Judges
Aerospace Judges
Edward Crawley is the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT, and is a Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics and of Engineering Systems. He received an SB (1976) and an SM (1978) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an ScD(1981) in Aerospace Structures from MIT. He currently serves as the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon – MIT Program on Engineering Leadership, and effort to significantly strengthen the quality of engineering education for competitiveness, innovation and product development. From 2003 to 2006 he served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge – MIT Institute, a joint venture,funded bythe British government and industry, with a mission to understand and generalize how universities act as engines of innovation and economic growth. For the previous seven years, he served as the Department Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, leading the strategic realignment of the department.
Dr. Crawley is a Fellow of the AIAA and the Royal Aeronautical Society (UK), and is a member of three national academies of engineering: the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science, the (UK) Royal Academy of Engineering, and the US National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causaby Chalmers University, Sweden in 2006. He was a finalist in the NASA Astronaut selection in 1980, is an active pilot, and was the 1990,1995 and 2005 Northeast Regional Soaring champion.
A founder of ACX, a Cambridge based product development and manufacturing firm, he served as its Chairman and Chief Technology Officer from1992 to 2000, at which time it was acquired by Cymer, Incorporated (CYMI). He is a founder and Chairman of BioScale, a company developing biomolecular detectors, and has served on the boards and advisory boards of numerous other entrepreneurial ventures. In 2003 he was elected to the Board of Directors of Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB).
Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, a pioneer and leader in the commercial space arena, is on a mission to spur innovation by creating contest which get entrepreneurial innovators and inventors to help create and break-open new markets and thinking. As the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation (http:// www.xprize.org/), Peter is changing the way the world thinks about its problems and their solutions. He believes that challenges properly framed and inspired can unleash progress against the seemingly intractable grand challenges of our time. His first prize, the ANSARI X PRIZE was a $10M private space flight competition that changed the way theworld thinks about space. His goal is to now use his proactive prize model to enable heroes and technological breakthroughs in other areas including energy, the environment, genomics, nanotechnology, medicine and in the social arena. He is theChairman & Co-Founder of the Rocket Racing League, and serves as the CEO of Zero Gravity Corporation, a commercial space company developing private, FAA-certified parabolic flight utilizing the Boeing 727-200 aircraft. Diamandis is a co-founder of Space Adventures, Inc. (http://www.spaceadventures.com/), the company which brokered Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth's flight to the International Space Station. In 1987, Diamandis co-founded the International Space University (ISU) (http://www.isunet.edu/)where he served as the University's first managing director. Today he serves as a Trustee of the $30M ISU that is based in Strasbourg, France. Prior to ISU, Diamandis served asChairman of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) an organization he founded at MIT in 1980. SEDS is the world's largest student pro space organization.
Dr.Diamandis attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where here received his undergraduate degree in molecular genetics and graduate degree in aerospace engineering. After MIT he attended Harvard Medical School where he received his M.D. In 2005 he has was also awarded an honorary Doctorate from the International Space University. He is the winner of the Konstantine Tsiolkovsky Award, twice the winner of the Aviation & Space Technology Laurel, and the 2003 World Technology Award for Space. Diamandis' mission is to open the space frontier for humanity. His personal motto is: "The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself!"
Burton Lee, Managing Director of Space Angels Network
Burton Lee has spent more than fifteen years working in venture-backed startups, global high tech corporations, strategic consulting firms,leading research universities, and federal and state agencies. His experience includes senior positions with leading technologyorganizations such as GE Global Research, Hewlett Packard, Daimler Chrysler AG, and NASA. His expertise spans the commercial space,aviation, information technology,nanotech, alternative energy, cleantech, and robotics industries.
Burton currently serves as Managing Partner of Innovarium Ventures, a firm that providesstrategic, financial and technical advisory services to startupcompanies, venture capital and private equity firms, angel networks, investment banks, major corporations, and federal and state agencies.He served as Chairman of the highly successful Space Venture FinanceSymposium held in May 2007, and is a co-founder of SpaceportAmerica in New Mexico.
Burton holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical & Electrical Engineering from Stanford, an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Cornell University, and an AB in Physics from Brown University. He is a graduate of the founding class of the International Space University.
