Jon heads up VentureRanch, a venture studio emphasizing human connection, stemming from his experience at KOYA, a family-founded company. He served a decade at adidas as their inaugural Innovation Explorer, tapping into 35 years of software expertise, 17 of which focused on location-aware mobile apps. Prior to adidas, Jon founded Bones in Motion in 2003, an innovative mobile software start-up harnessing GPS for real-time fitness experiences; adidas acquired it in 2009. He has diverse experience across consumer electronics, enterprise solutions, and military software. As a software architect for IBM, he relocated his family to Austin, TX, where he remains. Jon boasts over 70 patents, spanning UI design, speech recognition, networking, and mobile fitness.

José serves as the Scientific Director of quadraScope Ventures, a venture capital fund investing in early-stage healthcare companies developing pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, software, equipment and devices enabling biological age reversal, disease treatment and prevention. As a physician and molecular biologist, José has performed and published basic and clinical research on several processes involved in aging, including insulin resistance, stem cell differentiation, protein quality control, and cellular energy production. He holds an MD from Universidad Panamericana and a PhD from McGill University.

Mike Maszy is an active angel investor with the Band of Angels where he Chairs their Life Science and MedTech strategic interest group. Most recently he was SVP of Operations for Shockwave Medical. Mike has 23yrs+ experience in medical devices industry including 2 IPOs, multiple acquisitions, Class 3 devices, product design & development, commercialization and extreme scaling.

Jay Goth is a seasoned C-level executive with experience in technology, energy, finance, and healthcare. He is the founder and CEO of Redtail Capital, a strategic management consulting and investing firm. Jay is also the executive director of InSoCal CONNECT, a nonprofit organization formed to support entrepreneurship in inland southern California. He is a member of TCA Venture Group and holds membership in SoCal Bio and OCTANE.

Mo Kagalwala received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and MBA from UCSD Rady School of Management. Dr. Kagalwala completed postdoctoral fellowships at MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Salk Institute. In 2020, he moved to Immuneering Corporation as Head/Sr. Director of Neuroscience Development where he played a pivotal role in advancing two drug pipelines, and straddled business development leading to successful pharma partnerships, including an IPO exit. Later, Dr. Kagalwala co-founded Alleo Labs, an early-stage biotech company focused on developing precision medicine for CNS diseases. His research topics mainly include Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological disorders over the last 19 years. Dr. Kagalwala enjoys mentoring next generation of entrepreneurs at the Basement and StartR programs at UCSD.

Elizabeth Cho-Fertikh, PhD, General Partner & Managing Director Elizabeth has 30 years cross-functional experience in drug development, regulatory affairs and clinical trials for startups, biotech & academia. She has been an active angel investor for the past decade. She is the Cofounder of MEDA Angels and a General Partner of its affiliated fund, MEDA Angels Fund I. She currently serves as a Scientific & Commercialization Advisor to the NIH’s National Cancer Institute’s Technology Transfer Office, as a reviewer of its SBIR/STTR grants and was formerly on the Investment Committee of the Health Innovation Consortium, providing investment recommendations to the VA Commonwealth Health System. Elizabeth also serves on the advisory board of healthcare startups including Playbl, Oxiwear & NuvOx Pharma and as a regulatory affairs consultant to numerous biotech & medical device companies. She received her BA from Johns Hopkins, her MS from Georgetown University, her PhD from Thomas Jefferson School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School & NIH.

Mash is with Alexander Hunt, a boutique investment bank that focuses on growth equity projects in the SAAS, Cyber Security, IoT, eCommerce, and B2B software industries, assisting them with Seed, Series A, Series B, and venture capital solutions. At the firm, Mash oversees Venture Solutions, the company’s consulting arm, which specializes in helping founders raise $2 million to $20 million (seed to Series A).

Dr. Roberta Lee is a general surgeon, entrepreneur and angel investor. She completed residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and a surgical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, NIH. More recently she received an MBA with honors from Saint Mary’s College. Dr. Lee co-founded two medical device companies in breast cancer diagnostics with one exit. She has over 20 issued patents and six publications. Dr. Lee has been an angel investor with the Keiretsu Forum for the past 10 years where she is co-chair of the Northern California Life Science Committee. She is also an active member of Life Science Angels. She has led and participated in multiple due diligence teams for investors, judged at multiple pitch events, worked as a consultant for life science start-up companies and is currently CEO of Sonofii. Dr. Lee remains active in the operating room, primarily assisting in cardiac surgery operations.

June W Choi is founding Managing Partner of Serval Ventures, emerging tech & infrastructure venture builder and investor. With a focus on innovations leveraging data, AI, blockchain, to accelerate the velocity of transformative solutions to market with creative strategies, nurturing diverse talent, and building global relationships. Serval exited its first portfolio company in 2018, three years after launching. June is an investor, master mentor, startup advisor, entrepreneurship teacher, systems innovation strategist, experienced executive, speaker, and aggregate complex systems 4D thinker. Before launching Serval, June was a very young executive, then ran a strategy consulting firm for many years working on issues such as strategic planning, board development, financial and operational systems and processes, cultural/diversity/inclusion issues, succession planning, fundraising and investment planning, trainings, and facilitation. June also has broad understanding of nonprofit and philanthropy, extensive speaking experience, and served on numerous panels, committees, and boards.

Garrett is the founder and Managing Partner of SUM Ventures and Chairman of the Band of Angels Los Angeles. He is an entrepreneur, investor, decorated Afghan War veteran, and former USAF Captain. Before SUM Ventures he led investments for family offices, angel groups, and corporate venture funds. Garrett has served on the Board of Directors for UNest, DressX (observer), Brius, and ClearClub. He has served as an investor and advisor for Brius, DressX, UNest, Irrigreen, Automotus, Wave On, Purlin, Clear Club, and Champions Round. Garrett is passionate about helping startups succeed through SUM Ventures.

Harris Rose is a Harvard and Wharton trained physician entrepreneur who focuses on the use of technology to improve healthcare and the world. Harris began his career as a nuclear engineer and department head aboard the US Navy submarine, USS PINTADO. Following his service in the Navy, Harris went on to become an orthopedic surgeon and founded Precision Bone & Joint, an Austin, TX orthopedic surgery practice. Dr. Rose now provides technical, financial and fundraising advice to healthcare startups and is Managing Director and Chief Medical Officer at CerraCap Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in healthcare, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity startups. Harris currently divides his time between Austin, TX and Park City, UT, where he enjoys his time with his wife of 25 years and his three children.

Herbert L. Drayton III is the managing partner of HI Mark Capital and Columnist for The Black Wall Street Times. Based in Charleston, HI Mark Capital invests in minority and women-owned tech-enabled early-stage companies in the Southeast, seeking both a financial return as well as a social impact. As the founder of the management buy-out firm, Vertical Holdings, he enjoyed more than 20 years establishing, buying, and managing businesses in a variety of industries including healthcare, IT management, software, and corporate training. Herbert served honorably in the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps Reserves. He has a Bachelor of Science in Business degree and an Associate of Applied Sciences.

