Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference 2010

Sam Gabbita

Partner, Element Partners

Sam joined Element in 2006. He has experience in private equity and investment banking, with a focus on industrial, energy, and telecommunications companies.

Prior to joining Element, Sam worked as an Associate at Lazard Freres focused on financial restructuring of companies in the energy, transportation, cable and automotive industries. He also spent three years as an Associate with Nautic Partners, a private equity firm, where he focused on growth, buyout and venture investments in the telecommunications and information technology sectors. Sam also worked as a Financial Analyst in Investment Banking for Salomon Brothers.

Sam earned his BA in Economics, Magna Cum Laude, from the University of California at Los Angeles, and a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Sean Carney

VP Carbon Finance, FiniteCarbon

Sean is responsible for portfolio management, OTC transactions and client advisory services. Immediately prior to joining Finite Carbon he was a broker at CantorCO2e, an emissions brokerage subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, where he specialized in the U.S. carbon market. At CantorCO2e he worked with clients to facilitate structured transactions of carbon offsets from projects involving forestry, livestock management, landfill gas and renewable energy. Prior to CantorCO2e, Sean was one of the first employees of Carbonfund.org, which has become the largest carbon offset retailer in the United States. There he worked with such corporations as Dell, Volkswagen and Orbitz to develop and manage carbon neutral programs. He also managed the financing and development of the third reforestation project in the world to be validated to the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS). Sean has researched carbon sequestration potential of tropical forests in Costa Rica and his honors thesis was on forest carbon finance and sustainable development. Sean has a degree in business and environmental studies from the University of Southern California. Sean is a member of the Forest Carbon Standards Committee, which is developing an ANSI-accepted forest carbon standard.

Stephen S. Tang, PhD

President and CEO, Science Center

Dr. Tang became President and CEO of the Science Center in February 2008 following an extensive nationwide search. He brings to the position a wealth of professional experience in academia, professional services, and private industry. Most notably, Dr. Tang is the first president in the Science Center’s 47-year history to have not only led a company through venture funding and an initial public offering, but to also serve as a senior executive with a large life sciences company as it acquired and integrated smaller start-ups.

Dr. Tang, a seasoned life science, energy technology, and management consulting executive, previously served as group vice president and general manager with Olympus America Inc., where he led U.S. operations for the company’s $1 billion global Life Science businesses. Before joining Olympus in 2005, he was president and CEO of Millennium Cell Inc. (NASDAQ: MCEL), an energy technology firm he led through its initial public offering in 2000.

Previously, he served as vice president and managing director of the global pharmaceutical and healthcare practice of A.T. Kearney Inc., and was vice president and co-managing director of the global chemical and environmental practice for Gemini Consulting Inc., now known as Cap Gemini. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Director and Senior Research Engineer at the Lehigh University Center for Molecular Bioscience and Biotechnology in Bethlehem, PA.

Dr. Tang earned a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary. A graduate of the public school system in Delaware, he has resided in the area for the past 25 years.

Steve M. Cohen

Emerging Business and Technology, Morgan Lewis (Moderator)

Steve M. Cohen is a partner in, and co-manager of, Morgan Lewis's Emerging Business and Technology Practice. Mr. Cohen's practice focuses on advising emerging growth companies and private equity investors throughout the mid-Atlantic region. He has represented companies and investors in venture capital financings; issuers in IPOs and secondary public offerings, acquisitions, divestitures and mergers, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships; and has provided general corporate and securities advice to publicly held corporations and limited partnerships.

Mr. Cohen has assisted biotechnology, information technology, clean technology, consumer products and other companies in planning for and implementing growth strategies, including making the introductions required to make deals happen.

Mr. Cohen is a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Technology Council. He is a frequent speaker on obtaining financing for emerging growth companies and planning profitable exit strategies.

Mr. Cohen is admitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Education:

• New York University School of Law, 1989, J.D.
• University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business, 1986, B.S.E.

Robert Borghese

Corporate & Transactional Attorney

Robert J. Borghese is a corporate and transactional attorney in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York, New York. Mr. Borghese regularly advises emerging growth companies on corporate strategic planning, debt and equity financings, and corporate legal and transactional issues including corporate mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances. Mr. Borghese has co-founded several firms including a private merchant bank and real estate development partnerships.

