Christopher Ahlberg is the CEO of Spotfire, Inc. which he founded in 1996 based on his ground breaking research on information visualization. Dr. Ahlberg earned his doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology, has worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Maryland, and has lectured and consulted extensively for industry, academia, and military - as well as published & lectured in computer science, psychology, linguistics, biology, and chemistry.  He has two granted software patents, and multiple patents pending.  Dr. Ahlberg was named among the World's Top Young Innovators by Technology Review, MIT's Magazine of Innovation in 2002.  In 2005 PharmaVoice magazine named him one of the 100 most inspiring people in the pharmaceutical industry.

Lars currently leads business development efforts for Quattro Wireless. At Quattro, Lars works closely with media companies, brands, content owners and advertisers to help them extend their content to the Mobile Web and drive revenue.

Prior to Quattro, Lars was Vice President of Media Account Management & Business Development at m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign in 2006). During his time at m-Qube/VeriSign, Lars focused on helping leading media companies create and implement successful mobile content initiatives.

Prior to m-Qube, Lars was a co-founder and Vice President of Business Development of a San Francisco-based digital media software company. In addition, Lars worked as a financial analyst in investment banking at Montgomery Securities and for private equity firm Seaver Kent & Company (affiliate fund of Texas Pacific Group).

Lars received his B.A. from Harvar d College and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Mr. Arnold is a serial CEO of life sciences companies who advises medical device and technology entrepreneurs on company formation, strategy, marketing and strategic partnerships. He was previously CEO of CardioFocus which developed a laser catheter for treating atrial fibrillation -- now in pivotal clinical trials.  Prior to that he was founder and CEO of Cambridge Heart (NASDAQ: CAMH), a supplier of cardiology diagnostic equipment.  Prior to that he was CEO of Molecular Simulations, supplier of software and informatics for drug development, now called Accelrys (NASDAQ: ACCL).  Mr. Arnold also ran the instrumentation group for Datascope Corp and ran marketing for a division of Becton Dickinson.Mr. Arnold is a guest lecturer at the MIT Sloan School, a mentor at the MIT Venture Mentoring Society, is on the grant review board at the MIT Deshpande Center and is an active angel investor as a member of Boston Harbor Angels.  He serves on several boards and was formerly Chairman of the Board of the Greater Boston Chapter of the American Heart Association.  Mr. Arnold received a BSEE from MIT in 1972.

Ash Ashutosh loves to solve discontinuities: market, technology or people related. Ash has been a veteran of the storage industry for the past 20 years and currently is the VP and Chief Technologist for StorageWorks and ESS Software Divisions at HP. Ash joined HP as a result of acquisition of AppIQ in Nov 2005, which he founded earlier. Before AppIQ Ash was a founder of two other companies, one of which was acquired by Vitesse and the other by Sun Microsystems.  Ash has spanned the spectrum of financing startups from the old-fashioned bootstrap method to the contemporary venture capital financing. He’s involved as investor and advisor to a small number of local startups in the country and in India.

Along with his best friend, his wife Sree, the couple is involved in working with charitable organizations and local schools.  They also manage two of the most joyous startups, their two boys!

Dr. Bhatia is an entrepreneur and innovator who has several patents, publications and new products to his name. He has developed/co-developed many products used in daily life. Some of the products that he has innovated, developed and has patents on are - Glue Stic, convention/seminar name badges, mailing labels, laser/copier labels, binding systems, decorative labels for shampoo/cosmetic/food containers, inks for use on milk cartons, food containers like bottles, boxes, plastic bags and paper pouches and electro sensitive paper (IBM project).

Gunjan Bhow is Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Actiontec Electronics. In this role, Bhow oversees all aspects of business strategy, product roadmap, and corporate marketing. Prior to joining Actiontec, Bhow was Director of Platform Product Strategy at Microsoft Corporation in the Home and Entertainment Division. In this role, he managed market research, product strategy, business planning, and roll-out plans for Microsoft's digital TV software platform for broadband service providers worldwide. Bhow's previous experience includes pioneering work in digital video and 3D animation at Corel Corporation, strategic venture capital investments at Telesystem, and developing the next generation of visual authoring tools at Oracle Corporation. Bhow holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of California at Berkeley. He has founded a computer literacy non-profit institute in India, and is also a visiting scholar at Nirma Institute of Management, a leading graduate business school India.

Jeff Binder, Senior Director, Connected Home Solutions, Motorola, Moderator: Jeffrey Binder is a Broadbus founder and serves as President. He was previously CEO of Magic Music, where he managed development of three generations of DRAM based server technology, overseeing the overall operations of the company from start-up to 30%+ market-share in just two years. He was formerly founding CEO of the Leading Golf Companies, successfully delivering frequency marketing client/server technology and systems in partnership with the top 500 golf courses in the US and major airlines, including American Airlines and TWA. Binder is a named inventor to several Broadbus patents and continues to collaborate and innovate with the Broadbus team. He has authored key vision documents published in major industry journals regarding television-on-demand (TOD®), and frequently presents at major audio and cable industry events. In addition, he serves on the boards of Greater Chicago Bank (a regional FDIC Banking), and FastenerOasis, Inc., (the e-commerce arm of one of the largest fastener distributors in the US). He is a member of NCTA, CTAM, SCTE and has been a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences since 1988.

Travis founded the Prometheus Institute in 2003 as a means to connect the vast reach and power of industrial and capital markets with the technologies necessary to sustain and develop long-term economic well-being for people around the world. Travis is currently the Editor-in-Chief of PVNews, the solar energy industry's oldest newsletter, and is the author of Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry published by MIT Press. He is also a partner at Atlas Capital, a hedge fund based in Cambridge, MA.

Prior to founding the Prometheus Institute, Travis was a partner at Steel Partners II, L.P., a hedge fund based in New York City focused on the acquisition, growth, and sale of small publicly traded and privately owned businesses. In this capacity, Travis served as both a board member and active management participant in these types of businesses in industries ranging from industrial filters to fertilizer distributors to financial service providers. Travis has worked for the Federal Reserve Bank, has lectured at top Universities including Columbia University, Duke University, New York University, and Harvard University on finance, entrepreneurship, and alternative energy economics.

Chris joined us as Executive Vice President, Product and Business Development, in 2006 but it wasn't long before he was named CEO. Chris, need line or two about what you do as CEO? He's our fearless leader, he's on our Board of Directors, and he's our resident DJ, known to upset the upstairs neighbors with the volume of his late-day tunes.

He came to us by way of UPromise - a successful loyalty marketing and college savings account business - where he was a founding member. While there, he was VP of Business Development, responsible for articulating UPromise's value proposition for all strategic partnerships. He built a biz dev team which now boasts the largest and most comprehensive partner coalition of any loyalty program in the US.

In the late-nineties, Chris was Director of HealthCare Business Unit at Trilogy Development Group in Austin, Texas. We think this is where he developed his love for loud country music. (We don't imagine it was at Harvard, where he got his MBA in 1996.

Chris gets active by pacing the sidelines at his oldest daughter's basketball games, playing soccer in the backyard with his other four daughters, walking his lab Liberty (yep, another girl) and on weekend mountain bike rides with his wife. He's got a weakness for pizza, but that's not stopping him from trying to get back down to his college weight.

Jeff is a General Partner at IDG Ventures Boston whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups. 
 
He currently represents IDG Ventures Boston on the boards of 80108 Media, BzzAgent, Click Tactics, i4cp InnerWireless, Mall Networks, and SimpleTuition and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M) and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless).

Prior to joining IDG Ventures in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that grew to manage over $11 billion in assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. Prior to Upromise, Jeff was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues. During his five year tenure, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, and served on the executive team of Athena Design, an object-oriented software start-up.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Jeff is married with three children and is an avid baseball fan. He is vice chairman of the board of an educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves. Jeff is also the author of "Ruling The Net", a 1996 Harvard Business Review article predicting the development of Internet commerce.

