Tim Draper
Founder and Managing Director,
Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Timothy Draper is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, one of the nation’s premier early stage venture firms. Since its inception in 1985, Silicon Valley-based Draper Fisher Jurvetson has backed over 500 companies including such industry changing successes such as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu (BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY) and Overture (acquired by YHOO). Tim is a regular on Forbes Midas List (ranking of the most successful investors) coming in at #7 and is ranked as one of the most influential Harvard Alumni in the school’s history.

Tim’s original suggestion to use "viral marketing" in web-based e-mail to geometrically spread an Internet product to its market was instrumental to the successes of Hotmail and YahooMail, and has been adopted as a standard marketing technique today.

Tim, one of the world’s most active advocates for entrepreneurs, launched the DFJ Global Network, an international network of early-stage venture capital funds with offices in over 30 cities around the globe. Tim is also the course creator and Chairman of BizWorld, a 501c3 organization built around simulated teaching of entrepreneurship and business to children. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Rich Karlgaard
Publisher, Forbes Magazine

Rich Karlgaard is the publisher of Forbes - the world's most popular business and financial magazine, read by 4.5 million people per issue.

In every issue of Forbes and in his daily blog on Forbes.com, Rich authors, Digital Rules, known for its witty and honest assessment of technology, entrepreneurship, regional economic development and the future of business and work. Rich is a regular panelist on cable news' most popular business show, Forbes on Fox and a frequent guest on CNBC's Kudlow & Co. Rich joined Forbes in 1992 to start Forbes ASAP, a technology magazine, along with Forbes CEO and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes, and the futurist and writer George Gilder.

Rich is a successful entrepreneur having founded among others, Garage Technology Ventures, an early stage venture fund, in 1997 and Upside Magazine in 1988. He is a recipient of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
He also is the author of the book Life 2.0 How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness, which was an Amazon.com and Wall Street Journal business best-seller.

Chip Perry
President and CEO, AutoTrader.com

Perry is President and CEO of AutoTrader.com. With over $500 million in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, AutoTrader.com is the largest online automotive advertising company in America. With over 3.5 million new and used vehicle listings from over 40,000 dealers, AutoTrader.com aggregates by far the largest number of vehicles in any medium. And with over 14 million unique monthly visitors, AutoTrader.com attracts the largest audience of car buyers on the Internet. Perry was the company’s first employee in 1997 when he was asked by Manheim Auctions, a unit of Cox Enterprises, to launch the company. Since then, AutoTrader.com has grown to become the world’s largest automotive marketplace and Perry has become widely recognized as a pioneer of the online automotive industry.

Robin L. Weiss
Senior Vice President; Head Investment Banking Services
NYSE Euronext

As head of the NYSE Euronext Investment Banking Service unit, Ms. Weiss is responsible for domestic IPOs, the US-based Israel business, and initial listings of Structured Products. In her role, she works extensively with corporate management and the venture capital, buyout, and investment banking communities. Prior to joining the Exchange in 2001, Ms. Weiss spent 15 years with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in a variety of corporate finance functions including mergers and acquisitions, principal equity investment, corporate finance advisory, and rating agency advisory.

Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr.
60th Governor of Maryland
Member, Womble Carlyle

Robert Ehrlich, Jr. served as the 60th Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. Prior to serving as Governor, Ehrlich represented Maryland's 2nd Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years, where he served on Budget, Energy and Commerce, Government Reform and Oversight, and Banking and Financial Services Committees along with subcommittees on telecommunications and the internet, among others. Governor Ehrlich, a long time proponent of the high tech industry, also served as Co-Chairman of the Congressional Biotechnology Caucus. In February 2007, Governor Ehrlich joined Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, as a founder of the firm's Baltimore office.

Neil Sequeira
General Partner, General Catalyst Partners

Sequeira invests in both new and existing technology businesses for General Catalyst Partners out of Boston. Areas of special interest include internet and new media, software, consumer services and network infrastructure. Extremely active, Sequeira is currently a board member of DECA, Elemental Technologies, Eons, Highwinds Network Group, Visible Measures, ViTrue, and ScanScout, a board observer for BrightCove, rPath and Qumas and is actively involved with BlackDuck, and ITA Software. Previously, Sequeira served as Managing Director, Technology for Time Warner Investments the early stage private investment vehicle for the world's largest media company.