Since 1992 he has been a member of the faculty of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches a course on Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship in the Wharton M.B.A. and Executive M.B.A. programs.  He is the author of M&A from Planning to Integration: Executing Acquisitions and Increasing Shareholder Value, published by McGraw-Hill in English and Chinese.  He has appeared as a guest on CNBC's Power Lunch and CNNfn's Money Gang to discuss corporate mergers and acquisitions.  In addition, he has lectured extensively on strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and legal issues for emerging growth companies.

Mr. Borghese is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.  He has an M.A. in financial  economics from King's College, Cambridge University, England, and a B.S. in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Keslen

Corporate & Transactional Attorney

Michael R. Kelsen is a corporate transactional attorney and principal investor. Mr. Kelsen was previously Managing Director and General Counsel of technology-focused investment and advisory firm Katalyst, which he co-founded, and where he ran the London office. Prior to Katalyst, Mr. Kelsen was an attorney in the Business & Finance practice of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he represented both public and private companies, such as SAP, VerticalNet, StarCite and WesTower Communications, in mergers and acquisitions, venture and private equity financings, public securities offerings, joint ventures and corporate governance matters. Mr. Kelsen is a graduate of Oxford University (M.Phil., 1996), the University of Pennsylvania (J.D., 1994) and Harvard University (A.B., 1990) and sits on the board of NW Sign Industries, Inc.

Kon Leong

President, CEO, Co-Founder, ZL Technologies

At ZL Technologies, Kon is responsible for managing all aspects of the business, including strategy, finance, sales and marketing. Earlier, Kon was co-founder and president of GigaLabs, a vendor of high speed networking switches. Prior to that, Kon was First Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. He was at the General Motors Treasurer's Office in New York City, where he managed GM's venture capital investments in high tech. He also spent eight years in various IT engineering and management positions at Burroughs, Philips and Union Bank.

Kon earned an MBA with Distinction from the Wharton School and received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Concordia (Loyola) University, after completing a year at the Indian Institute of Technology.

Michael J. Luby

Co-Founder, TargetRx

Michael J. Luby is a co-founder of TargetRx. Mike co-founded TargetRx in 1999 (with two Wharton classmates), served as the CEO for 8 years, and then has spent the past two years transitioning the leadership of TargetRx to a new CEO.  He will end his full-time employment with TargetRx at the end of February 2010 to start a new venture in health care and will remain on the Board of Directors of TargetRx.  During his tenure at TargetRx, the Company has succeeded in raising over $50 million in capital, while securing clients in the majority of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies worldwide and delivering more than $100 million in revenue (on a cumulative basis). Luby is the lead author on TargetRx's patented method of analyzing the effectiveness of marketing strategies. Luby has been honored with the Philadelphia Business Journal's "40 Under 40" award and selected by PharmaVOICE as one of the "100 most inspiring people in life sciences." Under his leadership, TargetRx has been recognized by the Eastern Technology Council with the Enterprise Award for "Growth Company of the Year."

Prior to starting TargetRx, Luby spent 10 years at Merck & Co., Inc., where he created and executed marketing strategies for both specialty and mass-market drugs. As head of worldwide marketing for 2 late stage, pre-launch products at Merck, Luby spearheaded global strategy and launch planning. He also served as director of new product marketing, managing the marketing strategy of early-stage drug development candidates and evaluating the potential of in-licensing opportunities from biotech companies. Luby's previous roles included senior marketing manager for Fosamax, marketing analyst for Vasotec and Prilosec, as well as positions focusing on marketing to managed care customers in an assignment at Merck-Medco Managed Care. Luby began his career at Merck in sales. 

Luby holds a B.A. in economics from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Lenard Marcus

Investment Manager, Health Care-IT, Edison Ventures

Lenard started his career as a programmer and later worked as a financial analyst for IBM Global Services where he managed over $80M in services revenue. After a brief stint as a strategy consultant, Lenard joined Princeton eCom where he served a Manager of B2C Product Development. Lenard is an Investment Manager in Edison’s Northern Virginia office. He focuses on Healthcare IT, and Security and serves on the board of Portico Systems, and ClearPoint Learning Systems.