Dr. Pravin Chaturvedi is a Serial Entrepreneur currently building his company using the US-India hybrid development model. He has over 17 years of pharmaceutical industry experience. Currently Dr. Chaturvedi is the founding Chairman, President & CEO of IndUS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an emerging pharmaceutical company, headquartered in the Boston area (with a subsidiary Sindu Pharmaceuticals Private Limited in Hyderabad, India), IndUS/Sindu Pharmaceuticals is focused on the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer, diabetes and infectious diseases. Prior to founding Indus, Pravin was co-founder and was founding President & CEO of Scion Pharmaceuticals. At Scion, he successfully transformed an assay technology platform idea into an ion channel drug company. Scion is currently engaged in the discovery and development of novel, first-in-class drugs for the treatment of pain, atrial fibrillation and overactive bladder, by targeting voltage-gated ion channels. Under his leadership, Scion successfully raised approximately $30 MM in venture capital and recruited a very experienced management team that successfully achieved key scientific and business milestones.  Prior to Scion, Dr. Chaturvedi, spent several years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where as the Head of Lead Evaluation and he had oversight of several therapeutic programs from early discovery through clinical proof-of-concept studies (phase IIA). During his tenure at Vertex, he played a key role in the discovery and development of several therapeutic agents for immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, oncology and neuroscience indications. Prior to Vertex, Dr. Chaturvedi was in the preclinical group at Alkermes, where he participated in CNS and oncology product development through novel strategies. Prior to Alkermes, he was in the Product Development group at Parke-Davis/Warner-Lambert Company, where he worked on the development of new drugs for the treatment of oncology, epilepsy, pain and cognition. Dr. Chaturvedi holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from West Virginia University and a Bachelor's in Pharmacy from the University of Bombay.

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics. With degrees from Duke University in Chemistry and Zoology, he co-authored research on 3D-software & RNA structure with Sung-Hou Kim. His PhD from Harvard in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology with Wally Gilbert included the first direct genomic sequencing method in 1984; initiating the Human Genome Project then as a Research Scientist at newly-formed Biogen Inc. and a Monsanto Life Sciences Research Fellow at UCSF. He invented the broadly-applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizers. Technology transfer of automated sequencing & software to Genome Therapeutics Corp. resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori, 1994). He has served in advisory roles for 12 journals, 5 granting agencies and 22 biotech companies. Current research focuses on integrating biosystems-modeling with personal genomics & synthetic biology.

B. Craig Cumberland, a 15 year Software industry veteran, currently serves as the head of globally focused Technology and Application Marketing team, Software programs group within Nokia.  Prior to Nokia, Mr. Cumberland was Director of Global Product Marketing for AOL Wireless, focusing on mobile applications platforms and services.  Additionally, Mr. Cumberland has held Sr. Positions at Openwave Software, Microsoft Research and Microsoft Corporation.  A published technology author/editor, he holds degrees from Texas A&M University and MBA from Indiana University.

President's Distinguished Chair of Information Technology and Management at Babson College and Director of Research for Babson Executive Education

As president and founder of Derby Management, Jack Derby provides strategy, marketing and other management services. 

Prior to forming Derby Management, Jack served as CEO of Mayer Electronics Corporation, President of CB Sports, President of Litton Industries Medical Systems, CEO of Datamedix Corporation and President of Becton Dickinson Medical Systems.  

Recently named to Mass High Tech’s All Star Team, Jack is a frequent speaker at numerous business organizations including the MIT Enterprise Forum, the Small Business Association of New England, Harvard Business School, and the WPI Venture Forum.  He is also a guest lecturer at MIT where he teaches classes in business plan writing for undergraduate students and for the MIT-Singapore University Program.
 
Jack is an active board member in a number of emerging companies including The Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Brainshark Corporation, Hybricon Corporation and Beacon Hospice. He has served as the Vice Chair of the Smaller Business Association of New England and in 2004 was the recipient of SBANE’s Pro Bono Publico Award for his significant contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Jack has also been a Director of MIT’s Technology Capital Network and the President of the University Club of Boston.

Dr. Jens Eckstein is a Partner in the firm’s life sciences practice where he focuses on earlier-stage investments. Dr. Eckstein has a deep understanding of investments in Europe, as well as leveraging the far east for US and European portfolio companies. He is actively involved in the firm’s investments in Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Magen Biosciences, CoNCERT Pharmaceuticals and SelectX Pharmaceuticals. Additionally, he is an Advisor to Sirtris Pharmaceuticals and a Senior Advisor to Magen Biosciences. As Director, Lead Discovery and Research IT at Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc., he directed the company's lead discovery and knowledge management programs for novel therapeutics in hepatitis, asthma, psoriasis and other autoimmune disorders. Prior to joining Enanta, he managed research groups in biochemistry, structural biology, and computational chemistry at Mitotix, Inc. (now GPC-Biotech). At Mitotix he led the $48 million research collaboration with the BASF Bioresearch Corporation (BBC) on Cdc25 anticancer therapeutics.Dr. Eckstein earned his doctorate, summa cum laude, in biological chemistry at the University of Konstanz and Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). The author of more than 20 scientific publications, Dr. Eckstein also holds several issued and pending patents. He is managing editor of Frontiers in Bioscience “Current Topics in Lead Discovery” and serves as an editorial board advisor for IDrugs. Dr. Eckstein is also an Advisor to the Alzheimer Research Forum (ARF) and a founding member of the Cure Dystonia Initiative Advisory Council (CDIAC).

Don Dodge is a veteran of five start-ups including Forte Software, AltaVista, Napster, Bowstreet, and Groove Networks. Don is currently Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team. The goal is to help VC's and start-ups be successful with Microsoft, and together, provide great products for our customers. He writes a daily blog, Don Dodge on the Next Big Thing. Don has been in the software business for more than 20 years. He started his software career with Digital Equipment, aka DEC, in the database group. He worked with 5 software start-ups over the next 12 years. Forte Software was the first multiplatform object oriented development environment. AltaVista was the first search engine on the web. Napster was the first P2P file sharing network. Bowstreet was the first web services development environment. Groove Networks was the first secure P2P collaboration platform. Now he is at Microsoft... “the biggest start-up in the world”... working with VC's and start-ups in the greater Boston area.

Don, a native New-Englander, holds an MBA from New Hampshire College and a BS in accounting from the University of Southern Maine.

Mr. Enriquez is an experienced business leader, author, and academic who is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the economic and political impacts of life sciences.  He was the founding director of Harvard Business School’s Life Sciences Project.  He then founded Biotechonomy LLC, a life sciences research and investment firm, where he remains as Chairman and CEO.  In July of 2005, he co-founded Synthetic Genomics, Inc., a synthetic biology company, and serves as one of its Directors.  He has been an active investor in early-stage private companies in the biotechnology and information sciences sectors. While at Harvard, he wrote various articles and case studies, won a Mckinsey Prize, and published the best-selling As the Future Catches You, an analysis of the impact of genomics on business and society. 

His latest book The Untied States of America explores why, as technology advances, some countries are successful while others disappear. (Fall 2005 Crown Business.) Mr. Enriquez serves on a number of boards. Juan was also part of a world discovery voyage led by Dr. J. Craig Venter, who sequenced the human genome. The multi-stage sailing voyage will sample microbial genomes throughout the world's oceans. He previously served as CEO of Mexico City's Urban Development Corporation, Coordinator General of Economic Policy and Chief of Staff for Mexico's Secretary of State, and as a member of the Peace Commission that negotiated the cease-fire in Chiapas' Zapatista rebellion.

Laurie Butler Lawrence is a Principal in the Boston office of Fish & Richardson P.C. Her practice emphasizes intellectual property counseling in all areas of the life sciences. Ms. Lawrence specializes in developing competitive intellectual property strategies that integrate scientific and business considerations into the complex landscape of regulatory and patent law. This approach includes building and maximizing patent portfolios to protect innovations while also advising on potential risks created by third party positions. She has counseled many companies in licensing, acquiring, and divesting intellectual property assets, and has conducted due diligence on numerous patent portfolios for her clients. She has particular experience in transitioning and growing intellectual property licensed from universities/hospitals into the strategic plan of a company.

