Kemal has been with Chevron for over 23 years. He has held a variety of upstream responsibilities in field development, reservoir engineering, corporate and strategic planning, non-operated joint venture management, business development, and technology management. Most recently Kemal was the manager of Resource to Reserves to Production and Technology for Chevron’s Southern Africa Strategic Business Unit.

Kemal Anbarci earned a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He holds an M.S. in Operations Research, and an M.S. and doctorate in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He also earned an M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine.

Ria is currently Director of Operations of NCET2. She is responsible for managing overall NCET2 operations and executing NCET2 programs and projects aimed at creating startups from university and federal lab IP. Prior to joining NCET2, Ria was a Program Officer at the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines for a European Commission-funded project to create corporate-university-government cooperation programs to increase the Philippines’ human resource capacity for the Business Process Outsourcing industry. She successfully created training programs to re-tool university faculty to update them on current BPO practices and formed partnerships with BPO companies and universities for manpower development. She was also an Industrial Ecology Project Officer for a United Nations Development Program-funded project under the Philippines' Board of Investments. She worked with global manufacturing corporations and Philippine industrial estate managers to coordinate a new pollution management system within industrial zones. Ria has an MS in Environmental Science and a BS in Environmental Planning.

Tony Armstrong was appointed president and CEO of the Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation (IURTC) in August 2008. At that time, he was also named assistant vice president in the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Engagement, where he previously served as executive director.
Armstrong works with Vice President for Engagement Bill Stephan to further the economic development and job-creation goals of the university, especially in the health and life sciences sector. He helps guide IU’s efforts to:
Support new business ventures
Transfer IU-developed technologies to the marketplace
Build partnerships with businesses and universities across Indiana and throughout the nation and world
Previous roles
Armstrong has long worked to cultivate economic growth in Indiana and improve the state’s economic well-being. He was associate director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at IU’s Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI) from September 1997 to March 2000. At ARTI, now IURTC, he was responsible for the protection and commercialization of intellectual property developed within the IU system.
Armstrong later served as executive director and general counsel of the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. In that role, he managed a $140 million fund that provided early-stage investments for collaborative research partnerships and cultivated high-tech industries for the state of Indiana.
In January 2005, Armstrong was appointed by then-Governor Mitch Daniels to the Indiana State Budget Agency to help manage the $26 billion annual state budget. In fiscal year 2005–07, under Governor Daniels’ leadership, the Indiana Office of Management and Budget delivered the state’s first structurally balanced budget in eight years and the first true surplus in three years, while increasing reserves and repaying payment delays.

After 7 years in China I've made my way back to Israel and the amazing people and tech! Still affiliated with Tsinghua x-lab and proud to be of the core team to set up the incubator in 2013. in 2018, Tsinghua University overtook MIT in computer science and engineering, so working with truly the best minds in the country! x-lab is China's leading university incubator and innovation platform with over 1,200 startups across sectors, 490 companies, 160 raising +414 million USD in seed, A, B, and C.

I bring to the table significant international experience (I’ve been around…Israel, US, China, EU), know-how of all things startups (early and growth) and a deep understanding of tech and strategy, stemming from my training as an IP attorney. I get tech and understand risks but also opportunities and believe in telling you what you can do, not can’t. Tech and business generation to me is the key to solving some major societal problems and can serve as the great equalizer.

I’m a problem solver and approach business from an interdisciplinary, well-rounded perspective that has served me well in opportunity identification, negotiations and partnerships. My 7 years in China has been instrumental to my personal growth and has brought me together not only with some seriously cool and brilliant people, but also with a vibrant innovation ecosystem. Now I'm linking all the dots...

Mr Ben-Meir has extensive experience in the venture capital industry and commercialisation more generally.
Over the past twenty-six years he has been involved in numerous venture capital organisations; has been a
founder or co-founder of six start-up companies; as well as an investor, investment manager, and advisor to
several other companies.
In April 2010 Mr Ben-Meir was appointed by the Australian Federal Government as the inaugural CEO of
Commercialisation Australia and, from 1 July 2014, was further appointed as the Director of the Entrepreneurs’
Infrastructure Programme.
In this role, Mr Ben-Meir led the establishment of a national portfolio of over 550 companies including 4
successful exits and several substantial capital raisings (>$5million).
In June 2015 Mr Ben-Meir was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of Research, Innovation and
Commercialisation at the University of Melbourne and CEO of University of Melbourne Commercial Limited, with
responsibility for all research funding, external commercial engagements and the commercialisation of University
generated intellectual property.
In July 2016 Mr Ben-Meir was appointed Vice-Principal Enterprise on the Chancellery Executive of the
University of Melbourne. Building upon the operational base established within the Research, Innovation and
Commercialisation portfolio, this new role is responsible for the overarching strategic development of the
University’s Enterprise Model which focuses on the appropriate utilisation of the University’s human capital,
physical assets & platforms, investment capital and its intellectual property portfolio to optimise the resources
available to drive its research and teaching agenda.
Chair: University of Melbourne Commercial Ltd
Director: BioCurate Pty Ltd
Director: UM Commercialisation Pty Ltd
Former Member: Entrepreneurs’ Programme Advisory Committee (Federal Government)
Former Director: Commercialisation Australia Board (2013) (Federal Government)
Former Director: National Precincts Board (2013) (Federal Government).
Mr Ben-Meir’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Electrical and Computer
Systems Engineering (1st Class Honours) from Monash University, Melbourne. He is also a graduate member
of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mr. Best is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Syzygy Plasmonics. He has a triple major in business from Texas Tech University. After graduating, he spent almost 10 years in the oil and gas industry at Baker Hughes. During that time he progressed to Sr. Manager and gained expertise in new product development, project management, supply chain, manufacturing processes, regulatory compliance, and six sigma methodology.

Guillermo Borda, based in Houston, Texas, is the Managing Partner of HX Venture Fund. Guillermo is an experienced venture capital and private equity professional having spent most of his career at Bank of
America Merrill Lynch in California and Texas. Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Guillermo started his career with Citigroup in New York City. Guillermo has held a variety of venture capital and private
equity roles, including managing capital via large fund-of-funds for the four largest public pension funds in the US. Guillermo’s expertise centers on raising institutional capital, investing in venture and private
equity funds and directly in portfolio companies, as well as coaching and supporting CEOs, company builders, and management teams in creating valuable enterprises. He has been a board member of
various venture and private equity funds. Guillermo holds an MBA and B.S. in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin. Guillermo is also a graduate of the Venture Capital Institute in Atlanta and is an
Advisory Board Member of Claremont Graduate University Peter F. Drucker’s Financial Engineering Program in Claremont, California.