SeedFolio invests $200k – $300k at seed stage across life science sub-sectors, with a preference for therapeutics for very large unmet needs.

Phil Nadel is a well-respected serial entrepreneur, angel investor, published author and frequent speaker at industry conferences and events. He has started and sold several companies and has invested in more than 100 startups with several exits. Phil co-founded Forefront Venture Partners (formerly Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners) in 2014 and has been its Managing Director ever since. Phil is also one of the investors on Spotify’s The Pitch podcast.

Tech Intrapreneur turned Investor, Advisor, Mentor, and Board Member. Investing at the intersection of AI / Deep Tech and Healthcare, Sports-n-Fitness, Industrials, Consumer, Finance, and Energy. NuFund Venture Group.

Dave Berkus has a well-established track record in operations, venture investing and corporate board service, both public and private. As an entrepreneur, he has formed, managed and sold successful businesses in the entertainment and software arenas. As a private equity investor, he has obtained healthy returns from over twenty-five liquidity events from investments in early-stage ventures. He acts as CEO coach and advisory board member to a number of technology companies, both public and private. Dave is current or recent Board Chairman or board member for numerous public and private technology companies. Active in a total of over forty companies, he was recognized as “Director of the Year” by the Orange County-based Forum for Corporate Directors, and “Technology Leader of the Year” by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Dave is co-author of fourteen books for entrepreneurs, investors and corporate boards. He speaks of his lessons learned and those of “his” entrepreneurs in keynotes worldwide. He has made over 197 investments in early stage ventures, for which he has an IRR of 105%, and manages six early stage funds, including Berkus Technology Ventures, LLC, Kodiak Ventures, L.P., Wayfare Ventures LLC, and three Tech Coast Angels ACE Funds, where Dave is also Chairman Emeritus of TCA. Dave serves as a Trustee of Occidental College, where he is Vice Chair of the Board. He is often engaged as keynote speaker for events worldwide, speaking on trends in technology and of success factors for early stage companies.

Dr. Fred Haney is the founder and President of the Venture Management Co., a firm that provides startup guidance to high tech companies. He is the author of “The Fundable Startup: How Disruptive Companies Attract Capital,” published on February 6, 2018, by Select Books of New York. Other accomplishments include: 1) Founder, Monday Club, a 1000-member mentoring network (MondayClub.com) that has helped hundreds of startups raise capital; 2) Co-founder, Tech Coast Angels, one of the largest angel investor groups in the U.S.; 3) Founder and manager of 3i Ventures, California, a venture capital fund that was the largest fund in Southern California in the 1980s and that invested $80 million in 60 companies and produced 19 public companies and highly profitable, top quartile returns. Dr. Haney has been a co-founder of five startup companies, including: NovaDigm Therapeutics, the first fungal vaccine tested in humans; DRC Computer, the most powerful gene sequencing computer in the world; NMR Finder, an artificial intelligence nuclear magnetic resonance imaging accelerator. He served as a director of Orange County’s Parcel Pending, leading supplier of kiosk-based locker systems for package delivery, which was acquired in January, 2019, for over $100 million. He served on the Board of Directors of Rainbow Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: RNBO), a provider of digital security products, until it was acquired by Safenet, Inc. in 2003 for $457 Million. He has been a director of over 30 high-tech companies. In 1999, Dr. Haney was selected “Mentor/Angel of the Year” by the American Electronics Association in Orange County. In 2002, he was named “Director of the Year for Early Stage Companies” by the Forum for Corporate Directors. Before 1983, Haney held senior management positions with Xerox, CSC, and TRW. He earned a Ph.D. degree in Computer Sciences from Carnegie-Mellon University, an M.S. in Mathematics from Colorado State University, and a B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University.

Jeff Bocan is a Partner at Okapi Venture Capital. Jeff is an 18-year veteran venture capitalist and executive in the technology industry, and serves as the deal lead for Okapi on several deals including: WhiteFox Defense Technologies, TrackStreet, CloudKeyz, Nimble for Good, CLI Studios, Daasity and Trellis Research. Prior to joining Okapi, Jeff served on the executive team for 3+ years of one of his portfolio companies as the Senior Vice President of Mophie, helping drive revenues to $250+M and a successful exit. Prior to joining Mophie, Jeff was a venture capitalist for 13+ years, last serving as a Managing Director at Beringea where he sourced, led, or managed the investments for 35 of Beringea’s portfolio companies and served on 22 boards including: Mophie, eSpotting, MergerMarket, Steak Digital, Sakti3, amongst others. Jeff has also been an active angel investor with several successful exits, with the most notable as one of two angels in Duo Security (acquired by Cisco for $2.4 Billion). Jeff earned undergrad and MBA degrees from University of Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, respectively.

John Harbison is Chairman Emeritus of Tech Coast Angels where he has led 14 deals and invested in over 60 startups. He is also an active investor in public companies, and has realized returns from 100x – 1100x in five companies (Microsoft, Apple, Abbott Labs, Nucor and McGraw-Hill). He currently serves as a Board Director on the Angel Capital Association and multiple early stage companies. Previously he co-founded Next Autoworks – a disruptive new American car company backed by Kleiner Perkins and Google Ventures. Before that he served as CEO of network security software SilentRunner Inc., and as President of Raytheon Commercial Ventures Inc. where he launched four businesses in two years leading to two successful exits and a third company which achieved $700 million in annual revenue within eight years. Earlier in his career, he led Booz•Allen Hamilton’s Aerospace/Defense Practice and its Strategic Alliances functional practice. He has an BA cum laude from Harvard College, an MS in accounting from NYU Stern and an MBA from Harvard Business School with first year honors.

David Friedman is a tech-savvy marketing and business executive and angel investor with more than 30 years’ expertise in bringing to market new technology. His passion is innovation and commercializing technology to meet the needs of customers. He is currently President, TechCoastAngels OC. During his career he has commercialized more than $1.5 billion in new products. He has helped companies build top line revenue growth and EBITDA while mentoring the next generation of business leaders. David has been CMO for Narus, a cyber company, executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer for ATX Group (now Sirius Connected Car), and VP of Marketing and Direct Sales for Connexion by Boeing. Friedman holds an MBA (economics) from George Washington University, an MSEE degree from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering (summa cum laude) from City College of New York.

Grant, the Chairman of the prestigious Tech Coast Angels, is involved in 74 start-ups, serving as a board member or formal advisor in a quarter of those. He is also Managing Partner of Hangar 75 Ventures. Grant has served as CEO and Executive Chairman of portfolio company, Buy It Installed, Inc, which uses artificial empathy to automate the installed-sales process, allowing any manufacturer or retailer to bundle national installation at the point of sale. Alongside SoCal startups, Grant also does real estate development locally and in Eastern Europe, and clean-tech and education projects globally. Grant pours time into catalyzing the entrepreneurial ecosystem locally and in the developing world, and can be found in leadership roles in his church and in local politics. He returned to CA in 2010 after studies at Wharton followed by 19 years in Europe. Grant is regularly on the OC50 list of top influencers in Orange County, CA.