Ms. Lawrence holds a B.S. Biology from Cornell University and received a J.D. from the Boston University School of Law in 1997. She is admitted to the bar in Massachusetts and registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She is a member of the American Bar Association, American Intellectual Property Association and Boston Patent Law Association.

Jamie Goldstein joined North Bridge Venture Partners in 1998. Prior to joining North Bridge, Jamie co-founded PureSpeech, a venture-backed speech recognition software and applications company targeting service providers and enterprise call centers. Jamie served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, driving revenue through OEM relationships with leading PC manufacturers and voice services platform providers.  PureSpeech was acquired by Voice Control Systems (NASDAQ: VCSI) and subsequently sold to Scansoft (NASDAQ: SSFT).

Before PureSpeech Jamie was an early employee with Symmetrix, a provider of manufacturing execution software that helped old-line manufacturing companies streamline their operations.  Symmetrix grew to nearly 200 employees before its acquisition by SAIC

Jamie’s investment interests are diverse – software, storage, wireless, semiconductor and materials companies.  He is a graduate of MIT, 1989 and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1994.  He is actively involved in the MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation, is a Trustee of the MATCH School (a Boston-area Charter school) and serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association. 

C. Gopinath (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst) is Associate Professor, Management Department, and Director, Undergraduate International Programs, Suffolk University, Boston (USA) and Adjunct Professor, Institute d¢Administration des Entreprises, Aix en Provence (France). Prior to his academic career, he spent over a decade in industry in line and general management positions. His areas of research, teaching, and consulting are in strategy and international business. His articles have appeared in several leading journals. His books include, (with J. Siciliano) ¡Strategize!: Experiential exercises in strategic management¢ (Thomson/SouthWestern, 2005), and ¡Managing in a globalized world¢ (ICFAI University Press, 2003). His fortnightly column appears in the Indian business daily, Business Line. He is currently working on a book on globalization to be published by Sage, 2007.

Eric has over 30 years of operating experience in the information technology industry. Prior to joining Groove Mobile, the world's leading mobile music service, he was founder, President and CEO of Brooktrout Inc. He built the company into a leading supplier of advanced hardware and software products for system vendors and service providers in the electronic messaging market, from its founding in 1984 to over $150 million in sales. He also led the company through multiple public offerings on NASDAQ. His industry pioneering solutions for integrated voice, data and fax communications in telecommunications and networking led to a number of patents in electronic messaging technology. In October of 2005, he sold the company to the private equity backed EAS Group, Inc. Eric also serves on the boards of Alliance Systems, Muse Research, and Soundbite Communications.  He is also a member of the President’s Advisory Council of Berklee College of Music and a Director of the Massachusetts Network Communications Council.   He received a BS from Carnegie-Mellon University and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Amir is an Egyptian-American who grew up in Chicago, IL. His background is in entrepreneurship, technology management, and ICTs for development. He completed his Bachelor’s with Honors from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University. 

He worked in marketing and production at leading new media companies in New York City during the “.com boom” and spun-out a Web solutions portal for the integrative healthcare industry. He was then accepted into a Master's program at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

During his course of study at MIT, Amir pursued an interest to innovate ICTs for developing countries through which he co-conceived and patented DakNet, a novelv wireless networking technology for rural connectivity. He worked with scientists and engineers at the MIT Media Lab to lead the development and deployment of WiFi networks in rural India, while also managing business development for Media Lab Asia based in New Delhi, India. 

Based on this MIT research, Amir spun-out First Mile Solutions, a developmental venture providing wireless Internet products and solutions for public and private organizations in developing countries. Amir led First Mile Solutions to profitability, managing product development and projects for NGOs, Telcos, and multilateral institutions in countries such as India, Cambodia, Rwanda, Costa Rica, and Paraguay. 

Amir now serves as the CEO of United Villages, Inc., a VC-backed company that acquired First Mile Solutions and uses its technology to provide products and services and establish rural wireless network operators in target markets, with a current focus on rural India. 

Through his work so far, Amir has been responsible for providing access to over 100,000 villagers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. He is personally and professionally motivated by potential of ICTs to impact the masses at the bottom of the world’s population pyramid, whose participation in the global economy he believes is a critical driver of growth and peace in the next century. Amir has published several papers and has spoken at over 20 international events related to ICTs and economic development. 

He is the inventor of four pending patents and has been interviewed and cited by major media organizations including CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, and The Economist. With four years of hands-on experience implementing ICTs for the “Bottom of the Pyramid”, combined with his participation in international bodies such as the United Nations and the World Summit on the Information Society, Amir has begun to help bridge the gap between global development goals and local development needs through sustainable, commercial enterprise.

Swanee Hunt’s mission is to achieve gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild societies, as well as to end poverty and other human suffering.  Hunt is the founding director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she also teaches.  She also chairs The Initiative for Inclusive Security (including the Women Waging Peace Network), which advocates for the full participation of all stakeholders, particularly women, in conflict transformation.  She has conducted training for women leaders in more than 35 countries.
 
From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as ambassador to Austria, where she hosted negotiations and international symposia focused on stabilizing the neighboring Balkan states.  She has authored numerous articles for American and international newspapers and professional journals, including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Denver Post, Dallas Morning News, and Rocky Mountain News.  Her book, This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace, won the 2005 PEN/New England Award in the non-fiction category and included a foreword by former President Clinton.  Her memoir, Half-Life of a Zealot, was published in October 2006. 

Raised in Dallas, Texas, Hunt made her mark as a civic leader and philanthropist in her adopted city of Denver, where for two decades she led community efforts on social justice issues such as public education, affordable housing, women’s empowerment, and mental health services for two mayors and with the governor of Colorado.  Later, Hunt became a specialist in the role of women in post-communist Europe.  In July 1997, she launched “Vital Voices: Women in Democracy,” a conference convening 320 women leaders in business, law, and politics from 39 countries.  The conference spawned the documentary Voices as well as an ensuing US State Department initiative led by Madeleine Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Hunt has provided news commentary and analysis on international and domestic television networks, including CNN, MSNBC, PBS and CBS Evening News.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of Crisis Group and USA for UNHCR.

Dr. Hsieh specializes in strategies in health care quality, consumer and provider decision-support, and Medicare strategy and financing.  She is the Founder and President of QualityTip, Inc., a consumer health care decision support organization.  She is a strategist at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a leading New England based whole health benefits solution provider where she is responsible for coordinating the integration of the organization’s business planning and execution activities.  She was responsible for the organization’s decision-support program and leading the development of its retiree strategy that resulted in the introduction of the first-to-market Private Fee For Service product for the Medicare-eligible seniors in Massachusetts.  Prior to Harvard Pilgrim, she co-founded RxCel, Inc., a provider of evidence-based pay-for-performance decision-support.   

Dr. Hsieh held various management positions in health insurance and hospital sector.  Under her leadership, health plans and hospitals have consistently found creative solutions to increase their top line while reducing medical loss ratio.  Her diverse experience has allowed her to gain a comprehensive understanding of the key issues and challenges facing the health care industry as they seek to achieve their growth and margin objectives in a constantly changing and highly regulated environment.    

Dr. Hsieh is a graduate of University of California, San Francisco where she received her Doctorate in Pharmacy.  She also holds a Masters Degree in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the University of California, Berkeley.  Dr. Hsieh is an expert in scenario planning and a professionally trained facilitator.  She is currently on the Board of Directors at The Art Connection, a non-profit arts services organization.

Stuart Jackson, the author of Where Value Hides: A New Way to Uncover Profitable Growth for Your Business (Wiley, November 2006), is a vice president with the international consulting firm L.E.K. Consulting LLC. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience, starting with L.E.K. Consulting in London before taking over as head of the firm’s Chicago office a decade ago.

Jackson has extensive experience in helping established companies and new businesses achieve growth and increase their profitability. That experience includes work in medical products, retailing, and consumer goods, as well as other industries. 