Eric Breese is an Investment Manager at Evonik Venture Capital. Eric joined Evonik in 2006 and has held positions in Germany and the U.S. within the Advanced Intermediates Business Unit and Corporate Finance. Most recently as Director Innovation Americas and leading the global external growth activities, he successfully led projects in Asia, Europe and the Americas that resulted in acquisitions, relationships with startups, growth stage companies and university research projects supporting external growth. Before joining Evonik, Eric worked held various positions including Chief Administrative Officer (legal), Vice President of Operations/Controller (high-tech & services) and consulting. His professional career began with 8 years in Public Accounting working in Certified Public Accounting and Consulting firms. Eric’s Bachelor’s degree is in accounting he is a Certified Public Accountant and earned an MBA. Eric has previously been a Registered Representative holding both Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses.

Barbara J. Burger, PhD., is president of Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), a role she has held since June 1, 2013.

Burger joined Chevron in 1987 and has had a long career with a number of technical and management positions in International Marketing, Chemicals, Technology Marketing and Lubricants.

Burger is an active alumna of the University of Rochester, joined its Board of Trustees in 2015 established the Barbara J. Burger Endowed Scholarship in the Sciences in 2012 and in 2015 founded the Barbara J. Burger iZone, a center where students go to generate, refine, and communicate ideas for social, cultural, community, and economic impact.

Among her many civic affiliations, Burger serves as governing director and vice chair for Houston Exponential and is a governing board director, member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Finance Committee of the Houston Symphony Society.

Burger holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester, a doctoral degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and an academic honor MBA in finance from the University of California, Berkeley.

Outside of work, she enjoys cycling, running, hiking, the performing arts, traveling, world events and involvement in foundation and university alumni activities.

Brad Burke is the Managing Director of the Rice Alliance and has led the Rice Alliance since 2001. During that time, Rice’s graduate entrepreneurship program has achieved the #3 ranking in the U.S. (having been previously unranked). The Rice Alliance’s Rice Business Plan Competition has become the world’s largest and richest student startup competition in the world. Previously, Brad founded and managed the Houston office of Viant Corporation, a premier internet consulting firm, that went public via IPO in 1999, before being acquired in 2002. Prior to Viant, Brad was a Principal with CSC Index, the former management consulting division of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). Before CSC, Brad held executive management positions with Exxon. He received his M.B.A. from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management as an Austin Scholar and his B.S. from Vanderbilt University.

Before moving to Texas and joining the OTTC in 2007, Dr. Burke worked at the University of California’s System-wide Office of Technology Transfer for over four years. At the University of California, she helped create her position as their first Strategic Marketing and Communications Manager, and developed new outreach programs to help companies navigate the ten-campus system. Before moving to the field of technology transfer, Dr. Burke was a founding employee of the laboratory services start-up company, LabVelocity.

Peter Devine has been CEO of Uniseed since 2006. Peter has extensive experience at board and executive management levels in the commercialisation of early stage technologies, having held senior R&D, business development and commercialisation positions in a number of Australian companies and Australian universities. Before joining Uniseed, Peter was Vice President of Business Development at Progen Industries Ltd. He was Research, Development and Commercialisation Manager at Brisbane-based PanBio Pty Ltd from 1996 to 2000 and also worked in business development at UniQuest Pty Ltd.

Peter holds a PhD from the University of Queensland and received the Dean’s Prize for his MBA Studies at the Australian Graduate School of Management. He received a Centenary Medal in 2003 for outstanding contribution to the business of biotechnology. He is a Graduate and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Markets) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance from Kaplan Professional. In 2011 & 2012, Peter was named on the Kaplan High Achievers Honour Roll.

Gene Dolgin is VP Strategy at ClimaCell, where he leads vertical-specific strategy development, strategic collaborations, and data partnerships with non-traditional sources of data. He has a decade of experience developing and deploying path-breaking business and technology strategies for large and small enterprises at the forefront of technological change. His experiences ranges from advising on strategic direction for executive boards and leadership of Fortune 100 companies to helping pre-revenue startups deploy their first products. Prior to ClimaCell, he held a leadership role at a boutique strategy consulting firm, and started his career in venture capital. He holds a B.Sc. in finance from The Ohio State University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder & Board Member
A seasoned entrepreneur and business leader, David has a strong background in information technology, energy, finance and security/risk management. He has proven success in developing innovative and transformative ideas and driving strategic plans that turn “big visions” into value-added solutions.

As CEO and Co-Founder of MSi, David is responsible for strategic planning and overall execution, providing guidance and direction for all aspects of the company’s operations from product development, sales and marketing, to investor and board relations.

David is an active investor and serves as Managing Director of The Ballast Fund; an investment firm focused on early stage, high tech and clean energy start-ups. In this role, he leads the group’s investment review activities and also provides business and financial expertise to the companies in the Fund’s portfolio.

Previously, David was Founder and CEO for Roam Secure, a leading provider of text alerting systems to government and industry. Roam Secure was created to help address emergency response communications and mass notification issues discovered in the wake of 9/11. Cooper Industries purchased Roam Secure in 2007. A global Fortune 500 company, Cooper is now part of the Eaton Corporation. Following the acquisition by Cooper, David served as General Manager of Roam Secure where he managed the integration into the parent company and expanded the business domestically and internationally.

David is a certified public accountant and attended The London School of Economics and Political Science.

Temple is a founder and Managing Director of the early stage venture fund, Clean Energy Venture Fund I, LLC (CEVF) that invests in companies addressing climate change. He is also on the board of his family’s office, Keller Enterprises, an investor in the renewable energy, sustainable food/agriculture, and waste-to-value sectors. He is a member of the CREO Syndicate, a family office run 501(c)(3) focused on Clean, Renewable Energy and Environmental Opportunities (CREO). He most recently served as a full-time strategic advisor for Flagship Ventures.

Neil Foster is a corporate technology Solicitor with over 20 years advising on complex transactions. His practice covers mergers & acquisitions, venture capital & private equity and corporate finance. His principal sector experience is in the areas of technology and telecommunications, media and entertainment, life sciences and energy technology. As well as advising UK companies, venture funds and intermediaries, Neil represents many large U.S., Middle Eastern, South African and Asian corporations on their UK and European deals. Neil qualified in 1996 and became a partner in 2003.

Neil is experienced in complex cross-border transactions. This work is balanced between in-bound deals for large international corporates and deals for UK companies especially where IP and/or technology are the key assets.

Within the technology sector, Neil's practice covers the whole range of hardware, software, security and data usage, online assets, IT services, blockchain, engineering assets, environmental technologies, cleantech and alternative energy. In the media and telecoms industries, Neil's practice covers digital media, online and offline brands, mobile and other telecoms, broadcasting, games, television channels, distribution and content. His practice in the life sciences sector covers discovery and therapeutics, devices, diagnostics, services and software.

