Bobby Franklin is the President & CEO of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) whose membership includes thousands of individuals that invest in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and guide the formation and growth of innovative startup companies. With over 25 years of experience in advocacy and public policy in our nation’s capital, Bobby took the helm of NVCA in September of 2013 after nearly a decade at CTIA – The Wireless Association, where he first served as head lobbyist and then spent the next eight years as the association’s Executive Vice President. Prior to joining CTIA, Bobby worked for wireless provider Alltel Corporation as both their lobbyist and then head of the company’s Washington office. An Arkansas native, Bobby got his start in Washington working in the U.S. Senate for Senator David Pryor of Arkansas.

J. Skyler Fernandes is the founding Managing Director of Simon Venture Group (SVG), a multi-stage venture capital group focused on innovating the future of retail and commerce, and he is ranked as a PowerList 100 VC.

SVG is the venture capital arm of Simon, an S&P 100 company and the largest retail real estate company in the world with retail sales that are larger than Amazon.com and Apple.com combined and is ranked by CB Insights as a top 5 corporate venture fund in retail and commerce.

Simon Venture Group invests in five core ecosystems: Data Analytics & Marketing, Localized & Personalized Commerce, Recommerce & Experiential Retail, Rising New Brands, and Smart City /Building Tech.

SVG invests $250K-$5M+ in early stage to high growth companies (Seed-Series C rounds) that are strategic to Simon, its retailers, and the retail industry.

For more information on Simon Venture Group, go to: www.SimonVentureGroup.com

Mr. Fernandes has developed key entrepreneur resources, such as "The Best Startup Pitch Deck", the #1 investor pitch deck template online, viewed and downloaded over 450,000 times and used by top accelerators and business schools. Mr. Fernandes also co-founded with his wife the board game, "The Next Big Thing: The Game of Entrepreneurship", http://www.nextbigthingboardgame.com/

Mr. Fernandes graduated a year early from New York University (NYU), summa cum laude, due to his studies at Harvard University in Quantum Physics and Foreign Policy. Mr. Fernandes is an adjunct professor at NYU, teaching Intensive Venture Capital, is on the board and faculty of Bard's MBA, and is a frequent speaker on venture capital at Harvard Business School and Wharton Business School. Mr. Fernandes also gave a TEDx Talk on Venture Capital, called "Innovating the Financing of Innovation".

Karin Klein is a founding partner at Bloomberg Beta, Bloomberg's venture fund that invests in early-stage tech companies focused on making business work better. She is recognized as a top venture capitalist -- TechWeek’s 100, Silicon Alley’s 100, New York Business Journal's leading "Women of Influence"-- and is a consistently trusted partner to some of New York's most successful startups. Under Karin’s leadership on the east coast, since its launch, Bloomberg Beta has announced over 60 investments.

Prior to launching Bloomberg Beta, Karin led new initiatives for Bloomberg LP, where she and her team built new businesses, developed strategy and created partnerships. Before joining Bloomberg, Karin led Softbank's team that reviewed all new investments during the period when Softbank invested in Buzzfeed’s seed round and realized the most successful exits in NYC (including Buddy Media, The Huffington Post and Associated Content). Before Softbank, Karin worked with the MC Group and Knowledge Universe, education and media focused investment funds. Karin first developed her passion for building businesses when she co-founded an educational training company for children.

Karin is a board member for Paramount Group and L'Oreal's Women in Digital and serves as a mentor for Techstars and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with an MBA and BS from the Wharton School and a BA from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jessica Peltz-Zatulove is the Partner at KBS Ventures, where she focuses on investments in early stage startups in digital media and marketing tech. Prior to joining KBS, she specialized connecting marketers with emerging technology and spent 10+ years working with Fortune 500 brands including Verizon Wireless, Kraft Foods, and H&M. At Evol8tion, she helped startups secure their first customers through brand partnerships, and as a VP at Zenith Media was recognized an industry pioneer in the mobile space; her cutting edge collaborations were often featured in Mashable, Adage, Mobile Marketer, and Mediapost. Jessica has a global footprint with strategic relationships at over 300+ startup organizations across 20+ countries. In addition to being featured on CNBC, Fox Business, and popular podcasts - she's been named one of "NYC's 100 Most Influential People in Tech”, “35 People in NYC Tech to Watch in 2016”, and a Rising Star by Global Corporate Venture. Jessica has a BA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, with a double concentration in Marketing and International Relations.

