The Career Discovery Forum for Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital will be held in Room 50 from 1 :00 PM to 7:30 PM on September 8, 2006.
This one-day event is designed to provide students an opportunity to learn more about MBA careers in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Keynote speakers and panel discussions will allow you to gain insight and perspectives on VC careers, including the skills and qualifications companies seek when hiring MBAs. Additionally, after the panel discussions, a reception as well as information tables will give you a chance to meet Darden alumni and senior staff from a variety of companies.
The presentations and panel sessions are designed to help students understand questions such as: What are entrepreneurial or venture capital career paths like? What are the skills, traits, and experiences that are needed? When is it the right time to step into such a role: immediately after graduation or later in a career?
The Darden Career Development Center (CDC) encourages students to get involved in all aspects of the Career Discovery Forum. By taking time to speak with panelists and Second Year students and listen to diverse panel discussions, First Year students will be able to able to further validate their career objective and build their personal career plan.
There is much to learn and explore at the Forum, and it will help students gain valuable insights and meet exciting new people.
To sign up for the event, please use the event sign-up page on the CDC Website. (log in; sign up for events; search for events; event type = “Workshop”)
Schedule of Events:
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Opening/Introduction ~ Classroom 50
Introductions by CDC; Philippe Sommer, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, Darden; and John May, Managing Partner, New Vantage Group and Director Darden’s NOVA initiative
Keynote Speaker, Gary Evans, Angle Technology Group |
1:30-2:40 PM |
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Entrepreneurship Panel ~ Classroom 50
Paul Brewer, Object Video
Manoj George, Nimaya
Pamela Peterson, Sammy Snacks
Ben Psillas, Allpoint Network
Ian Ratcliffe, (D’94) Biocatalyst
Moderator:
Darden Faculty, John May
Break |
2:45-4:00 PM
4:00-4:15 PM |
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Venture Capital Panel ~ Classroom 50
Doug Burns, (D’02), Court Square Ventures
Gary Evans, Angle Technology Group
Laura Lukaczk, (D’87) Avansis
Tim Meyers, Updata
Moderator:
Philippe Sommer, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, Darden |
4:15-5:30 PM |
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Reception ~ Outside Abbott Auditorium
Batten Venture Bootcamp
Batten Venture Internship Program
Darden Business Projects
Batten Incubator
Student Clubs: E&VC, Business Technology, Healthcare Leadership, Darden Private
Equity Network
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5:30-7:30 PM |
Opening/Introduction ~ Classroom 50
Keynote Speaker, Gary Evans, Angle Technology Group
Introductions by CDC; Philippe Sommer, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, Darden; and John May, Managing Partner, New Vantage Group and Director Darden’s NOVA initiative
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1:30-2:40 PM |
Entrepreneurship Panel ~ Classroom 50
Paul Brewer, Object Video
Manoj George, Nimaya
Pamela Peterson, Sammy Snacks
Ben Psillas, Allpoint Network
Ian Ratcliffe, (D’94) Biocatalyst
Darden Faculty, John May
Break
Moderator: |
2:45-4:00 PM
4:00-4:15 PM |
Venture Capital Panel ~ Classroom 50
Gary Evans, Angle Technology Group
Laura Lukaczk, (D’87) Avansis
Tim Meyers, Updata
Philippe Sommer, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs, Darden
Moderator:
Doug Burns, (D’02), Court Square Ventures |
4:15-5:30 PM |
Reception ~ Outside Abbott Auditorium
Batten Venture Internship Program
Darden Business Projects
Batten Incubator
Student Clubs: E&VC, Business Technology, Healthcare Leadership, Darden Private
Batten Venture Bootcamp |
5:30-7:30 PM |
Panelists and Moderators
Keynote Speaker
Gary Evans, Chief Executive Officer, Angle Technology Group
Gary Evans has a BSc in Chemistry, a PhD in Physical Chemistry, and a Diploma in Management Science and was Visiting Professor in Innovation Management at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen from 1997 to 1999. Dr Evans undertook post-doctoral research in solid-state physics at the University of Cambridge from which he moved into the private sector, working in R&D management with Cambridge Life Sciences plc, where he was responsible for collaborative R&D, and managed a portfolio of development projects with partners which included Abbott Laboratories Inc and Ciba-Corning Diagnostics Corporation in the US and Fresenius AG in Germany. He then joined the development agency, Scottish Enterprise. Dr Evans joined ANGLE in 1997.