Dave is the CEO and Founder of Minneapolis-based enVerde LLC. He is a former executive with Mobil and ExxonMobil having domestic and global leadership responsibilities in a number of areas including manufacturing, operations, engineering, marketing, sales, technical services, and supply chain. His last assignment was successfully leading ExxonMobil's largest chemical specialty manufacturing complex located in Beaumont, TX. Dave has also led consulting/advisory organizations and was the head of the supply chain and corporate redesign of the order-to-cash processes with MeadWestvaco (now WestRock) in Richmond, VA. A decade ago Dave started working on start-up sustainable technology eventually resulting in the formation of enVerde. Dave is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with graduate studies at both the University of Texas (Dallas) and Northeastern University (Boston).

James M. Golubieski is President of New Jersey Health Foundation and its affiliate, Foundation Venture Capital Group, LLC. Both organizations provide funding and/or pre-seed investments for health-related projects and start-up companies founded by New Jersey researchers at affiliated organizations—Princeton University, Rutgers University, Rowan University, Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Kessler Foundation.

Mr. Golubieski works closely with the companies in which Foundation Venture Capital Group has invested, sits on their Boards and provides guidance in helping them to develop their business models.

Previously he had been CFO of Array Medical, Inc., a medical device start-up company established in 1995 that developed a groundbreaking blood test to test platelet function. The company was sold in 1999. Mr. Golubieski was also the chief operating officer and senior executive vice president of Glendale National Bank and a member of its board of directors, president of Glendale Investment Corp. and Glendale Mortgage Services, Inc. and chief financial officer of Glendale Bancorp, which was acquired by Mellon Financial. For 10 years prior he had been with KPMG.

Ms. Goonewardene is an experienced entrepreneur, having co-founded and served as president and CEO of Cantilever Technologies, a venture-backed software company that was successfully acquired. Prior to Cantilever, she was president of the Strategic Systems Group (SSG), a boutique information technology consulting firm, and co-founder of Technology Solutions (TSC), a professional IT services firm which went public three years after its inception. Ms. Goonewardene holds a Bachelor of Science with honors in general management and a Masters of Science in health communication both from Purdue University.

Keith Guerrini is VP Business Development at Xpansiv, which he joined in 2018. In this capacity, Keith manages strategic initiatives and relationships in the energy sector and financial markets for Xpansiv’s digital commodities platform.

Prior to joining Xpansiv, Keith was a Director of Structured Products Origination in Citigroup’s Commodities business, which he joined in 2014. At Citigroup, he was responsible for providing risk management and working capital solutions to E&P, Midstream, LNG, and Refining clients. From 2005 to 2014, Keith worked in a similar capacity as a Director in Deutsche Bank’s Commodities business. From 1998 to 2003, Keith was a market maker on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

Keith’s deep transactional experience has provided him an intimate understanding of how value and risk are generated as firms produce, transport, transform, store, and consume energy, as well as each step’s implications for financing and working capital requirements. He has an extensive network of contacts across the energy, private equity, banking, and commodity trader communities.

Keith received his BS in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, and an MBA from the Booth Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, with concentrations in Analytical Finance and Economics.

Christine Gulbranson was appointed Senior Vice President of the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship on May 12, 2016. The division’s mission is to increase the innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities of the UC system. It is responsible for forging alliances in government, private and philanthropic sectors to create new opportunities for research and economic growth. Gulbranson works with all 10 UC campuses, five medical centers and three national labs — along with the gamut of partners in various sectors — to enable and empower greater collaborations and translation of research and innovation into the marketplace.

Gulbranson started her career at UCOP in 1997 as director of research collaborations, providing leadership in the creation and evaluation of large-scale collaborations among universities, national laboratories and industries. She transferred to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999, where she established an incubator to accelerate entrepreneurial business growth and technology commercialization.

Understanding the financing dynamics and growth of startups led Gulbranson in 2000 to venture capital firm Global Catalyst Partners. She became a partner and invested in seed and early-stage companies focused on information technology and materials.

In 2005, Gulbranson founded Christalis, a strategic advisory firm specializing in business development, technology transfer and funding assistance for high-tech clients. As CEO, she bridged her skills as a scientist, engineer, entrepreneur and investor to help build national entities and brought a wealth of expertise across different industries.

From 2007 to 2010, Gulbranson was a senior fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. She led the foundation’s clean technology initiatives and supported the development of commercial innovation at the university level.

Gulbranson helped launch Advanced Energy Economy in 2011, a national industry association. As the founding CEO of the Nevada Institute for Renewable Energy Commercialization, she was an integral part of the first renewable energy accelerator in the U.S. — a consortium of research institutions, investors, corporations and government.

Vikram Gupta is the Founder, Managing Partner and Investment Committee Member at IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited. He has about 16 years of experience in Private Equity, Business Consulting, M&A, Strategy and Operations in Healthcare and Life Sciences, Education, Consumer Goods and other industries. He has held leadership positions across various well-known companies in India and Abroad.

Prior to founding IvyCap, Mr. Gupta was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) with IndiaVenture Advisors Private Limited, a Private Equity Fund Management company sponsored by the Ajay Piramal Group. Mr. Gupta conceptualized, raised and deployed the first PE fund from the group, a Healthcare and Life Sciences Focused PE fund. He raised the entire fund from a large base of institutional and HNI (High Networth Individual) investors in India. He managed all the aspects of the Private Equity business including Fund Raising, Investors Relationship Management, Deal Sourcing, Deal Evaluation, Deal Closure, Fund Portfolio Management, Value Creation, Risk Management and Exits.

In an earlier stint, Mr. Gupta worked in the US with IBM Business Consulting Services for about four years in strategy and planning, business development and project management across various assignments. He conceptualized and led IBM’s Healthcare and Life Sciences practice for Clinical Genomics. He has also held senior positions with Indian companies including A F Ferguson & Co., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin Laboratories and Piramal Healthcare across different areas including, Business Consulting, Strategy and Planning, M&A, Business Development and Manufacturing. Mr. Gupta has experience with starting-up companies in the areas of Medical Tourism, Outsourcing Strategy Consulting, and a Commercial Laundry.

Mr. Gupta has published many reusable and licensed assets including Patents, White Papers and Technical Documents. He has various awards and recognitions to his credit. He has completed his B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and has dual MBA degrees in Strategy and Finance from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA and Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Experienced, multilingual editor with a proven history of working in the university research commercialisation, corporate venture capital and government venturing industries.

Robert D. Hisrich, Ph.D., former Director of the Walker Center of Global Entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management, received his B.A. in English and Science from DePauw University and his MBA and Ph.D. in Business Administration with a major in marketing from the University of Cincinnati. Hisrich also holds honorary doctorate degrees from Chuvash State University (Russia) and the University of Miskolc (Hungary).