Joe Parrish - VP, Payload Systems (Aurora Flight Sciences)
Joe Parrish is currently Vice President-Payload Systems for Aurora Flight Sciences in Cambridge, MA. Prior to that, Joe was President of Payload Systems Inc., which was acquired by Aurora in October 2007. Before joining Payload Systems, Joe was a system architect, program manager, and program executive at NASAHeadquarters in Washington, DC. There, he was involved with a wide variety of programs, including the International Space Station, the NASA Space Telerobotics Program, and the Mars Exploration Program. During his 12 year tenure at NASA, Joe received several awards, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. He has published and spoken widely on technical and operational subjects in the U.S. and abroad. Joe holds bachelor's (1985) and master's (1987) degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.
Raju Patel, Co-Director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium
Raju Patel is Co-Director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, which is sponsoring the aerospace track of the 100K competition. In addition to working on NASA's education mission in Massachusetts, Ms. Patel is currently working with the state to create an aerospace cluster in the Commonwealth. Previously, she has worked as Portfolio Manager for a private investment group in the Netherlands and as Associate Controller at Wellesley College. She is a Sloan alumna with bachelor's degrees in physics and law. She has served on the Board of the MIT Enterprise Forum.
Consumer Products - Services Judges
Jeff Fagnan, Partner, Atlas Venture
Jeff Fagnan joined Atlas Venture in 2004. He is a Partner in the technology sector, and focuses on emerging companies in enterprise and internet infrastructure as well as alternative energy technologies / advanced material science. Jeff also works closely with the MIT, Harvard University, Boston University and other innovation engines, to commercialize technologies developed in technical labs.
Before joining Atlas Venture, Jeff was a Partner with Seed Capital Partners. While at Seed Capital, Jeff was the lead and founding investor in DataPower Technologies, Way Systems, and Polychromix. Prior to Seed Capital Partners, Jeff built strategic and operational solutions for communications, media and technology clients at Booz Allen & Hamilton. Before Booz Allen, he served in management roles at Nortel Networks in a variety of M&A and strategy roles, where he focused on broadband convergence and Internet initiatives.
Since joining Atlas Venture, Jeff led the investment in DataPower Technologies which was acquired by IBM in 2005.He currently sits on the Boards of AEB, Bit9, Veracode and Songbird.He also led the firm's investment in Mascoma. Jeff received his M.B.A. in Finance and Operations, with distinction, from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and a B.S. in Management and Mathematics from the University of Alaska.
Investment Sector : Technology
Boards : AEB, Bit9, Songbird, Veracode
BioTech - Life Sciences Judges
Kingsley Tafts, Goodwin Procter LLP
Kingsley Taft, a partner in the Goodwin Procter’s BusinessLaw Department, focuses his practice on life sciences and relatedindustries. Mr. Taft has been a judge ofthe 100K Competition since 2005, focusing on the biotech, medtech and cleantechtracks.
In his legal work, Mr. Taft represents life sciences andclean tech companies in all aspects of their businesses and legal affairs,including VC financings, public offerings, M&A and strategicalliances. He works extensively withnewly formed start-up companies and founders. Mr. Taft also represents public and private life science investors.
Mr. Taft is an MIT alumnus, having obtained his Ph.D. inChemistry working with Professor Stephen J. Lippard in bioinorganicchemistry. He has a B.S. in chemistry fromYale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Mr. Taft’s legal expertise has been recognized by a numberof legal guides. In 2007, he wasselected for inclusion in Chambers USA:America’s Leading Lawyers for Business for the Life Sciences category. Since 2003, Mr. Taft has been recognized by PLC Cross-border Life Sciences Handbook asa recommended attorney for Life Sciences: Commercial and CorporatePartnering, as well as for Intellectual Property matters.
David Berry, MD, PhD, Principal
David Berry is a Principal at Flagship Ventures. Hejoined Flagship in 2005 while completing his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. David waspreviously awarded a Ph.D. through the MIT Biological Engineering Division,where he studied the biological effects of complex sugars with advisorsProfessor Ram Sasisekharan and Professor Robert Langer. David also did hisundergraduate work at MIT, graduating in 2000 Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, witha degree in brain and cognitive sciences. He was named as a member of the MITCorporation - its Board of Trustees - in 2006. David's work has led to 11peer-reviewed publications, over 20 patents and applications, as well as overtwenty-five awards and honors including the prestigious Lemelson-MIT StudentPrize in 2005 for invention and innovation. David was also named as the Innovator ofthe Year by Technology Review in its 2007 TR35 list of world’s top 35innovators under the age of 35.
At Flagship, David focuses on investing in and founding early stage life scienceand cleantech ventures and works closely with portfolio companies BG Medicine, T2 Biosystems, Epitome Biosystems and LS9.