Patrick Kerins
General Partner, NEA

Patrick joined NEA in 2006 as General Partner focusing on a broad range of information technology investments with particular emphasis on enterprise software, network infrastructure and Internet companies while serving on the board of ChannelAdvisor. Prior to joining NEA, Patrick was General Partner of Grotech Capital Group where he specialized in high-tech investments and served on a number of boards including Advertising.com, Bluefire Security, CDnow, Fieldglass Software, Hillcrest Labs, SALIX Technologies, and Synchrologic.

David Wyss
Chief Economist, Standard & Poor's

David Wyss is the chief economist at Standard & Poor's, responsible for S&P's economic forecasts and publications and co-author of the monthly Equity Insight and the weekly Financial Notes. He previously served with the President's Council of Economic Advisers, Senior Economist at the Federal Reserve Board and Economic Advisor to the Bank of England. David testifies regularly before Congress and is a regular economic expert in the press and a number of television programs.

Said Mohammadioun
Managing Partner, TechOperators

Mohammadioun represents the newly formed Atlanta-based fund, TechOperators. He was recently CEO and Chairman of Synchrologic leading its growth and successful sale to Intellisync and subsequently to Nokia. A serial entrepreneur, Mohammadioun also founded and served as CEO of Samna Corporation, taking it public with a successful exit in selling to Lotus. A member of the Georgia Technology Hall of Fame, he has served on the board of 12 software companies and has made direct investments in as many others.

Michael Hacker
Investment Manager, AlpInvest Partners

One of the largest private equity investment managers globally, AlpInvest manages over $50 billion with an annual allocation in excess of $6 billion with over 100 core general partnership realationships worldwide. Hacker is a member of AlpInvest’s Secondary Investment team, focusing on crafting innovative liquidity and restructuring solutions. His team creates portfolio solutions to illiquid assets, drawing on the entire AlpInvest Partners platform with its global scale and reach.

Jack Biddle
General Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners

Biddle co-founded Novak Biddle in 1996 to provide equity financing to the management of young, information technology companies. Today, one of the country’s most respected funds has over $580 million under management. Biddle currently serves on the boards of 10 firms, having past board seats on 7 firms successful exits. Having experience on both the investment and management side of venture backed companies, Biddle brings knowledge in all aspects of growing successful companies to exit.

Bart Shirley, CFA
Managing Director, Key Capital Corporation

Shirley joined KCC in 2002 to manage the institution's $900 million private equity fund-of-funds portfolio and has subsequently made investments into some of the top performing VC funds. Prior to joining Key, Shirley helped start and co-manage the private equity activities for Nationwide Insurance, committing almost $600 million to high quality venture capital and LBO funds, and a select number of direct co-investments. Before joining the private equity world, Mr. Shirley worked in the municipal bond market as both an advisor and buy-side analyst.

Mark Barry
Partner, OpenView Venture Partners

The Founder and former Managing Director of Microsoft's Emerging Business Unit, Barry now focuses on expansion stage capital for high-growth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies with OpenView Venture Partners. A 25-year IT veteran, Mark brings extensive operating and business development experience to his work with venture capital backed businesses.

Catharine Burkett
Principal, Camden Partners

Catharine manages the Camden Private Capital Fund of Funds. With extensive experience as a limited partner, Catharine over the last 20 years has designed, built and managed private equity funds for corporate pensions, foundations, and two major university endowments. Camden has holdings in such venture firms as Silicon Valley’s Bay Partners, Intersouth Partners, Inverness Capital Partners, Galen Partners and Sanderling Venture Partners.

John Huntz
Executive Director, Arcapita Ventures

Huntz heads the venture capital arm of Arcapita, a dedicated fund focusing on growth stage enterprises primarily in the US. With over 28 years of private equity, venture capital and operational experience, Huntz previously spent time with Fuqua Ventures, Fuqua Enterprises, Noble Ventures International and Harrison Capital. A leader in the southeast's venture community, Huntz is the founder and chairman of the Atlanta Venture Forum.

