Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors MEET YOUR EXPERT FACULTY!
Ed
Nortrup, GTC Partner Robert Okabe has been involved with early stage enterprises on multiple levels for well over a decade. As a co-founder of RPX Group in 2002, he helped develop the firms strategy and has led many of our largest and most successful engagements. Bob's first direct involvement with formation and development of new ventures was as an angel investor. He has made eleven investments since 1995, with one major liquidity event and two other positive returns of capital. He is also a co-founder of an angel group and helped organize an affiliated angel capital fund. Prior to joining RPX Group Bob gained operating experience at a growing small business as CFO for a privately-held leasing company. At the end of his tenure 23 of the 50 employees were under his management. He completed numerous debt, equity, M&A, and advisory assignments for entrepreneurial and venture backed companies during his twelve year career as an investment banker at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens (Managing Director), Lehman Brothers (Senior Vice President), and Kidder, Peabody (Vice President). Bob began his business career spending nearly six years in financial management at General Electric and GE Capital. After leaving GE, Bob was a senior bond rating analyst for Moodys Investors Service for two years. Bob Okabe was awarded his Bachelor of Science in Finance and Organizational Behavior, cum laude, from the Boston University School of Management. He has been a guest speaker at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and internationally for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
|
Gerard
Eldering is Founder and President of InnovateTech Ventures,
specializing in venture creation based on inventions licensed from
universities and research institutions. Since the company’s
founding in 2007, InnovateTech has supported numerous mid-Atlantic
universities and co-founded three start-up companies including AlphaDetect
and Trilumen. Gerard has been working in the technology transfer community
for more than a decade and is passionate about the creation of professionally
managed and funded start-up companies. Prior to launching InnovateTech,
he founded and served as Director of the Technology Transfer Office
at The MITRE Corporation. He is an MBA and a registered patent agent.
Brian
Cummings is the Executive Director of the Technology Commercialization
Office at the University of Utah and Assistant Vice President for
Technology Ventures. In the two and a half years that he has been
in this role, the office has produced record revenues and successfully
started 51 new technology-based companies, 80% of which have received
initial funding and beyond. Brian has started three companies in his
entrepreneurial career, and his latest endeavor is a technology based
start-up utilizing RFID. He is also President of a university-based
personalized medicine company. Previously, Brian led the life science
commercialization efforts at the University of Texas and prior to
that was the Director of Business Development at Micro-Bac International.
Jack
Brittain is the University of Utah’s Vice President
of Technology Venture Development. He received his Ph.D. in Business
from the University of California, Berkeley. A professor for 15 years
before becoming Dean of the David Eccles School of Business (1999-2009),
he published numerous studies of strategic change in dynamic environments,
research recognized by the Academy of Management with two outstanding
paper awards. Professor Brittain is the recipient of five teaching
awards, including the University of Texas Chancellor’s Council
Outstanding Professor Award. In 2005 he received the Best of State
Award in Education for the David Eccles School’s innovative
entrepreneurship and non-profit consulting programs. In 2006 and 2007
he was selected as one of the v|100 by Utah’s leading venture
capitalists, an award that recognizes Utah’s most successful
entrepreneurs, and was featured as one of Utah’s “25 most
influential business people” in 2006 and 2007 by Connect, and
was named one of “Utah’s 100 Most Influential People”
in 2008 by Utah Business. In 2008 he was named the first recipient
of the Pierre Lassonde Presidential Chair in Entrepreneurship by the
University of Utah. He serves on the boards of Junior Achievement,
the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the University
Venture Fund, the Lassonde New Venture Development Center, the Sorenson
Innovation Center, and the University of Utah Research Foundation.
Troy
D'Ambrosio is the co-founder of multiple start-up companies
which have attracted over $500 million in capital. Some of his earliest
successes include founding Transworld Telecommunications which was
sold to Sprint in 1998 and Convergence Communications which was sold
to Lockheed Martin in 2005. He was co-owner and President of D’Ambrosio
Chrysler Jeep (sold 2007). He served as the VP of Investor Relations
and Corporate Communication for American Stores Company and the Director
of Mutual Fund Operations for Wasatch Advisors. Mr. D'Ambrosio is
currently the Director of the Pierre Lassonde Entrepreneur Center
and Lassonde New Venture Development Center where he has been mentoring
students for the past eight years. He graduated from the University
of Utah in 1982 and was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of
the Year in 2000, a v100 Technology leader in 2008 and Best in State
Educational Program Administrator in 2009.