Jackson received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Engineering from Cambridge University-Emmanuel College, where he also earned an MA in Manufacturing.  He was awarded a NATO Fellowship to INSEAD Business School, France, where he received an MBA with Distinction.

Gautam Jain is a premier disciple of Swami Parthasarathy, the internationally eminent philosopher widely regarded as the greatest living exponent of Vedanta, the ancient philosophy of life and living.  Gautam completed a brilliant academic career in the United States. He received numerous awards and scholarships for academic and athletic excellence, including the Charles Dana Foundation award and the Scholar Athlete of the Year. He was listed in the Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities. Upon graduation, he declined lucrative offers from leading multinational corporations and returned to India to join the Vedanta Academy under Swami Parthasarathy.

Gautam has completed over a decade of full time study of Vedanta and has dedicated his life to further research and propagation.  He has been actively speaking in different parts of the world, and is currently in the US to head the efforts of the Vedanta Cultural Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to educational programs based on Self-Management.

The Self Management educational program is aimed are reducing stress, increasing productivity, and developing effective leadership tools in the corporate world. Swami Parthasarathy, the pioneer of the program, is a resource for leading management bodies and corporations around the world, such as the World Economic Forum, the Young Presidents’ Organization, and the World President’s Organization. Gautam has presented these unique workshops to premier corporations and institutions including the Young President’s Organization, AT & T, Honeywell, Columbia, Princeton, and MIT.  

Gautam was also featured recently on PBS for his work on thesubject.. You can view the feature on:
You http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1024/feature.html#

More information: www.vedantausa.org

Brian Jepson is a contributing editor for MAKE Magazine and the editor of the Hacks and Make:Projects series of books. He is also a contributor to several of the Hacks books, including Nokia Smartphone Hacks, BlackBerry Hacks, and PSP Hacks. Brian is the co-founder ofProvidence Geeks, a loose group of digital innovators who meet once a month for food, drinks, and conversation at AS220, a non-profit & unjuried arts center in downtown Providence.

Satish Jha chairs eHealth-Care Foundation that provides web based patient, physician and hospital management services to small,community and public hospitals and physicians.  Earlier he worked as a Divisional Head of Global Information Management for Roche, Switzerland, headed the Healthcare/ Pharmaceuticals practice for James Martin & Co in the US, led Telos Consulting and consulted for several hospitals to improve their processes, best practices and information management. He also advised the CEOs of several Indian pharmaceuticals companies in the nineties to develop a global business strategy and some of them are now listed on the US stock market. He has lately been an invited member to the Board of MD/DC RHIO and the hospital track of MD Health Care Commission. He is a former Editor of The Times of India Group and has been focusing on the intersection of technology, business strategies and public policy in the areas of universal access to education, healthcare and bridging the digital divide. He is also a member of United Nations' GAID, Special Advisor to Kofi Annan Center and Co-Chairs the World IT Forum (WITFOR)" 

Asa brings over 15 years of experience in the areas of wireless, multimedia services, and real-time embedded systems to her role setting the technical direction and strategy as CTO of Tatara. As a founder she also led product management to deliver the first release of the Tatara platform and she remains extremely active in customer engagements. Prior to Tatara, Asa was Vice President of Technology at Savos (acquired by Infospace), where she led the development and launch of the Media Crossbar Gateway for real-time streaming of audio over wireless networks. Asa also spent several years at Bell Labs where she invented patent-pending technologies for wireless multimedia streaming, reconfigurable network interfaces, and real-time multiprocessor DSP systems. Asa also leads Tatara’s standards activities and she is routinely invited to speak at a variety of international organizations, conferences, and universities. She has published several book chapters, in addition to numerous articles and journals. Asa holds multiple patents and she received her Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California at Berkeley. 

Andrew Kass is a Director in investment banking in the Internet and New Media team. Before joining Deutsche Bank in 2004, Andrew was at Credit Suisse First Boston for six years and at Robertson Stephens before that. Andrew has successfully completed over 85 transactions, spanning private and public equity and debt offerings, mergers and acquisitions and leveraged finance. 

Andrew received his B.A. in Business Economics from Brown University 

Notable transaction experience:IPOs for eLong, InPhonic, Interhyp, Shopping.com, Linktone and Orbitz, common stock offerings for Ask Jeeves, The Knot, Overture, Rediff, THQ and RealNetworks, convertible debt offerings for Amazon.com, Symantec and Ask Jeeves, M&A assignments for m-Qube, IGN Entertainment, Silver Lake Partners, TPG Capital, VERITAS Software, Ask Jeeves, Yahoo!, Inktomi and Ticketmaster and LBOs of Sabre Holdings, Travelport and Network Solutions.

Jeremy has been involved in creating effective user interactions since 1996. The defining differentiator is the variety of experience that he brings to each challenge. Jeremy applies a balanced approach to all projects, taking into consideration the needs of the business, the users, and the technology. He brings this broad perspective to each aspect of the design process. At n2N, he is owns the creation of a seamless experience that bridges all the vendors and tools in the n2N Platform Ecosystem.

From small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, his experience spans industries, such as Financial Services, Biotech, and Telecommunications, and includes companies such as Fidelity, MFS, Wilmington Trust, Analog Devices, AT&T, Genzyme, Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Xerox, and Sapient. He has spoken on web 2.0 and played active roles in web 2.0 research initiatives.

Dr. Caroline Kovac is Partner at Burrill & Company, responsible for building the company's life science focus on emerging economies such as China, India, Malaysia and the Middle East. Prior to joining Burrill, she was Head of Lifesciences at IBM, where she was responsible for the strategic direction of IBM's global healthcare and life sciences business. Starting with only two employees as an emerging business unit in the year 2000, Dr. Kovac successfully grew IBM's life sciences business unit into a multi-billion dollar business, one of its most successful ventures to date. As a result, she was named one of Fortune 50 most powerful women in 2003. In more than 20 years at IBM, Dr. Kovac held a number of executive management positions, including vice president at IBM Research, where she was instrumental in launching the Computational Biology Center and the massive Blue Gene supercomputer project.  Dr. Kovac is a member of Women in Technology International's Hall of Fame She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from Oberlin College.

Responsible for product design and development, Kossman is a leader in the field of advanced technology solutions for media distribution and digital content management. Kossman was previously with the BBC News Interactive research group and has had a long career in multimedia enterprises.

Vanessa Kirsch is the President and Founder of New Profit Inc.  New Profit is a national venture philanthropy fund that unites engaged philanthropists with visionary social entrepreneurs to grow their social innovations to scale.  Vanessa has more than 17 years of experience in developing innovative solutions to social problems and is widely recognized as a leading social entrepreneur.  Prior to launching New Profit, Vanessa founded and led two nonprofit organizations, Public Allies and the Women's Information Network.  Vanessa has received numerous public service awards and recognition for her work.  In 2005, Ernst & Young named Vanessa “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the category of Social Entrepreneurship, an award that recognizes the innovation, vision, and tenacity of New England’s top entrepreneurs.  She has been recognized by Forbes as one of 15 innovators who will reinvent the future; by Fast Company as "Who’s Fast 2000;" and by the Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” as one of the most promising leaders in Boston.  Currently, Vanessa serves on the Board of Overseers to Tufts University’s Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, and on the Boards of New Leaders for New Schools and College Summit.  Vanessa is a graduate of Tufts University and currently serves on the Alumni Council.  She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts with her husband, Alan Khazei, Co-Founder of City Year, Inc., and their daughter, Mirabelle.

Laxminarain is currently the Worldwide President of Codman & Shurtleff Inc, a Johnson & Johnson Company. Codman is the leading company in Neurosurgical implants and instruments with a 150 year history, with worldwide sales approaching $400 MM. The company is based in Raynham MA, with manufacturing and R&D facilities in Raynham and Switzerland.  Prior to Codman, Laxmin was Vice President of CVT and Head of Strategy Planning for Cordis Cardiology. He was previously Managing Director for Johnson & Johnson Korea based in Seoul with overall responsibility for J&J's medical device businesses. He started in J&J in 1986 and held various positions with the company in India and Asia. Prior to joining J&J, Laxmin worked at AF Ferguson in Management Consulting, and in manufacturing roles at Union Carbide and Philips. Laxmin holds an  MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta and a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University.