Pascal Luck
Managing Director, Core Capital Partners

Luck is a Managing Director at Core Capital Partners and focuses on investments in the networking, communications, software, and information technology sectors. He represents Core on the Boards of Directors of Genband, Bridgewave, Inlet Technologies, JackBe, Triumfant, Trust Digital, V.i. Labs, and VPI Systems. Previous board affiliations include NextPoint Networks (acquired by Genband), Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE), and Covega (acquired by Gemfire). Prior to joining Core, Pascal was Director and Founder of Cross Hill Financial Group, a DC-based private investment banking/M&A advisory firm

Kristine Brandt
Principal, Invesco Private Capital

Kristine is involved in the quantitative and qualitative analysis of prospective partnership fund investments for New York based Invesco Private Capital, which has invested $4 billion in capital to more than 440 private equity partnerships. Kristine serves on several partnership advisory boards, including .406 Ventures, Catterton, Eureka, Lovell Minnick, One Liberty Ventures, Pfingsten, Salix Ventures, Spire Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures. Previously, Kristine was the Director of Operations for AddHealth - a private healthcare management firm located in Jackson Hole, Wyoming - where she was involved with all phases of the company from start-up through acquisition by a large PPO.

Robert Power
Vice President, NYSE Euronext

Power serves as VP for the Global Corporate Client Group for the NYSE Euronext, the world’s largest and most liquid exchange group. In this role, he is responsible for new equities listings on the NYSE for several regions on the US east coast and in the mid west. Previously, Power held various senior level positions at the Archipelago Exchange, NASDAQ and the American Stock Exchange.

Greg Ager
Partner, Updata Advisors

Ager brings 18 years of investment banking experience, having completed approximately 60 transactions aggregating over $7 billion in value for emerging and middle market technology companies. Prior to Updata, Ager spent time as the senior east coast technology investment banker for Wachovia Securities and managing director and head of East Coast Software.

Raymond King
Global Diversified Industries, Toronto Stock Exchange

King is Senior Manager of Global Diversified Industries for the Listings Business Development group with Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange. With the Exchange for almost 8 years, he is responsible for leading global efforts to attract new listings in the technology, life science, manufacturing and broad industrial sectors. The TSX Venture Exchange serving the public venture equity market provides access to capital for companies at the early stages of their growth while offering investors a well-regulated market for making venture investments.

Scott Frederick
General Partner, Valhalla Partners

Frederick, who co-founded the $440 million Valhalla Partners in 2002, has a deep understanding of the issues facing high growth companies from his experience as an investor and advisor to emerging technology companies since 1994. Previously Frederick was a partner at FBR Technology Venture Partners, one of the Mid-Atlantic region's most successful venture capital funds.

Wayne Hunter
Managing Partner, Harbert Management Company

Hunter joined Harbert Management Company in 2002 and serves on the boards of Broadsource, Privaris, TapRoot Systems, Unitrends and WindChannel Communications. Prior to joining HMC, he was a founding Managing Director and Head of Wachovia’s Technology Investment Banking Group. He possesses more than twenty years of experience working with leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

Marc Lederman
General Partner, NewSpring Capital

Lederman serves as General Partner at NewSpring Ventures, a fund which provides equity capital to growth and expansion stage companies with a focus on business services, enabling technologies, and information technology. Prior to joining NewSpring, Lederman was a Manager in the Business Assurance and Advisory Services with Deloitte & Touche.

John Glushik
General Partner, Intersouth Partners

Glushik is a general partner with Intersouth Partners, one of the most active and experienced early-stage venture funds in the Southeast region with more than 80 investments in private companies over the last 22 years. Intersouth manages more than $750 million in seven venture capital limited partnerships, the most recent of which was established in May 2006 and totals $275 million. John is part of the leadership team at Intersouth with his work covers all aspects of venture investment and portfolio management.

Adam Oliveri
Managing Director, SecondMarket

Oliveri is leading SecondMarket’s efforts to create an administration and liquidity platform for private company securities. With nearly 2,000 participants managing over $500 billion in investable assets, SecondMarket brings together buyers and sellers in the largest marketplace for illiquid assets, with members including global financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity firms, mutual funds, and other institutional and accredited investors.

Tom Weithman
Managing Director, CIT GAP Funds

Weithman manages CIT GAP Funds, a seed-stage venture fund that makes equity investments in high-potential technology and life science companies in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since inception, CIT GAP Funds has placed 32 seed stage invesments leveraging in excess of $34M of private financing and creating significant economic value for entrepreneurs, co-investors, and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Tino Mantella
President, Technology Association of Georgia

Mantella joined the Technology Association of Georgia in 2004, an association dedicated to the promotion and economic advancement of the state's technology industry and provides leadership in driving initiatives in the areas of policy, capital, education and giving. TAG also brings the technology community together through events, initiative programs and networking opportunities.

