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Christian Dahlen

Christian Dahlen is an accomplished angel investor with a portfolio of over 40 investments. He focuses on contrarian B2B startups in the software and technology industries, with a presence in both Silicon Valley and Europe. Christian serves as an advisory board member at Deepspin, a startup that leverages artificial intelligence to revolutionize MRI technology. In addition to his work with startups, Christian has held high-level positions at SAP and Kabel Deutschland. At SAP, he served as Vice President of Portfolio, M&A and Special Projects, where he advised the executive board on investment and divestment priorities, evaluated and managed strategic software initiatives, and worked with acquired companies such as Ariba, Qualtrics, and SuccessFactors. At Kabel Deutschland, Christian was Vice President and founding General Manager of the Internet and Phone business, driving rapid growth and laying the foundation for a successful IPO. He also was a Director at Excite@Home and worked for McKinsey & Co in Chicago and in Germany.

Christian earned a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Dipl.-Ing. Degree from RWTH Technical University Aachen, Germany. He is an open water swimmer who has completed the 10k Bridge to Bridge, Golden Gate races, and many others. He is also an avid fan of Stanford University's women's basketball and soccer teams. Christian is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and splits his time between Palo Alto, California, and Berlin, Germany.

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Jaleh Daie

Dr. Jaleh Daie has enjoyed a rich and rewarding career with impactful contributions in both public and private sectors including business, foundations, academia, government and NGOs. She has had the honor of serving the administrations of three Presidents and has been recognized through many awards including induction into the inaugural class of Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. A noted life scientist, Jaleh has gained uncommon depth and breadth of skill sets in addition to technical expertise, especially strategic thinking and financial and capital markets expertise. Jaleh is currently managing partner at Aurora Equity, investing in early stage start-ups across a broad range of technologies and consumer products. Previously, she was head of science and engineering at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (at the time, the largest foundation) where she provided executive and technical direction for a $120 million annual budget and funded a diversified S&T portfolio including the coveted David Packard Fellowships. Jaleh started her career in academic; at Rutgers University and University of Wisconsin-Madison. At UW-Madison, she was professor and senior science advisor to president of UW System (26 campuses). While there she took a sabbatical in Washington, DC and served as science liaison to the President’s National Science & Technology Council working across all federal S&T agencies. She worked on Presidential initiatives and served as special assistant to the Chief Scientist at NOAA, US Department of Commerce. At Rutgers, she achieved rank of full professor in six years (average is 10-12 years), was named Henry Rutgers Research Fellow, elected chairman of her department (first woman in her field), founded and served as chief executive of a major multidisciplinary center with 27 lead scientists and as well as director of a university-wide graduate program with 45 lead scientists. At one point she was managing three independent operational units –for one of which she was the conceptual architect and another the outcome of her driving the integration and consolidation of several programs--- in addition to simultaneously managing her own successful research operation. Jaleh has served in various roles on several boards among which are: A6 Corporation, Nokia Innovent, Investigen, Linkore, LightFull Foods, nine consecutive years on the Selection Panel for the White House Fellows (nine consecutive years under two Presidents), chairman of the board of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (Washington, DC with aggregate membership of over one million) and President of the national Association for Women in Science (over 40 chapters nationwide). In addition, she has served on the board of directors of the CRDF Global (WDC, Finance/Investment committee, chair of Nomination), board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California (Finance Committee, Chair of Gala Dinner), Treasurer (Exec.committee) and board director at the Space Foundation (Colorado Spring), trustee of the World Affairs Council (CA), Future Committee of the Tech Museum in San Jose, treasurer of the Legacy Foundation (CA), board director at Sigma Xi (NC), Dean’s Advisory Council at UC-Davis College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Kilby International Awards (Texas) and many other panels in biotechnology, entrepreneurship, women in science, water/food/agriculture and women’s health areas. Jaleh has enjoyed extensive international engagements through collaboration in eight countries, numerous presentations including the Biotechnology Distinguished Speaker in South Africa. Her other awards include: Teksia Lifetime Achievement Award; honorary doctorate from Dominican University; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; “25 Smartest Who Make a Difference” and The Scientist’s list of “Leaders of Science”.

