2007 Gateway to the US Speakers
Join us for some lively conversations with our speakers in our interactive Business Forums.
Saeed Amidi , Founding General Partner, Amidzad
Saeed Amidi has been a technology investor since 1996 and co-founded Amidzad in 2000. He is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 23 years’ experience in founding, operating and growing successful companies. Saeed has been closely involved with more than 20 new emerging growth companies, of which two became public companies (PayPal, since acquired by eBay, and Preview Systems). His investments include DoveBid, Crosslayer Networks, Paypal, Affinity Engines, Gabbly, and Sigma Quest. Saeed has chaired and spearheaded the operations and management of a number of the Amidi Group entities, growing the aggregate value of its assets under management to over $250M.
Simon Anderson, Managing Director, Ocean Avenue Ventures
Simon Anderson is an experienced technology executive with a background in venture capital and corporate law. He was most recently VP, Strategy & Business Development at Affinity Internet, which was successfully sold to Hostway Corp. in April 2007. Affinity Internet is a leading US-based B2B Internet services company backed by Columbia Capital, Wachovia Capital and JP Morgan Capital. Simon was responsible for establishing major strategic product partnerships and distribution channels for Affinity—including eBay, Comcast, AOL, Microsoft, Google, SAP, Intuit, Adobe/Macromedia and Costco—and bringing to market new website, ecommerce and online marketing products and services that grew the company to over 200,000 customers worldwide. Prior to joining Affinity, Simon was the US-based general partner of Allen & Buckeridge, a leading Australian venture capital firm investing in early stage technology ventures with over US$200M under management. Simon started his professional career as a lawyer in Sydney, Australia, specializing in media and technology transactions and corporate advice. Simon earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Law Degree from the Australian National University, has guest lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and graduated from executive programs on strategy and negotiation at Harvard Business School.
Sheryle Bolton, Serial Entrepreneur
Sheryle Bolton is a serial entrepreneur. She most recently was the CEO and Founder of QUIXIT, Inc., a company that developed scientifically based online workouts to keep our brains fit for life. She was previously CEO and Chairman of Scientific Learning Corporation (NASDAQ:SCIL), which she led from start-up through IPO to sustainable growth, and President of Physicians’ Online, which was acquired by WebMD. Sheryle has been on boards of private and public companies and almost 30 Scudder-Kemper domestic and international mutual funds representing US$60Bn in assets. She was recently part of the US expert panel evaluating companies for the ANZA Fast Track program in Melbourne, and has mentored several companies.
Burton “Buzz” Bruggeman, CEO and Founder, Activewords
Buzz Bruggeman founded ActiveWords Systems to develop enabling technology that improves the computer-human interface. As an entrepreneur, Buzz has faced the challenges of raising venture capital, managing an engineering team, building a sustainable organization and successfully marketing an innovative software product. Before taking on the technology market as an entrepreneur, Buzz had a distinguished career in the practice of law. Buzz is a well-known blogger and frequent speaker at technology industry conferences.
Tom Cervantez , Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Tom Cervantez is a Partner with the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine in San Francisco. Tom specializes in corporate finance and intellectual property law, including securities, capital structure planning, private placements, mergers & acquisitions, venture financing and licensing transactions for emerging growth companies, venture funds and software and hardware computer companies. Tom has spoken on these practice specialties and how they apply to Australian and New Zealand businesses entering the US market at many ANZA events. He most recently took part in the US expert panel evaluating companies for the ANZA Fast Track program in Melbourne.
Kimberly Fanning, Partner, FMF Global Law Group
Kimberly Fanning has practiced immigration and nationality law since 1987. She has represented international and national corporations in facilitating the movement of businesspersons while also meeting corporate needs. Kimberly counsels major international US, European, and Pacific Rim companies in all areas of immigration law, specifically focusing on intracompany transfers, the hiring of foreign professionals, and employment-based applications for lawful permanent residence. She also advises clients on record-keeping compliance issues. Kimberly is experienced in addressing clients' needs for pertinent updates and advice on rapidly changing immigration law and procedures. Prior to reestablishing the law firm of FMF Global Law Group, Kimberly was a partner of the national law firms of Cooley Godward LLP and Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross, PC.