David St. Clair

Founder, MEDecision

David St. Clair founded MEDecision in 1988. From 1985 to 1988, he served as the vice president of GMIS, Inc., which was subsequently acquired by McKesson Corporation. From 1981 until 1985, Mr. St. Clair served as a principal for Hay Associates in its strategic management group. Mr. St. Clair received a B.A.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Steve Van Kuiken

Director, McKinsey & Company (Moderator)

Steven J. Van Kuiken is a Director with McKinsey & Company’s Mid-Atlantic Office. Steve focuses on the Healthcare Industry and is the global leader of McKinsey’s Healthcare Information Technology Practice working with pharmaceutical and medical product companies, payors and providers, and IT providers to the industry.

Steve has 20 years of experience in Healthcare IT consulting and management. His representative experience includes leading transformations of the IT function for major pharmaceutical companies and medical product manufacturers, market and product strategies for IT providers to the Healthcare Industry, IT strategy and performance improvement for Providers and Payors and assessing IT-based business opportunities for existing players and new entrants to the industry.

Prior to McKinsey, Steve was the Vice President of Information Technology at Baxter/Allegiance Healthcare. In this role, Steve had responsibility for IT within the Healthcare Service Division’s business units. Prior to Baxter/Allegiance, Steve was a consultant at Andersen Consulting.

Jeff Marrazzo

Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Generation Health

Jeff Marrazzo is Vice President of Sales and Business Development for Generation Health, Inc., a health management corporation formed to help employers, health plans, and health systems optimize the use of genetic testing and genomic medicine to lower costs and improve patient outcomes. Just as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) arose in the 1980s to help healthcare payors manage pharmacy expenditures, Generation Health recognizes the need for a genetics benefit manager (GBM), a trusted third party that can help healthcare payors manage the increasingly complex field of genetic testing. Jeff’s responsibilities span the company’s commercial activities, including building and maintaining relationships with its customers and establishing strategic partnerships with a network of preferred genetic testing laboratories.

Before joining Generation Health, Jeff was a member of the business development and finance teams at Tengion, a clinical stage regenerative medicine company. Jeff has also worked at the highest levels of government, where he served as a political and policy advisor to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and in the corporate sector for Goldman Sachs and IBM Business Consulting Services. Jeff holds degrees in engineering and economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a joint masters in business and public administration from Wharton and Harvard, a program which he founded.

Robert Tremain

President & CEO, Sanovia Corporation

Robert Tremain, President & CEO, Sanovia Corporation, has over thirty years of healthcare experience with twenty-six years in the insurance and managed care industry. Mr. Tremain has maintained executive responsibility for building and operating Blue Cross Blue Shield plans as well as managed care plans. He has demonstrated experience in growing organizations while driving profitability for all types of plans and lines of business, including commercial, Medicare and Medicaid plans. Mr. Tremain has also held executive positions with P&L responsibility in healthcare technology/decision-support companies and direct health service providers. Mr. Tremain holds a BA from SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y., and an MPH (Healthcare Admin.) from UNC, Chapel Hill, N.C.

David Weingard

Founder & CEO, Fit4D

David Weingard is founder and CEO of Fit4D.com, a rapidly growing technology-enabled provider of nutrition, fitness and wellness programs to people with pre-diabetes, diabetes, and those at risk or with family members with diabetes. Fit4D’s mission is to help the 400 million obese and 250 million people with diabetes around the world – and has made significant progress in through its partnerships with national diabetes non-profits, on-line communities and cross-channel engagement initiatives with Bayer HealthCare.

David was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, at the age of 36, and went from competing in Ironman triathlons and marathons running races to having difficulty walking the few short blocks from his New York City apartment to his doctor’s office. Unsatisfied with the degree of focused personal care he received after being diagnosed, David took it upon himself to research what it meant to have diabetes. From this moment of taking control of his own disease, Fit4D.com was born. Today Fit4D.com has 20 Certified Diabetes Educators on staff under the expertise of nutritionists, fitness coaches, registered nurses, pharmacists, and physiologists, making it one of the largest collections of diabetes experts in the country.