John May, Managing Partner, New Vantage Group; Director, Northern VA Initiative
John May is the managing partner of New Vantage Group (“NVG”), a Vienna, Virginia-based firm that innovatively mobilizes private equity capital into early-stage companies. Co-manager of four regional angel groups, Mr. May has extensive experience with venture funds as well. In 2002, he was appointed by the University of Virginia’s Darden School as a “Batten Fellow” and beginning in 2004, he became the Director of the Northern Virginia Initiative & a UVA faculty member. A co-author of Every Business Needs an Angel (Crown Business: 2001), and co-editor of State of the Art: An Executive Briefing on Cutting-Edge Practices in American Angel Investing, John has been the subject of numerous articles on this topic, establishing him as an authority on “angel” investors. John is active on various non-profit & portfolio boards and serves as Chairman of the Angel Capital Association.
Philippe L. Sommer, Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the Batten Institute.
Philippe is the Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the Batten Institute. Mr. Sommer has a number of responsibilities in the expansion of the Institute’s partnerships within the University community, such as with the Medical School, Engineering School, and UVA Patent Foundation, as well as connecting Darden MBA students with the larger entrepreneurial and venture communities in the US and abroad.
Previously Mr. Sommer was President and founder of Alsacia & Sommer, Inc. ("A&S") which provides strategic and funding consulting services to early stage Med-Tech companies and acted as founder in several startups. Prior to this, Mr. Sommer was a partner of WestMed Venture Funds, publicly registered investment companies affiliated to CIBC/Oppenheimer, Inc. which had aggregate capital of $50 million invested exclusively in Life Science and Med-Tech companies at various stages of development. Prior to Oppenheimer, Mr. Sommer was Director of Business Development at Pfizer and prior to that was a consultant with Booze, Allen & Hamilton. Mr. Sommer graduated with honors from Amherst College and has an MBA in Finance from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Paul Brewer, Co-Founder and Vice President, New Technology, ObjectVideo
Paul Brewer is Co-Founder and Vice President of New Technology for ObjectVideo. He has spent 15 years in the area of new technology creation and currently leads ObjectVideo's Center for Video Understanding Excellence, a world-class computer vision research group whose innovations are at the core of ObjectVideo's products.
Prior to co-founding ObjectVideo, Mr. Brewer managed advanced video technology efforts at Bell Atlantic working on its ground-breaking Video on Demand project. He later introduced streaming IP video and audio to the company for corporate uses and initiated a trial of streamed broadband content from Broadcast.com to DSL customers. Prior to Bell Atlantic, Mr. Brewer ran Night Vision Labs' efforts in the area of image and video compression.
Mr. Brewer holds MSEE degrees and an MBA from George Washington University and the University of Maryland.
Manoj George, President & Founder, Nimaya.
Manoj George has been the President of Nimaya since January 2005. As President, Mr. George oversees Nimaya's professional services team. Prior to becoming President, Mr. George worked as the Vice President of Business Development at Nimaya driving partner relationships with Informatica and Acta Corporation. Prior to Nimaya, Mr. George was the lead CRM/database-marketing consultant at MicroStrategy. Mr. George has a bachelors degree from IIT Madras and a masters degree in engineering management from Dartmouth College.
Pamela Peterson, Owner, Sammy Snacks
Pamela Peterson is the owner and founder of Sammy Snacks. Originally from Greensboro, NC, Pamela holds Associates Degrees in Accounting and Business Administration. Over the past twelve years she has gained experience from employment as a controller, an event planner, and a position as an events and public relations manager in companies ranging from financial planning groups to online math curriculum providers. All this provided Ms. Peterson with the tools to start her own business while continuing her own professional development.
Ben Psillas, President Allpoint Network
Ben Psillas is a proven leader in launching new companies. His current venture, Allpoint Network, is Ben’s third company with a successful exit. Allpoint was recently acquired by a strategic investor/partner, reached profitability in less than 18 months from network launch and provided an average investor return of 3-4 times. Prior to Allpoint, Ben was a Co-Founder for Effinity Financial Corporation, an Internet bank. During his tenure, Ben successfully raised a strategic investment of more than $12 million from Countrywide Credit Industries, which later purchased the bank. Countrywide Bank is currently a $30 billion bank and growing.