Lisa Walker is an entrepreneur and an angel investor with Tech Coast Angels. Her successful career includes leading two businesses to acquisition and guiding and mentoring startups, turnarounds, and larger organizations through growth to profitability. Her focus is in technology and aviation industries. She holds eight world records and countless National Championship medals in Formation Skydiving, is an instrument-rated private pilot, a marathon runner, and an advanced scuba diver.Lisa Walker is an entrepreneur and an angel investor with Tech Coast Angels. Her successful career includes leading two businesses to acquisition and guiding and mentoring startups, turnarounds, and larger organizations through growth to profitability. Her focus is in technology and aviation industries. She holds eight world records and countless National Championship medals in Formation Skydiving, is an instrument-rated private pilot, a marathon runner, and an advanced scuba diver.

Jim Pickell is the chair of Tech Coast Angels OC Fund. He’s spent the last decade building scalable, hyper-growth, innovative businesses, across modular building (using shipping containers to build schools and affordable housing), HomeExchange.com (allowing people to put vacant homes to use while saving on travel) and OpenEnglish.com, Latin America’s leading language school. As SVP at Sony he helped forge new business models for film, music and games. Jim started as an attorney focused on M&A, but ultimately sought to collaborate with like-minded thinkers and influence positive change. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley, Loyola Law School, and Anderson business school.

Dr. Thomas Lee, M.D., M.B.A.: Dr. Lee is the Chair of the Medical and Life Sciences Committee for the Orange County chapter of Tech Coast Angels (TCA). He has been the deal lead for several of Tech Coast Angels’ medical and life sciences companies and also heads the medical/life sciences prescreen process for TCA-OC. Dr. Lee is a practicing anesthesiologist in Orange County, California with interests in neurosurgical and trauma anesthesia. He has recently taken a keen interest in the burgeoning field of aesthetic and regenerative medicine and will soon be opening the Jade Phoenix Aesthetic Medicine Medical Spa to put into practice what he has learned. Moreover, Dr. Lee has published works in the medicinal natural products research space and is heavily involved with the medical, pharmaceutical, and medical device startup community in Orange County.

Girard Miller is a seasoned expert investor and corporate executive, now active as an angel investor in the Southern California venture capital marketplace. He is an active member of Tech Coast Angels. Having begun his career in the public sector, Girard has led investment and business teams over three decades years in the executive capacity of CIO, CEO and COO at three major national investment management companies. In 2019 he authored Enlightened Public Finance to encourage fiscal literacy. Girard has been qualified previously as a Sarbanes-Oxley financial expert and as a federal court expert witness on pension finance and investments. He is an MPA graduate of the Maxwell School of Public Affairs, Syracuse University, and a MA Economics graduate of Wayne State University with a BA degree from the University of Washington, Seattle. Now writing a biweekly public finance column for Governing.com, Girard is a retired CFA charterholder.

Volker Hüther, a trilingual German, with a passion which goes far beyond numbers, who always strives to be the catalyst for improvement in any situation. Volker started his career in Investment Banking. He then ventured into the Life Science sector and the Health Care Industry before founding his personal corporation, Hüther Consulting, which focuses on change management. With over thirty years of experience in enterprises ranging from Startups to Fortune 500 companies, he possesses the know-how needed to provide council to a broad spectrum of businesses. He is a member of the Harvard Alumni Association (both in the US and Germany), the Senate of Economy, Device Alliance, the Greater Irvine Chamber, OCRA, Pacific Council on International Affairs, Tech Coast Angels and PCA Orange County.

Hans started EPE Technologies in Costa Mesa, a manufacturing firm which built power protection equipment for computers. The company grew from 2 to 550 employees and $65 million in sales. He sold the company in 1992 to Merlin Gerin, a billion-dollar French company. Since selling the company in 1992 he has been involved in startup of eight different companies and has sold five of them successfully. As a member of Tee Coast Angels since 2008 he has invested in 43 startup companies. He also is a Board Member of the University of California, Irvine Innovation Board and Manager of The UCI Cove Fund. (A Fund to create Companies from UCI patents and Technologies). He currently is a member of Vistage in Orange County. Past board member of two public electronics companies and a member of Tee Coast Angels since 2008. At the present time he is on the board of six companies.

Xandra Laskowski is a startup advisor with over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience with large multinational tech companies as well as startups as founder, investor, advisor and board member. She has held positions as Worldwide Commodity Manager and National Major Accounts managerial roles before moving into the Angel Investment and startup worlds. She founded OSEA Angel Investors in 2017, a woman focused angel investment group based at the UCI Cove, University of Irvine, California. OSEA Angel Investors is an investment partner with Tech Coast Angels, Titan Angels (CSUF) Angel Syndication Network and Family Office Networks. Through Xolas, Ms. Laskowski provides startup consulting assisting entrepreneurs in producing their “Startup Roadmap”. In 2019 Ms. Laskowski was included in the Orange County Business Journal OC 500 Directory of Influence for Innovation and in February 2020 was nominated to the Orange County Business Journal Woman in Business Awards. In March 2020 Ms. Laskowski was nominated as a Women of Influence Awards finalist for the Gamechanger Award.

I offer nearly 40 years of diverse executive experience including career experience in venture capital, investment banking, angel investing, corporate and financial management. As a Vistage Chair since 2010, I have coached CEOs, many of their direct reports and facilitated their monthly peer advisory board meetings. Members rely on this unique peer group interaction for trusted and unbiased advice on their most critical decisions. My goal was to improve each member’s leadership effectiveness. The previous decade from 2001, I was a managing partner with GKM Ventures, a later-stage venture capital firm based on Los Angeles. From 1992 to 2000, I was affiliated with several regional investment banking firms focused on sell side M&A. Throughout my career, I have been an active member of the Los Angeles business community. I am particularly proud to have been a co-founder, past president and Chairman Emeritus of Tech Coast Angels. Today TCA is the largest angel investor organization in the United States. I have also been a co-founder and director of several well-known business groups, including the Forum for Corporate Directors, the LA Venture Association, the VC Alliance, the So Cal Tech Network, the Tech CEO Network and Launchpad LA. For 12 years since 2005, I have been an adjunct faculty member at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. My focus was coaching the fully-employed MBA candidates in the Global Access Program (GAP) which served as their graduate thesis project. After graduating with my MBA from the Tuck School of Business, I enjoyed career experience as a CFO, an investment banker and eventually as a venture capitalist, initially with First Interstate Bancorp in 1988 to 1992. These various roles provided the opportunity to play leading roles in a diverse set of financings, including mergers, acquisitions and venture capital investments. During my career, I have served on a number of public and private boards, and presently serve as a director for several venture-backed companies. My wife Teddi and I have enjoyed adventure travel across the South Pacific for scuba diving or in Africa for safari. More recently we have cruised the major rivers of Europe. My two hobbies are golf and digital photography. I am a proud father of two adults, Tyler and Elise. We are blessed with three wonderful grandchildren, Jonah, Oliver and Victoria.