As a means to lead by example, David, with the help of the Fit4D.com coaches, was able to recapture a personal goal he had once thought diabetes had made impossible. This past September, David competed in the extreme race The Survival of the Shawangunks, a race that requires the completion of an Iron Man race just to qualify. With the Fit4D.com coaches counseling him, David was able to safely test how his body would react to the stresses the race would put on him along with figuring out he would test his blood sugar every 20 minutes without pausing. This included testing while riding a bike and swimming a lake, two activities the testing equipment was never designed to be used during. As a result of his coaching, David became the first diabetic to compete in and complete this race. He uses this personal success to underline how with Fit4D.com and diabetes coaching anyone with diabetes can still reach their goals, whatever they may be.

Douglas A. Present

CEO, Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. (Moderator)

Since 2001, Douglas Present has served as the CEO of Managed Health Care Associates, Inc. (MHA). MHA is the largest Group Purchasing Organization in the country focused on alternate site/non-acute settings with approximately $4.5 billion in pharmaceutical sales to these providers. A portfolio company of Diamond Castle Holdings, LLC, MHA has grown to become the largest purchasing group in the country serving Long Term Care and Home Infusion Pharmacies, as well as several other classes of trade. In 2006, MHA founded the MHA Long Term Care Network, Inc. to negotiate reimbursement for MHA pharmacies with the new Prescription Drug Plans (PDPs) under the Medicare Part D program. It is estimated that 35% of all Part D claims in the U.S. for services occurring in a Long Term Care setting now flow through the MHA Network. MHA also provides its pharmacies with software, data mining and claims reconciliation services.

Before joining MHA, Doug was Senior Vice President of Medsite, Inc., a pharmaceutical services and e-marketing company, where he ran the Medsite Rewards program, the nation’s leading physician incentive-fulfillment program for the pharmaceutical industry. Medsite was eventually acquired by WebMD in 2006.

Earlier in his career, Doug founded a physician-focused, managed care consulting firm as well as a group purchasing organization for private practice physicians. Both companies were subsequently acquired by ProMedCo, a physician management company. After the acquisition, he served as President and COO of ProMedCo’s New York subsidiary.

Doug graduated with a BA from Syracuse University in 1986 and with an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. He then spent three years in the New York health care consulting practice of Deloitte & Touche. In addition to his current role at MHA, Doug has a faculty appointment at the Wharton Business School where he teaches a course on health care services to MBA students in Wharton’s health care program.

Doug sits on the Board of Directors of APS Healthcare, one of the country’s leading specialty healthcare companies focused on behavioral health. Former Board of Director positions include American Radiology Services, one of the nation’s largest providers of radiology services and MDEverywhere, a leading billing and revenue maximization company servicing private practice physicians.

Doug is also involved with several charitable organizations. He sits on the Board of Directors of Project Morry, a non-profit, year round youth development organization anchored by a summer camp experience, as well as the Board of a non-profit organization dedicated to funding research and education for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Doug was a Finalist for the 2007 New Jersey Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He lives in Maplewood NJ with his wife and two children.

Andy Dunn

Co-Founder and CEO, Bonobos

Andy Dunn is the founding CEO of Bonobos, a men's e-tailer aiming to be the first web-driven men's brand. Based on the belief that men don't love shopping but want clothes that fit and look great, the company's first product - an athletic cut of men's pants - has sold 53,000 pairs direct-to-consumer over the web at bonobos.com. Andy co-founded the company in 2007, has raised three small rounds of angel financing, led the company to break-even in its first year, tripled the business in year two, and is now building a team from the company's Manhattan office. Comprised of stars from Old Navy, Ralph Lauren, and Apple, and its formidable force of customer service Ninjas, Bonobos tackled the khaki diaper butt (KDB) problem in pants and now looks to take on billowing muffin top (BMT) in dress shirts. Andy’s leadership philosophy, borrowed from a mentor who built a ground-braking software company, is to recruit superstars and delegate great responsibility to them—novel in the apparel space. Bonobos was named by New York Magazine as "Best Men's Pants" in 2008 and one of “America’s hottest brands” by Advertising Age in 2009. A lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, Andy lives in Greenwich Village just down the street from Bonobos HQ.