His global experience includes being a visiting and honorary professor at more than eight universities in six different countries. Dr. Hisrich has authored or co-authored 36 books, including International Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing, and Managing a Global Venture (3rd edition) to be published in late February by Sage Publications. His other books include Corporate Entrepreneurship, Technology Entrepreneurship: Value Creation, Protection, and Capture (2nd edition), Governpreneurship: Establishing a Thriving Entrepreneurial Spirit in Your Government, Entrepreneurship: Starting, Developing, and Managing a New Enterprise (translated into thirteen languages and now in its ninth edition), Entrepreneurial Finance: A Global Perspective and Marketing for Entrepreneurs and SMEs: An International Approach .

Hisrich has written more than 300 articles on entrepreneurship, international business management, and marketing, which have appeared in such journals as The Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, American Psychologist, California Management Review, Journal of Business Venturing, Sloan Management Review, Journal of Marketing and Journal of Marketing Research.

Doug Hockstad is TLA's Assistant Vice President of Technology Transfer. Tech Transfer helps to accomplish the broader University of Arizona mission by providing a variety of services to faculty that protect intellectual property, streamline the technology commercialization process, support the creation of startups based on University technology, and find commercial applications for university research.

Doug joined the UA with 25 years’ of experience in high tech markets, primarily in the software market, including both established company and startup experience, and most recently having served as Associate Director, Software & Engineering Licensing in the University of Michigan's Office of Technology Transfer. In this role, along with his primary responsibility for managing software and other copyright-related intellectual property created across the entire U of M campus, he also managed the office's information technology requirements, and served as the liaison between the Office of Tech Transfer and the College of Engineering.

In addition to Consilium Ventures, Curt is the Chief Executive of Telenomics and an advisor to The Alacrity Foundation, a start-up incubator focused on telecom, technology and media opportunities.

Prior to Consilium Ventures, Curt led the management buy-in team of Redeem in January 2011 where he was CEO. Redeem is a consumer electronics recycler that extends the lifespan of electronics and provides fully functional used alternatives to consumers around the world. Redeem completed the acquisition of Environmental Mobile Control (emc) in June 2011. Under Curt’s leadership Redeem finished its 2011/12 financial year with record revenue (growth from £20m to £27m) and doubling of profits from £1m to £2m alongside a strong order book. On the back of this strong financial year Redeem was listed in the 2012 Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

Prior to Redeem, Curt was the UK Managing Director of Vodafone Business Services where he was responsible for spearheading Vodafone’s entry into mobile unified communications and business services having led the acquisition of Central Telecom where he served as Chairman.

Previous roles include being the founding CFO of an emerging market telecommunications start-up, Nursat, which grew into the leading Central Asian internet service provider and enterprise network provider. Curt also led the turnaround of Fujitsu’s £150 million UK telecommunications and utilities IT services business unit and subsequently was Global Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Nortel’s $2bn global services business.

Curt has a Masters of Science from Georgia Tech and lives in Windsor with his wife and two children.

Karin Immergluck is thrilled to be Stanford University’s new Executive Director of the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), where she leads a large, internationally renowned team of technology development, licensing and industry contracting professionals. She continues to be a regularly invited speaker at national and international conferences, and has served as an adviser to several government and academic institutions in Europe. Karin is leading several new initiatives within the OTL to increase faculty and investor engagement, and to ensure that the OTL continues to be an active facilitator and promoter of Stanford’s highly successful entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has led to the founding of over 40,000 companies.

Prior to joining Stanford, Karin rose through the ranks of technology transfer at the University of California, initially for three years at the UC Office of the President, and then for 14 years at UCSF, where she eventually led the Office of Technology Management as Executive Director for five years. Under her leadership, UCSF became a pioneering national leader in digital health licensing and collaboration, faculty were more actively engaged resulting in a 25% increase in invention disclosures per $100M in research funding, and overall licensing productivity was increased by nearly 40%. She also taught several IP-related classes and workshops at UCSF.

Karin is a member of the Executive Board of the Academic Venture Exchange (AVX). AVX is an initiative of the Innovation Accelerator Foundation, which is generously supported by the Suzanne and Walter Scott Foundation. It is a collaborative exchange of the leading U.S. universities in innovation that improves research-driven startup teams by connecting them with entrepreneurs and investors.

Karin also serves on the Board of Governors of the Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc (CLP). CLP is a quality certification program launched in 2008 to recognize professionals with demonstrated experience and proficiency in the licensing and commercialization of intellectual property.

Karin received her M.S. equivalent in Biochemistry and her Ph.D. in Developmental Molecular Genetics from the University of Zurich in Switzerland. She conducted her doctoral research at UCSF under the dual tutelage of Nobel Laureate and former Chancellor Dr. J. Michael Bishop, and Professor and former President of the Federal Institute of Technology and former Professor of University of Zurich, Dr. Ernst H

Valery Krivenko

Managing Partner of FPI Partners, a VC firm focused on co-founding science intensive technology startups. He is Angara Industries BoD Chairman, and Director in iGlass Technologies, ARDN and OneCharge Lithium Batteries.

Valery is Member of National Venture Market Council Presidium of Russia and Member of the Investment Council at Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia; YPO member since 2018.

He previously held various senior roles at Bright Capital VC fund, ONEXIM Group, Sibur Petrochemicals, and was a consultant at McKinsey & Company

Val graduated from London Business School, MBA; and studied at UCLA and Moscow State University of International Relations

Vaseem Khan is the Global Vice President Engineering and McDermott’s Chief Engineering Officer, responsible for McDermott’s engineering worldwide. Vaseem is based in Houston, and over 4000 engineers in sixteen engineering offices in the McDermott group, along with the London- based Centre for Innovation and Research report, to Vaseem. Unique amongst its peer group in the industry, McDermott’s engineering offices are responsible for Onshore, Offshore and Deepwater subsea facilities. Vaseem is also responsible for McDermott’s industry-leading Digital Twin initiative

London born Vaseem has bachelors and masters degrees in mechanical engineering and a post graduate diploma in International management.

Prior to joining McDermott, Vaseem was with TechnipFMC and in late 2012 was nominated the Senior Vice President of the Middle East Region, and took over as the Regional Chief Executive in January 2013 responsible for the Group’s activities in the Middle East.

He has previously worked with the British chemical conglomerate ICI plc (now part of Azko Nobel) and has design and project management experience in fertilisers, petrochemicals, power generation, offshore and subsea facilities and applied research and development.

Vaseem is married with two adult children who reside in the UK

Tim has worked in senior sales and marketing roles for international media companies for 20 years, on brands including BusinessWeek and Readers’ Digest. Until February 2010 he was the Director of Product Sales and Marketing at Dow Jones in Europe, overseeing the circulation sales and marketing activities of The Wall Street Journal Europe, Financial News, Private Equity News and Wealth Bulletin. He left Dow Jones to pursue his interest in writing, and founded Write Brain, a marketing copywriting and consulting agency (http://write-brain.co.uk). He also writes plays (his first was professionally staged in 2005) and is currently working on a novel. He has an MBA from the European University in Brussels and lives in Woking near London. James Mawson founded Global Corporate Venturing in early 2010 and Tim joined the company as its second employee in March 2011.