Mike Benvenuti is a member of the Investment Committee of OC Cove Fund I, LLC. He is an active Expert in Residence at UCI Applied Innovation, and an advisor or board member with several early stage startups. Mr. Benvenuti was previously a service sector business executive with a long history in recurring revenue business where keeping customers for life is the key to building shareholder value. In 1985, he joined the nascent wireless industry, was an early stage employee for PacTel Cellular that had an IPO as AirTouch in 1994 and was purchased by Vodafone in 1999 for approximately $60B. Subsequently, he held positions of Senior Vice President, Divisional President and Chief Operating Officer for both private and publicly held companies in the education sector. Mr. Benvenuti received a BS (cum laude) in Civil Engineering and an MBA in Finance from UC Irvine.

Scott Fox is a serial Internet entrepreneur, best-selling author, startup ecosystem evangelist, and angel investor. After early careers as an investment banker and attorney, he has founded, worked for, invested in, or coached hundreds of startup ventures. An advocate for early stage entrepreneurs, Scott has also written 3 best-selling books to help first-time entrepreneurs get started, including the classics Internet Riches (2006) and Click Millionaires (2012). Today he invests through Tech Coast Angels, is the OC chapter Chairman of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, and also serves as CEO of the Startup Council, a community service association dedicated to accelerating tech startup company success in Orange County, California. Learn about how the OCSC’s monthly MasterMinds Startup Accelerator Workshops for founders can help your startup with fundraising at http://MasterMindsWorkshops.com, and join the Startup Council for publicity at http://StartupCouncil.org.

Currently: Investor, father of 7 kids, 9 grandkids, and 1 great grandkid. Happily married. Love boating. Work History: General Redneck – furniture maker, welder, logger Owned and operated Waterworks drilling company Founder of Application Group (human resources consultants and Peoplesoft implementations) & Application Resources (contract technical resources). Sold to ADP and Renaissance) in 1993. San Francisco California Founder of Black Rock Cable (fiber optic utility). Sold to Wave Broadband in 2013. Bellingham Washington Major investor in Optic Zoo Networks (fiber optic utility). Sold to Zayo in 2018. Vancouver Canada

I started my professional life as an auditor with a public accounting firm in Chicago. While I had good passion for my fellow auditors (I married one) I had no passion for accounting. I returned to school for an MBA and a career switch. This led me to 25 years in the west coast auto industry working for 2 OEM’s in product development and operations. The background I bring to angel investing is quite broad – from accounting to product development through product launch. I discovered angel investing when someone showed me a deal sheet for the Pasadena Angels. To me the deal sheet was a menu of exciting (mostly) ideas and interesting founders. I had my application in to join the Pasadena Angels that evening and am currently invested in 7 different start-ups. I especially enjoy meeting entrepreneurs and learning about companies through pitch events. I’m looking forward to meeting you all someday in person.

Active Angel investor. Career spans Multiple CEO & Senior Sales Positions. Successful Entrepreneur as well as Accomplished Senior Corporate Executive (General Electric). Board Member, Advisor and Investor in several companies in Diverse Industries. Extensive Experience in Hi-Tech, both Domestic and International, driving High Growth through Focus on Market Disrupting Innovation. Several Startups and Turn-Arounds, with several High Multiple Exits. Operational experience range – startup companies, mid-size companies, as well as GE Security with $2B in revenue. Interests: Angel investing, with focus on Due Diligence and Post investment engagement – as an advisor or board member.

I went to Columbia Law School, practiced law for a couple of years, and then joined my family’s business—we owned and operated a chain of movie theaters on the East Coast, a Broadway theatre, and a beautiful art deco nightclub in South Beach built in the Roaring 20’s (capacity 3,000). When the real estate under some of our movie theaters became far more valuable than the movie theaters, we transitioned to managing a real estate portfolio which includes the Apple store in Lincoln Center as a tenant. For the last 11 years, I’ve been an angel investor and member of Tech Coast Angels’ Los Angeles network and was a member of its Executive Committee for some years. I was gratified to be designated TCA/LA’s Most Valuable Member in 2018. I’ve invested in approximately 100 startups (and helped a number of them raise additional capital), and I spend a significant amount of time meeting startup founders and generally networking the LA and San Diego startup ecosystems.

Matt is an acknowledged entrepreneur and innovator in global healthcare, with over 30 years of experience improving health care systems at public and private insurers, academic medical centers, community hospitals and medical group practices worldwide. He has been a frequent university lecturer, author of many innovative papers on the future of healthcare and co-author of the acclaimed book “Status One: Breakthroughs in High Risk Population Health Management”. Matt is currently an executive advisor and investor in Omada Health, one of the fastest growing digital health startups, based in the Bay Area. In 1997 he founded StatusOne Health Systems in Boston. StatusOne was the first remote SaS, licensing an internet application for B2B and was acquired in 2003 by Healthways Inc. In addition, Matt has held senior leadership positions at Healthways, UCSD, Harvard Health and BCBS. He is a native of Massachusetts and enjoys the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. He now lives in Dana Point.

Barry (Bear) has been a Medical Device company leader, proven strategist, and tactician with a 30 year track record of success driving company or division sales and profits to the next level. He is an active Angel Investor and member of Tech Coast Angels (TCA). Barry is on the TCA Orange County MedTech Device Committee. While being a successful serial entrepreneur he concurrently was a decorated Army Aviator Company Commander of an Air Assault unit in the Ohio Army National Guard. In addition to being an Army Helicopter pilot he also wears the Air Assault and Airborne badges along with many other prestigious awards as an Army Officer. Barry has had several successful exits in his career. His most successful exit was American Table Manufacturing to STERIS. From scratch his company designed, engineered and manufactured the most sophisticated minimally invasive carbon fiber surgical table in the world. He accomplished that along with being awarded 3 patents, UL, CE mark, FDA 510k all within a 3 year time frame from start to exit. STERIS is a 2.5 Billion dollar leading medical manufacturer. He achieved this with an exceptional multiple. He donates a lot of his time to mentoring startups and early stage businesses in addition to Angel Investing.

Greg Buchert, MD, MPH is the CEO of GSB Health Management Solutions, an independent consulting firm. He is also engaged in angel investing and serves on the advisory boards of several healthcare start-ups. He is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Shield of California’s Promise Health Plan that serves 500,000 Medicaid, Medicare and Dual Eligible members in California. He previously served as the Chief Executive Officer that launched Centene’s first Medicaid Managed Care Plan in California and later as Chief Medical Officer of HealthNet. His previous positions include work as a Principal Consultant with Health Management Associates, a national healthcare consulting firm, and as the Chief Operating Officer and Medical Director for CalOptima, a public managed care company for which he was a founding executive. Greg started his career as a Pediatric Emergency Physician serving in leadership positions at two children’s hospitals and as administrative director of a medical group.