Fred Ledley, M.D. is Professor and Chair of the Department of Natural and Applied Sciences at Bentley College, in Waltham, MA.  Trained as a pediatrician and geneticist, his career has followed the maturation of genomics from basic research into clinical applications through gene therapy, pharmacogenomics, and personalized medicine., Dr. Ledley has served on the faculty of the Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  He has authored >150 publications on human genetics, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and bioethics.  He has also been Scientific Founder and Vice President Research and Development of GeneMedicine, President and CEO of Variagenics, and a founder of Framingham Genomic Medicine.  He has an MD from Georgetown University and trained in Pediatrics and Genetics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and MIT. He is a Core Scholar of the New Visions of Nature, Science, and Religion program at UC Santa Barbara.

Brij Masand is a senior partner at the Boston based consulting firm of  Data Miners Inc., which provides high end consulting services to  help businesses  achieve a competitive edge,   using the untapped potential of their  data.  He is a recognized expert in the field of Data Mining, which  is the art of using  predictive analytics to  turn  data into actionable information.  

Brij has been an  inventor and innovative professional in the field of data mining for the past 25 years, with several patents to his credit. He has worked in applying data mining to solve business problems in the areas of telecommunications, financial services, publishing, ecommerce and many other verticals, bringing breakthrough insights to  issues  such as customer retention,  predicting future customer value and long range customer forecasting for major Telecom and Insurance companies, that have helped optimized capital budgets worth hundreds of millions. With numerous  publications,  he has helped advance  the state of the art  in areas such as Text Mining ,Web Mining, Survival Analysis and its applications to  forecasting,  and launched the very successful series of workshops on web data  mining: WEBKDD

Prior to joining Data Miners, Brij worked for startups such as Verilytics and Redwood Investments,  developing   intelligent solutions for financial services, leading  an overseas development team in Bangalore, led the data mining team at GTE Labs (now Verizon), invented new ways to apply parallel computing to develop artificial intelligence solutions  at Thinking Machines, developed innovative methods for extracting  information from text at Brattle research and developed expert systems at Schlumberger.

 Apart from applying Data Mining to business problems, he is also interested in social  entrepreneurship to achieve a sustainable, global end of hunger.

Dr. Douglas Melton is a developmental biologist who works on how a fertilized egg develops into an adult.  His particular area of expertise is the study of genes and cells that make pancreatic tissue and the goal of the work in his laboratory is to make pancreatic cells for transplantation into people with diabetes.  This challenging project involves understanding how human embryonic stem cells can be directed to make pancreatic beta cells, the cells that make insulin.
 
Dr. Melton is the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor in the Natural Sciences at Harvard University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.  He is also co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and has become a leading researcher and advocate for human embryonic stem cell research.
 
Born in Chicago, Dr. Melton earned a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Illinois then went to Cambridge University in England as the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship.  He earned a B.A. in history and philosophy of science at Cambridge, and then remained there to earn a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Trinity College and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.  He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the author of over 100 publications. His numerous prizes and awards include the Lounsberry Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the Joslin Medal, and the Scientific American Policy Leader of the Year.

As VP of Engineering for Google's Internal Systems organization, Douglas Merrill is responsible for internal applications such as Customer Relationship Management, Human Resources, and Billing and Payments. In addition to these applications, Douglas is also responsible for worldwide IT support, and leads the engineering groups responsible for several strategic customer facing efforts, including Google Checkout and Audio Ads. 

Prior to joining Google in 2003, Douglas has held senior positions at numerous organizations, including senior vice president at Charles Schwab and Co., Inc, senior manager and leader in security implementation practices at Price Waterhouse and  information scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Douglas Revere is the Regional Director responsible for the Northeast Region of the Private Banking and Investment Group, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Douglas previously served as the Associate Director of the Private Banking and Investment Group in San Francisco, California.  He also served as Sales Manager of Merrill Lynch's Downtown Houston, Texas Complex.   Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, Doug developed multi-family residential properties in Los Angeles, California.  

Douglas earned his dual Juris Doctor and Masters of Business Administration degrees at the University of Southern California.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California at Los Angeles. Douglas is also a Certified Investment Management Analyst as conferred by the Investment Management Consultants Association. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts with his wife, Adele, and their three children.

Dr. Alan Rigby is structural biologist working at the interface of structural and computational biology in developing and validating the utility of partnering NMR spectroscopy with in silico screening.  His research program is focused on the use of this powerful approach for the exploration and druggable validation of targeting novel chemical space that is the cornerstone of: protein-protein, protein-ligand and protein-DNA interactions in the areas of blood coagulation, apoptosis, gene regulation, inflammation and cancer. Dr Rigby received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada with distinction and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School when his mentor was recruited to Harvard.  Dr Rigby is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr Rigby is in the Division of Molecular and Vascular Medicine and a member of the Center for Vascular Biology Research at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 

Ms. Munsell drives awareness and usage of IBM’s internal innovation programs. These programs provide technical resources, collaboration tools and mentoring to help IBMers act on their innovative ideas. She directly manages ThinkPlace, IBM’s global online idea marketplace, and BizTech, which assembles and equips teams to deliver rapid prototypes.  In her role, Ms. Munsell often discusses how to foster innovation with C-level executives at IBM clients. Recent sessions have included companies such as Bank of New York, Chevron, Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, and Sears. 

Previously, Ms Munsell was charged with re-vamping IBM’s PartnerWorld for ISV program, resulting in a dramatic increase in partners producing leads and revenue with IBM.  Ms. Munsell began at IBM with the WebSphere brand of software where she created the company’s Express product line designed for mid-market customers.  Before joining IBM, Ms. Munsell worked for seven years at marketing agencies, advising technology clients.  

Ms. Munsell graduated from Columbia University with an MBA where she was a founding member of InSITE, a joint business and law school effort helping start up companies prepare and pitch their business plans to secure venture capital. Ms. Munsell earned a B.S. from Cornell University.

Raman Nanda is the Director of Finance and Management Team member at Acumen Fund, managing investment-related transactions, the organization’s finance strategy and performance metrics for both the fund and its investments. Before joining the Acumen Fund, Raman Nanda worked at McKinsey & Co. for four years, mainly in the finance and healthcare sectors. Previously, Raman worked on tribal housing in North India and led an emergency medical relief team for earthquake victims. His academic work was based out of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Nandhu Nandhakumar is currently Senior Vice President, Advanced Technology at LG Electronics. He focuses on technology standards, media distribution over IP to the home and media sharing among networked appliances. His work covers various networking, software and consumer electronics device technologies.

Prior to this role, he was CTO and VP Engineering at Triveni Digital (a subsidiary of LG Electronics) where he led product development for distribution, monitoring and translation of digital media & metadata over multiple broadcast networks. These infrastructure products have been deployed in cable, over-the-air, telco and satellite networks at the world's largest media companies, enabling existing mission critical services and paving the way for future advanced services.


As Director of Engineering at LGE Research Center of America, he led MPEG standards development and prototyping of advanced networked consumer media appliances. He has also served on the faculty of University of Texas at Austin and University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where he taught courses and conducted research in video and image processing.

Nandhu has an MS in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from UT Austin. He is a senior member of the IEEE.

Lisa is an entrepreneur with a real passion for developing public/private partnerships that harness combined resources, networks and expertise for public good. She has started four organizations, and worked in a variety of roles to advance job creation, educational excellence, environmental protection, historic preservation, cultural tolerance, and immigration and incarceration reform.

As Executive Director of the World Trade Center and World Trade Center Institute in Maryland, Lisa represented Maryland abroad and attracted foreign investment to the state. She developed a restoration and reuse plan for Ellis Island that had the combined support of national ethnic communities, historic preservationists, the U.S. Congress and the states of New York and New Jersey. Lisa also hosted government leaders and explored trade links with the countries represented in the 1994 World Cup Soccer Games played in New Jersey.