Viki Forrest, CEO, ANZA Technology Network
Shel Israel, Author, Blogger and Social Media Expert
Shel Israel writes and consults on social media issues. He is co-author, with Robert Scoble, of Naked Conversations, How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. His Global Neighbourhoods blog is among the 100 most popular business and marketing blogs worldwide and the best-selling book on business blogging. Shel writes and speaks on the issues of technology and culture. He has spent more than 20 years advising start-ups such as Sun Microsystems, Creative Labs and the developers for PowerPoint, FileMaker, MapInfo, Virtual Vineyards, Napster, Riya, Scrapblog and more than 100 others. He has also advised larger companies including CNET, Wells Fargo Bank and Hitachi Data Systems on issues related to the social media. Since July 2007, Shel has been conducting the SAP Global Survey on Social Media. He has interviewed people on five continents on the evolution of social media and its impact on their respective cultures and businesses. Shel is the author of the monthly “On the Edge” column in Blogger & Podcaster magazine. You can read his full biography on Wikipedia.
Linda Jenkinson , CEO & President, LesConcierges
Linda Jenkinson is the CEO and Co-founder of LesConcierges. Prior to LesConcierges, Linda was Co-founder and CEO of Dispatch Management Services Corp., an international on-demand courier company. DMSC had more than 6,500 employees and independent contractors in 65 cities throughout the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, and grew revenues to over $200M. Linda took DMSC public in 1998 and oversaw the operation of more than 60 contact centers. Prior to DMSC Linda was a Partner at A.T. Kearney. Previously she was a Management Consultant with Price Waterhouse. Linda has appeared on CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg.
Robin Hamon, Vice President, Messageyou
Robin Hamon is Vice President of Sales of Messageyou. He has more than 25 years experience in sales and marketing and has worked for major corporations in both New Zealand and Australia in the telecommunications and education industries. Robin has received a number of major sales awards, is a qualified telecommunications engineer and has extensive sales and sales management training. He was sent to the US by Messageyou’s Australian parent company to set up the company and build a strong customer base.
James Hsue, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine
James Hsue is a Partner with the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine in San Francisco, where he provides strategic counseling to clients as part of an overall business strategy, and represents them before the US Patent and Trademark Office and foreign patent offices (through foreign associate patent counsel) in patent prosecution, opposition and reexamination proceedings. James renders opinions on patent validity and infringement in relation to patent litigation, licensing, mergers and acquisitions and corporate financing including initial public offerings and procures patents in the technical areas of semiconductors, optical systems for semiconductor processing equipment, wireless and optical communications, nanotechnology, flash memory, software, business methods and audio and video technologies. Prior to joining Davis Wright Tremaine, James was the Co-founder of Parsons Hsue & de Runtz LLP and a Partner of Skjerven Morrill LLP.
Philip Korn , Managing Director Private Equity Group, Silicon Valley Bank
Philip Korn leads SVB Capital's Venture Exchange program, which serves as a platform for providing quality referrals to venture firms and assists entrepreneurs in making strategic introductions that help with raising capital. Prior to joining the Venture Exchange program in 2006, Philip was Senior Relationship Manager and served as National Practice Leader for SVB’s Emerging Technologies Group, which has a client base of over 2,000 companies in the US and focuses on early-stage companies that are bootstrapped or backed by angel investors. Philip is co-chair of SDForum's Venture Finance SIG and SVB Capital's liaison for several entrepreneurial and investor event sponsorships.
Jeremy Liew , Partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Jeremy Liew joined Lightspeed Venture Partners in 2006 as a Partner. Previously he was with AOL, both as General Manager of Netscape, where he was responsible for a top 5 online portal and one of the leading Internet browsers, and as Chief of Staff to the CEO, Jon Miller. Jeremy joined AOL from InterActiveCorp (originally USA Networks) where he was VP of Strategic Planning, responsible for acquisitions and investments in TV networks, consumer Internet and online travel. Jeremy started working in the consumer Internet industry at CitySearch in 1996 where he held a variety of sales management, operational and business development roles. He was also a management consultant at McKinsey and Company.