Howard Mirowitz is an active private equity and venture investor with 40+ years of experience in starting and growing businesses, formulating and executing growth strategies, and managing new high- tech product development. He is a Manager of Cove Fund II, a seed-stage VC fund located at UCI Beall Applied Innovation, and serves on the EvoNexus Selection Committee. He sits on the Boards or Advisory Boards of several startups, and is a member of Tech Coast Angels and Wharton Angels. Previously, in the private equity field, Mr. Mirowitz served on the Board of Razorfish (NASDAQ: RAZF). He also managed Mitsubishi Electric’s U.S. high-tech incubator, which seed-funded several startups, including OpenWave (NASDAQ: OPWV) and General Magic (NASDAQ: GMGC), that developed fundamental enabling technologies for the first wireless Internet smart phones, built by Mitsubishi and launched by AT&T (PocketNet) and NTT DoCoMo (iMode) in 1995. As VP – advanced product planning and Director – Product Marketing for Mitsubishi’s U.S. electronics business, Mr. Mirowitz defined and launched several products that achieved leading market shares, including the company’s first export PC, which captured 7% of the U.S. market within a year after introduction. At Western Digital, Mr. Mirowitz led the acquisition of Paradise Systems, which became the worldwide leader in the PC display controller market within 18 months. Earlier in his career, he headed market research and planning at Microdata Corporation and directed Touche Ross’s Philadelphia IT consulting practice. Mr. Mirowitz is a Board member of the Illumination Foundation, past President of the OC Mental Health Association, and former co-Chair of the Taxpayer Oversight Committees for the OC Transportation Authority’s Measure M and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s Measure A bond issues; he was also Foreman Pro Tempore of the 2006-2007 Orange County Grand Jury. He was named 2015 Mensch of the Year by the OC Jewish Federation and received the 2013 OneOC Volunteer of the Year Award. In addition to teaching entrepreneurship at UCI’s Merage School of Business, he serves on the Advisory Board of UCI’s Beall Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and is a volunteer instructor in UCI’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. A Dartmouth College graduate, Mr. Mirowitz received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Roland Schumann co-founded SwapDrive, Inc. in 2000 to enable businesses to backup and share their mission-critical information online using secure data centers located away from their regular company offices. His venture capital-funded company created one of the first consumer Internet ‘clouds’ and was acquired by Symantec Corporation in 2008 for more than $100 million. For two years following the acquisition of SwapDrive, Mr. Schumann served as a Senior Director at Symantec where he continued managing day-to-day operations of the cloud storage business unit, overseeing one of the largest data storage infrastructures in the world. He is an active member of the Angel Capital Association as well as President of Sierra Angels (an angel investing group based in the Lake Tahoe Basin). He and his colleagues screen more than 100 investment opportunities each year and choose selected companies to pitch their ideas to the broader membership. Throughout th

John Pollara is the retired Chairman and CEO of Zieman Manufacturing Company. John has actively supported his community through his dedication and involvement as a member of the Whittier City Personnel Board, Whittier Host Lions Club, Whittier Citizens for Responsible Government, Skills for Adolescence Foundation, The Whittier College Board of Visitors and the California Poly University School of Business Leadership Board. He was named to Cal Poly’s Accounting Hall of Fame in 1995 and was named the Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Business Administration for 1999. He has also served as a director of the National Bank of Whittier and McFarland Energy, both publicly traded Corporations. He is a former International Chair of the Institute of Management Accountants and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. He is currently an active member of The Orange County Tech Coast Angels.

Kathie has a lifelong commitment to advancing innovation and entrepreneurship and has been an active Angel Investor since 2014 with memberships in Sierra Angels, E8, Tech Coast Angels, Alliance of Angels, and an Alumni of Golden Seeds. Her career focus has been on hardware / software solutions serving in international positions at The RAND Corp (Computer Sciences), Danet GmbH, TECSI, S.A (acquired by Steria) and nationally as Software Business Development Manager for Intel, and Director of Software Engineering on the founding team for semiconductor company, Xilinx. She is co-founder of the MIT–Stanford Venture Lab which is now VLab and the Wyoming Women’s Foundation which invests in the economic self-sufficiency of women and opportunities for girls. Kathie is an active philanthropic investor.

Michael has been investing in early stage companies since 2014, and exclusively since 2018 as a member of the Pasadena Angels, vetting companies for consideration and leading deals. Prior to that time, he accumulated 37 years of experience investing $6 billion in commercial real estate. He was President of a $2 billion fund at Black Creek Capital and Chief Investment Officer of GE Capital’s Arden Realty, Inc. Michael was Senior Vice President of Investments at Equity Office, a Sam Zell company. He was heavily involved in the $39 billion sale of the company to the Blackstone Group in 2007. Additionally, he led real estate investment activities at PS Business Parks, 2 family offices and oversaw a national portfolio for Wachovia Bank. For over 35 years Michael was a full member of the Urban Land Institute and served on an Advisory Board associated with American Homes for Rent, a real estate investment trust. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Mt. St. Mary’s College and a Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech. Additionally, he is a trail runner in Angeles National Forest, plays tennis, is a student of modern European history and enjoys traveling with his wife, Beth.

Dr. Sanjay Shrivastava is an entrepreneur, investor, and a corporate executive in the field of medical devices. He has been involved in developing, commercializing, evaluating, and acquiring medical devices for the past 20 years. After holding leadership positions in R&D, business development, and marketing at Medtronic, Abbott Vascular, Edwards Lifesciences, and BTG, plc, he cofounded BlackSwan Vascular–a funded medical device startup company, where he serves on the board of directors. Sanjay also serves as a member of the board of directors at Hancock Jaffe Laboratories, Inc., which is a Nasdaq traded medical device company based in Irvine, CA. In addition, Sanjay currently works as a director, business development at Johnson & Johnson in its cardiovascular group of companies. He is also a part of the Tech Coast Angels and TIE Angels groups. Sanjay serviced as a vice president, upstream marketing and strategy at BTG, plc, when it was a $800MM revenue company traded at London stock exchange. BTG was later acquired by Boston Scientific. As a director, global marketing at Medtronic, he was instrumental in starting and building its vascular embolization business. Prior to that, he was a director, R&D, where he led the development of Solitaire FR clot retriever for treating acute ischemic stroke through its CE mark and IDE approval for the US clinical trial SWIFT. He also led R&D teams for various stents and other interventional products through their FDA clearances and approvals. Sanjay holds 30 issued US patents and numerous International patents in medical devices and has edited two books including one titled “Medical Device Materials” published by ASM International. He was named among 100 Notable People in Medical Device Industry by the prestigious MD&DI (Medical Devices and Diagnostics Industry) magazine. He has been an invited speaker at clinical, business, and engineering conferences to speak about medical device innovation and commercialization. Sanjay holds a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s from the Indian Institute of Technology. He resides in Southern California with his wife and two children.