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Thomas Dittler

Thomas Dittler holds a Master Degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and a Master Degree in International Business Studies from the University of South Carolina. He has an Advanced Certificate in Strategy, Innovation and Leadership from MIT Sloan. After selling his 50% interest in IABG, a German technology company, in 2010, Thomas has been running Dittler Industriebeteiligungen GmbH (DIBG), his private equity firm. He serves on a number of boards and takes on management roles in startups and turn-a-round cases. DIBG has a subsidiary in Silicon Valley, Efficient Technologies Development, Inc. in Mountain View, CA. Mr Dittler started his business career in 1987 working as Systems Engineer at Dornier, Munich, Germany and continued as Government Affairs Analyst at Boeing, Seattle, USA. He then was a partner at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Munich, Germany, working also in USA and Italy. He co-founded the VC firm Centennium, Munich, before engaging in the leveraged buy-out of IABG as managing director in 2002. Thomas has a personal commitment to lifelong learning, sustainable living and new ventures. He is a member of the Rotary Clubs Munich East and Mountain View. He enjoys water and mountain sports with his wife Andrea (Art Historian: East Asia) and two sons two sons, Leo (10 grade, active rower) and Ludwig (11 grade, active fencer). They live in Schondorf am Ammersee and have a residence in Mountain View, CA.

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Jim Diller, Jr.

Jim Diller has spent most of his career in various management positions at National Semiconductor in the Analog Division. After National Jim started a small analog company that later was sold to Micrel Semiconductor. Jim is currently a partner at Venture Tech Alliance, which is the investment management company of TSMC. Jim is on the board of Mach Energy, Powervation, Stion and a board observer at Aquantia, and Bridgelux.

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Thomas Driscoll

Tom Driscoll‘s interest in game changing technologies has led him to invest in innovative startups addressing climate change, an issue he passionate about. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of SunSynchrony, a revolutionary solar startup. He is an investor in Brillouin Energy in Berkeley, and is working there to create the first commercially viable Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (AKA Cold Fusion). Tom has been active as a volunteer for SF Electric Vehicle Association and Calcars.org to promote plug-in electric vehicles, and assisted in converting the first Priuses to plug-in hybrids. He was the Senior Design Consultant for Akeena Solar from 2004 to 2011. Previously, he was co- founder, owner, and COO of Tubes Jewelry from 1987 to 2004. He managed the production, administration and sales force, as well as contributing to the design and materials sourcing. From 1984-86, Tom worked as a commercial mortgage broker. He was VP of Sales & Marketing for Xoodl, Inc., a Vermont toy manufacturer in 1980-81. Tom’s interest in the environment spurred him to design and build a passive solar and wind powered home in Vermont in 1974. He attended the Dynamy Program in Worcester, MA, and Goddard College, in Plainfield, VT, where he studied Art & Photography.

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Jim Eakin

Jim Eakin is a highly experienced IP attorney located in Menlo Park. He has several decades of experience in patent prosecution, formulating IP strategy, and IP litigation. While he has has in the past represented both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups as the founding partner of the Silicon Valley office of McDermott, Will & Emery, in 2005 he left behind the politics of big firms and now limits his practice to startups in which he has invested. Start-ups that Jim has worked with include Wyse Technology, AVE, Nuvomedia, Logitech, Peloton, DynaOptics, and too many others to remember them all. Jim began angel investing in the 1980's and has had a number of successful exits. He derives significant personal satisfaction from mentoring the companies that he has invested in, and gives a considerable amount of time to this activity. He also enjoys helping entrepreneurs tune their funding message in advance of their presentation to investors, which frequently includes conducting thorough pre-due diligence as well as leading syndication efforts for select start- ups. Jim received his EE degree from UC Berkeley, and his JD from UCLA.