Jane Lindner , Managing Partner, Jane Capital Partners
Jane Lindner is the Managing Partner of Jane Capital Partners, an investment and merchant bank focused on the clean technology and IT sectors. Previously, she was Managing Director of Corporate Development for Globalgate, an e-commerce holding company and executive director of WI Harper Group, one of the first venture funds to focus on bridging the gap between China and Silicon Valley. Jane has held directorships at numerous technology companies and currently sits on the boards of Australian Superconductors Pty Ltd. and SC Power Systems, Inc.
John Scull , Founding Managing Director, Southern Cross Venture Partners
John Scull is a founding Managing Director of Southern Cross Venture Partners and is based in Silicon Valley. Previously, he was a Venture Partner and member of the investment committee of the venture capital firm Allen & Buckeridge for 6 years. He was or still remains a Board of Director member of the following A&B portfolio companies: Aurema, ekit, Wedgetail/Vintela, Fultec Semiconductor, Fiberom and VaST Systems. As an active board member and investor, John brings a wealth of operational experience to the management and board of investee companies, helping them transition their operations and headquarters to the United States, build their management teams, secure follow-on funding, define their strategy and improve their sales and business development efforts.
Chris Shipley , Co-Founder, Guidewire Group
Chris Shipley is a leading technology and product analyst. Best known as the Executive Producer of the DEMO Conferences for IDG Executive Forums, Chris has helped technology companies bring more than 1,000 new products to market since 1996. As a Founding Partner and Editorial Director in Guidewire Group, she consults with emerging technology companies in the US and Europe to identify market opportunities and accelerate products to market. Chris is an ANZA mentor and has participated in ANZA FocUS Marketing Workshops for the past two years. Her analysis of and feedback for many Australian and New Zealand companies has led to their successful participation in the Gateway to the US program.
Chris Sun, Analyst, Storm Ventures
Prior to joining Storm Ventures, Chris Sun was an Analog Designer for Analog Devices in San Jose, CA, working on power management products. Previously he worked on research at Stanford University in wireless, RF, and semiconductor technologies. Chris graduated from Stanford with a BSEE and MSEE.
Adrian Turner, CEO, Mocana
Adrian Turner has more than 15 years of international business experience. Prior to founding Mocana, Adrian was responsible for West Coast Business Development and Alliances for Kenamea, an enterprise communication firm specializing in reliable, secure communications. He also had P&L responsibility for developing infrastructure to support Philips Electronics' (NYSE:PHG) connected consumer and business devices. Prior to that, in 1996, Adrian launched the world's first network of 225 coin-operated Internet kiosks in the Australian market. Adrian is Vice Chairman of Australia's leading international expatriate network, Advance.
Jennifer Zanich, CEO, uiActive
Jennifer Zanich is an accomplished leader with over 20 years of marketing and executive management experience. She is the CEO of uiActive, a mobile phone solution provider. Previously, as CEO of Wedgetail Communications she delivered more than 7x return for investors. As Founder of SeeSaw Networks, a media services company, Jennifer successfully raised $10M in venture capital. Jennifer has also held executive positions in SkyPilot Networks (wireless broadband) and Microsoft APAC. Jennifer holds advisory and board roles in the US and Australia with Capital Markets CRC, Aggregate Knowledge and Express Mobile.
Andrew Walsh, Venture Partner, Insight Venture Partners
Andrew Walsh, former CEO of the online intelligence firm Hitwise, has just completed one of the largest sales of an Australian-founded company to a US venture, with the sale of Hitwise to Experian for US$240M. He is now a Venture Partner with Insight Venture Partners, a New York-based private equity and venture capital firm focused on the global software and Internet industries with capital of approximately US$3Bn. Prior to Hitwise, Andrew was COO of Australian-listed Internet company Sausage Software Ltd. Previously he was a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Kathy Woeber Gardner, Attorney, Montgomery Pacific Law Group
Kathy Woeber Gardner has represented investment banks, venture capital firms, private and public companies in a variety of industries, including high technology, life sciences, financial services, consumer products and energy companies. Kathy advises clients on corporate and finance transactions such as public equity and debt issuances, venture capital investments, acquisitions and joint ventures. She also has extensive cross-border transactional experience in strategic alliances, secured financings and private equity offerings for companies and investors in Asia, Europe and Latin America.