Tim Latimer is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fervo Energy. Tim has previously worked in a variety of technical and commercial roles at the Boston Consulting Group, ResFrac, and Biota Technology. Tim holds a joint M.B.A./M.S. degree in Environment and Resources at Stanford University. Prior to that, he worked as a drilling and completion engineer for BHP Billiton’s U.S. onshore shale operation, where he held both engineering and field operations roles in the Eagle Ford and Permian basins. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tulsa and is a proud native of Texas.

Tom Luby Ph.D. is the Head of JLABS @ TMC in Houston, Texas. His responsibilities include external engagement, innovation sourcing, company onboarding, portfolio management, operational excellence, educational programming and P&L. In this role, he catalyzes and support the translation of science and technology into valuable solutions for patients and consumers across the pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer healthcare sectors.

Tom joined the Johnson & Johnson Innovation family 3 years ago as a New Ventures Lead at the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston. In that role, he was instrumental in fostering many deals for the Boston office, which included the expansion of JLABS to JLABS @ Toronto. Prior to J&J, Tom spent 14 years in various R&D and business development positions, most recently as Sr. Director, Research Ventures at Shire. Nine of those years were spent working in R&D and operational roles across three start-up biotech companies in the Boston area.

Tom received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from State University of New York, and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University. For his post-doctoral research, Tom shifted to the study of cancer cell genetics at Harvard School of Public Health.

Hiren Majmudar is Vice President of Intel Capital and the Managing Director of Intel Capital’s Platform Engineering Sector (PEG). Hiren leads a cross-functional team that drives strategic transactions ranging from Licensing, Equity Investments, M&A, and other external partnerships in the area of Semiconductor IP (Intellectual Properties) that help PEG to create market leading SOCs.

Hiren has led a team that has identified unique technology partners for Intel and has built ecosystem partnership with 50+ IP companies to support Intel’s SOC development and launch efforts for Servers, Client, Mobile, IOT and Wearable markets. His team has also driven investments, licensing, and M & A projects over the years.

For the past 20+ years, Hiren has held various engineering and business leadership roles in CPU Design, EDA, Software Development Tools, SOC Engineering, Technical Marketing, Licensing, and M&A. Hiren holds Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Stony Brook and Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from M.S. University of Baroda, India.

Outside of work, Hiren is an avid Robotics coach and sits on the board of FIRST in Texas (http://firstintexas.org/) to drive robotics education in the state of Texas. He loves to travel around the world with his family.

Stephane Meystre, MD, PhD, FACMI
Clinacuity CEO
Dr. Meystre is SmartState Chair in Translational Biomedical Informatics and Associate Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. He has a medical background, with graduate education and experience in biomedical informatics and Natural Language Processing. He has developed and evaluated NLP systems for clinical practice and for research, and led several projects applying NLP to clinical text for automatic text de-identification and clinical information extraction.
His entrepreneurial experience is based on learning from the NIH iCorps program, the NIH Commercialization Accelerator Program (CAP), a Udacity course (How to Build a Startup), and several workshops. Started with securing funding (STTR federal grants), founding the company, and negotiating IP protection and licensing with the University of Utah. Continued with an extensive customer discovery process, business model canvases completion, and commercialization plans development. Also includes finding, hiring and managing employees, negotiating and managing subcontracts with the University of Utah and MUSC, and pitching our VPs at several events (iCorps program, ACA innovation showcase, G1000 conference, MedTech innovators, StartSLC, CAP FeedForward and closing workshops, and SC Launch conference).

Oleg Mihailov is a core member of the Energy practice at The Boston Consulting Group. Since joining BCG in October 2014, Oleg has specialized in the upstream oil and gas sector, leading projects for oil and gas companies and oilfield service and equipment companies on the topics of strategy, mergers and acquisitions, operations efficiency, mature asset management, and decommissioning.

Before joining BCG, Oleg amassed 19 years of experience in the oil and gas industry in roles that included vice president for oil and gas production at OJSC Bashneft and vice president for Western Siberia District at TNK-BP.

Paul Morris is a 21-year veteran of the Corporate Venture Capital industry. He set up and ran the CVC operation of Dow Chemical in Europe and has been at the forefront of new CVC initiatives for many years. He has invested over $100M in 35 direct deals and, as an LP, in 15 VC funds. During a 28-year career with Dow, Morris held senior business management roles across various geographies, including Head of New Businesses for EMEA. He now consults for corporates, governments, start-ups and funds on CVC, investments and fundraising. This currently includes supporting initiatives by certain governments, including the UK, to stimulate the flow of inward VC investment, drawing on his network of close contacts with over 100 CVC leaders globally. Morris is a regular speaker at major CVC events and, as Head of the Global Corporate Venturing Academy, delivers training courses for corporate VCs in the US, Europe and Asia. He holds board positions in five entities in Europe and the Middle East spanning both public and private sectors. He was elected in 2017 as President of the Global Government Venturing Leadership Society. An avid sportsman, Paul Morris has captained teams at club and representative level in rugby and cricket. He is now an enthusiastic skier and cyclist.

Jeff Peters, PhD is a Principal at Autotech Ventures. Autotech Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on transportation technology. Their portfolio covers the entire lifecycle of the vehicle as well as mobility services including Lyft, Outdoorsy, SpotHero, Volta Charging, Cogniac, and Xnor.ai. Autotech Ventures counts 18 corporations as strategic partners in their first $120M fund.

Jeff joined Autotech Ventures as part of the inaugural fund and supports all aspects of the firm including investments, portfolio services, strategic LP services, and fundraising.

Prior to Autotech, Jeff conducted research at Stanford University Management Science and Engineering as a James S. McDonnell Fellow in Complex Systems. His research studied interdependencies in transportation, electric, and energy infrastructure. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics, MSE in Transportation Engineering, and a BSE in Aerospace Engineering.

Jeff has sold cars, climbed several ‘14ers’, trekked to Everest Base Camp, and tested an experiment onboard NASA’s zero-gravity “Vomit Comet”. He spends his free time skiing, camping, and hiking with his wife, Shaili, and dog, Scooter.