Ravikant Barot

Founder & CEO, OxiCool

Ravikant Barot is the founder and CEO of OxiCool, Inc. Ravi is a former merchant marine, oil-tanker captain and chief financial officer of Ford Motor Credit Co.s JV's in India. During his over ten years of sailing career, Ravi served as an Officer on many different types of ocean-going ships including as chief officer on modern fully refrigerated ships. He has sailed to over hundred countries around the globe. Prior to founding OxiCool, Ravi held various finance positions at Ford's Detroit headquarters, and at Cologne, Germany in product development finance on the first joint platform between Ford, Volvo, and Mazda. Ravi was posted in India as the Ford representative and the chief financial officer for Ford Motor Credit Company owned joint ventures in India ($650 million business) where he managed 25%+ growth in dealer and consumer loan assets while maintaining best-in-class performance ratios.

Ravi holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Pre-MBA from the University of Dallas, and a Master Mariner’s license (B.Sc) from LBS College of Advanced Maritime Research and Studies, Mumbai, India.

Mark deGrandpre, Ph.D.

Director of Investments, Physical Sciences, Ben Franklin Technology Partners

Mark deGrandpre, Ph.D. has over 23 years of experience with innovative business and technology development. After receiving his PhD in organic Chemistry at UCLA under Noble Laureate, Donald Cram, Mark joined the Rohm and Haas Company. His responsibilities over a 20+ year span bridged the areas of both business and technology including research management, business development, Vice President of Research and Marketing for Polytribo venture, and Director of Licensing, Corp. Development. Following this tenure, Mark was Director of Technology and New Business Development for Polysciences Inc., a privately held specialty materials company headquartered in Warrington, PA.

Currently at BFTP/SEP, he is responsible for a portfolio of over 30 young physical science companies in the region, and for identifying new investment opportunities. Mark has significantly improved deal flow and enhanced portfolio quality since he joined the BFTP team in January of 2006. He is an active participant as an investor and in an advisory role for these emerging companies lending support in strategic and financial matters.

Emily Landsburg

CEO, Black Gold Biofuels

Emily Landsburg joined BlackGold in 2003 as a member of the founding team. A keen entrepreneur, she established Philadelphia’s leading biodiesel distributorship, on track to exceed $10M in annual revenue in only its 3rd year. Here she honed expertise in bio/petro-diesel markets and with municipalities and utilities, her target customers. Emily successfully started and sold a business addressing sewage disposal in the marine industry and has been involved in several start-ups in energy and technology. A nationally recognized leader, she was appointed the first Chairman of the National Biodiesel Board’s Sustainability Task Force and is an international speaker. She graduated magna cum laude in Applied Math from Columbia University, is an Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and was named an Emerging Connector by Leadership Philadelphia.

Harrison Wellford

Founder, Wellford Energy Advisors

Harrison Wellford has spent 25 years in the alternative energy and political arenas as a Presidential advisor, policy analyst and advocate, senior executive of clean tech companies, entrepreneur and regulatory and project finance lawyer. Mr. Wellford has advised Democratic President elects, Presidential nominees and Senate Committees on Presidential transition planning for over 20 years.

He served as Chairman of Latham & Watkins energy practice where he helped establish the firm’s Clean Technology Group.

In 1992, Mr. Wellford served as White House transition advisor to President-elect Clinton and served on the Economic Policy Group of the Transition Team with responsibility for planning Congressional budget strategy.

In 2004, he chaired Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry's pre-election transition taskforce responsible for organizing the transition of the White House Staff and the Executive Office of the President.

In 2008, he advised then Senator Obama on White House organization and strategic planning for the Presidential transition during the pre-election period and served as transition advisor after the election.

He currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Green Bank Coalition which helped develop legislation now pending in the Congress to create a government sponsored bank to promote long term investment in clean energy.

Mr. Wellford holds a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law School. He was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University and Valedictorian of his graduating class at Davidson College.

James (Jim) Balaschak

Principal, Energy & Resources, Greater Philadelphia Energy & Resources Practice Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP (Moderator)

James Balaschak is a Principal in Deloitte’s US Energy & Resources practice, having recently returned to the United States after serving as the Managing Partner for Clients & Industries and the Leader of Energy & Resources for Deloitte & Touche CIS in Moscow, Russia.

