Judges

Julius O. Akinyemi
Resident Entrepreneur at the MIT Media Lab

Julius Akinyemi is the Resident Entrepreneur at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Julius’ mission at the Media Lab is  to continuously shape and  leverage existing and future technologies at MIT to empower people in developing nations; to invent new opportunities for themselves and their societies in a networked "always-on/always connected" information economy, with an  entrepreneurial spirit. The Entrepreneurial development in turn fuels growth of local markets, through self empowerment e.g. developing relevant mobile communication capabilities/Services, enhancing health care, sustaining alternative energy sources, improving education, and making it viral in the sharing and leveraging and actioning of information. 

Prior to joining MIT Media Lab, Julius was the Director of Emerging Technologies for PepsiCo Inc where his responsibilities included, among others, to guide research and innovation activities: to conduct Open Innovation with global collaboration; to leverage diverse world Intellectual Properties to PepsiCo’s advantage; to engage key practical forward-looking technologies that build competitive advantage and promote industry leadership. Julius was the founder of Applied Technology Solution that focused on providing Wireless Internet Technology to African countries. Julius also, co-founded the “ICT4Africa” initiative based in Sweden, a nonprofit organization that provides refurbished computers to developing countries. 

Julius was also Senior Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank of San Francisco, California where he managed the bank’s Wireless Business Technology initiatives, and one of the first Mobile Banking systems in the country. As SVP of Strategic Planning, Julius managed the check processing transaction re-engineering that automated check capture and processing, now adopted worldwide by other banks. As Director, MIS/Finance and Administration for Pan American Southern Europe Region and the Iberia Peninsula he was based in Paris, France. His responsibilities included the Southern Europe Region of Pan Am (France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and North African Countries). Julius was also a senior Staff of Ernst & Young LLP, in New York, NY.

Julius graduated from Ohio University with a MBA and holds a US Intellectual Property Patent in “Virtual Private Message Broker” he has spoken at various professional forums including MIT/IBM Forum on Virtual World and its impact to businesses, Uppsala University (Sweden) - on Business Views on self sustaining technology in developing countries and various Wireless Business Technology forums.

Skip Besthoff
General Partner, Castile Ventures

Skip Besthoff has an investment focus in on-demand applications, technology- enabled services and Internet-based businesses. Prior to Castile, Mr. Besthoff was at Rho Ventures where he had a strong record of investing in and participating on the boards of market-transforming software and services companies including Everdream (acquired by Dell), IntraLinks (acquired by TA/Rho), Megapath, and Verified Person.

Earlier in his career, Skip spent five years in Boston as a manager for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). In this position he led large-scale systems development and integration projects for Fortune 100 companies. He also participated in building new practice areas including the SAP line of business.

Skip is a graduate of Hamilton College with a BA in Economics. He received his MBA with honors from Cornell University where he was awarded the distinguished Alfred Fried Fellowship for his academic achievements.

Justin Cook

Justin Cook is an entrepreneur and academic thinker with a passion for sustainable development.  In his role at IBM’s TJ Watson Research Labs, Justin set the strategy and drove commercial opportunities in energy efficiency, water desalination, and solar power.  Mr. Cook is a founding member of the IBM World Development Initiative and the leader behind its successful Global ThinkPlace Challenge to brainstorm sustainable solutions to African poverty.  Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Cook spent eight years as a management consultant and took a lead role in two successful start-ups including Silver Oak Solutions (sold to CGI).  Justin is the author of a comprehensive study on the economic impact of venture capital investing, which formed the basis for legislation proposed in Arizona (H.B. 2447) and Utah (H.B. 240).  He is also a founding member of Wider Reach, a company designed to create a mobile phone accessible marketplace in Bangladesh.  Mr. Cook has a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.  He enjoys blogging about the intersection of psychology and innovation at www.prospecttheory.net.

Rob Day
Principal, @Ventures

Jonathan Fleming
Managing General Partner, Oxford Bioscience Partners

Jonathan Fleming is the Managing General Partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners, an international venture capital firm specializing in life science technology based investments, with offices in Boston and Connecticut.