Ian Ratcliffe, D’94, Former President of Upstate
Until May 2005 Ian Ratcliffe was the President of Upstate, a company of Serologicals (NASDAQ:SERO). Ian was the first employee of Argonex a biotechnology company founded by former Upstate Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sheridan G. Snyder (co-founder of Genzyme) in 1994. In 1995, as Vice President of Corporate Development, Ian was instrumental in the 1996 merger of Argonex with Upstate Biotechnology, Inc., the largest manufacturer and distributor of biological reagents for the cell signaling research market. Ian held increasingly responsible executive management positions for both Argonex and Upstate including CFO, COO and EVP of Sales, Marketing and Business Development, and was responsible for completing the company’s first two private equity financings and strategic partnership with Molecular Devices Corp. (NASDAQ:MDCC). Ian was promoted to President of Upstate in May 2004.Trained as a chemical engineer at the University of Surrey, he joined Imperial Chemical Industries, (ICI), in South Africa in 1983. Ian then spent three years at Matthew Hall Engineering, a design contractor in London, England where he qualified as chartered engineer. In 1989, after working two years on the new project development team at Marathon Oil, UK, Ian founded Chemnique, Ltd., to provide an engineering and project management services company to the energy, specialty chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Ian received his MBA at UVA in 1994, and was awarded a William Shermet Award and Faculty Award for Academic Excellence while at Darden.
Doug Burns, D’02, Principal, VP of Finance and Administration, Court Square Ventures
Doug Burns joined the Court Square team in 2002. He has worked in a variety of roles with early-stage technology companies since 1995, initially in Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group (Washington, DC) as a Senior Auditor. The Enterprise Group was established to identify early-stage technology companies in the region and serve their growing needs as they raised capital and executed public offerings. His private clients included dozens of technology companies in the software, IT, and telecommunications sectors based in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, California and Arizona.
Previously, Doug was with SNL Securities, and served as Chief Financial Officer for Murray Enterprises (Charlottesville, Virginia), where he was responsible for overseeing a diversified portfolio of investments ranging from public and private equities to hedge funds to managed futures. Doug earned his B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from Washington and Lee University and is a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He received his Masters in Business Administration from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and graduated with academic honors.
Laura Lukaczyk, D’87, Founder and Managing Partner, Avansis Ventures, LLC
Laura Lukaczyk is the Founder and Managing Partner of Avansis Ventures, LLC, an early-stage venture fund focused on information technology in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region. Since its founding in June 2000, Avansis has invested in Codeon, Ecutel, Exent, iPhotonics, Jasmine Networks, Opion and Seneca Networks. She is a board observer at Ecutel.
Prior to Avansis, Laura was a consultant for New Enterprise Associates (“NEA”) in its Reston, VA office. There she participated in investing nearly $85 million in companies such as Advanced Switching Communications (ASCX), Codeon, DataCore, Exent, Navitar, TeleGea.com and WNP (acquired by Nextlink, now called XO Communications).
Prior to NEA, she was the founding CFO at Denwa Communications and the Director of Sales at International Communications Corp. (“ICC”), a company, which grew to $100 million in annualized revenues within 14 months. Laura’s prior investment experience includes working as the manager of private equity placements for Multifinance Holding Corp. Her prior technical experience includes semiconductor engineering and manufacturing for the Delco Electronics Division of General Motors. Laura received her MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School and her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tim Meyers, General Partner, Updata Partners
Tim Meyers is a General Partner at Updata Partners who focuses on building and broadening the fund’s private equity activity through early and growth-stage investment opportunities.
Prior to joining to Updata Partners, Mr. Meyers served as President of The Morino Group, where he managed a $200 million portfolio, including direct investments, venture funds, hedge funds, and direct equity investments. He oversaw a number of direct investments at TMG including Proxicom and Image Communications (bought by IXL). During his tenure, Mr. Meyers conceptualized and developed the 11600 Sunrise project, a 153,000 square foot Internet and technology incubator located in Reston, Virginia. From 1987-1993, he was CFO of The Brandon Company where he structured numerous deals with total transaction volume of over $250 million. Prior to joining The Brandon Company, Mr. Meyers was a CPA with Deloitte, Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touché) where he was involved in structuring and evaluating transactions with firms such as KKR, RAMCO, and Spaulding & Evenflow.
Mr. Meyers earned a B.S. in Business from George Mason University and a Master’s Degree from Virginia Tech University. He has been co-Chair of the selection and program committees for the last several Mid-Atlantic Venture Association Fairs and is on the board of George Mason University Foundation, Greater DC Cares, and is the past chairman of Medical Care for Children’s Partnership.
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