During his eleven-year tenure with Deloitte CIS in Russia, Jim also formed and led Consulting and Financial Advisory Services, servicing a host of major energy clients such as BP, TNK-BP, Gazprom, Rosneft, Lukoil and United Energy Systems, and assisting major in-bound international investors including Daimler Chrysler, Goodyear, Western Union and Visa International.

James came to Deloitte & Touche in 1998 from the position of Managing Director at Teledyne Corporation where he was responsible for all of the Company’s operations, business planning and expansion activities throughout Russia and the CIS. Jim holds an MBA from Tulsa University with a B.S. in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.

Alex Campbell

Co-Founder & CEO, Vibes Media

In 1998, at the age of 22, Alex co-founded Vibes Media with Jack Philbin. Vibes has since grown into the largest and most profitable mobile marketing and technology company in the US. Vibes uses messaging to help clients in a range of industries including consumer products directly interact with their customers. The company currently employs more than 80 people and has revenues of about $12 million. Alex is an expert in non-traditional and mobile marketing and is a frequent speaker at trade shows. Alex graduated rom the Wharton School with a Bachelor of Science and was a Wharton Entrepreneur in Residence this fall. Alex has won numerous awards, including Crain’s Chicago “40 under 40,” and the Red Herring “25 Most Influential Young Technology Rebels.”

Jennifer Fleiss

Co-Founder, Rent the Runway

Jennifer Fleiss co-founded Rent the Runway with Jennifer Hyman after obtaining seed money from Bain Capital Ventures. The company applied a Netflix model to women’s dresses, allowing women to rent dresses by contemporary designers at 10% of retail price. RenttheRunway.com launched November 9, 2009 and since then has signed up more than 160,000 members to its site, shipped over 2,000 orders and raked in over $200,000 in revenue. Jennifer is responsible for the cost side of Rent the Runway including operations, technology, legal, investor relations and administration. Jennifer previously worked as a strategy consultant at Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley. In 2008, Jennifer founded Carter Admissions, an online essay-editing and coaching service for college applicants. Other entrepreneurial initiatives include Carter Admissions Online Essay Editing, Juice Generation and Yoga Earth. Jennifer holds a BA from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Marc Singer

Managing Partner, Osage University Partners

Marc has more than 16 years of consumer experience in venture capital industry. Currently, he is a Managing Partner at Osage University Partners, a new venture capital fund that invests in university start-ups. He was previously a General Partner and co-founder of BEV Capital, an early stage venture capital firm that focused on investments in consumer companies and supporting technologies for consumer companies. Marc helped BEV raise and invest over $200M in over 40 companies and co-invested with over 100 other venture capital firms. He managed or co-managed eighteen of BEV's investments, served as an active board member and/or Chairman for the majority of his investments, and successfully managed multiple companies from start-up through IPO or trade sale. Prior to co-founding BEV in 1997, Marc worked at Consumer Venture Partners, another venture capital firm which he joined in 1993. Marc earned his BS from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Kartik Hosanagar

Professor, The Wharton School (Moderator)

Kartik Hosanagar is an associate professor of Internet Commerce at The Wharton School. Kartik´s research work focuses on Internet media and Internet marketing. His research has received several awards, including the William Cooper award for best thesis in Management Science and the best paper award at the Consortium on Technology Policy and Management. Kartik has received several teaching awards including the MBA Excellence in Teaching and Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching awards. Kartik is a cofounder of Yodle Inc and serves on the boards of several other startups.

Doug Alexander

President, ICG

An original member of ICG's advisory board, Doug joined the company full-time in September 1997 as Managing Director. Doug has had many roles at ICG including CEO of WiseWire Technologies, which was successfully sold to Lycos; Chairman of Verticalnet through its IPO; CEO of ICG Europe; and CEO of Mobility Technologies. In addition to these roles, Doug's primary focus at ICG has been to sponsor and oversee investments in several partner companies that have included Blackboard (Nasdaq: BBBB), Verticalnet (Nasdaq:VERT), eMerge Interactive (Nasdaq: EMRG), Arbinet-thexchange (Nasdaq: ARBX), WiseWire (acquired by Lycos), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), CreditTrade (sold to Creditex), StarCite, Mobility Technologies, and Investor Force. Doug currently serves on the boards of Channel Intelligence, Investor Force, ClickEquations, GovDelivery, ICG Commerce, StarCite,and WhiteFence.