Kim Seth, Ph.D. Goldman Sachs
Kim Seth joined Goldman Sachs & Co. in May 2006 and works with the
Specialty and Major Pharmaceuticals investment research team in New
York. Prior to joining Goldman, he was Senior Manager at EPIX
Pharmaceuticals, where he helped direct its business development
efforts, focusing on M&A and licensing opportunities. These efforts
culminated with the $130 million merger with Predix Pharmaceuticals,
announced in April, and completed in August, 2006.
Prior to EPIX, Kim was co-founder, CEO, and Director of Xpogen Inc., a
bioinformatics startup located in Cambridge, MA. At Xpogen, Kim wrote
the business plan, led successful efforts to secure vital intellectual
property and raise venture/angel financing, helped build a
cross-disciplinary team, and led early product development, marketing
and sales efforts. Kim began his career in management and strategy
consulting as a Business Analyst with CSC/Index in San Francisco and a
Principal with The Parthenon Group in Boston.
Kim holds an AB cum laude in Economics from Harvard College and a Ph.D.
in molecular genetics (Neurobiology) from Harvard University, where he
studied basic mechanisms of transcriptional regulation and repression in
the laboratory of Professor Joseph Majzoub, MD, Children's Hospital
Boston/ Harvard Medical School.
Steve Brown, MIT Technology Licensing Office
25 years experience in industry working in research, development,sales, marketing, and business management generally focused on newproducts and businesses. 10 years of experience selecting inventions topatent and then licensing those patents to startups and others. FormerPresidential Exchange Executive at the Small BusinessAdministration.worked on issued related to high tech startups.Consultant and Lecturer on how companies can strategically useintellectual property tools to create sustainable competitiveadvantages.
Development Judges
Daniel Alexander, Co-Founder of CambridgeLight Partners
Over 25 years ago, Dan left McKinsey & Company in New York City to start a career in technology venture capital. The venture capital industry was muchsmaller then. About six years ago, he along with others started CambridgeLightPartners, an extremely early stage technology venture capital fund. Some of hisrecent investments include CarsDirect.com (now Internet Brands), GoTo.com(subsequently Overture, Inc., acquired by Yahoo) and more recently UnitedVillages (www.unitedvillages.com) (an outgrowth of First Mile Solutions, arecent $100k participant).
Randy Zadra, Managing Director, ICA
Randy is founding Manging Director of ICA, a fund which has invested over $20M in more than 30 information technology projects in developing countries. He was previously vice president international at Teleglobe, which was sold to BCE Inc. for $4.5B in 2002, and has worked in senior management capacities with several other information technology companies. He is also a fellow in the entrepeneurship and development program at MIT, lectures, and is an advisor to several early stage companies.
Don Yansen, Entrepreneur and Investor
Don finished his graduate education in physics and electrical engineering with a specialization in optics and lasers. His undergrad minor at MIT waseconomics with a focus on development economics. He worked in optical research for a number of years, and afterward started a machine vision company with some colleagues from MIT/LL. Since then, he has started and worked in a series of high tech startups in the fields of semiconductor inspection, fiber network monitoring, and biometrics and medical devices.
Don has also been an angel investor. In the last three years he has consulted in the field of economic development with Hartwell Associates. Projects have been in Bangladesh and with Corporacion Andina Fomento - a development bank for the Andean countries in SA- and recently Ghana.
Karsten Barde, Porfolio Analyst, New Profit Inc.
Previously, Karsten helped run a successful2004 state senate campaign in Vermont and worked on Capitol Hill. He currently serves on the boards of BostonEmerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and the Dartmouth Club of GreaterBoston, and is national coordinator of Alumni for Social Change. He graduated from Dartmouth College with aB.A. in Geography and Government, and received a public interest fellowship forthe production of an award-winning television program on air pollution andenvironmental health.