Mr. Fleming has been in the investment business for over twenty years, starting and financing growth companies in the United States, Europe, and Israel. Prior to joining OBP in 1996, he was a Founding General Partner of MVP Ventures in Boston, MA. He began his investment career with TVM Techno Venture Management in Munich, Germany. Mr. Fleming has also co-founded Medica Venture Partners, a venture capital investment firm specializing in early stage healthcare and biotechnology companies in Israel. Mr. Fleming holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Fleming is a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Memory Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:  MEMY) and is on the board of Asterand plc (LSE:  ATD). He is also a director of several private companies including Leerink Swann, a Boston based investment bank specializing in healthcare companies. Mr. Fleming is a Trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Business.

Stan Fung
Managing Director, FarSight Ventures

Mr. Fung is a Private Investor and Managing Director of FarSight Ventures, which invests in Technology, Media and Communications (TMC) companies in both US and China.  He has more
than sixteen years of experience in venture capital investing, and, in addition, more than 26 years of experience with emerging and established technology companies. He was recently a Managing Director at Zero Stage Capital where he had worked for 12 years, and led investments in Software, IT infrastructure, communications and Internet companies. Some of his investments include SystemSoft, Infonautics, 24/7 Media, About.com, RoweCom and Silknet, which had all
had successful public offerings. Other investments that were acquired include Waypoint (by Open Market), Xynetix (by Advant!) and Smartshop (by CNet). Prior to joining Zero Stage Capital, he was with Advent International, Inc., a global venture firm, and worked on projects
that had business relationships in Asia. Previously, he held engineering, sales, and marketing positions at Teradata Corporation (NYSE:TDC) and IBM Corporation (NYSE:IBM).

David Gammell
Partner, Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels, LLP

David Gammell is a partner at the law firm Brown Rudnick Berlack
Israels, LLP.  Mr. Gammell advises entrepreneurial companies in all stages of development, from formation to liquidity. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, venture capital, intellectual property, licensing and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, and international law. Mr. Gammell counsels publicly and privately held companies in a variety of industries including information technology (hardware, software and services), semiconductor, medical  device and other high technology sectors.

Richard Goodkin

Richard, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, has practiced law for nearly forty years, first in a law firm, then as General Counsel to several public and private high tech companies, and now as a sole practitioner.  He has negotiated numerous high-value transactions, including a $51 million dollar securitization of leases that enabled his client to avoid bankruptcy.  He was the lead attorney for an IPO in the 1990’s that required the simultaneous acquisition of three independent European distributors.  Richard has filed and managed several lawsuits that achieved multi-million dollar settlements for his clients.  In the 1990’s he was a co-founder of a software company that was later sold for ten million dollars.  In the last several years he has become an angel investor in three private medical device startups, and represents one of them as General Counsel.

John Gworek
Attorney, Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton

Jon’s practice focuses on the representation of entrepreneurs, technology start-ups and emerging companies from formation through liquidity event. In this role Jon routinely advises clients through angel and venture capital financings, and mergers and acquisitions. He also represents venture capital funds and other institutional investors in fund formation and investments in start-ups and emerging companies.

Jon has a particular interest in bridging the interests of investors and founders in the venture funding process. Over the course of his 15 plus years of experience as a corporate lawyer, Jon has represented a wide array of entrepreneurs, investors and public and private companies in complex business transactions as well as ongoing needs as they arise in the areas of corporate, securities, tax, employment, compensation, intellectual property and licensing law.

Jon is a graduate of Brown University (Sc.B., Applied Mathematics/Biology) and a cum laude graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law. While at law school, he was a member of the Connecticut Law Review.

Jon has been an active member of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge for many years, and is a member of the Forum’s Executive Committee. He is also a judge in the annual MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

Jon is a member of the state bars of Massachusetts and California. Before practicing law, Jon was an account executive at the advertising agency of Young & Rubicam.