She directed efforts to develop tourism, technology, business retention and marketing plans for the State of New Jersey. Lisa also led efforts to draft an environmentally sustainable plan for opening the largest privately-owned piece of property in the state to the public, directed urban renewal initiatives in the cities of Newark and Camden, and worked on safe, clean outdoor play spaces for children in Newark. She was instrumental in creating and securing funding for the horticulture vocational training program for inmates at the New Jersey Correctional Facility for Women.

Lisa spent time in Lebanon, during its civil war, working as a teacher and in Thailand, as a reporter, writing for a business magazine. She earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard. She is now on the Board of Directors of the American University of Cairo working to find ways to promote peace in the Middle East through education. Lisa joined Ashoka in November 2006 and leads Ashoka’s global E² effort.

Rama is responsible for developing analytic techniques that have a significant impact on retailers' businesses and incorporating them into Oracle’s products and services. Prior to Oracle, Rama played the same role as Chief Scientist and VP of R&D at retail profit optimization software firm ProfitLogic. ProfitLogic was acquired by Oracle in July 2005.

Prior to joining ProfitLogic, Rama was the founder and principal of Profit Sciences, an analytics consulting firm, where he advised clients on the design of optimization algorithms to solve complex resource allocation problems. Before that, Rama was co-founder and vice president of product development at Redwood Investment Systems, a software company that built one of the first web/wireless portfolio management systems for quantitative investment managers.

In addition, Rama was a Portfolio Manager at CIBC Oppenheimer, developing quantitative investment strategies, and Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, advising Global 200 senior managers on solving strategic and operational problems using analytical techniques. Rama began his career with the Decision Technologies group of American Airlines, where he worked on building model-based solutions for a variety of airline problems.

Rama holds a B.S. in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ananth Raman, UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics, has been on the HBS faculty since 1993 and specializes in supply chain management. He teaches an MBA elective course (Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains), and has taught various other courses to MBA students. He teaches in multiple executive education courses, and is faculty chair for the executive course titled “Managing the Supply Chain: The General Manager’s Perspective.” In addition, he teaches a doctoral course on operations management at Harvard Business School, and serves as primary thesis advisor for multiple Ph.D. students. His research focuses on supply chain management for short lifecycle products with unpredictable demand, and emphasizes production and inventory planning, and the role of incentives. He has written many articles, case studies and book chapters. He served as co-editor of a special issue of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management focusing on “Retail Operations Management”, and a special issue of the Journal of Production and Operations Management on “Case-based Research in Operations Management”. He serves as an associate editor of Management Science. He is co-director of a Sloan Foundation funded research project to study retail operations, supply chain, and merchandising practices. Over 30 retailers from the United States, Japan and Europe have participated in this study. The project involves researchers, including six doctoral students, from Harvard Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has consulted with, and been responsible for management education programs for executives in, a number of companies, including Unilever plc., IBM, Compaq, Royal Ahold Corporation, i2 Technologies, Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Nordstrom’s Inc., and Bertelsmann Music Group. He has also helped companies design and develop decision-support systems for supply chain management.

 Raman has a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and a Ph.D. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Rod has spent over 24 years in the networking industry as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Prior to forming Vesbridge, Rod was a General Partner with SPVC since 2000, where he led the mobile investment practice. Some of Rod’s representative investments include Dynamicsoft (acquired by Cisco), Bitfone (acquired by Hewlett Packard), FusionOne and Visage Mobile. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Rod had been Chief Marketing Officer at Lucent’s Service Provider Group, which he joined in 1999 upon the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent for $24 billion. At the time of acquisition, Rod was the Vice President of Worldwide Marketing helping re-position Ascend. Prior to Ascend, Rod was Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and General Manager at Stratus Computer and Vice President of Strategic Market Development at Madge Networks. Prior to Madge Networks, Rod co-founded Teleos Communications in 1987. During the nearly 10 years Rod spent building Teleos, he held several roles including CTO, Vice President of Business Development, and Vice President of WAN Access Technology. Rod helped guide Teleos until its acquisition in 1996 by Madge Networks. Rod began his career in technology at AT&T Bell Labs in 1981 as a Member of Technical Staff and later as MTS Supervisor. Rod holds several US Patents.

Boards: Visage Mobile, Bytemobile and FusionOne
External Boards: Board of Overseers WGBH
Education: BSEE with Highest Honors, Georgia Tech; MSEE & MSCS UC Berkeley

Leon Sandler brings to the Deshpande Center more than twenty-five years experience in senior general management, marketing, finance and business development roles at companies such as Boston Consulting Group, Eastman Kodak, Texas Instruments and Digital Equipment. Most recently, he ran his own consulting firm, Monmouth Group, where he transformed more than 20 growing businesses in a variety of technology sectors. Leon has also served as the CEO of several start-ups and has assisted many ventures as an interim executive or advisor. He holds a bachelor of science and masters in science in Chemical Engineering from Natal University in South Africa, and a MBA from the Stanford Business School.

Vin is Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. At BCBSMA, his responsibilities include Strategic Planning, Business Planning, New Ventures and Business Consulting Group. Before Joining BCBSMA last May, he served as Senior Vice President at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit Michigan for twenty five years. At Henry Ford his responsibilities included Strategic Planning, Marketing, Public Relations, Management Services, Government Relations, Quality Improvement, Center for Health System Studies, Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and new ventures. Vin is founding member and serves on the Board of Directors of Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI). He has served as Visiting Professor at Harvard University Executive Programs in Health Policy and Management for the past 30 years. He is author of 2 books, 10 chapters in books and over 50 papers. He has been elected to both the Institute of Medicine and The National Academy of Engineering.

As a Managing Director of Globespan, Jonathan sources new investment opportunities, evaluates and negotiates investments, and serves on the boards of portfolio companies. Based in Boston, he focuses on investments in Communications and Internet/Infrastructure companies. Jonathan, a successful entrepreneur himself, shares his company creation and operating experience, technical expertise, and broad international perspective to help the firm's portfolio companies succeed.

Jonathan serves on the boards of Acinion, Dotomi, Nextmedium and Provigent. He also led Globespan's invesment in Linden Lab and serves on the board of Zipcar, where he was an early investor. 

Jonathan co-founded Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading global Internet content and application delivery services company. At Akamai, he managed global infrastructure development and deployment, international expansion, and business development in a fast-growth environment. He knows first-hand the challenges of managing a high growth startup. "I love being with entrepreneurs who are building fast paced, innovative and highly responsive companies." At Globespan, the companies he works with "know that they can ask me for advice on absolutely any issue. I've seen many of them before."

As an entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist, Jonathan got his introduction to venture capital trying to raise money for his company. "We had a very supportive and productive relationship with many of our early investors, so I learned just how much value a good angel investor or VC can add to a company." He believes that working as a team is essential, which means "asking for help when I need it, giving help when I am asked, and accepting help when it is offered." At Globespan, Jonathan enjoys "meeting and getting to know passionate entrepreneurs who love what they do everyday."

Before he co-founded Akamai, Jonathan worked at ECI Telecom in Israel where he held roles in product marketing and new product development, working with customers in nearly 40 countries around the world.

Jonathan earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, with honors, from Stanford University. He was enrolled for an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, but left the program to found Akamai instead "much to my mother's chagrin."

Jonathan lives in downtown Boston with his wife and son. He plays tennis and golf, collects contemporary art, and serves on the Boards of Trustees of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston and the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for Humanism in Medicine in New Jersey.

Giri joined FA Technology Ventures in May 2001.  Prior to FATV, Giri was the Director of Acquisitions for the Internet Capital Group, a venture firm focused on business-to-business e-commerce.  He led the firm’s investment efforts in the Food and Retail industry.  Before that, Giri spent several years at McKinsey & Company, where he was an active member of the TIME practice (Telecom, Internet, Media, and Electronics).  He brings extensive experience in wireless communications, having served clients in the cellular handset, infrastructure, service, and satellite sectors.  Giri spent his early career as a computer programmer, designing office automation and industrial process control systems. 

