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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Stan Christensen is a partner at Arbor Advisors, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. He has nearly twenty years of experience in both transactional and operations roles and has worked on hundreds of transactions. Before starting Arbor, he was the General Manager of Eazel, a Linux-based software startup. He started his career in corporate finance on Wall Street, and then worked for ten years with CMG, a negotiation advisory firm affiliated with The Harvard Negotiation Project. In this capacity he worked with corporations and governments-advising, negotiating, and mediating transactions and conflicts. In 1996 he was selected as a Kellogg Fellow for his work in the non-profit and public sectors. He is a member of The Council On Foreign Relations and currently teaches a course on Negotiation at Stanford University in The School of Engineering. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.
As an entrepreneurial leader, Larry Bawden has been focused on building companies that take technology from the lab and moving them through the process of commercialization and into a variety of consumer markets. Larry is currently the CEO of Q1 NanoSystems which has designed and patented the next generation solar cell utilizing Q1 Solar Brush technology. Current solar solutions are far from achieving economic parity with today's fossil fuel energy sources. Q1 NanoSystems technology will reduce current solar energy costs from $0.34/kWh down to $0.12/kWh, a 65% decrease from today's prices. The solution allows residential and commercial consumers to take advantage of a clean, limitless resource, while enjoying a fast return on their investment. Prior to Q1 NanoSystems Larry founded Jadoo Power Systems, Inc. (Jadoo) a solutions oriented, market-driven provider of portable fuel cell power products. Commercially-shipping products are a rare find in the crowded fuel cell industry; yet, with Larry leadership, Jadoo has developed proven technology, resulting in the production of economically-viable, hydrogen-based fuel cell solutions. Larry's first involvement with moving the fuel cell industry forward was developing a strategic technology transfer and partnership agreement between Aerojet and H Power Corporation (acquired by Plug Power - NASDAQ:PLUG). He held senior management positions in other energy and aerospace companies dealing with technology, business development, investment management, corporate strategy and engineering. Larry served on several key technical and advisory committees throughout his career in the aerospace industry and is the recipient of the Group Achievement award from NASA. As a co-inventor on five pending fuel cell and fuel cell system patents his advice is sought by businesses and government entities in dealing with key strategies related to implementation of fuel c
Dan Springer brings over 20 years of executive leadership and strategic sales and marketing consulting experience to Responsys, with proven success in interactive marketing, e-commerce, and finance. As Chief Executive Officer, Dan is responsible for charting Responsys' strategic direction and extending the company's leadership into new realms of digital marketing. Prior to Responsys, Dan was Managing Director in the San Francisco office of Modem Media where he was responsible for general management of the agency's western United States operations. Dan led the development of the agency's Performance Marketing capability by leveraging database marketing, web site analytics and search engine marketing techniques. Prior to Modem Media as the CEO of Telleo, Inc., he refocused the business from online advertising to business partnerships with leading brands like Taco Bell. Previously, Springer was also the Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager for NextCard, where he built the fastest-growing credit card in history by creating one of the Internet's top five advertisers. He started his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and DRI/McGraw-Hill. Dan holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Occidental College. He also sits on the board of directors for ITI, E-LOAN and The Randall Museum.
Armen Berjikly graduated with honors with a Bachelors in Computer Science from Stanford University. His primary research focus was Human-Computer Interaction, where he worked closely with professor Clifford Nass. He went on to obtain a Master's Degree from Stanford in Management Science and Engineering, with an emphasis on Organizations, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Armen was also a Mayfield Fellow, a prestigious fellowship that provides intensive training in entrepreneurship for those with an engineering background. After Stanford, Armen took a product management role at Echelon Corporation, helping manage their "intelligent utility grid" solution from paper concept to hundreds of thousands of units shipped. After a close friend's diagnosis with a serious medical condition, Armen began creating online communities designed to sponsor hope through research and community. Witnessing the power of connecting people with a shared experience, and therefore common understanding, led to the creation of Experience Project. Armen's passion is building technology that unites people who can improve each other's lives, and Experience Project is the epitome of these efforts.
Ashwin Navin is the President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent, Inc. He joined Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, in 2004, moving from Yahoo! where he was an influential member of the company's Corporate Development group. He possesses extensive experience in structuring and negotiating acquisitions, partnerships and alliances in the tech industry. While at Yahoo!, Ashwin was responsible for M&A, divestitures and company strategy in the U.S. and key global markets such as India and Korea. Before Yahoo!, Ashwin worked with Wall Street powerhouses Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch as an investment banker and research analyst. Ashwin earned a dual B.A. from Claremont McKenna in Government and Economics.