Beth Ferreira is the Managing Partner of WME Ventures. Prior to joining WME Ventures, Beth was Chief Operating Officer of Fab.com, where she oversaw all operations, logistics and customer service. She's also served as an operations consultant to many NYC startups you might recognize (Birchbox, Pixable, JOOR, Nestio, RedRover Networks, fundedbuy, ofakind, and postling). Before that, Beth was VP of Operations & Finance at Etsy and a member of the investment team at VC firm Flatiron Partners. She has also held positions at The Boston Consulting Group where she advised media, consumer and technology clients on critical strategic and operational challenges. Beth began her career as an investment banker at Union Bank of Switzerland. She holds a bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Rachel Lam is SVP and Group Managing Director of the Time Warner Investments group, which targets non-control strategic investments in companies that have a clear fit with Time Warner's divisional operations (www.timewarnerinvestments.com). She has been the head of the strategic investing arm of Time Warner Inc. since its launch in 2003. Before returning to Time Warner in 2001, Ms. Lam was a principal at Quetzal/Chase Capital Partners, a venture capital group focused on the communications industry, and before that was VP, U.S. private equity at CSFB Equity Partners, a $2.75 billion private equity fund investing in a broad range of industries. Prior to that, she was Director, Office of the President at Time Warner Inc., where she worked directly for former Time Warner CEO, Dick Parsons on corporate transactions and strategic initiatives. In addition, Ms. Lam spent several years in investment banking, focusing on the media sector at Credit Suisse First Boston and on mergers and acquisitions at Morgan Stanley.

Rachel currently oversees Time Warner's investments in the following portfolio companies: CrowdStar, Kamcord, Mashable, Fuse Media (fka NuvoTV), Simulmedia and Tremor Video (NYSE: TRMR). In addition, Ms. Lam managed Time Warner's exits from the following investments: Admeld (sold to Google), Bluefin Labs (sold to Twitter), iSocket (sold to the Rubicon Project), Kosmix (sold to Walmart), Maker Studios (sold to Disney), MediaVast (sold to Getty Images), PlaySpan (sold to Visa), ScanScout (sold to Tremor Video) and Turbine (sold to Warner Bros).

Ms. Lam received a B.S. degree in industrial engineering and operations research from U.C. Berkeley and an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School.

Steve started as a software developer when he was 14, received a computer science degree from the University of Michigan, and co-founded his first company, SECA, when he was 20. He sold SECA to MCI and remained there for two years running the MCI/SECA business unit. He launched iGrandparents.com (sold to Scholastic), ran a publicly traded Israeli software anti-piracy company, was an EIR at First Round Capital and a Managing Partner at DreamIt Ventures. At Steve's first tour-of-duty at DreamIt (2009) Steve helped guide and launch 12 companies including Notehall (acquired by Chegg), SeatGeek (backed by Accel Partners, Lerer Ventures, Founder Collective, Ashton Kutcher, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning) and Parse.ly (backed by Grotech Ventures, Blumberg Capital, and ff Venture Capital). For three years Steve taught in the Wharton MBA program. Steve now focuses his time on early stage venture capital and emerging startups looking to have tremendous impact.