Giri has diverse technology interests - his active areas of interest include mobile technology, application/infrastructure software, and internet-enabled businesses. Giri serves on the Board of Directors of Autotask, OnePIN and Groople.  He serves as a board observer for Creditsight and IP MobileNet, and until just recently, Softricity (acquired by Microsoft). Giri commits considerable time to helping build out the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Boston area.  He is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and chairs the organization’s Keynote Dinner Series.  Giri is also on the Advisory Board of the Association of Latin American Professionals in Finance and Accounting (ALPFA).

Giri graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania's Management and Technology Program and received a Masters in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Anupendra Sharma is Investment Partner in the Medical Solutions Fund at Siemens Venture Capital in Boston. Anupendra is most actively focused on investing in US, China and Israel. Anupendra is on the Board of China Diagnostics, board observer to Cylex, and involved in SVC investments in Sequenom (NASD: SQNM) and U-Systems. He previously was Director of Mergers & Acquisitions at Siemens Corporation, responsible for Medical transactions in the USA. Anupendra has completed over $3 billion of acquisitions and divestitures, especially in the medical imaging, healthcare IT, software and healthcare services sectors. Prior to joining Siemens Corporation, Anupendra worked in Investment Banking at JPMorgan and Salomon Smith Barney in New York, strategy consulting for McKinsey in London, and Product Development Finance for Ford Motor in the UK, where he was a member of the core team that launched Ford in China and India. Anupendra is a Charter Member of TiE Boston, and Founder & Chairman of Mobile Medics, a social venture attempting to solve the last-mile problem for rural healthcare.  Anupendra holds an MBA from Cornell University, MS in Accounting & Finance from Manchester Business School, Masters in Economics and Bachelors in Instrumentation Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.

Michael is a media artist, writer and programmer whose work runs the gamut from mobile social software to gestural music interfaces to big games and everything in between. He is the co-founder and CTO of Socialight, a New York-based company developing social media tools for mobile devices. He is an Adjunct Professor teaching classes in urban gaming and mobile application design at Columbia University's Graduate Architecture School and New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. His work has been featured in a number of outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Discovery Channel, The New York Times, Wired, The Guardian, The London Times, Business 2.0, Time Out NY, Smart Mobs, and Engadget, among others. His writing has appeared in The Feature, Brainstorm, ITWeb, SL Magazine, and African Expressions. His quarterly column on technology and culture appears in African Communications magazine.

Tom Sommer was named the first president of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) in October 1996 by the organization’s founding Board of Directors. Since that time, Sommer has served as the association’s chief executive officer, managing its day-to-day operations and working with medical device industry executives in developing its policy agenda. Since its establishment, MassMEDIC has grown to over 375 member companies – manufacturers and developers of medical products, suppliers, research institutions and academic health centers -  and has advanced the public policy interests of the Massachusetts medical device sector on Capitol Hill, Beacon Hill, and before various federal agencies.
Prior to his appointment at MassMEDIC, Mr. Sommer served as a vice president of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, where he managed external relations and research activities for this quasi-state agency from 1994-1996. He was vice president for policy and communications of the New England Council, a regional business organization, from 1989-1994.
Mr. Sommer was deputy director of the Massachusetts Office of Federal-State Relations in Washington, D.C. and Boston from 1983-1987, serving as a member of Governor Michael S. Dukakis’s senior staff.  From 1980-1983, he was a legislative assistant at the National Association of Development Organizations, a Washington-based association of local economic development officials.


Mr. Sommer received his B.A. in political science from Boston College and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Dr. South has held leading technology and management-focused positions for companies in engineering, genetics and marketing arenas. He has over ten years of bioprocess design, construction and operation experience in the biotech industry acquired while with BioMetics Consulting. He was the former CEO of ViaLactia Biosciences, a gene discovery and commercialization company and was Fonterra Co-operative Group’s General Manager of Health and Nutrition in Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. South received a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand and both an ME in Engineering Management and a Ph.D. in Bioprocess Engineering from Dartmouth College.

Duncan Simester investigates retail pricing and how customers form inferences about competitive prices from common marketing cues such as sale signs, price endings, installment billing offers, and credit card logos. Simester also investigates how operations research techniques can be used to optimize marketing decisions. His current work explores the long-term costs of stockouts, the long-term impact of promotion decisions, dynamic catalog mailing decisions, and adaptive techniques for the optimal design of pricing and product decisions. Other work investigates the allocation of ownership in channel relationships, and the adaptive design of market research instruments.

Stephen Smith has built profitable businesses, both within large companies such as Dun & Bradstreet and also at stand alone start-ups such as Thinking Machines and Optas.  These businesses are unique in delivering products that leverage technology for business needs within a highly disciplined approach to hiring, development and profitability management.  As a graduate of MIT and Harvard Steve has a core competency of attracting and motivating the best and the brightest people in the industry.   He is currently writing his third book for McGraw-Hill on the business applications of electronic games.

Carl Stjernfeldt has an investment focus on wired and wireless communications technologies and services. He also has an interest in security software and solutions to enable a more trusted Internet environment. Mr. Stjernfeldt joined Castile from Battery Ventures where he spent seven years investing in leading IT companies. He will continue to serve on the Board of Directors of Arbor Networks and Cedar Point Communications.  He has also served on the boards of Agito Networks, Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola), and Tejas Networks and was a board observer of Optium.

Prior to Battery Ventures Mr. Stjernfeldt worked for Cambridge Technology Partners as a client partner and project manager and at Summa Four developing telecommunications solutions for domestic and international service providers.

Mr. Stjernfeldt holds a dual MS in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Northeastern University in Boston , and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 's Sloan School of Management, where he now teaches a course in entrepreneurial finance.

Mr. Stjernfeldt serves as a Catalyst for the Deshpande Center at MIT, and is on the University of Michigan's Technology Transfer National Advisory Board and on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA).

Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian is the Director, Surface Performance Technologies (SPT), the High Performance Materials (HPM) Sector, Saint- Gobain Co. He has world wide responsibility for this Core Technology, which is fostered through a network of Technology Centers in the USA, Germany and China. These technology centers and other network of resources support the internal R&D of Saint-Gobain Co.  and also foster technology based alliances with worldwide customers and other suppliers. The end goal is Innovation through new products, processes and new applications based on SPT.  

Achieving quantum improvements in manufacturing processes as a means for global competitiveness, has been the goal through out his professional career. With this goal in mind, Dr. Subramanian has developed unique concepts to combine technology and its management for market development, manufacturing research and in fostering inter-industry collaboration. Recently he has published a book titled, “The System Approach – A strategy to survive and succeed in the Global Economy”. 

Subbu obtained his B.S. degree from Osmania University in India and Doctor of Science Degree from MIT, USA.  He has worked at Ford Motor Company and at International Harvester Company, prior to joining Norton Company, which later became part of Saint-Gobain Co.       Dr. Subramanian is an elected Fellow of two professional societies: the SME and also the ASME. 

Subbu is happily married. His wife Durga obtained her Ph.D in Chemistry from Northeastern University. She is a senior scientist at W.R. Grace Co. Their son Ganesh, recently graduated from NYU.  

Subbu has taken a keen interest in understanding Hindu Philosophy and its application for day to day life. His casual introduction to Bhagawath Geetha started, during his graduate school days in the 70s at MIT, when he organized the lecture venue for Swami Chinmayananda. He took a serious interest in the subject, in the late 90s, when he literally wrote his version of the translation for all the eighteen chapters of Bhagawath Geetha. Since then, he has taken efforts to study the various texts and also teach their messages for the teenagers, through simple slides with cartoons and animation. He moderates the Sath Sangh for the adult group for the Chinmaya Mission, Nashua chapter on Friday evenings. Through his extensive experience working with people of every culture, nationality and business functions, world wide, Subbu has come to learn at a personal level, the role of philosophy and its impact in fostering Emotional Intelligence. Recently he presented an invited lecture to the Conference Board on the impact of Emotional Intelligence in fostering the Innovation Culture, much needed in the “Knowledge Economy”.