Martin Eberhard is the Co-Founder, President of Technology, and former CEO of Tesla Motors, a company that produces the Tesla Roadster, a battery-powered electric sportscar. Martin brings with him 20 years of start-up, management, and development experience from his time as co-founder of NuvoMedia and Network Computing Devices. At NuvoMedia, Martin helped create the market for electronic books with the 1998 launch of the Rocket eBook. As Chief Engineer of Network Computing Devices, Martin spearheaded the development of X Window-based network terminals for Wyse Technology, where he began his career as an electrical engineer at Wyse Technology. There he designed his first product, the WY-30 ASCII computer terminal. Martin received his bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering and Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Martin lives in both Northern and Southern California with his college sweetheart, Carolyn, and their two children, along with an old Siamese cat.
Mitch Kapor has been at the forefront of the information technology revolution for a generation as an entrepreneur, investor, social activist, and philanthropist. Most recently, Mr. Kapor founded Foxmarks, an upcoming search engine based on bookmarks and related metadata. He received a B.A. from Yale College in 1971 and studied psychology, linguistics, and computer science as part of a major in Cybernetics. He attended the Sloan School of Management at MIT before leaving for a Silicon Valley startup. Mr. Kapor founded Lotus Development Corp. in 1982 and with Jonathan Sachs created Lotus 1-2-3, which made the PC ubiquitous in business in the 1980's. In 1990, he co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He founded the Mitchell Kapor Foundation in 1997 and the Open Source Applications Foundation in 2001. He became the founding Chair of the Mozilla Foundation in 2003 and is a trustee of the Level Playing Field Institute. From 1994-1996, he served as Adjunct Professor at the MIT Media Lab. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Kapor was a partner at Accel. In 2006, he became an Adjunct Professor at the School of Information at Berkeley. Mr. Kapor has contributed pieces on information infrastructure policy, intellectual property, and antitrust in the digital era topublications such as Scientific American, The New York Times, and Forbes.
Mike Maples, Jr. is the managing partner of Maples Investments, and is an entrepreneur in his own right. Before becoming a full-time investor, he worked in a variety of executive and management roles in high-growth companies. His background spans a variety of markets including consumer technology, small business, and the enterprise, and he has served in various executive roles in product development, marketing, and corporate strategy. Mike began his technology career in high school, when he started a software company that developed games and educational products for the original IBM PC. He has been passionate about the technology industry ever since. Most recently, Mike co-founded Motive, Inc., the world's leading broadband software company in 1997 and played key roles in its growth from raw start-up through sales of $100 million. Motive was one of the only successful technology IPOs in 2004, and the most successful infrastructure software IPO for the prior three years. At Motive, Mike was General Manager of Motive's Corporate Business Unit, as well as Chief Marketing and Strategy officer. Prior to Motive, Mike was responsible for worldwide product marketing at Tivoli Systems, where he managed the company's product portfolio from its early-stage development through its 1995 IPO and growth to a $750M line of business within the IBM Software Group. Mike began his professional career at Silicon Graphics, where he served in business development and product marketing roles. In his spare time Mike is an amateur artist, movie-maker, and calligrapher. He holds an Engineering degree from Stanford University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and a guest-lecturer on entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Texas.
Jesse Fink is a founding partner of MissionPoint Capital and President and CEO of Marshall Street Management. In 2004, MSM established MSM Capital Partners to manage its investment activities in the clean technology and environmental finance sectors. Jesse was the COO of Walker Digital Inc. and Priceline.com and previously worked at Georgia-Pacific, Citicorp, and CUC International. Jesse received a B.S. in Resource Management from the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry and an MBA from Syracuse University's School of Management. In February of 2007, Jesse received the Cleantech Venture Network's "Leader of the Year" award.
C.S. Ghosh is the founder and CEO of Bandhan, a Kolkata-based microfinance institution which provides services in microfinance, micro-entrepreneurship, health, education, and disaster management to India's working poor. The organization focuses primarily on providing financial services to women, a critical step in breaking the cycle of poverty. Bandan ranked second in the Forbes' list of the world's Top 50 Micro Finance Institutions. The first of its kind, Bandhan ranked #3 for its efficiency and impact. With Ghosh's leadership and focus on highly standardized systems, the organization has expanded with increasing efficiency.
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