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Mentors
Simon Anderson, Managing Director, Ocean Avenue Ventures
Simon Anderson is an experienced technology executive with a background in venture capital and corporate law. He was most recently VP, Strategy & Business Development at Affinity Internet, which was successfully sold to Hostway Corp. in April 2007. Affinity Internet is a leading US-based B2B Internet services company backed by Columbia Capital, Wachovia Capital and JP Morgan Capital. Simon was responsible for establishing major strategic product partnerships and distribution channels for Affinity—including eBay, Comcast, AOL, Microsoft, Google, SAP, Intuit, Adobe/Macromedia and Costco—and bringing to market new website, ecommerce and online marketing products and services that grew the company to over 200,000 customers worldwide. Prior to joining Affinity, Simon was the US-based general partner of Allen & Buckeridge, a leading Australian venture capital firm investing in early stage technology ventures with over US$200M under management. Simon started his professional career as a lawyer in Sydney, Australia, specializing in media and technology transactions and corporate advice. Simon earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Law Degree from the Australian National University, has guest lectured at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and graduated from executive programs on strategy and negotiation at Harvard Business School.
Tom Anderson, Founding CEO, Pediatric Bioscience, LLC
Tom Anderson has more than 20 years’ experience in the bioscience and biotech field. Presently, he is the CEO of a bioscience start-up Pediatric Bioscience in Sacramento, CA. Prior, he was CEO and VP of Business Development for Lipomics Technologies in Sacramento, a role in which he grew the company’s revenue over 20-fold. Tom has advised companies in the biotech and bioscience industries, including Epoch Biosciences (NASDAQ: EBIO), a provider of proprietary technology to accelerate genomic analysis, Byotix, a start-up agricultural biotechnology company, and Crestcom International, a management training company, in which he helped sell its program to biotech companies. Tom also served as Chairman of the Board of Berkeley Antibody Company (BAbCO) for 10 years. Tom co-founded BAbCO and successfully oversaw its sale to Covance Research Products in 1998, a move that saw a 500% return on investment for BAbCO's common stock investors. Tom has a PhD in physiology-anatomy from the University of California, Berkeley and was a post-doctoral fellow in molecular biology and endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Paul Fox, Managing Director, Foley Fox & Associates
Paul Fox is an entrepreneur, executive and consultant with interests in clean technology, enterprise software and electronics. He has led two start-ups, established subsidiaries for several multinationals, and consulted in numerous end markets. Paul’s experience includes electronics, energy technology, enterprise software, supply chain management, outsourcing, telecoms, financial services, defense, utilities, construction and mining. He now consults to private equity groups, VCs and growth companies at the Board/CEO level. Paul is a professional engineer and holds an MBA.
Ian Griffin, Executive Communications
Ian Griffin is a versatile communications professional with over 20 years’ experience in the high tech industry. His specialty is communicating complex technical information in an effective and clearly understandable manner. He has been a speechwriter, international TV host, national public speaker, multimedia project manager and event coordinator. He has a proven track record of delivering compelling messages that move audiences to action. Ian currently consults to Hewlett Packard, writing keynote speeches for Senior VP Nora Denzel. Previously Ian was Executive Communications Manager in the Marketing Department at Sun Microsystems. He holds degrees in sociology from Leicester University, UK and Tufts University, Medford, MA.
David Hutton, PhD, Founder & Principal, Hutton Associates
David Hutton is the Founder and Principal of Hutton Associates which provides business development consulting services (corporate partnering, strategic planning) to those in the Life Science/Biotechnology sectors. An avid entrepreneur, he actively participates in the search for novel technology around which to foster the creation of new ventures; he is responsible for founding four biotechnology start-ups. Special relationships have been developed with offshore organizations seeking to foster business relationships in North America. An honors biochemistry graduate of Oxford University, England, David received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of California at Davis.