Prior to joining ICG, Doug co-founded Reality Online in 1989. Reality Online was an early innovator in the development of award-winning financial planning tools and online services aimed at the individual investor. With the advent of the Internet, Doug transformed the company into a leading provider of Internet solutions to the retail brokerage industry, and then sold the company to Reuters in February 1994. Over the following 3 years, Doug became a key contributor to Reuters' many Internet initiatives and a frequent speaker on the Internet and its impact on the financial services industry. Prior to co-founding Reality Online, Doug was a partner with Strategic Management Group, a corporate training firm and three-time Inc. 500 company.

Blake Jennelle

Founder, Philly Startup Leaders

Blake Jennelle is an entrepreneur, movement builder and community leader in Philadelphia. He believes that Philadelphia is the best city in the country for bootstrapping a company or a community.

He started three labors of love in Philadelphia: his first company, Anthillz.com (fail); his first movement, Philly Startup Leaders (success); and his first marketing machine at TicketLeap (to-be-determined). He's also helping to build and grow the startup accelerators DreamIt Ventures and Good Company Ventures.

He graduated from Harvard University in 2004 with a joint concentration in Social Studies and Mathematics. He writes at www.blakejennelle.com and tweets at @bjennelle.

Mark Langsfeld

Founder & CEO, ListenLogic

Mark is an expert in social media and business intelligence and drives the strategic direction of the company. Prior to founding ListenLogic, Mark was the Vice President of New Product Initiatives at Move.com (NASDAQ: MOVE -- formerly Homestore.com), a $250MM provider of online real estate search services and operator of Realtor.com, Mark also served as Vice President of Strategy at 4anything.com, a 6000 site vertical network aggregator and a MediaMetrix top 100 site in 2000.  Prior to that, Mark worked at BT Alex Brown in the Real Estate Investment Banking Group in New York.  An expert skier who enjoys playing golf and tennis, Mark holds a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester and also studied at the Wharton School.

Josh Shapiro

PA House Representative

Rep. Josh Shapiro, 36, represents the 153rd Legislative District in Montgomery County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Shapiro is a committed public servant who has worked in federal and state government for more than 15 years and was named "Best State Legislator" by Philadelphia Magazine. Shapiro was first elected to the House in 2004 and reelected in 2006 and 2008, and served as deputy speaker of the House from 2006-2008.

While in the state House, Shapiro has authored and led the fight to implement the farthest-reaching ethics and government reform agenda in a generation.

As co-chairman of the Speakers' Commission on Legislative Reform, Shapiro led an effort to pass more than 30 reforms to state law and the House rules, including a revamped Open Records Law that dramatically exposed the inner workings of state government to public scrutiny. Shapiro also sponsored the first major rewrite of the House rules in decades that opened up House proceedings to the public, eliminated certain legislative perks and made House expenditures subject to public disclosure.

As chairman of the Legislative Audit Committee, Shapiro secured unanimous support to require the General Assembly to return its $210 million surplus to the taxpayers and establish stricter financial controls over the expenditure of state funds.

In addition to his work to promote ethics and reform of state government, Shapiro has focused on increasing the affordability of college for Pennsylvania's students, expanding access to health care and divesting state pension funds from companies that do business with terror-sponsoring countries. To make college more affordable, he passed two laws allowing college students to transfer their academic credits when changing from one state or community college to another and to make contributions to 529 college savings plans tax deductible. Shapiro passed legislation in the House to require the Commonwealth's two pension funds to divest from Iran and Sudan. He also authored a House-passed bill to address the shortage of physicians in Pennsylvania by offering new doctors full medical school loan forgiveness in exchange for an agreement to practice medicine in Pennsylvania for at least 10 years.