Dr. Ronald Weissman is Chairman of the Software Group of the Band of Angels, Silicon Valley’s oldest angel organization and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Angel Capital Association, North America’s umbrella organization for angel investors. He has more than twenty years of experience in venture and angel capital. Ron was a Partner and portfolio manager for seventeen years at global venture capital and private equity firm Apax Partners where he focused on North American and cross-border software investing. He has invested or advised more than 60 companies and has served on more than 30 corporate boards. Today, Ron advises financial and corporate venture funds, national and regional governments and G2000 corporate innovation programs. He is a frequent conference speaker and advisor on startup ecosystems, entrepreneurship, venture and angel capital trends, AI, startup governance, term sheets and valuation, M&A and other aspects of venture and corporate investing. He has advised governmental and private organizations in Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Armenia, Chile, Israel and the Republic of Georgia as well as the US White House on developing effective startup ecosystems. He lectures regularly at Stanford, the University of Santa Clara and other universities in the US and abroad on venture and angel capital trends. Prior to Apax, he directed Marketing (CMO) and Investor Relations at Verity (enterprise knowledge retrieval), which won “Large Cap Turnaround of the Year” from the Turnaround Management Association) after the company increased its market cap from $50M to nearly $2B and gained top market share. Before Verity, he directed Strategic Marketing and European Marketing for NeXT, reporting to Steve Jobs. Prior to NeXT, Ron consulted for federal agencies on IT strategy and served on the faculty of the University of Maryland, first, as Associate Professor (History) and then as head of Academic Computing, and then directed academic computing at Brown University before leaving the academy join Steve Jobs at NeXT. Ron invests in enterprise software, analytics, AI and health IT. He has led or co-led dozens of investments, has led M&A deals and secondary public offerings. His current passion is outreach to angels and entrepreneurs at startup hubs worldwide. He is a former Fulbright Scholar and received his BA, MA and Ph.D. degrees from UC Berkeley.

Tunde Oshinowo is an Associate at the Blue Venture Fund. He helps manage the Fund’s investments in Verata, ID Experts, and Payfone. Prior to BVF, Tunde was an associate at Abundant Venture Partners, where he focused on digital health and senior care. Tunde started his career in digital product design at Next College Student Athlete, the largest athletic recruiting network in the US. Tunde holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. An NFL alumni, Tunde also played professional football for four years following his time at Stanford University, where he received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Greg is a global consumer packaged goods marketing professional and spent 36 years with the Colgate Palmolive Company. He held management positions in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. From his last overseas posting as Vice President Asia Business Development in Hong Kong, Greg was promoted to President Global Fabric Care at Colgate Palmolive’s NYC headquarters and later promoted to President Global Home Care. Greg’s keys to profitable growth: assessing the competitive landscape, consumer insights leading to relevant new product innovations, focus on pricing/margins, building brands, speed to market and developing winning teams. Greg also restructured several businesses and led numerous M&A initiatives. Greg lives in Lake Tahoe, serves on the Sierra Angel’s Executive Committee and is an active investor. He is on the USC Marshall Business School Dean’s Advisory Board and is Chairman Emeritus of an Educational Foundation. In addition to skiing, Greg enjoys coaching executives, businesses and startups.

Jonathan Hung is Co-Managing Partner of Unicorn Venture Partners. He is an experienced professional with expertise in operations management, finance, business development, multinational business strategy, entrepreneurship, networking, data analysis, and leadership. Jonathan has experience running U.S. and China offices as the President of United Overseas Textile Corporation. An international clothing manufacturing and textile business that was started by his father in 1996. UOTC specializes in designing and manufacturing apparel in partnership with retailers such as Amazon, Burlington, and Costco. In addition, he was the Managing Member for his family office fund, J Heart Ventures, which made investments in startup companies such as Gyft, ChowNow, Miso Robotics, Clover Health, Bitmain, etc. Jonathan has also worked at Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Cummins. He holds various degrees from the University of Southern California, London School of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Shane believes that technology and content inspire the imagination; and imagination will inspire a more equitable economy. Shane is the founder of Cinematica Labs and Wolverine Angels, an angel investing syndicate of University of Michigan alumni. As a tech investor in California, he backed founders including Rachel Payne (FEM, Acquired by Nielsen Gracenote), Shane Hegde (Air), and Ramses Alcaide (Neurable). In total, Shane has invested in 20+ tech startups and participated in financing 20+ feature films. He has spoken on venture investing and human and machine bias to organizations including Female Founders Alliance, F50, Google Developers, and Startup Runway. An active member of the tech startup community, Shane has served as Entrepreneur in Residence for Techstars Los Angeles, Advisor for Plug In South LA, and Mentor for programs including Backstage Capital and Nex3. Shane holds an MBA with distinction from University of Michigan and a BS cum laude from Morehouse College.

Dr. Paul Voois is a Fund Manager with Cove Fund (www.covefund.com), an early stage venture fund in Irvine, CA. He is also a member of Tech Coast Angels. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Voois established a track record of building valuable companies with unique, defensible technology in the networking, communications and software industries. In 2002 he co-founded ClariPhy Communications, a venture- backed supplier of optical networking semiconductors that was acquired by Inphi (NYSE:IPHI) for $300M in 2016 and now operates as Inphi’s Coherent DSP business unit. He served as ClariPhy’s CEO until 2011 and as Chief Strategy Officer until its acquisition. Prior to founding ClariPhy, he served as CEO of 8×8 (NASDAQ:EGHT), a market leader in voice and video over IP technology. Dr. Voois received an MS and PhD from Stanford and a BS (summa cum laude) from Penn State, all in electrical engineering. He is an inventor on 34 issued United States patents.

Michael Norsen is an entrepreneurial leader with more than 13 years of experience building, growing and optimizing strategic partnering and business development organizations to support innovation within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Michael is currently the Head of LaunchLabs – Columbia in NYC and a Principal in Alexandria’s Venture Investment group. Previously, Michael was the Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at the Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals focused on partnering with academic medical centers and health systems to sequence and jointly analyze patient cohorts in order to identify new genetic targets driving disease. Michael also previously served as the Head of Business Operations and Strategic Planning for the RGC, where he was responsible for building, growing and optimizing the business development, strategic planning, financial management as well as the operations and alliance management functions for the RGC. Prior to the RGC, Michael was part of the founding team of Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI), an innovative collaboration model that partners with investigators at academic medical centers (AMCs) worldwide to accelerate the translation of novel biomedical insights from the lab to the clinic. In this role, Michael lead the due diligence, negotiation, execution and governance of collaborations across an array of therapeutic areas while also holding responsibilities in finance & operations as well as market analytics & commercial development. Prior to CTI, Michael held roles of increasing responsibility in the finance and global supply chain organizations at both Pfizer and Wyeth respectively. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Business Management and Chemistry from Bentley University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the Columbia Business School.