Mr Piette is CEO of Bluware, a company dedicated to enabling native cloud access to the upstream oil and gas business. He also serves on the Board of Visitors for the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Geological Engineering, and as Board Chair for Bike Houston, a bicycling advocacy group in Houston, TX. Dan has also served on the Board of Advisors to Deep Imaging Technologies, a company collecting EM data over wells during hydraulic fracturing and other stimulation events. From June 2007 to April 2018, Dan was on the Board of Directors of PGS, serving as Board Vice Chair and a member of the audit committee. Until January of 2013, Mr Piette was the President, CEO, and Chairman of TerraSpark Geoscienses, Inc. Previously, Mr. Piette was President, CEO, and a Board Member of Object Reservoir. Mr. Piette was President and CEO of OpenSpirit Corporation from 2003 to 2011. After receiving his B.Sc. with honors in Mining Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, he held several executive management positions in the oil and gas industry, including business unit manager at Input/Output, President and CEO of Bell Geospace, and Vice President and General Manager of the Asia Pacific region for Landmark Graphics.

Ferran Prat, Ph.D., J.D., is responsible for linking MD Anderson and industry partners. His efforts generate collaborations that bring new drugs, diagnostics, imaging agents and IT solutions to market faster, benefiting patients suffering from cancer.

Aanand Radia is a Managing Director at University Ventures. Prior to University Ventures, Aanand was a private equity investor at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, where he focused on Financial Services and Special Situations. Prior to BlackRock, Aanand worked at EdisonLearning (formerly Edison Schools), an early pioneer in the charter school movement and later a diversified K-12 education technology and services company, where he focused on corporate strategy, business development, new product and finance initiatives. While at Edison, Aanand helped to develop an alternative education product offering delivered through a hybrid/blended learning environment. Aanand started his career at Patriot Capital, a middle market private equity firm, where he made investments across a broad range of industries. Aanand received his B.S. in Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. “Aanand helps lead the firm’s investment in Galvanize, Revature, and the firm’s student finance related investments.

Mr. Rao brings significant industry and consulting experience in business and marketing strategy. He has helped clients address core issues of growth through new markets, products, channels, and creating sustainable competitive advantage through customer insight. His expertise includes market opportunity identification, business planning, product and portfolio roadmaps, primary research, go to market, sales, and channel strategy, pricing, customer segmentation, scenario planning, financial modeling, and developing operating and organizational models.

Mr. Rao has helped clients develop several new businesses with $100 million to $1 billion potential, and worked with start ups in a business plan mentor role. He has also helped existing businesses reconnect with their customers and gain new insight to solve a strategic problem – such as to gain market share or improve their operational footprint.

He was previously a Managing Consultant with IBM’s Strategy & Change consulting practice in roles from senior consultant to engagement manager. His industry experience includes high tech, consumer electronics, telecommunications, wireless, petrochemicals, manufacturing, automotive, and commercial vehicles. He has an MBA in Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, in addition to an MS and BE in computer science and engineering.

Mike Redding is the Managing Director of Accenture Ventures. In this role, Responsible for growing a global portfolio of strategic partnerships and equity investments in emerging technology companies to support Accenture’s and our client’s business transformations. Investment and business growth priorities include Artificial Intelligence, CyberSecurity, Augment/Virtual Reality, Blockchain, and Cloud (SaaS/PaaS/IaaS).

Passionate about bold ideas that produce game-changing results over 27+ years with Accenture. Incubated and launched technology innovations to clients across multiple geographies and industries including Banking, Mortgage Lending, Insurance, Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, and Public Sector Agencies (Defense and Postal).

Speaks frequently on the impact of emerging technology on large organizations across various client, industry, and media forums.

Previously served five years as the Global Managing Director of Accenture Technology Labs, the dedicated technology R&D organization of Accenture. Led a diverse team of technology experts across the five global Labs locations. Directed the investment in technology R&D, collaborated with Accenture’s largest clients on their innovation agendas and oversaw all Labs go-to-market activities.

Received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 1988 and a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University in 1991. Former member of the board of directors for the Accenture Foundation.

I have spent my career focused on helping the most senior leaders at large companies, particularly industrial companies, drive greater innovation using digital technologies. I am currently the Innovation Lead for Accenture in the South West Region and the Managing Director for Accenture's Houston Innovation Hub which I have led from conception to its launch in February 2017. The Hub now has over 70+ amazing people, conducted 350+ workshops, and is delivering innovative projects in machine learning, video analytics, remote operations, and much more.

In addition, I am a very active thought leader with numerous publications, whitepapers, media articles, and over a dozen patents. I work regularly with research institutions, venture firms, start-ups, and large partners and am routinely sought out for innovation and digital presentations or panels.

I am actively involved in the Houston Innovation Community and led the strategy for the Greater Houston Partnership and City of Houston on driving more innovation locally. This included the strategy for standing up Houston Exponential where I now sit on the board with other Houston leaders. I am also the Chair of the Notre Dame Electrical Engineering Industry Advisory Board and work often with other research institutions such as MIT, Rice, and Vanderbilt.

I am a progressive, influential global leader with a strong track record of rapidly accelerating business growth, fostering innovation, and establishing new opportunities for startup companies across all investment stages. I have built a differentiated, well-known global venture capital brand and helped portfolio companies from the ground up. Proven ability to drive positive ROI, financial impacts, and source investments.

I am a recognized relationship builder who can build, leverage, and cultivate a vast network of industry thought leaders, key stakeholders, technology partners, and executives in the technology and venture capital space.

Mr. Antti Sinisalo serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Investment at VTT Ventures since January 2010. Mr. Sinisalo leads the Venture Capital activities of the corporate venturing unit of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland with a focus on technology investments. Mr. Sinisalo has been developing technologies and businesses with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for more than 10 years. He is eager to see VTT Ventures as the forerunner in developing technologies with Finnish roots and global impact. The biggest driver for He is seeing how startups get a chance to turn their ambitions into realities with the help of VTT Ventures. At VTT, he has worked on the commercialization of over thirty cases. He has 15 years of experience in business development, sales and partnering in venture capital and medical businesses. He serves as Member of the Board of Directors at Nicanti Oy. He also serves as Director of Spectral Engines Oy since Nov 2015. Mr. Sinisalo holds Master's Degree in International Business from Helsingin kauppakorkeakoulu and M.Sc. from Teknillinen korkeakoulu-Tekniska högskolan

Taylor N. Shinn Director – Ventures & Growth Baker Hughes, a GE Company – Energy Innovation Center

Taylor N. Shinn is the Director of Ventures & Growth for Baker Hughes, a GE Company while also leading BHGE’s Energy Innovation Center.

Mr. Shinn most recently was the Global BPM of Technology for GE’s Oil and Gas Portfolio where he led and managed the global investment portfolio, strategy, and commercialization of new technologies for the CTO of GE and GEOG.

