, Founding Partners, 500 Startups  Dave McClure is a venture capitalist and founding partner of 500 Startups.  Dave s a well-known angel investor in internet startups and has over 20 years experience as an engineer, entrepreneur, and internet marketing evangelist. His personal blog was ranked #7 in the world among VC bloggers by the WSJ in 2009.  Dave's passion is helping startups with product & marketing strategy, and he is a vocal & notable industry speaker on lean startup metrics. He has invested in over 100 startup companies including: Mint.com (acquired by Intuit), CreditKarma, Crowdflower, KissMetrics, Mashery, Sendgrid, Simply Hired, SlideShare, TeachStreet, Twilio, and Wildfire Interactive, among others. He also runs conferences and events on technology, marketing, design, & entrepreneurship such as SMASHsummit & WarmGun. From 2008 thru 2010, Dave managed the FF Angel seed investment program for Founders Fund, and ran the 2009 fbFund REV incubator program on behalf of Facebook, Accel Partners, & Founders Fund. From 2006 thru 2008 Dave was an advisor and consultant to several startups including Mint.com; co-chaired technology & startup conferences for O'Reilly Media including Web 2.0 Expo and Graphing Social Patterns; and helped teach the nation's first-ever class on Facebook and social networking platforms at Stanford University in 2007. From 2005 thru 2006 Dave launched & ran marketing for job search engine Simply Hired & its evil twin SimplyFired.com. From 2001 thru 2004, Dave was Director of Marketing at PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002), where he started the PayPal Developer Network program. Prior to PayPal, Dave was a database consultant & programmer for several companies, including Microsoft and Intel. In 1994 he founded Aslan Computing, an internet & e-commerce consulting group later acquired by Servinet / Panurgy in 1998. Dave is the co-founder of Startup2Startup & Finance4Founders, monthly dinner meetings for Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurs & investors. He leads a travel group called GeeksOnaPlane to promote cultural exchange & education for tech entrepreneurs around the world. Dave helped co-found the StartupVisa program to reform & improve US immigration policy for entrepreneurs. He has been a boardmember for microfinance accelerator Unitus and advisor to microfinance lender Kiva, education lender Vittana, remote work platform SamaSource, & co-founder of the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network. Before coming to Silicon Valley, Dave graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a BS Engineering in Mathematical Sciences.
	Anita Ng, Senior Consultant, Cambridge Associates  Ms. Ng is a Senior Specialist Consultant in the Menlo Park office. She works with a broad group of clients, including foundations, endowments, public pension plans, and private clients, to construct and oversee non-marketable alternative asset portfolios. Ms. Ng sits on the internal ex-US private equity and the fund of funds research committees, and periodically leads various non-marketable alternative asset manager due diligence projects. Before Ms. Ng joined Cambridge Associates, she spent approximately 10 years as an investment banker, covering the technology sector for CIBC World Markets, Credit Suisse First Boston and Banc of America Securities, and earlier in her career, working in Hong Kong with Merrill Lynch’s Asia Pacific Investment Banking Group focusing on Greater China clients. With these firms, she identified, pitched, structured, and executed both private and public financings and merger and acquisition transactions, totalling over $2.6 billion in transaction value. She also assessed appropriate capital structure and financing methods for existing and prospective client companies, evaluated potential acquisition targets and strategic partners, and oversaw all deal execution. Ms. Ng graduated from Stanford University with Honors and Distinction and received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
	Ilya Nykin, Managing Director, Prolog Ventures Ilya Nykin is an investor and serial entrepreneur. Over the past 25 years he has been involved in a number of successful ventures. He is a co-founder and managing director of Prolog, a life science VC firm, where he focuses on nutrition, wellness and digital health. His past and present Prolog portfolio boards include Brand New Brands, Divergence, Nest (Plum Organics), ShopWell, Zeel, and several others. He also serves on the board of trustees of Astia, a global not-for-profit organization supporting companies founded and led by women. Ilya got his start as an entrepreneur at Ivy Technologies, a healthcare informatics startup acquired by Alcon Laboratories. He then launched Metaphase, a pioneering technology incubator targeting health related opportunities. He was a co-founder of several of its spinouts, such as Metaphase Ophthalmic (eye care diagnostics) and BioPolymerix (antimicrobial materials). Ilya studied at MGPI in Moscow, Odessa University and Leningrad (St. Petersburg) University, and holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics. He has three U.S. patents.
	Stephanie Palmeri, Senior Associate, SoftTech VC  Steph Palmeri is a senior associate with SoftTech VC, where she invests in early stage consumer internet companies including next generation commerce, mobile services, and saas. She has over a decade of experience working at the intersection of marketing and technology. At SoftTech VC, Steph’s work includes opportunity reviews, due diligence, market analysis, and dealflow management, in addition to active involvement with SoftTech VC portfolio companies. Prior to joining SoftTech VC, Steph was an active member in New York City’s emergent VC and entrepreneurial community where she was an Associate with early-stage venture fund NYC Seed and launched the NYC SeedStart incubator. Additionally, she worked with Lot18 on business development and marketing initiatives. Steph’s early experience includes working for Accenture and Estee Lauder as well as building SaaS applications for customers including SAP AG, JP Morgan, and Diageo. Steph holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Villanova University with joint degrees in Marketing and Management Information Systems. In her spare time, Steph enjoys bikram yoga, skiing, and getting lost in foreign countries.
	Brent Whisenant, Managing Director, Medley Partners Brent Whisenant is a Managing Director with Medley Partners in San Francisco. Brent joined Medley from The Carlyle Group, where he was a Managing Director in San Francisco. Prior to joining Carlyle, Brent worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions group at Robertson Stephens & Company in San Francisco and as an Associate at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City. Prior to law school, Brent practiced as a CPA with Price Waterhouse in New York City.  Brent received his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School and a B.S. from Brigham Young University.