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Colin Earl

Colin Earl is a software industry veteran with over 35 years of experience as a developer, product manager, CTO, and CEO. Colin worked at IBM, General Electric, and three start-ups before founding Agiloft in 1991. His vision was to accelerate the building and deployment of enterprise business applications by removing the need for manual coding. Under his leadership, Agiloft has achieved this goal, creating a market segment for agile business software, and becoming an industry leader in Contract Relationship Management. He has an engineering degree from Imperial College, and moved to Silicon Valley in 1986. Following an investment in 2020 of $50M by FTV at a pre-money valuation of $125M, Colin stepped into the CTO role to allow time to invest in other startups and assist their growth. He is focused on growing worldclass teams and aligning the interests of staff, partners, and customers.

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 Austin Erlich

Austin Erlich is an investor, co-founder, and CEO of Quovera. Quovera was a SystemsIntegration, Management Consulting, and Cloud Computing Company.Austin provided initial funding to capitalize the company.It achieved profitability after three months of operations and was cash flow positive by end of year one. Quovera doubled revenue annually for the first six years of operation ($1M year one-$87M year six).The company raised $27M in a seriesA Mezzanine Round of funding in preparation for an IPO in the fall of 2000. Unfortunately, market turbulence precluded the company’s filing. Prior to founding Quovera, Austin ledOracle’s largest Applications consulting practice, hewas Director of Information Technology at Oracle, served as an AssociateVice President at Prudential Bache Securities, was Scientific Code Consultant at theJohn Von Neumann National Super Computer Center at Princeton, and was Staff Physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics.Austin holds a degree in Computer Science and Physics from Rutgers University. He is a Board member of the Palo AltoFamily YMCA and the Palo Alto Little League

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John Ferrell

John Ferrell is a founding partner of Carr & Ferrell LLP, one of Silicon Valley's foremost technology law firms (founded 1992), and specializes in patent and intellectual property law matters. He is the Chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group. Mr. Ferrell's practice focuses on helping emerging and mid-sized companies create market monopolies by organizing and leveraging intellectual property assets. In addition, Mr. Ferrell's practice includes patent opinion and litigation analysis, as well as trademark, copyright and trade secret matters. As a leading Menlo Park patent attorney, Mr. Ferrell has represented companies in a variety of fields, including semiconductors, communications, computers, software, social networking, wireless, bioengineering, and eco-engineering. Mr. Ferrell holds a BS and MS in electrical engineering. Distinguished by his demonstrated technical and legal expertise, Mr. Ferrell has been noted in the Silicon Valley Business Journal list of Who's Who in Silicon Valley and Northern California's Super Lawyers. He was also listed by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of California's top Rainmakers, by San Jose Magazine as one of Silicon Valley's top Legal Eagles, and by San Francisco Magazine as one of Northern California's top lawyers. Additionally, under his leadership, the firm was recently recognized by Corporate Counsel Magazine as a "Go to Law Firm for Intellectual Property." Mr. Ferrell has received an AV® Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell® (a representation of the highest level of professional excellence). Over the past decade, Mr. Ferrell has presented and spoken about patent and intellectual property issues at both legal and technology business forums around the globe. Mr. Ferrell is a licensed airline transport pilot and flight instructor. Mr. Ferrell’s investment areas include cyber security, networking, internet, semiconductors & tech. He is on the lookout for creative design companies that make computers & other consumer devices easier to use.