Joost Bonsen, Program Director and Lecturer, Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
Joost studies Innovation Everywhere, from invention in research labs throughaction in entrepreneurial startups and innovation ecosystems generally. He mostrecently finished the Management of Technology program at MIT Sloan with histhesis The Innovation Institute: From Creative Inquiry Through Real-WorldImpact at MIT. Prior to MIT Sloan, Bonsen ran the MIT Founders Projectwhich quantified the economic impact of MIT-related entrepreneurs, findingsultimately published by BankBoston as MIT: Impact of Innovation.Formerly an entrant, mentor, judge, and Lead Organizer of the MIT $100KEntrepreneurship Competition, Bonsen was instrumental in the growth of andrecent doubling of the prize fund to include a Development and Social ImpactTrack. He is co-founder of the Howtoons Project which distributes educationalcartoons showing kids everywhere "How To" build things using everydaymaterials and tools. He is co-founder of the MIT Innovation Club, TechLink andnumerous entrepreneurial events and gatherings, including the MIT Chairman’sSalons. Joost was co-creator and founding Teaching Assistant or instructor ofseveral MIT classes and seminars, including the IAP Nuts & Bolts ofBusiness Plans with Joe Hadzima and Developmental Entrepreneurship and DigitalInnovations with Sandy Pentland, and most recently Neurotechnology Ventureswith Ed Boyden & Rutledge Ellis-Behnke He has hosted a weekly televisionshow HighTechFever since 1999 (over 250 unique interviews withinventors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, professional service providers,and more) and has run entrepreneurial networking VentureNights at the MIT MuddyCharles Pub since the mid-1990s. As noted in The Venture Café, Joostdid his Bachelor's in Bio-Electrical Engineering also at MIT.
Energy Judges
Mobile Judges
Jamie Goldstein, General Partner, North Bridge Venture PartnersJamie Goldstein joined North Bridge Venture Partners in 1998. Prior to joining North Bridge, Jamie co-founded PureSpeech, a venture-backed speech recognition software and applications company targeting service providers and enterprise call centers. Jamie served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, driving revenue through OEM relationships with leading PC manufacturers and voice services platform providers. PureSpeech was acquired by Voice Control Systems (NASDAQ: VCSI) and subsequently sold to Scansoft (NASDAQ: SSFT).
Before PureSpeech Jamie was an early employee with Symmetrix, a provider of manufacturing execution software that helped old-line manufacturing companies streamline their operations. Symmetrix grew to nearly 200 employees before its acquisition by SAIC.
Jamie’s investment interests are diverse – software, storage, wireless,semiconductor and materials companies. He is a graduate of MIT, 1989 and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1994. He is actively involved in the MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation, is a Trustee of the MATCH School (a Boston-area Charter school) and serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association.
Carl Stjernfeldt, General Partner, Castile Ventures
Carl Stjernfeldt has an investment focus on wired and wirelesscommunications technologies and services. He also has a strong interest in the intersection of content mobility, transport, and trust. Prior to Castile, Mr. Stjernfeldt was a partner at Battery Ventures where he spent seven years investing in leading IT companies. Currently he serves on the board of PermissionTV, and has also served on the boards of Arbor Networks, Agito Networks, Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola), Cedar Point Communications, and Tejas Networks, and was a board observer of Optium (NASDAQ: OPTM).
Prior to Battery Ventures, Mr. Stjernfeldt worked for CambridgeTechnology Partners as a client partner and project manager. At SummaFour he developed telecommunications solutions for domestic and international service providers.
Mr. Stjernfeldt holds a dual MS in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Northeastern University in Boston, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, where he now teaches a course in entrepreneurial finance.
Mr. Stjernfeldt serves as a Catalyst for the Deshpande Center at MIT, is on the University of Michigan's Technology Transfer NationalAdvisory Board, and serves on the Board of the New England VentureCapital Association.
Damien Balsan, Director, Head of NFC Business Development Americas, Nokia
Damien Balsan has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, mobile, bank card, and payment industry. Damien started his career in Mexico at France Telecom, in charge of developing the Minitel concept following France Telecom's investment of $500M in Telmex (Telefonos de Mexico). He has held several positions at Gemplus, the leading smart card manufacturer, including: Sales Director of Central and Eastern, General Manager for South America, and Director of Marketing for the Gemplus Mobile Business unit that focused in mobile banking and mobile commerce applications.
Damien graduated from MIT's Sloan School of Management and was one of the first Developmental Entrepreneurship alumni, completing his thesis on Mobile Commerce Business Models with a particular focus on emerging countries. The ideas developed in this thesis led him to become a co-founder of WAY Systems, an international leader in mobile point-of-sale devices in which he stayed 5 years. He now heads Nokia Mobile Payment activities and NFC in the Americas based in Burlington MA.
Jeff Janer, Former CMO, Third Screen Media
An experienced digital technology marketer with a proven track record of identifying and developing new opportunities and new markets, Jeff Janer was most recently CMO of Third Screen Media, responsible for the company’s marketing and product management initiatives. Third Screen Media was acquired by AOL in May 2007.
Janer holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University.