Prior to joining GE, Mr. Shinn was the Senior Finance Leader and Business Development Manager for American Energy Partners, LP. In this role, he led the capitalization and creation of American Energy Woodford, LLC and was responsible for developing and closing the $500 MM equity investment and $400 MM debt structure for AEW

Mr. Shinn also held the role of Senior Director – Corporate Development at Chesapeake Energy Corporation where he led the company’s market development programs and managed the strategic investment portfolio (CHK Ventures) that exceeded $375 MM during his time. In this role, Mr. Shinn led the corporate partnerships with global leaders such as Dow Chemical, GE, 3M, Methanex, Love’s, Clean Energy, Sundrop Fuels, US Steel, Siemens, among others

Mr. Shinn earned his Bachelors in Marketing and Finance from the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University in 2006 and his Masters of Business Administration in 2009.

Taylor lives in Edmond, OK, with his wife Katie and their two children.

Sliwa started his career at NASA in multidisciplinary optimization research and progressed into management. He joined a Silicon Valley engineering software as VP and was part of the executive team that took it through a successful IPO. Sliwa was subsequently involved in several successful engagements as the CEO of turn-arounds and start-ups ranging up to 5,000 employees. His most recent was Insitu, a drone company that he took from zero to 400+ million in sales in 10 years with a successful exit to Boeing. Dr. Sliwa has engineering degrees from Princeton, GWU, and Stanford along with a business degree from Stanford.

Over the last 25 years Erika has lead the advancement and management innovative life-sciences companies in biotech, pharma, devices and diagnostics through both investment funds and operational expertise. Most recently she was formerly the Director of the $10 M Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale supporting efforts to turn Yale faculty discoveries into life science treatments, drugs and devices. Prior to this role, Erika was the Deputy Director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute where she oversaw the YEI Innovation Fund supporting Yale entrepreneurs with seed-stage capital, and the Technology Commercialization Program, which matched business students with faculty discoveries to launch successful companies like GestVision and IsoPlexis. Before she came to Yale, Erika was the Senior Director of Investments with the Center for Innovative Technologies (CIT) where she launched the CIT BIO Lifescience seed fund in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, managing deal sourcing and the investment portfolio. Before investing in startups, she spent 15 years in industry working at leading companies such as Respironics/Philips and IVAX holding key positions in product development, quality assurance, regulatory affairs, business development and Mergers and Acquisitions. She has taken an active role in advancing capital into early companies holding board positions with the CVG – venture organization of CT, Maryland Innovation Initiative Fund in partnership with Johns Hopkins and MD Universities, the UConn Prototype Fund and SBIR/STTR initiatives, and is a Venture Advisor to the seed fund Epidarex Capital. Erika has taught at the National Institutes of Health and has been a recognized guest speaker at Georgetown University’s Masters of Biotechnology program. She holds a bachelor’s in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University.

Matt Stevenson is responsible for managing Inventys’ fundraising efforts and strategic initiatives, striving to find the right partners and investors to continue to fuel the company’s path towards commercializing a breakthrough energy technology. Matt also oversees the finance operations, commercial and legal aspects of Inventys’ business, ensuring the company is positioned to scale rapidly with best practices in place.
In his role, Matt leans heavily on past technical and corporate finance experience in industry and the capital markets. These roles touched oil and gas, energy infrastructure, as well as corporate development and capital project experience in the commodity chemicals and alternative fuels space.
Matt holds a B.A.Sc (With Distinction) Masters degree in Chemical Engineering, both from the University of British Columbia, and is a CFA charterholder.

Rosemarie is Founder of CAI, Gazelle Futures and RHT Consulting. She has more than 25 years of consulting experience in all areas of strategy; including, but not limited to strategies for: transformation, restructuring, innovation, tiered business strategies, growth strategy, business models, R&D transformation, operations optimization, IT architecture and roadmap as well as workforce management / organizational design. She has led large transformations / restructuring projects for the world’s leading companies of nearly every industry segment.
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Rosemarie has over 10 partnership intermediary agreements to help her clients optimize the commercialization potential of their intellectual property. Her team has scouted through over 18,000 inventions in the last year to identify the most promising inventions. Her team has worked with more than 15 different technology transfer organizations, including but not limited to the National Institutes of Health, two of the largest biomedical non-profits, several major Universities and also the state of Maryland's economic development office. In addition to helping her clients evaluate and manage their intellectual property, she has led teams to develop visions, short- and longer-term strategies, roadmaps and blueprints to maximize the commercial potential of their portfolio. In addition, she has led over 50 technology reviews of more than 50,000 technologies across several industries. Finally, Ms. Truman has led more than 100 innovation and strategy engagements that have led to over 150 successful product launches.

Elected in December 2015, Sylvester Turner is serving his first four-year term as Houston’s 62nd mayor. Since taking office, Mayor Turner eliminated a $160 million budget shortfall in record time; led the city’s remarkable rebound from Hurricane Harvey; championed historic pension reform; cheered on the 2017 World Series-winning Houston Astros; hosted a successful Super Bowl LI; expanded municipal investments in renewable energy and led the winning bid to host the World Petroleum Congress in 2020.
As the head of the energy capital of the world and the most diverse city in the nation, Mayor Turner has brought a performance-driven approach to the job, creating more responsive, streamlined and efficient delivery of city services while shoring up Houston’s financial future. Thanks to his leadership, the Texas Legislature and local voters approved the pension reform package that reduces the city’s liability by billions of dollars and provided a “fix” that had eluded the city for 17 years.
One of the mayor’s signature initiatives is Complete Communities, which aims to improve the quality of life for residents in all neighborhoods. The mayor’s other priorities include filling more than 90,000 potholes on city streets, implementing a six-point holistic plan for addressing homelessness, reducing flooding and improving drainage.
Mayor Turner’s civic leadership has been nationally recognized through his service as a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Transportation and Communications Standing Committee, vice chair of the National Climate Action Agenda, member of the C40 and Global Covenant for Mayor’s for Climate and Energy and an advisory board member of the African American Mayors Association. He is also the recipient of the Ohtli Award, the Mexican government’s highest honor. Turner has been featured in publications and news outlets such as 60 Minutes, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, FOX News, Wall Street Journal, Black Enterprise Magazine, Cuba Today Magazine, Ebony, New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today.
Prior to his election as mayor, Turner served for 27 years in the Texas House as the representative for District 139. He worked on the House Appropriations Committee for 21 years and served as Speaker Pro Tem for three terms. He was appointed to several Budget Conference Committees to help balance the state’s budget and served on the Legislative Budget Board.

Kaz Uchida is a member of CVC unit at Metals Group, Mitsubishi Corporation. His focus is industrial tech., especially mobility and manufacturing technology. He has worked for steel products and auto-components investment.

Mr. Tom Vanhoutte, CPA serves as a Partner imec.xpand at IMEC, Investment Arm. He serves as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director at Capricorn Venture Partners. Mr. Vanhoutte has 12 years of relevant experience as an Auditor of financial services organizations, with a particular focus on investment companies and related operating companies. He worked as a Senior Manager in the New York Asset Management practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC for 10 years. Mr. Vanhoutte is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Master Degree in Commercial Engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium.