Mike is the General Partner at Bowery Capital based in New York. Prior to Bowery Capital, Brown co-founded AOL Ventures and led investments in over 30 companies primarily focused around the next generation of CMO and CTO spend. Before AOL Ventures, Mike worked for the investment arm of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, helping to invest capital in early stage internet startups on behalf of the British entrepreneur. He began his career at Morgan Stanley. Outside of his professional life Brown serves on the Board of Directors of the National Forest Foundation and co-chairs the Columbia College Young Leaders Council. Mike holds an undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Rita Gunther McGrath, a Professor at Columbia Business School, is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation with particular emphasis on developing sound strategy in uncertain and volatile environments. Her ideas are widely used by leading organizations throughout the world, who describe her thinking as often provocative, but unfailingly stimulating. She fosters a fresh approach to strategy amongst those with whom she works.

Rita has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Business Thinkers by Thinkers50 in 2015 and 2013. Thinkers50 presented Rita with the Distinguished Achievement Award for Strategy in 2013. She has also been inducted into the Strategic Management Society “Fellows” in recognition of her impact on the field. Rita is a charter
member of the President’s Leadership Advisory Council, Dr. Jim Kim and Dr. Marshall Goldsmith's advisory council for the executive leadership team at the World Bank.

Rita maintains an active social media presence, and has been rated one of the 25 smartest women to follow on Twitter by Fast Company Magazine. She consistently appears in rankings of the top business school professors to follow on Twitter (@rgmcgrath). Rita was voted HR Magazine’s Most Influential International Thinker, writes regularly for Fortune magazine’s online edition, authors a column, “The Entrepreneurial Strategist” for Inc magazine and blogs regularly at HBR.org. Rita is also one of the Wall Street Journal’s Experts.

Rita’s latest, best‑selling book, The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business, was recognized by Strategy+Business as the #1 business book of the year. Rita has co‑authored three previous books: Discovery Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity (2009); MarketBusters: 40 Strategic Moves that Drive Exceptional Business Growth (2005); and The Entrepreneurial Mindset (2000), all published by Harvard Business Review Press. MarketBusters has been translated into ten languages and was named one of the best business books of 2005 by Strategy+Business.

Rita is one of the most widely published authors in the Harvard Business Review, including the best‑selling “Discovery Driven Planning” (1995), which was recognized as an early articulation of today’s “lean” startup philosophy and has been praised by Clayton Christensen as one of the most important ideas in management ‑ ever.

Susan Lyne is President and Managing Director or BBG Ventures, an early stage fund backing the new wave of female entrepreneurs using technology to re-imagine daily life.

Ms. Lyne has held leadership positions at media, technology, and entertainment companies of all sizes and stages, from startups to public companies. Before launching BBG Ventures, she was CEO of the AOL Brand Group where she oversaw AOL’s unique content brands. From 2008-2013 she was CEO and then Chairman of Gilt Groupe, the innovative ecommerce company that pioneered flash sales in the United States. She served as President and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO) from 2004-2008. And from 1996 to 2004, Ms. Lyne worked at Disney/ABC, rising to President of ABC Entertainment where she oversaw development of shows including Desperate Housewives, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy. Ms. Lyne began her career in the magazine industry: she was Managing Editor of New Times and The Village Voice; and she created and launched Premiere Magazine, serving as Editor-in-Chief and Publication Director.

Sam sources and identifies new investment opportunities, conducts due diligence on pending investments, and advises Comcast Ventures portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Comcast Ventures in 2009, Sam worked as the Director of Business Development for The Electric Sheep Company, an Emmy award-winning creator of virtual worlds and social games for major brands and media companies. Prior to that, Sam worked as a Senior Associate for Gladwyne Partners where he helped originate investment opportunities, analyze investment prospects and advise portfolio companies.

Sam holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Bucknell University and received his M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

Fun Fact: “I’m fanatical about the Pittsburgh Steelers and my dog Jackson, though if I were on a sinking boat with Jackson and Troy Polamalu and had to throw one overboard, I’d get rid of Troy.”