Brian Mac Mahon, the founder of Expert DOJO, has consulted and coached in over 35 countries bringing a global perspective to starting and growing a small business. He has been teaching the power of connecting in a community and the process of turning a pay it forward mindset into a revenue generator for years. Brian combines this teaching with the experience of working with thousands of small business over the years. Brian heads the Expert DOJO high-performance accelerator and has access to thousands of experts and mentors who will help any entrepreneur find what they need to pursue their small business dream. He has spoken all over the world about the most efficient ways to start, grow and expand any business. He is a vital partner for any small business team.

Hershel Mehta is a Venture Capitalist in charge of U.S. investments through his Family Office’s proprietary fund called Mehta Ventures. He has gone through the entrepreneurship journey himself, having published a mobile application in the Apple App Store in 2015, and Hershel uses that experience to help guide entrepreneurs through their own journeys. He finished his Venture Investing Education through the Executive Education Program at the Wharton School of Business. Hershel has invested in 28 startups in the past two years.

For over 30 years, Jeff has worked on behalf of clients and investors to create value for new and existing businesses. Most recently his focus has been on advising new cleantech companies commercialize their technologies. Previously, he has founded and been a managing partner of management consulting, technology commercialization and venture capital firms. He is an MBA (with Honors and a Specialization in Finance) from The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and holds a BA (cum laude, with Distinction in Economics) from Whitman College. Jeff was the recipient of The Wall Street Journal Award.

Christopher Mirabile is the Chair Emeritus and Public Policy Chair Emeritus of the Angel Capital Association and the co-founder of portfolio management tool www.seraf-investor.com. He is also co-Managing Director of Launchpad Venture Group, a Boston-based venture investment group focused on seed and early-stage investments in technology-oriented companies. Launchpad is top-three ranked group in the U.S. As a full-time angel investor and an active member of the Boston-area angel investing community, in addition to his Launchpad work, Christopher has personally invested in over 65 start-up companies. He was named one of the “Top Angel Investors in New England” by Xconomy and one of “Boston’s Most Helpful Investors” in an entrepreneur survey by Companyon Ventures. Christopher has been a columnist on entrepreneurship for Inc. Magazine, an adjunct lecturer in the MBA program at Babson’s Olin School of Business, a member of the board of advisors of The Capital Network, a regular advisor and mentor to start-ups, and a frequent panelist and speaker. He is a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of numerous start-up companies and non-profits. Christopher is a member of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee. Christopher has served as a public company CFO and General Counsel with enterprise software provider IONA Technologies PLC, a corporate and securities lawyer with Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault and as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse’s Strategic Consulting Group.

Barbara Dalton Russell co-founded Cap W – an Advisory/investment Banking firm focused on early/mid-stage tech-enabled companies, characterized by strong female and/or POC founders & teams, solving BIG problems with massive market opportunities. We advance the ability of companies principally focused on the AI/ML, VR/AR, ed-tech, clean-tech and fin-tech sectors to succeed through our model of investing and providing strategic advice that maximizes the ability of these companies to scale via targeted fundraising from optimal/inclusive strategic, venture, and other capital sources. Barbara serves on the board of several rapidly-scaling, early and mid-stage companies, providing advice fueled from her 28 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, M&A, and capital markets. She also serves on non-profit boards including: Alliance for Business Leadership (ABL)and NFTE, both of which represent her progressive views on diversity and inclusion. Since the outbreak of COVID, she has been busy! In addition to continuing to raise significant amounts of capital during this pandemic, she just completed serving as a judge in her SEVENTH pitch competition (virtually, of course) since COVID began: 1. Techstars – Boston 2. Techstars – Airforce 3. NY Business Plan Competition 4. Rice University Business Plan Competition 5. BU Pitch Competition 6. NFTE (National Fdn. For Teaching Entrepreneurship – underserved high schools across the US) 7. University of Arizona FORGE Accelerated Entry Program Prior to Cap W, Ms. Russell was Managing Director of Investment Banking at Detwiler Fenton, co-founder of: the Social Internet Fund (2011) with Lou Kerner; Bold Cap, a woman-focused venture fund, with Kay Koplovitz, Heide Miller,& Barbara Corcoran, and before that, Senior Partner, and Group Head of the Media, Entertainment, New Media investment banking group at CIBC Oppenheimer, where she raised significant amounts of capital as well as provided advice to technology, media, & digital companies. Ms. Russell is a mentor, judge, and/or investor in several accelerators, angel investment groups, and not-for-profits including: TechStars; LearnLaunch; Harvard i-Lab; NYS Bus.Plan Comp; Rice University Bus.Plan Comp; and MIT Alumni Angels. She is a senior lecturer at Babson, MIT, U-Mass, and BU. She received her MBA from the Sloan School at MIT and a BA in Economics from Boston University.

As part of a founding team in a tech startup exited with acquisition by Texas Instruments in 2000, Pat has since focused her mission on investing and nourishing entrepreneurship as her way of “paying forward” to the successful exit she experienced. She had founded and currently manages portfolio of ADP Investment Group, LLC, a privately owned focusing on real estates and venture investments. Some of ADP current holding includes dozens of startups, private equity fund and venture funds such as Okapi, Cove and Vintage Fund. Pat was involved in engineering and had published research papers in heat transfer and cryogenic cooling. She also managed satellite component manufacturing for PamSat and DirectTV in her prior career. She is an active member of Tech Coast Angel, Context Family Network and Asian American Investment Group. Pat is a passionate philanthropist. She serves on the board of Mission Hospital Foundation and is a committee member of several charities including United Way, Human Options. Pat has a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from USC.

Amy serves on the E8 Board, a cleantech-focused early stage investment group. She has been engaged in cleantech innovation and policy for over two decades. Currently she leads sustainability strategy for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, with a recent focus on finance and ESG (environmental & social governance). Notable past projects include representing industry in United Nations climate talks reaching historic agreements and helping to accelerate commercialization of renewable energy technologies. Prior, Amy worked in government and as an attorney.

Ray Chan is a prominent investor who has been recognized as one of Orange County Business Journal’s most influential business leaders since 2017. Ray is the Chairman of Koa Accel, co-founder and Managing Director of K5 Ventures, and has been leading county-wide efforts to build the tech and startup ecosystem within Orange County throughout the past decade. He is also an active member of Tech Coast Angels, a former member of their Board of Governors and an Investment Partner for their Angel Capital Entrepreneur Fund I, II and III. Ray has a 30+ year track record of successful business execution and of being a startup queen/kingmaker. Some of K5 Ventures successful exits include Everyone.net (acquired by Proofpoint), Connectifier (acquired by LinkedIn), SignNow (acquired by Barracuda Networks), Filpagram (acquired by ByteDance, owner of TikTok) and Slack.