Steven Tregay is a Managing Director of the $200M Novartis Option Fund.  Prior to joining the venture group, he was the Executive Director of Strategic Alliances Head of Strategic Alliances-Oncology, Ophthalmology and Technologies at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.  He managed a team of ten who were responsible for identification, negotiation and management of collaborations for the Oncology and Ophthalmology disease areas and the Technology areas including Global Discovery Chemistry;  Discovery Technologies;  Molecular and Developmental Pathways;  Mouse Models of Diseases;  Genomic and Proteomics Sciences; Kinase, Protease, and GPRC platforms. Prior to Novartis, he has had various roles in both business development and research.  He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in organic chemistry from Harvard University with Prof. David Evans and a B.S. from Davidson College..

Mitch Tyson joined Advanced Electron Beams as CEO and Director in October 2005, upon the completion of the company’s Series A round of venture funding. Prior to joining Advanced Electron Beams, Mitch was a corporate consultant and lecturer, serving on multiple industry, government, and corporate boards of directors, and advising start-up organizations and venture capital firms. Before working as a consultant Mitch was the CEO of PRI Automation, a publicly traded corporation, that supplied automation systems including hardware, software and services for the semiconductor industry. From 1987 to 2002, he held positions of increasing management responsibility, and helped transform PRI Automation from a small robotics manufacturer to the world's leading supplier of semiconductor fab automation systems. Mitch managed the growth of the company from $4 million to over $300 million in revenue, and guided the company through its successful IPO. Previously, Mitch worked at GCA Corporation and served as science advisor and legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Paul Tsongas. Mitch currently serves as Chairman of AmberWave Systems, a supplier of strained silicon technology to the semiconductor industry, and as a Board Member of both Photronics, Inc., a manufacturer of photomasks for the flat panel and semiconductor industries, and Rubicon Technology, supplier of sapphire substrates used in LED manufacturing. Mitch also serves on the executive and governing boards of John Adams Innovation Institute, a quasi-public state agency focused on promoting high tech economic development in Massachusetts, the Mass High Technology Council Board, UMASS High Tech Executive Council, Massport Security Advisory Council, North American Advisory Board of SEMI, and the New England Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League.

He has a Bachelors of Science in Physics, a Masters of Science in Nuclear Engineering, and a second Masters of Science in Political Science, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dilip manages Google's mobile ads and monetization. Dilip joined Google from eBay/PayPal, where he was Vice President of Payment Services and Business Operations, responsible for PayPal's payments infrastructure, relationships with financial institutions, risk and fraud management, and compliance. Previously, Dilip was the President & Co-founder of CashEdge, a provider of online payments solutions for financial institutions; and has held a variety of executive roles in technology companies such as Commerce Soft, Aspect Communications and Tandem Computers. Prior to that, Dilip has worked in management consulting, with McKinsey & Co and in investment banking, with Goldman Sachs. Dilip earned an M.B.A. with distinction from the Harvard Business School, an M.S.E.E. from Rice University, and a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Dave Vieau,  A123Systems President and CEO, joined the company shortly after its founding and  brings more than thirty years of experience in growing high technology and component businesses.
Dave has extensive expertise in successfully leading rapidly growing companies through all stages of development.
Prior to A123Systems, Dave held corporate officer positions at American Power Conversion [NASDAQ: APCC], serving as VP of Marketing and VP of Worldwide Business Development.  During Dave’s nine years at American Power Conversion, the company grew from $50M to $1.5B, becoming the world leader in power protection for PC and IS markets and employing 6,000 globally.
Prior to American Power Conversion, Dave was President of Poly-Flex Circuits, Inc., a division of Cookson America.

Dave began his career as a mechanical engineer at Texas Instruments in Dallas in 1972 after completing his BSME at Syracuse University.

Ofer Vilenski co-founded Jungo in 1998, and led the company from initial product development to today's market leader position in the residential and small business gateway market. Prior to Jungo, Ofer worked for Check Point Software Technologies, a global leader in Internet security solutions, and served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. Ofer graduated Cum Laude in Computer Science from the Technion Institute of Science in Israel.

David G. Wang MD, PhD is Managing Director at WI Harper, a VC firm located in China, Taiwan and USA. Dr. David Wang is on the board of several portfolio companies with US and China operations including Aviva Biosciences, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, China Diagnostics and Stemcyte. Most recently, he served as Head of Business Development in Molecular Medicine at Siemens Medical Solutions, where he directed corporate strategy, new businesses, and investments in molecular diagnostics and molecular imaging. Previously, Dr. David Wang was co-founder and Executive Vice President at First Genetic Trust, responsible for strategy, technology development, operations and research. During his tenures at Motorola Life Sciences and Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr. David Wang was Chairman of The SNP Consortium Scientific Management Committee where he was responsible for scientific strategy and management of the consortium. The SNP Consortium is the first group of its kind formed by pharmaceutical and technology industries as well as academia and charities. Dr. David Wang received his MD from Peking University Medical School with outstanding rank. He earned his doctorate in Developmental Biology from California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Wardell is president of the consulting firm, Wardell Associates International LLC, in Princeton, NJ, and Jacksonville, FL.   A large part of his consulting includes solving problems in Drug Development, Regulatory Approval, and Safety, for both large Pharma companies and small startups in biotech, drugs, and some devices.

His Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industry experience includes: President, Protein Engineering Corporation (now Dyax); Senior-VP, Drug Development, Parke-Davis; VP-Medical Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals; Senior Scientific Officer at Covance, and Executive Director of the Covance Institute for Drug Development Sciences.  He serves on two Corporate Boards (OrthoLogic, Inc., and PhytoCeutica, Inc.), several Scientific Advisory Boards, and the Board of the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology.

Prior to Industry, his academic and clinical career was mainly at the University of Rochester Medical Center, as Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Medicine, attending on the Clinical Pharmacology consultation service of Strong Memorial Hospital.  He co-founded and directed the University’s Center for the Study of Drug Development (now at Tufts).

He has testified as an expert in Drug Development in several Congressional hearings.

In addition to drug discovery and development and its contribution to medicine, his interests include medical devices, clinical pharmacology, clinical trial methodology, drug safety, regulation, biotechnology, pharmacogenomics, and botanicals -- topics on which he has published over one hundred scientific papers and four books.

Bill Wardell earned his MA, PhD (in pharmacology), and MD at the University of Oxford (UK), and was a Merck International Fellow in Clinical Pharmacology and Medicine under Dr. Louis Lasagna at the University of Rochester / Strong Memorial Hospital.

Mr. Wardell is a health-industry corporate finance professional with transactional and company-building experience in health services, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. Before joining IC Sciences, he served as Vice President of Finance and Senior Director of Business Development for Artisan Pharma, Inc., a Phase III, Boston-based biotech start-up. Prior to Artisan Pharma, Inc., he was a Principal at Apeiron Partners, a Boston-based health-industry investment bank and venture capital fund. Mr. Wardell also has worked on Wall Street, where he participated in over $20 billion worth of M&A and financing transactions at Citigroup (Salomon Smith Barney) in the healthcare, technology, and industrial sectors. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University, and a BA from Harvard College. Steve lives in Cambridge with his wife and son.

Keith Waters is currently director of research at France Telecom's R&D laboratory in Boston MA USA. His specialty is services focusing on mobile browsing content access. He has been responsible for several novel Web 2.0 technologies within France Telecom including Multimodal Pages Jaunes and mobile widgets. Keith has been involved in the W3C for several years and played a key role in defining the Mobile Web Initiative. Keith is currently actively engaged with the Ubiquitous Web Applications working group and leads the Delivery Context Client Interfaces (DCCI) activity targeting mobile devices.

Prior to joining France Telecom he was a senior researcher at Compaq's Cambridge Research Laboratory formally Digital Equipment - where he developed new forms of Human Computer Interaction. He holds a Ph.D in Computer Graphics from Middlesex University, London UK.