Josh Lerner is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Finance and the Entrepreneurial Management Units. He graduated from Yale College with a Special Divisional Major which combined physics with the history of technology. He worked for several years on issues concerning technological innovation and public policy, at the Brookings Institution, for a public-private task force in Chicago, and on Capitol Hill. He then earned a Ph.D. from Harvard's Economics Department.

Much of his research focuses on the structure and role of venture capital and private equity organizations. (This research is collected in three books, The Venture Capital Cycle, The Money of Invention, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams.) He also examines policies towards innovation, and how they impact firm strategies. (The research is discussed in the books Innovation and Its Discontents, The Comingled Code, and the forthcoming Architecture of Innovation.) He co-directs the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Productivity, Research, and Innovation Program and serves as co-editor of their publication, Innovation Policy and the Economy. He founded and runs the Private Capital Research Institute, a non-profit devoted to encouraging data access to and research about venture capital and private equity.

In the 1993-94 academic year, he introduced an elective course for second-year MBAs on private equity finance. In recent years, “Venture Capital and Private Equity” has consistently been one of the largest elective courses at Harvard Business School. (The course materials are collected in Venture Capital and Private Equity: A Casebook, now in its fifth edition, and the textbook Private Equity, Venture Capital, and the Financing of Entrepreneurship.) He also teaches a doctoral course on entrepreneurship and in the Owners-Presidents-Managers Program, and organizes executive courses on private equity in Boston and Beijing. He is the winner of the Swedish government’s 2010 Global Entrepreneurship Research Award and has recently been named one of the 100 most influential people in private equity over the past decade by Private Equity International magazine.

Gus Warren has 20+ years of experience as a venture capitalist and operating executive for start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. He is currently Managing Director of Investments at Samsung’s Global Innovation Center, with a focus on early-stage software, service, and media companies.

Prior to Samsung, Gus was a Venture Partner at FirstMark Capital and Co-Founder and COO of Disconnect, a leading consumer privacy software company backed by FirstMark Capital, Highland Capital Partners, and Charles River Ventures. Prior to FirstMark and Disconnect, Gus spent 4 years as a VP, SVP, and GM at Spot Runner, a digital video advertising platform whose investors included Battery Ventures, Index Ventures, WPP, IPG, and CBS. Prior to Spot Runner, Gus was a venture capitalist at Granite Ventures and Time Warner Ventures, where his portfolio included InfoGear (acquired by Cisco), Speakeasy (acquired by BestBuy), Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcomm), Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco), BigBand Networks (acquired by Arris Corporation), and SkyStream Networks (acquired by Ericsson Television).

Warren has been kicking off investments in digital media and technology companies for over a decade. An integral player at Canaan, he opened our NYC office, creating an invigorating environment for entrepreneurs. Warren led Canaan's investments in Artspace (acquired by Phaidon), an online marketplace for art; Associated Content (acquired by Yahoo), the Web's leading open content publishing platform; Blip (acquired by Maker Studios), the best place to discover the best in original Web series; and Peer39 (acquired by DG), an online semantic advertising company. An early investor in Tremor Video (TRMR), the leading provider of technology-driven video advertising, Warren continues to serve on their board, and also on the boards of Emissary, a marketplace connecting domain experts with professionals; NatureBox, an online service for snack food, providing consumers with an easy way to enjoy naturally delicious and distinctive snacks; onefinestay, the "unhotel"; Rocketrip, the first incentive-based platform to reduce T&E costs; and Tubular Labs, intelligent video marketing.Warren has spent most of his career in venture capital. Prior to Canaan, he worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led their investments in several leading technology startups, including Arbor Networks (acquired by Tektronix for $220 million), Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco for $92 million), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola for $186 million), CommunityConnect (acquired by Radio One), Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom for $70 million), ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire (acquired by Bravo Thomson for $180 million). Before joining the venture industry, Warren worked as an engineer and project manager at Solectron, a business development director at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, and an investment banker in Alex Brown's technology group.Warren holds a B.S. in computer science and a B.A. in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He is also on the board of NYVCA, the Venture Capital Association for NYC. A big advocate of fostering the startup scene, Warren co-organizes the NYC Turing Fellows Program, which matches outstanding computer science and engineering students from across the U.S. and Canada to paid summer internships with leading technology startups in NYC.