Sudha Jamthe
Sudha Jamthe has 15 years' experience building Internet organizations. She successfully built Internet communities and divisions in companies like Harcourt (now Reed Elsevier), Fidelity Investments, BGS Systems (now BMC Software) and for clients Time Warner and Cabletron. Most recently, as VP Marketing at Myndnet, she developed the company's go-to-market plan and got them selected to launch at DEMO 2007. As a Venture Mentor at MIT, she has been instrumental in helping the Internet entrepreneurs coming out of MIT with their product conceptualization and marketing. Sudha was the co-founder and CEO of Coola, Inc., a mobile software platform integrating applications between the Palm Pilot and the Web. In this capacity, she raised Series A venture capital of US$1M in 40 days and series B of US$5M. Sudha writes an entrepreneurship column "Startup Diary" and is an avid blogger at http://coolastory.blogspot.com and organizes the Silicon Valley Facebook meetup group. She has an MBA from Boston University and a BS Computer Science Engineering from Madras University.
Jonathan Lacey
Jonathan Lacey received a Bachelor of Engineering from Melbourne University in 1987. He worked at Telecom Australia Research Labs (now Telstra Labs) in 1988, and received a PhD from Cambridge University in 1993 for work on optical fibers. From 1993 to 1998, Jonathan worked at Melbourne University’s Photonics Research Laboratory, part of the Australian Photonics Cooperative Research Center, which attempted to create an Australian photonics industry from technology developed in Australian universities. In September 1998 he joined Hewlett-Packard Laboratories (now Agilent Laboratories) in Palo Alto, CA, where he was part of the Agilent team developing a new business based on optical switching. In March 2000, Agilent’s market capitalization increased by US$35Bn when the first product from this business was announced. During this time, Jonathan sat on the board of several start-up companies in which Agilent Ventures invested. In 2002, he joined Agilent’s Semiconductor Products Group, first as a technology strategist, then in marketing for Agilent’s optical fiber transceiver business. In 2003, he delivered a paper entitled “Building Australian Businesses Based on Frontier Technologies,” based on his Agilent experiences, to the Australian Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.
Michael Loftus, Michael Loftus, COO and Co-Founder of 800-Hi (in Stealth)
Michael Loftus is a proven start-up leader with over 20 years’ experience in launching interactive media companies. He is the former CEO & Founder of inFreeDA, a company that provides advertiser-sponsored directory assistance service that was sold to AT&T in December 2006. Michael has also served in various start-up roles with technology companies like Bullant, Inc., NetFish Technologies, Dialogic, prior to its acquisition by Intel, E-machines and Agency.com. Michael has assisted in growing these companies from various stages, including obtaining investment capital to achieving full product launch. Michael’s extensive knowledge and success in managing these technology-based companies has led to several positive liquidity events.
Rob Schock, Managing Partner, BHS Venture Consulting Group
Rob Schock is a finance professional with over 30 years of management and analytical experience in a wide variety of organizational situations. Over the past 5 years, Rob has provided consulting services primarily to small and mid-sized companies. Rob currently serves as CFO at Picture Marketing where he has been responsible for working with the other key players in the organization to define the company’s objectives, strategies, key milestones and financing strategy. Rob is a Managing Partner in a management consulting firm, BHS Venture Consulting Group which provides business development consulting to companies seeking assistance in managing and growing their business. Rob has organized and run workshops and investor showcase events for companies seeking early stage equity investments. Rob has an MA from Indiana University (Economics) and BA from Knox College (Economics).
Lily Steiner, American Business Gateway
Lily Steiner is an entrepreneur with over 25 years of international business experience. Her expertise spans business consultation, development, financial facilitation and venture capital funding, with companies both in the US and in Australia. She has consulted in a diverse number of fields including technology, sustainability and travel. Lily pioneered various Australian products into the US marketplace, with sales into mass market retailers such as WalMart and Federated and retail chains such as Nordstrom and Kinney. Lily has a long-standing commitment to television and education. She has 10 years of classroom experience and worked in conjunction with Education Ministers and curriculum development personnel. She also produced and directed over 50 television programs, broadcast nationally in Australia. Lily holds a BA in Sociology and Politics from Melbourne University.
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