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Eric Filseth

Eric Filseth has 27 years’ product marketing and management experience in the semiconductor and technical software industry. He was CEO of Ciranova, Inc. from September 2007 until the company’s acquisition by Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS) in July 2012. Prior to joining Ciranova he worked at four different startups, two of which were acquired by Cadence Design Systems, where he spent many years, most recently as Corporate VP Marketing for Digital products from 2001 to 2007. Eric started his career in 1983 as an analog design engineer with National Semiconductor. He received an MBA from UCLA and a BS Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

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Randy Fowler

Randy Fowler is the founder of Identix, Inc., former Chairman, President and CEO of Identix, former Chairman of International Biometrics Association. He is on the Board of Electronic Health Plans, as well as the Board of Advisors for the University of Louisville and Rembrandt Venture Partners. Doctorate Engineering from Stanford; MS Engineering from Arizona State; BS from University of Louisville. Patents on electro-optical techniques for fingerprint analysis as well as on stability of Spacecraft systems and altitude control.

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Brian Frenzel

Brian Frenzel is a private investor and advisor to life science companies. His management experience includes co-founding and serving as CEO at Centaur Pharmaceuticals, a neurodegenerative disease pharmaceutical company (acquired by Renovis, NASDAQ: RNVS), Vesta Medical, a medical device company (acquired by Pfizer, NYSE:PFE), Adeza Biomedical, a specialty diagnostics company (NASDAQ:ADZA, acquired by Cytyc, NASDAQ:CYTC), and co-founder and COO/CFO of Genelabs Technologies, a biotechnology company (NASDAQ:GNLB). Prior to entering the startup company arena, Mr. Frenzel was the Director of Corporate Planning at Syntex Corporation, a Principal at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, a Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and a Lieutenant in the United States Navy Nuclear Power Program. Mr. Frenzel holds a BS in physics and an MBA from Stanford University. Brian continues to be active in the pharmaceutical discovery and development arena, serving as interim CEO of Tosk, Inc., an oncology drug discovery and development company focusing on new drugs which block the adverse effects of existing chemotherapies and radiation therapy, Board member of SanBio, Inc. (TSE:4592), which develops cell therapies for recovery of function in patients suffering disability from neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke and traumatic brain injury; and an advisor to several early stage companies medical products companies.

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Steve Getsy

Steve Getsy is The Founder and CEO of On-Line Ventures®, an investment and development firm founded in 1993 and focused on emerging growth companies that utilize on-line technologies to solve business problems, increase productivity/reduce costs, and/or create new business opportunities. Steve has over 40 years experience in the information technology industry with leading companies such as IBM (NYSE:IBM), ADP (NYSE:ADP) and FiServ (NASDAQ:FISV). At IBM, Steve was a Senior Technical Analyst at IBM’s Research and Development Laboratories in Yorktown Heights, NY. With a mission of bringing laboratory proven technologies to market, Steve was instrumental in developing a number of leading edge products and services including the first Automated Voice Response System (sorry!) which was recently featured at The Smithsonian. Steve left IBM with 4 other systems engineers to start Automatic Remote Computer Services (ARCS) which developed the first automated online back office system for Wall Street Firms. ARCS was sold to ADP where Steve enjoyed a 15+ year career first as an online technology executive specializing in bringing laboratory tested technology to market, then running a number of ADP’s Strategic Business Units, and finally becoming a Corporate Vice President. In 1984 Steve joined FiServ, then a private management buyout company as Executive Vice President for Marketing and Sales. Steve helped take the company through its IPO in 1986 and grow the company into the multibillion dollar company it is today. As an entrepreneur, Steve has been on the team that started 3 successful companies: ARCS mentioned above, Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ:ICGE - IPO) and On-Line Ventures® (OLV). At OLV, Steve has helped fund and develop over forty private emerging stage companies with 6 achieving successful IPO's and a number of other successful exits. A few of the leading companies include Netcom (NASDAQ:NETC - IPO), Exodus (NASDAQ:EXDS - IPO), Daleen Technologies (NASDAQ:DALN - IPO), Freemarkets/Ariba (NASDAQ:FMKT/ARBA - IPO), WiseWire (sold to Lycos) and MatchLogic (sold to Excite), and most recently BorderFree (NASDAQ:BRDR – IPO). Steve graduated with a BS degree in Mathematics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, completed his MS in Computer Science at New York University and has an Executive MBA from Columbia Business School. Steve resides in Florida but spends a fair amount of time in our area.