John Frankel is the founding partner of ff Venture Capital and has been a seed- and early-stage investor since late 1999. John focuses on advising and growing technology and technology-enabled companies across emerging industries, including smart locks, cloud-based security, machine learning and artificial intelligence, UAVs, enterprise software and crowdfunding, among others. He has served on the boards of more than 35 companies and has led investments in more than 80 companies, including Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD), Indiegogo, Ionic Security, Unikey, Socure, Skycatch, Plated, 500px, Distil Networks, and Bottlenose.

Prior to founding ffVC, John worked at Goldman Sachs for 21 years in a variety of roles that involved technology development, reengineering and capital markets. At Goldman Sachs, he worked closely with some of the world’s leading hedge fund managers and developed a keen understanding of emerging technologies and portfolio risk/return management.

John started his business career in London with Arthur Andersen having earned a Master of Arts from New College, Oxford, where he studied Mathematics, Philosophy and Logic. He is a Fellow Chartered Accountant of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Ray joined RedSeal as CEO in February 2014. Prior to RedSeal he was a general partner at Venrock, one of RedSeal’s founding investors. At Venrock he invested in 53 companies including over a dozen in cybersecurity including Vontu, PGP, P-Cube, Imperva, Cloudflare, CTERA, and Shape Security. He is on the board of Check Point Software Technology, Ltd. an original Venrock investment, and Team8, both Tel Aviv–based companies.

A thought leader in cybersecurity and long time investor in the sector, he was a participant in the White House CyberSecurity Summit held at Stanford University February 2015.

Ray holds a BS in Nuclear Engineering from Texas A & M University, a MS in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation board.

Lisa Lambert is a Managing Partner at the Westly Group responsible for investments in software, IOT, and the internet. Prior to joining the Westly Group, Lisa was a vice-president at Intel Capital and the Managing Director of Intel Capital’s Software and Services Fund and the Intel Capital Diversity Fund where she managed over 70 portfolio companies and a team of 8 investment professionals. During her career at Intel Capital, Lisa managed several investment funds including the Intel 64 Fund, the e-Commerce Fund, the Enterprise Software Fund, before becoming the Managing Director for the Software & Service Fund in 2006 and the Managing Director for the Diversity Fund in 2015. Lisa was a voting member of Intel Capital’s investment committee. She produced top decile returns during her 16-year career including 7 IPOs and 30 accretive M&A exits. Lisa is also on the board of directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

Prior to Intel Capital, she held a Product Marketing Management position with Intel’s Desktop Products Group with responsibility for the Pentium II, III processor family. Prior to joining Intel, Lisa worked as a Software Engineer and in senior roles in strategic planning, product marketing, and sales at Owens-Corning. Lisa sat on the board of directors for Silkroad Technology, Brit+Co, Mark One, and X+1. Lisa was most recently served as board observer for Urban Airship, Kaltura, Zend Technologies, CollabNet, and Fonality. Lisa has invested in and managed exits for VMware (IPO), MySQL (acquired by Sun), Endeca (acquired by Oracle), DATAllegro (acquired by Microsoft), JBoss (acquired by Red Hat), X+1 Solutions (acquired by Rocket Fuel), Joulex (acquired by Cisco), Financial Engines (IPO), TOA Technologies (acquired by Oracle), Revolution Analytics (acquired by Microsoft), Nexmo (acquired by Vonage), Kingsoft (IPO), Enjoyor (IPO), Tobesoft (IPO), Netposa (IPO), to name a few.

Lisa has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from Pennsylvania State University. Lisa was selected from the top 600 executives at Intel to participate in the Executive Education Accelerator Program at Stanford University. She graduated from that program in August 2015.