Jean Hammond

Jean Hammond is an active angel investor usually focusing on early stage high tech start-ups.  Jean is a co-coordinator of the Boston branch of Golden Seeds (focused on investing in women-managed businesses) and a member of Launchpad and Hub Angels.  Jean also serves on the boards of The Technology Capital Network and Thompson Island Outward Bound.  Jean also serves on the boards of a number of start-ups.

Jean is serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the high-tech industry.  Her entrepreneurial activities include co-founding and managing Quarry Technologies and AXON Networks. Following 3Com’s acquisition of AXON, Jean was responsible for 3Com's WAN strategy.  She earned an M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management, and a B.S. from Boston University.
 

Amir Alexander Hasson
Founder and CEO, United Villages, Inc.

Amir Alexander Hasson has a background in entrepreneurship, technology management, and ICTs for development. He completed his Bachelor's with Honors from the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University. He worked in marketing and production at leading new media companies in New York City during the ".com boom" and spun-out a Web solutions portal for the integrative healthcare industry, weBreathe.com. He received his Master's degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management in June, 2002.

During his studies at MIT, Amir co-conceived and patented DakNet, a novel low-cost wireless networking technology for rural connectivity. He then managed business development for Media Lab Asia based in New Delhi, India and worked with scientists and engineers at the MIT Media Lab to deploy WiFi networks in rural India.

Based on this MIT research, Amir spun-out First Mile Solutions and led it to profitability, managing product development and projects in countries such as India, Cambodia, Rwanda, Costa Rica, and Paraguay for customers such as the UNDP. Amir now serves as the Founder and CEO of United Villages, Inc., a VC-funded company that acquired First Mile Solutions and uses its technology to deliver products and services that empower rural people with a current focus on India. His work has been responsible for providing access to over 2,000,000 villagers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Amir is personally and professionally motivated by the opportunity to serve the masses at the bottom of the world's population pyramid, whose participation in the global economy he believes is a critical driver of growth and peace in the next century. He has published several papers and has spoken at over 30 international events related to ICTs and economic development including the United Nations Information & Communication Technology Task Force and the World Summit on the Information Society. He is the inventor of one issued and three pending patents. He has been interviewed and cited by major media organizations including CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, and Le Monde. Amir was recently featured as one of the "Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under 35" by Red Herring Magazine.

Mike Krasner
Founder and CEO, Oxy Systems

Mike Krasner is the CEO and founder of Oxy Systems, developing innovative consumer entertainment and social software applications for mobile wireless. He has over 25 years experience with a track record of creating and growing entrepreneurial businesses in emerging advanced technology markets.

Prior to founding Oxy in 2003, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Voice Solutions Division of Comverse, with overall responsibility for the company’s global line of voice solutions for wireless and wireline carriers and achieving rapid growth with deployments worldwide and over $50 million revenue. Before joining Comverse, Mike was the CEO and founder of InTouch Systems, which was acquired by Comverse in 1999. Previously, he was the president and founder of BBN HARK Systems, a subsidiary of Bolt Beranek and Newman and a leading vendor of speech recognition products focusing on the telephony market. Mike received his doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT.

Dennis Miller
General Partner, Spark Capital

Dennis Miller is a General Partner at Spark Capital. Mr. Miller has led Spark's investments in Mandalay Media(MNDL.OB), EQAL, Next New Networks, and Verified Identity Pass.
Mr. Miller was most recently a Managing Director of Constellation Ventures, the venture investment arm of Bear Stearns. His investments included College Sports Television (acquired by CBS);  TVONE (a cable network owned in partnership with Comcast and Radio One); K-12 (NYSE:LRN); The Gospel Channel and Widevine Systems.  Mr. Miller also served on the Board of Directors of Capital IQ  (acquired by McGraw-Hill).

From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Lions Gate Entertainment. Prior to joining Lions Gate, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Mr. Miller was responsible for all television operations of SPE and actively involved with strategic planning and new media.