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Dan Gilbert

Dan Gilbert is ramping San Francisco-based mobile startup BeeBell, serving as COO, while serving on the Board of Directors of Boston- based Synchrony Innovations and the Belgian consumer video service DVDPost. Dan also advises other companies in which he has invested, including Entytle, Peloton Interactive, and Tro?v, with a focus on deploying processes, systems, and teams to support rapid growth. Dan was born and raised near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After graduating from MIT, he started his career in management consulting with McKinsey & Company and A.T. Kearney, later holding leadership positions at leading technology companies including Webvan, Palm, Cisco Systems, and Flextronics. Dan served as the Executive Vice President of Operations and Customer Service at Barnes & Noble, helping to drive the company’s expansion into digital reading. Dan led the supply chain for the NOOK® product line, spanning new product introduction, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and customer service. Dan has been an active member of the Band of Angels since 2009 and serves as a Limited Partner in the Acorn Fund. He sits on the MIT Corporation's Visiting Committee for the Social Sciences and on the Advisory Board of the Silicon Valley Institute for Regenerative Medicine (www.svirm.org). He lives in Portola Valley, California with his wife, son, and daughter.

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Garrett Gilbertson 

Garrett Gilbertson is an entrepreneur, venture partner, Afghan War veteran, and former USAF Captain. He has cross-functional leadership experience running business development, finance, and product teams in aerospace and defense, consumer products, cybersecurity, and fin-tech. During his Air Force career, Garrett served as a procurement contracting officer and was responsible for negotiating, awarding, or administering $2.4 billion in government contracts (primarily space systems).  Garrett received his B.Sc. in Management from the United States Air Force Academy (Honors) and M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship from Pepperdine University where he was recognized in 2013 as the Outstanding Student in Entrepreneurship from the Graziadio School of Business and Management. While serving in Afghanistan he was responsible for 439 construction contracts totaling $224M. He was recognized by Brigadier General Blake as the Outstanding Contracting Flight Chief and was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal. Garrett is a partner of Caltech's Computer and Mathematical Science Department through Serenify, a startup he founded. He also led product development for an enterprise software company, Visual Technology, in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University's Masters of Human Computer Interaction program. Currently, Garrett works with Tech Coast Angels ACE Fund, BLD Ventures, and as the founder of Startup Mavericks where he advises and invests in early stage tech companies. He currently works with: a passwordless authentication solution, a gamified credit improvement and lending app, a portable cybersecurity solution, and a mindfulness platform. Garrett’s greatest strength is his ability to turn complex problems into actionable steps that drive growth. He volunteers his time by mentoring at Stubbs Alderton Markiles Pre- accelerator Program and is passionate about helping startups succeed. He is currently looking for opportunities to invest in social entrepreneurship.

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Chris Gill

Chris Gill has experience founding and investing in successful businesses, and as an adviser to startups, investors, and government bodies in Europe, North America, and Asia. From 2008 to 2013 Chris was CEO of SVForum, the leading education and networking organization for developers, entrepreneurs, and investors in Silicon Valley, whose members raised over $250M in VC capital for their startups. He left Silicon Valley to travel the world for several years. Chris has recently settled in London, UK. He is a Member of Angel Academe and GC Angels, and a Mentor forthe Creative Destruction Labs program at Oxford University Said Business School.

Previously, Chris co-founded 8 tech-based companies, with 6 achieving profitable liquidity events. He has shared best practices on creating viable, fundable startups with thousands of entrepreneurs, particularly in Silicon Valley. Chris has been a Guest Lecturer on entrepreneurship at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India, and has been an invited speaker at startup and venture capital conferences in cities around the world, including Barcelona, Belfast, Berkeley, Dublin, London, Montreal, Oxford (Oxford University Said Business School), Palo Alto, Toronto, and Vancouver. In addition, Chris coached winning teams in Microsoft’s Global Innovation Accelerator, and IBM’s Smart Camp programs, on business and entrepreneurship, and leveraged my TV program “The Silicon Valley Entrepreneur” (https://bit.ly/3soZB1m) to take start-up and investing education to a wider audience.