Jaidev heads Capital One Ventures, bringing insights and new capabilities to Capital One via startup venture investing, business development, innovation acquisitions, and incubation.

Under his leadership, the Ventures team creates unique learning, commercial and acquisition opportunities for Capital One by investing in financial technology companies. Areas of focus include big data technologies, payments and commerce, and security/authentication.

Jaidev joined Capital One in 2012 through the acquisition of Bundle.com, a big data analytics company. He was the founder and CEO of Bundle. He holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BS in Engineering from Northwestern University.

Jaidev previously held international roles at Citi, including Executive Vice President at Citi Global Digital Innovation, and President of Citi Ventures. He lives in New York with his wife, Kristin, a freelance writer and editor.

Kay Min joined the Cisco Corporate Development team in 2011 and is responsible for all of Cisco’s acquisitions and investments in routing, optical networking, and photonics markets which continue to display dramatic increases in speed and component integration. Kay also has the geographic responsibility for Canada. Her extensive experience in roles of increasing responsibility in the product development and product management sides of optical networking includes both large companies (Pirelli and Lucent) as well as startups, Photuris (founding team member) and Mahi. A transition into investment banking and venture capital investing further broadened her experience.

Kay earned an MBA degree from Georgetown University and a BS in Ceramic Engineering from Rutgers University.

Praveen is passionate about seeking, developing, and integrating innovative technologies at the convergence of mobility, computing, and communications into successful businesses addressing real needs of enterprises and consumers. His accomplishments include:

- 9 strategic alliances and Joint developments leading to $600m revenues
- 30+ M&A, Investment, Divestiture (IPO, Sell-side) transactions worth ~$1.8bn in aggregate
- VC fund ($150 M) raise & investments in early to growth stage companies achieving 3X peak multiple via IPO and M&A

Praveen has extensive experience with technology design/evaluation, partner sourcing, deal negotiations, along with corporate Board member, successful turn-arounds and executive consulting experiences. He guided multiple seed stage companies to success with full operational and technical involvement covering team building, strategy, product designs/roadmaps, alliances, GTM, offshore-development, etc.

Winter focuses on Sapphire Ventures’ fund investments in the United States and internationally. Before joining Sapphire Ventures in 2014, he worked at Hall Capital Partners, an SEC-registered investment advisor. As a member of the firm’s private equity group, Winter covered buyout, growth, distressed, credit, venture capital and other private equity strategies. Prior to Hall, Winter founded Mead and Mead, an international food distribution and logistics business. He also spent a number of years working for several early-stage technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Winter holds an MSc from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and a BA from Harvard University.

Luis leads Citi Ventures’ New York office and its venture capital investing activities in the US East Coast and Europe. Luis partners closely with Citi businesses firmwide and the fintech ecosystem to identify and invest in innovative startups where Citi can add value via a commercial relationship as a user and/or partner which in turn can help Citi innovate.

From 2008 to 2015, Luis founded and ran JPMorgan Chase's Strategic Investments group; he was part of the investment committee, made over 40 investments, and participated in several boards. Previously Luis was a consultant at McKinsey and principal at Softbank.

Luis received his MBA from Harvard University and BA from Franklin & Marshall College.

David is a founder and CEO of Touchdown Ventures, a firm that works with leading corporations to establish and manage their corporate venture capital platforms. Prior to starting Touchdown Ventures, David was a founding partner and Managing Director at Comcast Ventures for 14 years.

David joined Comcast Ventures in 2000 as one of the first employees of the venture capital group. At Comcast Ventures, David focused on investments in digital media, advertising technology, digital home, education and financial technology. David managed investments in Entropic (NASDAQ: ENTR), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN), Invite Media (acquired by Google), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), Nuera Communications (acquired by Audicodes), Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), and XOS Digital (acquired by JumpTV/Neulion.) David also led investments in several prominent privately-held companies including BlackArrow, Ninth Decimal, SnagFilms, UberMedia, Videology, Visible World, and Zero Fox. David also helped start and was a partner at Genacast Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Ventures.