Wal is an award-winning business leader and visionary in innovation, sustainability and cleantech, with unique industry insights gained through deep operational experience as a venture capitalist, corporate executive, international consultant and university professor.
Wal co-founded Chrysalix in 2001, building it to one of the most recognized venture capital firms focused on industrial innovation. He has sourced, invested in and advised numerous startups, assisting them in building breakthrough solutions for the new world economy while working with large multinational companies on their innovation strategies. Currently Wal is a member of the Board of Directors at Chrysalix portfolio companies General Fusion, Inventys and Axine Water Technologies.
Wal is an Advisory Board member of the Cleantech Group, a judge of the Cleantech 100 Awards and is a frequent speaker at events like GLOBE Series, Oil & Money, the BCTECH Summit, Energy for Tomorrow and the Cleantech Forum. He has been a longstanding contributor to the tech community in British Columbia and abroad as the founder of New Ventures BC, a founding member of the BC CEO Alliance and Evok Innovations, and contributor to various Vancouver greenest city projects.
Prior to Chrysalix, Wal was the VP of Strategy at Westcoast Energy, at the time one of Canada’s largest energy companies. Earlier, for more than seven years he advised energy, chemicals and financial services blue chip companies on strategy, innovation and change management while working with McKinsey & Company, the leading international consultant. Prior to this, Wal was an Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and consultant to the World Bank and European Union. He has been an adjunct professor at both SFU’s Beedie School and UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
Wal holds a PhD in Economics from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has completed courses at MIT in probability modeling and executive training in Change Management.

Antonio has worked in finance for over 20 years. Most recently he was the CFO of Merchant Atlas, a venture-backed start-up that pioneered sales automation with machine learning and curated data-at-scale (acquired in 2016). He has also held various institutional banking, capital markets, equity research, and private equity roles both in the US and Asia at Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Lehman Brothers, and Brown Brothers Harriman.
Antonio holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley’s Walter A. Haas School of Business and received his undergraduate degree from Villanova University. He is also an advisor to students and alumni at UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck technology start-up incubator.

Stephen is an experienced business leader and a recognised authority on energy storage technologies. He is the inventor of Carbon-Ion and he founded ZapGo Limited in 2013 to produce the next generation of energy storage devices based on this technology platform, with four core values: to be faster charging, safer, longer lasting and more recyclable than lithium batteries. Stephen has taken several technology businesses through concept, design and then into production. He launched the first ever CE-marked hydrogen fuel cell product. He previously ran a $1bn business unit at IBM. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is a Freeman of the Guild of Entrepreneurs in the City of London.

Dr. Glenn Vonk is the Director of Business Development and Alliances of the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2). He has over 30 years’ experience leading technology developments in diagnostics, drug delivery, and medical devices including immunoassays, molecular diagnostics, detection systems, and new chemical entities. He established life sciences R&D at BD BioVenture Centre in Singapore leading to several commercialization programs in developing world diagnostics and biopharmaceutical manufacturing. Glenn is inventor of BD intellectual property used in drug delivery and diagnostics products. While in Singapore, he was responsible for infectious disease proof of concept clinical research in Thailand. While Director of Advanced Technology Glenn coordinated innovation resources at corporate R&D and sourced key technologies for BD’s strategic business needs. Glenn rapidly connects new technology options to significant business needs and processes to accelerate their progress to market.

Julian Ware is the General Manager for Research Products at Clearpath Robotics, a provider of mobile robotic platforms for research and industrial automation, located in Canada. Julian has been involved with the robotics research community for over 10 years, and has previously served as business manager for the research products division of Adept MobileRobots. He received his MBA from the Ivey School of Business, following a Masters of Applied Science at Dalhousie for studies in the area of bilateral control of tele-operated systems.

I am a specialist in corporate venture capital (CVC). I find capital and customers for technology businesses and advise CVCs on origination and marketing. Since establishing LEIF in 2010, we have raised over $100m for European early stage and growth stage businesses from the following industries: energy, materials and manufacturing, industrial IOT, automotive, mobility and travel. I was previously a foreign correspondent. From 1997-99 I was Moscow correspondent for the Guardian and from 1991-97 I was a reporter for the BBC World Service, based in Prague and Moscow. I am a contributing editor at Global Corporate Venturing, the research, publishing and conference business, for whom I edit specialist reports and chair conferences.

My 30 year career has been about innovation, specifically, the creation, development and commercial exploitation of new ideas. I’ve developed and managed new processes and products for both large multinationals and small businesses based on semiconductors, oil & gas, solar power (photovoltaics), fuel cells and materials science. During my years in business I started as a research scientist and rose to Managing Director and Board level, mostly operating internationally outside the UK. On the way, I gained experience in corporate strategy development, implementing business and culture change, the creation of new commercial opportunities and innovation management. At Director-level I ran corporate business units and growth businesses that depended on new technology and ideas which we often had to acquire from leading universities worldwide. I became an expert on business-university relationships and the complex journey that leads to the successful commercialisation of research via innovation in business.

Since 2007, I’ve used my management and innovation skills to bring university research ideas to market. Leading this commercial activity for a university has taught me how to understand and balance the very different needs of academics, entrepreneurs, investors, politicians and other stakeholders. I am also CEO of two companies: University of Birmingham Enterprise Ltd trains academics in entrepreneurial skills, protects their research ideas, then attracts investors and management talent to commercialise them. Birmingham Research Park Ltd offers space to companies and I recently raised the money to build two start up business incubators: BizzInn and The BioHub Birmingham which have attracted local entrepreneurs and created many new jobs. I also get to bring my experience to bear as a Non-Executive Board member in a range of other companies in sectors as diverse as fund management, advanced manufacturing and life sciences.

Dr. Helena Wisniewski,Fellow National Academy of Inventors,senior executive at the CEO, VP, and Board levels.Experience in private industry,start ups,academia & government.Impressive record of leading research & technology innovation.Technological entrepreneur launched and sold startup companies,directed & contributed to major scientific advances & commercialization in biotech,medical devices,biometrics,telecom.Served on Board of Directors of Greatbatch Inc. (NYSE:GB) implantable medical devices & on its Audit, and Technology Committees.Secretary of the Navy appointed her to NRAC.

Joe Zhou is the CEO of Quidnet Energy, which commercializes a breakthrough in subsurface geomechanical pumped hydro for energy storage. Quidnet has completed a successful demonstration facility in Texas, and is underway to develop a set of grid-scale commercial facilities. Prior to Quidnet Energy, Joe worked at Green Charge Networks, a California-based energy storage project developer that was acquired by Engie in 2016. At Green Charge Networks, Joe led both domestic and international business development. Joe started his career in advisory for heavy-industry capital projects at McKinsey, and in process engineering and hydraulics at ExxonMobil. Joe holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and a MBA.