Jim
Chung is Director of the Office of Entrepreneurship at George
Washington University, where he is responsible for entrepreneurship
programs and technology transfer. Previously, he was Director of the
Mtech VentureAccelerator at the University of Maryland, where he assisted
faculty and students in launching start-up companies based on University
of Maryland technology. Before the University of Maryland, Chung was
Director of New Business Development at the Corporate Executive Board,
where he helped establish the company's mergers and acquisitions capabilities,
including the acquisition of IT Toolbox. Prior to the Corporate Executive
Board, Chung was vice president of Cherington Capital (now Intervale
Capital), a private equity firm investing in middle-market manufacturing
and service businesses in the oil and gas industry, where he helped
execute the acquisition of Ulterra Drilling Technologies (formerly
Rockbit International). Chung spent five years prior to joining Cherington
Capital in the venture capital industry, most recently at incTANK
Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, where he served as
managing director. He has experience leading or co-leading investments
into medical device, software, and information technology companies,
including investments in AgaMatrix Inc. and Nexaweb Technologies Inc.
Before entering the private sector, Chung was an academic researcher
studying how business, government and academia work together to create
new innovation in high technology industries. He served as a research
fellow at several institutions during his 10-year academic career,
including Harvard University, MIT and the University of Tokyo. 
Kef
Kasdin is a general partner of Battelle Ventures and Innovation
Valley Partners. Kef focuses on investments in cleantech and communication
technologies, working closely with the national laboratories that
sole limited partner Battelle Memorial Institute manages or co-manages
for the U.S. Department of Energy around the country. Kef currently
serves on the Boards of Directors of Aldis, Inc.; Ampulse Corp.; Planar
Energy; and Rajant Corp. She also is an ImageTree Corp. board observer.
Active in the venture community, she sits on the Board of Directors
of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds and is a coauthor
of Inside the Minds: Green Venture Capital (Aspatore Books, Nov. 1,
2009). Kef has been involved in developing and executing strategy
for high-technology companies for more than 20 years, including Sarnoff
Corp. and 3Com Corp., where she was the company’s first Executive
in Residence, Office of the Chairman. She became a technology start-up
consultant in the late 1990s, a venture capitalist in 2000, and a
founding member of the management team forming Battelle Ventures in
2003. Kef holds a B.S.E degree in operations research from Princeton
University and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford
University.
Adam
Klotz, Managing Partner, GTC Los Angeles Affiliate
Paul
E. Rauch, PhD, founder, Evan Law Group LLC, has prosecuted
numerous patent applications in a broad spectrum of technologies,
including biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, polymers, materials, semiconductors,
microfluidics, software, business methods, electronics, telecommunications,
manufacturing simulation and analysis, and consumer products. He was
a postdoctoral research associate at the Max-Planck Institute in Stuttgart,
Germany, and at Harvard University. Dr. Rauch counsels clients on
maximizing the value of their intellectual property, including developing
prosecution strategies and patent portfolios, as well as preparing
validity, infringement, and freedom to operate opinions directed to
a variety of products and devices, including pharmaceutical compounds
covered by FDA “Orange Book” patents. He has counseled
domestic and foreign companies on freedom to manufacture, import and
market their products in the United States. His biotechnology practice
includes cases involving the diagnosis and treatment of many different
disease states, stem cell therapeutic reagents and methods, pharmaceuticals,
and drug delivery systems. Dr. Rauch has impressive experience in
prosecution of patents, including reexamination and appeals to the
Board of Appeals and Interferences, often personally presenting cases
directly to patent examiners. Prior to founding Evan Law Group LLC,
Dr. Rauch was a Partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, at Brinks
Hofer Gilson & Lione, as well as Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier
and Neustadt.
Charles
Cella, Patent Attorney and Co-Founder of GTC, is a recognized
thought leader and leading practitioner in the patent and licensing
fields. He provides patent strategy, licensing and technology-transaction
services to a broad range of clients, from industry-leading software
companies to single-inventor start-ups. Prior to GTC, Charles founded
and was CEO of BountyQuest, an Internet marketplace for information
relevant to the strength, validity or applicability of patents and
for which he recruited investments from Jeff Bezos and Tim O’Reilly,
among others. Previously, Charles was the first patent attorney at
Foley Hoag LLP, where he grew the practice to twenty-five people and
advised high-tech and biotech firms of all sizes on building IP portfolios
and negotiating technology transactions.