Prior to Comcast Ventures, David worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns. David also started and runs the South Jersey Technology Networking Group. David graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration with highest honors from the University of Michigan.

John Riggs is a principal from PwC’s Advisory practice, based in Washington, DC, specializing in business strategy, innovation, and corporate venturing.

Business leaders depend on John for his insights to help them innovate for lasting growth, to increase their profits and commercialize market-leading technologies and new business models. John helps PwC's clients create better experiences for their customers and stakeholders as they overcome the challenges of creating innovation programs and ecosystems. He helps companies clearly define their business objectives, establish innovation strategies, and create viable innovation operating models that deliver results. 

John was recognized for building PwC’s corporate venturing advisory capabilities alongside the firm’s innovation services at the 2016 Global Corporate Venturing Symposium where PwC received the Consultancy Firm of the Year award for the second year in a row. He has spoken at the Global Innovation Summit, the Corporate Venturing & Innovation Partnering conference, and the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium, and will be a featured speaker at upcoming innovation and corporate venturing conferences.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Optical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Eric is Director – Corporate Development & Innovation and Managing Director, Strategic Innovation Portfolio for Independence Blue Cross, focused on the identification, analysis and execution of mergers, acquisitions, and strategic equity investments. Prior to joining IBC, he spent four years at a private investment firm focused on venture capital and private equity investments, as well as three years at Safeguard Scientifics, a publicly traded venture capital firm.

Bonny Simi is the President of JetBlue Technology Ventures, the innovation hub for JetBlue Airway’s investment and incubation of emerging startups at the intersection of travel and technology.

She joined JetBlue in 2003 and has served in operational and strategic roles within Flight Operations, System Operations, People, Airports, Customer Support and developed the award winning “Voice of the Customer” program. Most recently she was the head of Talent for JetBlue, overseeing the hiring of 3000+ JetBlue Crewmembers every year, and the launch of an innovative education program called JetBlue Scholars that provides free college education to Crewmembers. Uniquely, she is also a qualified airline captain for JetBlue and flies frequently.

Prior to JetBlue, Ms. Simi was a Captain at United Airlines, flying 727, 737 and 777 jets domestically and internationally. Better known by her maiden name of Bonny Warner, she is a 3 time Olympian and 10 time national champion in the sports of luge and bobsled. Ms. Simi is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business as well as the Stanford School of Engineering, and regularly facilitates programs at the Stanford d.school.

As a senior executive with business development, investing, and operating officer experience, Mike has over 30 years in healthcare ranging from established operating companies to start-up environments all within the confines of world’s largest healthcare company. Mike’s experience includes a variety of disciplines including engineering, operations, R&D project management and clinical research, sales, marketing, business development (including licensing, M&A and corporate development) and venture investing.

Currently, Mike is the Vice President, Venture Investments and Chief Operating Officer for JJDC and is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. As the equity-investing subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, JJDC is a strategic investor that invests in both private and public companies. From 2013-2015, JJDC made over 100 individual investments and invested ~$1B.

In his current role, Mike has responsibility for venture investing in support of our Consumer Group of companies, select Medical Device investments as well as, new enterprise growth platforms. As COO, he is responsible for leading JJDC’s investing strategy and processes, marketing and communications, and business analytics support. Mike has been directly responsible or co-sponsored over $200 million in venture investments during his tenure with JJDC.

As part of Mike’s venture investing responsibilities, he currently serves on the Boards of Directors for six JJDC portfolio investments. He also has responsibility for several of JJDC’s fund investments.

Mike most recently served on the Advisory Board for the National Venture Capital Associations (NVCA’s) Corporate Venture Group. He is also an Advisor to Children’s Specialized Hospital, the nation’s largest pediatric rehabilitation hospital, for both their Foundation and Hospital Boards, and is a member of the Marketing Committee.

Mike received an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS in Engineering from the University of Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.