Scott Alderman, Managing Director, Trilogy Equity Partners
Scott Alderman is a Managing Director of Trilogy Equity Partners, an investment firm formed in 2006 by the founding leadership team of Western Wireless Corporation, Western Wireless International and Voicestream Wireless/T-Mobile.
Previously, Alderman spent eleven years at Western Wireless, most recently the Chief Financial Officer of Western Wireless International, a company that operated wireless businesses in eleven countries in Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. At WWI, he was involved in the acquisition, financing, network development and sale of wireless assets that created nearly $2 billion in value for WWI’s shareholders. Earlier in his Western career, Alderman was instrumental in securing spectrum assets that enabled the growth of Voicestream Wireless, which was spun out of Western in 1999 and later became T-Mobile. He has a BA degree from Whitman College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Web/IT Judges
Austin Westerling, Partner, Charles River VenturesAustin joined Charles River Ventures in early 2000 and focuses on making investments in consumer and enterprise software & services. He is currently a Director of Aveksa, EnterpriseDB, Eons, Livegamer and Mochila. Prior to joining CRV, Austin advised a variety of technology companies on strategic, operational and financial issues at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Austin also has experience with Analysis Group Economics/Integral, Inc. and the New England Consulting Group. Austin holds a double BA with distinction in Psychology and Economics from Yale University.
Stan Fung, Managing Director, FarSight Ventures
Mr. Fung is an individual venture investor and Managing Director of FarSight Ventures, a venture capital firm in formation. He has morethan sixteen years of experience in venture capital investing, and, inaddition, more than 26 years of experience with emerging andestablished technology companies. He was recently a Managing Directorat Zero Stage Capital where he had worked for 12 years, and ledinvestments in Software, IT infrastructure, communications and Internetcompanies. Some of his investments include SystemSoft, Infonautics,24/7 Media, About.com, RoweCom and Silknet, which had all hadsuccessful public offerings. Other investments that were acquiredinclude Waypoint (by Open Market), Xynetix (by Advant!) and Smartshop(by CNet). Prior to joining Zero Stage Capital, he was with AdventInternational, Inc., a global venture firm, and worked on projects thathad business relationships in Asia. Previously, he held engineering,sales, and marketing positions at Teradata Corporation (now part ofNCR) and IBM Corporation.
Jon Gworek, Partner, Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, P.C.
I am a partner in the law firm of Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton,P.C. MBBP is a boutique business law firm with a heavy emphasis on theneeds of start up and emerging technology companies-- we also representventure capital and other private equity investors. Our clients includehardware, software and service companies in all sectors of theinformation technology and telecommunications industries. My particularfocus is in working with companies from the earliest stages ofconception of idea as a general corporate attorney assisting in mattersincluding organization, founder's equity, incentive compensation, angeland venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, trademark andlicensing issues.
John Pyrovolakis
John Pyrovolakis raised seed capital for Collegescape - an application service provider of online admissions tools for colleges and universities - shortly after the MIT 1996 $50K Competition. After forging partnerships with MIT Sloan and Harvard Business School, Collegescape partnered with the GMAC, won an RFP from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), beating out substantially larger competitors such as the Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC, TSX: TOC). The Thomson Corporation then made a bid to purchase Collegescape, which Collegescape accepted in 1998. Collegescape was covered on the front page of the NY Times "Circuits" section, the front page of the Boston
Mr. Pyrovolakis was a triple major in math, computer science, and philosophy at NYU, and proceeded to MIT for his doctorate in linguistics and philosophy. At NYU, Mr. Pyrovolakis was the first undergraduate teaching assistant in logic, and won the school writing contest and the Solomonowitz prize (twice) for scholarship in philosophy. At MIT, Mr. Pyrovolakis worked in the Ontic group (Ontic is an automated theorem proving language), and was a teaching fellow. Mr. Pyrovolakis was also a teaching fellow at Harvard College, where he was the Derek Bok prize for teaching excellence in "Space, Time, and Motion" taught out of the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics lab.
David Gammell, Partner, Brown Rudnick BerlackIsraels, LLP
David Gammell is a partner at the law firm Brown Rudnick BerlackIsraels, LLP. Mr. Gammell advises entrepreneurial companies in allstages of development, from formation to liquidity. He has extensiveexperience in corporate finance, venture capital, intellectualproperty, licensing and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions,and international law. Mr. Gammell counsels publicly and privately heldcompanies in a variety of industries including information technology(hardware, software and services), semiconductor, medical device andother high technology sectors.