Shapiro has earned a reputation as a bipartisan consensus builder and has been recognized nationally for his efforts. In June 2009 he was selected as one of 32 state legislators nationwide to the "White House Team of State Legislators for Health Reform” to help President Obama shape the national health reform effort. He was also one of 24 elected officials nationwide, and the first and only Pennsylvania official, to be selected for the prestigious Aspen Institute-Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership program.

Rep. Shapiro is the Secretary of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Chairman of the Legislative Audit and Advisory Committee, as well as a member of the Finance, Judiciary and Insurance committees. He also is an appointee to the Tobacco Settlement Investment Board, the State Planning Board. Shapiro served as the co-chairman of the Speakers' Commission on Legislative Reform during the 2007-08 session.

Before his service in the Pennsylvania state House, Shapiro served as a senior aide on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. from 1995-2003.

Shapiro is a 1995 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Rochester and received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2002. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar. Shapiro and his family live in Abington Township in Montgomery County. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Lori. The couple has three young children, Sophia, Jonah and Max.

Barry R. Cohen

President, Cohen Partners LLC (Moderator)

Barry Cohen is the President of Cohen Partners LLC.  In 1982, Barry Cohen co-founded Seide Jonas & Cohen, Inc. to handle insurance coverage for commercial, personal, life and health customers.  With over 30 years of insurance brokerage experience handling high profile clients with operations throughout the United States, Barry co-founded Cohen Partners in 2000.  His team provides all forms of insurance, risk management and financial solutions to a range of individuals and companies.

Jordan Leef

Associate, MentorTech Ventures

Mr. Leef joined the General Partner in 2008. He was previously a financial analyst for Pharos Capital Group, a private equity firm located in Nashville and Dallas. In this capacity, Mr. Leef worked as a member of the Pharos investment team to provide growth and later-stage capital for businesses in underserved areas of the nation focusing on firms in the healthcare, business services and technology industries.

Prior to Pharos, Mr. Leef worked in the Biotechnology Equity Research Group at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin (now Collins Stewart) in New York City, where he was responsible for writing research reports, providing sector analysis and valuing drug companies and their pipelines. He also previously interned at Pfizer, Inc. in the U.S. Clinical Operations Division, where he worked with CROs to manage clinical trials and helped coordinate regulatory release of several new compounds.

Mr. Leef attended the University of Pennsylvania where he gained significant clinical experience in the PENN Health System. He is a graduate of the Wharton School and holds a B.S. in Economics with concentrations in Healthcare Management & Policy and Accounting.

Brett Topche

Senior Associate, MentorTech Ventures

Mr. Topche joined the General Partner in 2007 and serves as a Senior Associate. He was previously a member of the Fund Investments Team at Hamilton Lane Advisors, a fund-of-funds manager and private equity investment consultant. In this capacity, he evaluated private equity funds across a broad spectrum of stages and strategies on behalf of both discretionary and non-discretionary clients. During his time at Hamilton Lane, Mr. Topche reviewed more than 100 funds, including venture capital, mezzanine, buyout and real estate funds. Based in part on reports he drafted, more than $1 billion was invested into these funds.

Prior to working for Hamilton Lane, Mr. Topche was an Associate with NJTC Venture Fund, where he focused on investments in early-stage companies in the software, Internet and communications sectors. His responsibilities included deal flow generation, initial company reviews, performing due diligence on potential investments, participating in deal structuring, reviewing legal documentation and working with companies post-investment, occasionally as an Observer on Boards of Directors.

He previously worked for MRA International in real estate development consulting and for the accounting firm Frankel and Topche.

Mr. Topche is a 2002 magna cum laude graduate of the Wharton School, with a B.S. in Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Legal Studies and a Political Science minor from the College and Arts and Sciences.

Jake Schwartz

Founder, The Williams Group

Jake Schwartz (WG '08) is the founder of The Williams Group, a business development and strategy and advisory firm for early and growth stage companies. Previously, he was a Senior Associate at Associated Partners, a multi-stage private equity firm focused on telecommunications, media and technology co-funded by Liberty Media Corporation and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. He is also the founder of Sparkling Fresh Artists & Auctions, and The Tank, a non-profit performance space in New York City. While at Wharton he worked as Consultant and Engagement Manager for the Wharton Small Business Development Center, and was part of the Venture Initiation Program.