All-American and Professional Athlete turned Venture junkie. I lead Capital Thirteen’s investment efforts in Seed and Pre-Seed stage tech startups. Before launching Capital Thirteen, I spent 5 years focused on early stage tech investments in the local community. In addition to investing, I also consult with and operate our portfolio companies helping with sales management, operations, and financial analysis. Prior to starting my career in venture investing, I worked at McKinsey & Co. where I advised clients on distressed turnarounds. I studied at Business Brigham Young University with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship. While there, I was a Captain of the Men’s Volleyball team where I led our team to four consecutive second place finishes and broke the school record for career points. I am a competitive sports fanatic. When I’m not in the office, you can find me on the basketball court, football field, golf course, soccer pitch, beach or ski slopes.

Janice is a skilled entrepreneur with successful and profitable exits. Her industry expertise as founder/operator is varied including FinTech, Aerospace Manufacturing, Commercial/Investment Real Estate and specialized IP. With a mind for mentorship focused on performance, high-growth, and capturing market value, she Co-founded VentureTwelve, an investment syndicate empowering entrepreneurs with innovative tools for transition, funding and scale. Her investments include Early Seed to Series B funding. She serves on multiple Boards as Adviser and/or Director, including Vice Chair for the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Angels and Chairs the Portfolio Management Committee.

Max Shapiro is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of PeopleConnect a 19 year old executive search firm which helps early-stage high-tech companies find the talent they need to succeed. The company’s clients are in technology, cannabis, cbd, hemp, biotech, clean tech, apps, services, medical devices, and consumer products. He has been an Angel investor for 15 years. His investment portfolio includes 9thGear, Boston Heart Labs, Appvance and Trident Labs and others.

William D. Paiva, PhD, is General Partner of the Oklahoma Life Science Fund. The fund has invested in 15 Oklahoma health care companies. Those companies have collectively raised over $375 million in venture capital investment to Oklahoma and have realized over $1.5 billion in exits. In addition to the Oklahoma Life Science Fund, Dr. Paiva was a partner with Sevin Rosen Funds, a venture fund based in Dallas, TX and Palo Alto, CA with over $2 billion under management and Chisholm Private Capital, based in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK and Dallas, TX. Before that, Dr. Paiva served as a management consultant at Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, which was acquired by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and he was investment banking associate at JP Morgan in New York. Dr. Paiva holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from Dartmouth College’s Amos Tuck School of Business.

John is Managing Director of US Angels, an angel investor group based in Silicon Valley and Director, Portfolio management at Kytotech Technology and Life Science. He is also a member at Keiretsu Forum and HBS Alumni Angels, a mentor at Runway, Alchemist, and Plug and Play and an advisor to a number of technology companies including 1WorldOnline, and Evoshare. Earlier in his career, John was COO and co-founder at JMC Telecom, a prepaid telephone card company and COO at Trader Media a roll-up in classified media that went public, He was also VP Marketing and Sales at Zenith/Bull Computers in Europe, a VP Marketing and Director of Strategy at GE and a manager at Boston Consulting Group. John holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was an Arthur Sachs Fellow, and a Master in Engineering from Mines ParisTech in France.

Denise Saltojanes is an active angel investor through Golden Seeds and Beacon Angels, where she focuses on due diligence, deal-sourcing, and advising early entrepreneurs. With a broad background in medical and technology development and financial analysis, Denise Saltojanes holds a multifaceted skill set from her 25+ year engineering-based finance career. During her time with the US Air Force, she successfully modeled and defended $6B of Congressionally approved appropriations and was responsible for numerous financial agreements regarding technology and materiel transactions with America’s foreign allies. Denise served as Vice President of Investment Banking at Medical Capital Advisors where she was an integral part of the firm’s merger and acquisition team and led the valuation process. As a Senior Executive at Cambridge Polymer Group, a biopolymer research and development company in Boston, she supervised daily operations as well as coordinating marketing, financial strategy, and new business development and licensing agreements. She has been involved in private financings for orthopedic device and other medical technology companies. Additionally, Denise has held financial positions at the Orthopedic Biomechanics and Biomaterials Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and started her career as a process engineer at General Electric. Denise is also an active philanthropist for the promotion of women and diversity in leadership roles, animal welfare, and expanding access to the arts. She is an active board member for the Advisory Board for the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at University of New Hampshire (“UNH”) and the Corporate Board of Advisors member for Chemical Engineering Dept at UNH. Denise actively promotes interdisciplinary learning and career goal-setting as well as STEM education for first generation college students. She received an B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of New Hampshire and her MBA from Babson College.

Charla Triplett has over 20 years of experience bridging the gap between academia, business, startups and non-profit and Venture Capital. She has been educated as a bioengineer with a breadth of experience in digital health, biosensors, medtech and life sciences and she has been a sought out mentor, advisor and connector in the industry for decades. She is a Senior Venture Partner at Expert Dojo Healthcare Ventures, Managing Director at Suncoast Ventures, and CEO of Spine by Design, a surgical decision support software startup that is using computer vision and machine learning to identify those patients most likely to have reherinations after spine surgery.. Charla has been the founder of a non profit in the biomedical engineering space, as well as led product development for a medical device engineering firm, ran strategic partnerships for Oregon State University’s College of Business, and Director of Industrial and Clinical Relations at Arizona State University. Education M.S. Bioengineering, Oregon State University B.S. Microbiology, Washington State University

Mr. Kramarz is author of Born to Star, LinkedIn influencer, inventor of Story Pitching, partner in Shepherd Ventures III, founder of Intelliversity and the Jericho Center of Medical Diplomacy, and Chairman of the Brain-Body Research Institute and Licensing Corp. As an Organization Development expert and serial entrpreneur, his investment style centers on assessing a company’s founding team as more predictive of success than the details of the product or market.

I founded Lemnos Advisory, LLC and currently serve as CEO. Lemnos Advisory provides strategy, business development and corporate development services to a global customer base including financial / investment firms and operating companies. I invest as an angel through TCA-LA, MEDA, Gopher Angels and Chemical Angels Network. My corporate career consisted of 30+ years of progressive management experience at 3M, including significant Corporate Development and M/A integration experience.

Elsa Chi Abruzzo, RAC, FRAPS, is the CEO and President of Anuncia Medical (Scottsdale, AZ) and an angel investor. She is a medical device executive, entrepreneur, and a founding member of Anuncia Medical, Alcyone LifeSciences, Arthromeda, Inc. and Cygnus Regulatory with a 35+ year successful product development, manufacturing, regulatory, quality, and clinical record of accomplishment in medical devices. Cygnus Regulatory, her consulting firm, specializes in regulatory and clinical strategy, execution, and due diligence. Elsa successfully lead teams at a variety of start-ups bringing many disruptive medical solutions to market. She authored or contributed to 4 granted US FDA Breakthrough Devices Designations. Ms. Abruzzo held leadership roles at Cordis JNJ, CryoLife, Percutaneous Valve Technologies (acquired by Edwards LifeSciences), AtriCure (IPO), Sapheon (acquired by Covidien/Medtronic), and PTS Diagnostics (acquired by Sinocare). Ms. Abruzzo has a B.S. in engineering, is regulatory affairs certified and a Fellow of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society.

Long time (40 yrs) pension fund manager, long time Angel investor (20 years).