Chris has been featured in written articles on business and technology issues for the Financial Times, Business Week, Linux Journal, and other publications. He was a member of Sand Hill Angels for several years, Board Member of the Mission College Center for Innovation & Technology, and an Entrepreneur in Residence for Babson College. He was awarded a BSc in Computer Science from Manchester University (UK).

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Gary Gitelson

Gary Gitelson is a software industry veteran with 25 years of experience. Gary started his career as a software engineer spending 14 years as Cisco working on networking and infrastructure, leaving as a Principal Engineer. Then he left the networking field and spent the next 5 years at two startups (Pelican Imaging and mPerpetuo) working on consumer imaging technologies in smart phones and taking on leadership roles including VP of Engineering.

After this, Gary spent some time at Google working again on large scale software infrastructure, and most recently, he is leading an Edge Computing innovation team at VMware. He has largely focused on infrastructure and large-scale software systems, with a particular passion for high performance and highly scalable software systems. Gary has experience working with a wide variety of software and hardware architectures including GPUs, DPUs, DSPs, and other accelerators.

Outside of his work experience, he has long had a passion for investing and fintech. Gary joined the Band to expand his Angel investing, as well as to participate in more ways than just providing funding – he would like to share his wealth of knowledge and experience with founders and engineering leaders. Gary holds a BS in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from USC, and a Masters in Computer Science from Northeastern University. He recently got a private pilot’s license and is starting to fly small planes.

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Norm Gitis

Former Founder & CEO of two successful Silicon Valley based startups in the field of lab test instrumentation, both with very positive M&A exits to major corporations. Full-time super-angel investor since 2012. Chairman of the Boards of Directors of 2 medtech startups in Silicon Valley; Observer on the Board of Directors of a medtech startup in Boston.

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Jon Golovin

Dr. Jonathan Golovin is the Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Retail Solutions. Retail Solutions works with over 500 Consumer Products companies around the world to help them collaborate with their retailer partners. It processes data from over 100 retailers and 150,000 stores daily to ensure the right products are in the right stores at the right price. It has won numerous awards for its rapid growth and innovation Previously, Jon was the founder and Chairman of Consilium Inc., the largest independent Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Company (now Applied Materials). Jon is considered the father of MES and was the recipient of the 2000 SEMI Award for his contributions. Consilium products were implemented in over 25 countries and 25 industries, including 60% of all semiconductor fabrication plants, and 10 of the top pharmaceutical and healthcare companies in the world. Consilium went public in 1989 and was acquired by Applied Materials in 1998. Consilium was selected as one of the 100 Best Small Companies in America by Business Week and one of the 200 Best Small Companies in America by Forbes. Fortune Magazine named Workstream, Consilium's flagship product, one of the 100 Best Products in America. Jon is the founder of Vigilance, the leading event management company. Its customers included global Fortune 500 companies such as Pfizer, HP, Sara Lee, Shell Oil and BP-Castrol. In 2001, he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for emerging companies. In addition to founding Consilium, Vigilance and Retail Solutions, Jon is the author of Achieving Stretch Goals, published by Prentice Hall. He holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Richard (Rick) A. Gottscho

Richard (Rick) A. Gottscho is executive vice president and strategic advisor to the CEO – Innovation Ecosystem at Lam Research, where he develops strategies and leads collaborations to accelerate innovation in the semiconductor industry. Rick brings 40 years of technology leadership to his role. Previously, he was executive vice president and chief technology officer at Lam where he led initiatives to transform lithography and process engineering. Prior to that, he served as executive vice president of Lam’s Global Products Group, overseeing the company’s Deposition, Etch, and Clean businesses. Before joining Lam, Rick was a member of Bell Laboratories, where he oversaw research in processing, materials, packaging, and flat panel displays.