From 1990-1995, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of Turner Network Television. In 1993 Mr. Miller took on the additional responsibility for the Turner Entertainment Company.
Mr. Miller began his career as an attorney with Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg and Phillips in Los Angeles. Mr. Miller holds a Juris Doctorate from Boalt Law School and a BA in Political Science from the University of California at San Diego.

Sudhir Nunes
Senior Manager, International Enterprise
MTC Renewable Energy Trust

Sudhir has been actively involved with energy innovation for over 10 years, with varied experiences in business development, entrepreneurship and investing.

Sudhir currently structures and manages investments targeted at early and growth stage renewable energy and clean energy technology companies on behalf of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust. His scope of activities includes investment analysis and due diligence. He is also responsible for business development, attracting clean energy companies to Massachusetts, and helping local companies establish partnerships around the world. He researches opportunities in defined international clean energy markets for Massachusetts companies, conducts background research on both foreign and Massachusetts companies as needed, and collects and analyzes data related to economic and commercial trends in specified international markets. Sudhir recently organized the Clean Energy track of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Trade Mission to China. He serves as a Board Director of the Asia America Chamber of Commerce and Co-Chair of the Energy and Cleantech SIG at The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

Prior to joining the Renewable Energy Trust, he founded Orca Energy SL, an award-winning startup in Spain focused on new energy storage technology. He also worked in business development for Intelligent Energy, a London-based fuel cell company, and designed commercial aircraft engines for General Electric.

Sudhir holds a bilingual MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mira Sahney
President, Myomo

Mira Sahney currently serves as a strategic consultant to medical device firms.  She is the co-founder and past-president of Myomo.  Under her leadership, the Myomo team won first prize in the 2004 MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, raised financing, achieved FDA clearance and launched Myomo’s first commercial product into key hospitals.  Recently, Myomo’s first product was the subject of a New York Times feature article and the winner of Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” award.  Ms. Sahney has over a decade of experience in company formation and scale-up, go-to-market strategy, operations, product development, and business development in a wide variety of science-based industries.  She was named a Woman to Watch by Mass High Tech in 2007 and she holds multiple patents.  Ms. Sahney earned MBA and M.S.M.E. degrees from MIT, where she was a Fellow in the Leaders for Manufacturing program, and an M.S.M.E. from Stanford University.  She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Michigan with a B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering.

Rudina Seseri

Rudina joined Fairhaven Capital at its inception in 2007. Previously, she was a Senior Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corporation. In this position, Rudina was responsible for sourcing, structuring, and negotiating Microsoft's acquisitions and strategic investments including acquisitions such as iView Multimedia, Deep Metrix, Lionhead Studios. Prior to Microsoft Corp., she worked as an investment banker in the Technology Group at Credit Suisse. Rudina executed transactions in mergers & acquisitions and capital markets. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Economics and International Relations, and received her MBA from The Harvard Business School. She has been elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honor societies. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Albanian American Council. Rudina is a member of the Steering Committee of the New England Venture Association (NEVN), the largest young venture capital organization on the East Coast.

Gaurav Tewari
Principal, Highland Capital Partners

Gaurav is a Principal at Highland focusing on technology with specific experience and interest in internet, digital media, mobile and online marketing technologies. Gaurav represents Highland on the boards of GlobalStreams, StyleFeeder and Top Ten Media.

Prior to joining Highland Capital Partners, Gaurav was a Corporate Strategy manager at Microsoft Corporation, where he worked with the top leadership to define and implement corporate-wide growth opportunities via organic initiatives and acquisitions. Before Microsoft, Gaurav was a consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he led strategic projects for Fortune 100 companies across a number of verticals, including high tech, financial services, healthcare and energy. At McKinsey, Gaurav extensively advised senior management on investments and divestitures, operational improvement and organizational initiatives, and in developing and executing technology strategies and roadmaps.

Gaurav's other experiences include working within product management at Microsoft (.NET initiative), within software engineering at IBM and as an investment professional at Mission Ventures.

Gaurav holds seven US technology patents. He has authored nine published works of research and has spoken at various conferences. He got his B.S. and M.Eng. degrees in computer science from MIT, and his MBA from the Wharton School.