Rick is a fellow of the American Physical Society and American Vacuum Society (AVS) and has served on numerous committees for conferences in plasma technology. He regularly presents at universities and conferences. In recognition of Rick’s technical achievements, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering inducted him into their ranks in 2016. Rick has also been honored with the AVS’s Peter Mark Memorial Award, the AVS Plasma Science and Technology Division Prize, the Dry Process Symposium Nishizawa Award, and VLSIresearch’s list of 2020 All Stars of the Semiconductor Industry.

He earned his Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University respectively.

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Gert Gremes

Gert Gremes is an Electrical Engineer from the Alps-Dolomites region of Italy. His focus is on Renewable/Solar Energy with his previous company operating in Italy, Austria and US (Los Angeles). He is currently an angel investor in Northern Italy and Silicon Valley. In 1998 Gert founded Tecno Spot Srl as a specialized distributor for photovoltaic (PV) systems. Tecno Spot strongly contributed to the distribution and development of PV products in Italy and became the Italian PV market leader. In 2008 Tecno Spot expanded to Austria and in 2009 in California. In 2011 the German group BayWa acquired Tecno Spot. Tecno Spot now is an international brand where innovation remains the primary focus, which is achieved through close collaboration with educational institutions like the Academy of Photovoltaic in Bologna. In 1999 Gert cofounded GIFI (Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane – Group of Italian Photovoltaic Companies), association belonging to ANIE and Confindustria (Associazione Nazionale Imprese Elettrotecniche ed Elettroniche - the Association Confederation of Italian Industries). In 2006 he became President of GIFI and remained in that role until 2010 when he departed to accept the role of Coordinator of the Renewable Resources Group within the Energy and Markets Commission of Confindustria. Gert is a member of: The Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano (CEI), The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), The Network of National PV Associations (NNPVA) and Rotary International.

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Jack Guedj

Jack Guedj was CEO of Tensilica since June 2008 during which the company has risen to become the largest IP provider in the DSP IP space. Tensilica achieved a successful exit through the sale to Cadence in April 2013 where Jack is now Corp Vice President, Tensilica Products. Previously Jack was the president and CEO of Magnum Semiconductor, which Jack spun out of Cirrus Logic in 2005 (and included the merger of C-Cube mid 2007). Prior to Cirrus Logic, he was president of TVIA, a leading provider of digital display processors, and led the company's initial public offering. He also held the positions of VP of sales and marketing at Faroujda and director of digital media/residential broadband segments at National Semiconductor.

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Andre Gueziec

Andre Gueziec is an entrepreneur and executive with a unique combination of product vision, technical depth, and startup expertise. His passion is to build a quality product and experience from the ground up. Andre? founded Beat the Traffic (nicknamed "BTT") in 2003 and successfully sold it to a Canadian media group, Pelmorex (The Weather Network and MeteoMedia) in 2012. The Beat the Traffic system is used by 60 TV stations in many large North American cities. Beat the Traffic is also a popular Smartphone App, consistently in the top 10 in the free navigation category. Our mission is to "Help users Beat the Traffic" and BTT is essentially an ecosystem for actionable traffic and routing information, with a Media Business and Consumer angles, and combining conventional data sources with user-generated information. Andre? started BTT and, as its CEO, grew it to a profitable business with original and defensible Intellectual Property, and an excellent team. He is an active Angel investor and advisor to a few technology companies. His sweet spot is to be the catalyst in early stage opportunities where it also makes sense for him to actively participate in an advisory role. Earlier Andre? was Senior Software Engineer and Architect at Multigen and Borland. Andre? started at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Univ. Paris 11, and a MS in Economics from Univ. Paris 11 Sorbonne. Andre? also holds a MS in Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris. He has published about forty peer-reviewed papers, journal articles and book chapters and is an inventor of about 25 U.S Patents.

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