John Yates
Partner, Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP

John Yates is the partner-in-charge of the technology group of Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. Yates is considered one of the pioneers of the technology law field and has been practicing exclusively in this area for over 26 years. Yates is internationally recognized in the computer and software legal area and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Computer Law Association and the Technology Association of Georgia and was appointed by the Governor of the State of Georgia to the Georgia Science and Technology Advisory Council.

Christopher Morton, Ph.D.
CEO, Skycross

Dr. Morton has more than 25 years of entrepreneurial and corporate leadership experience in the communications infrastructure industry. SkyCross, founded in 2000, is a global wireless company providing antenna-centric radio-frequency (RF) solutions for the mobile phone, home entertainment, and computing industries. Prior to joining SkyCross, Morton was executive in residence with MILCOM Technologies, where he oversaw the launch of new communications companies.

Dr. Thomas Boston
Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Boston is a national authority on economic issues and regional development. He is part of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin’s current Council of Economic Advisors, having served on a number of committees under other previous Atlanta mayors. Boston has also been appointed by multiple Georgia governors to serve on state committees examining such important issues as the state tax structure and policy and is frequently quoted as an expert economist in national media, such as the Detroit Free Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Business Week, and USA Today to name a few.

James Tholen
CFO, BroadSoft

Tholen brings more than 20 years of financial management experience. He served as both chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO) at NetSec, Inc., a professional security services company acquired by MCI (now Verizon Business). Prior to NetSec, he served as chief strategy officer and CFO for CareerBuilder and was a founding member of that company’s board of directors. Tholen was an integral player in growing CareerBuilder into the No. 2 company in the Internet recruiting and job market segment, and helped architect its initial public offering and later sale to leading newspaper companies.

Dr. Shan Nair
Co-founder, Nair & Co.

Dr. Nair is an Oxford University Ph.D. nuclear physicist who started his career as a research scientist in the U.K. nuclear industry. He decided to leave to work for himself and set up Nair & Co. in 1994. Nair & Co. now operates in over 40 countries, has over 700 client operations globally and has been named a top 100 international outsourcing service provider by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) at the 2009 Outsourcing World Summit. Dr. Nair has lived in 13 countries and has won the top 50 Outstanding Asian Americans in Business and Gullands Excellence Award.

Tom O'Grady
Partner, McGuireWoods

O’Grady leads the Corporate and Finance Section McGuireWoods' Technology & Business Department. He advises technology and growth companies in forming, structuring and financing business organizations, and in IT matters. He focuses on finding practical solutions to complex issues and helps clients make informed decisions that achieve their business goals. Tom earned an LL.M. University of Virginia School of Law and an LL.B. at the University of Witwatersrand School of Law, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Paul Boyer
President & Founder, FinOps Solutions

Boyer has spent the past 20+ years as a CFO and or COO of private and public companies from start-up to $700M in revenues. Mr. Boyer has executed over $337M in public, private equity/debt & venture financings, including a successful IPO, 10 M&A transactions and 2 successful turnarounds. Prior to founding FinOps, a finance and operations services firm focused on scaling companies, Boyer served as CFO for venture-backed companies StrikeIron, Agion Technologies and Solicore.

Scott Moss
Partner, Cherry Bekaert & Holland

Moss is the director of CB&H’s Transaction Services Group and has oversight responsibilities for all CB&H due diligence assignments. Scott has represented numerous parties in both buyside and sell-side transactions with transaction values ranging from $3 million to over $200 million. While working closely with both strategic and financial buyers, Scott has successfully orchestrated due diligence engagements in multiple industries.

Clint Richardson
Partner, Womble Carlyle

Richardson is a partner in the Corporate and Securities Practice Group and Managing Member of Womble Carlyle’s Atlanta office. Clint works regularly with growing companies in the information technology, life science, and service industries and with companies that provide financing to growing companies. Clint is also a founder and director of the oldest trade association for venture capital investors in the Southeast, the Atlanta Venture Forum, and is the author of a critically acclaimed series of Growth Company Guides for entrepreneurs.

Leigh S. Kinnebrew
CFO, MFG.com

Kinnebrew is responsible for the financial direction of MFG.com including treasury, financial operations and accounting. MFG.com is the largest online marketplace serving the global manufacturing community. Billions of dollars worth of discrete manufacturing services and industrial components are sources online via MFG.com every year. Before joining MFG.com, Leigh was director of finance for Reed Construction Data, a Reed Elsevier Group plc company, a worldwide publisher and information provider with annual revenues in excess of $5 billion.

Charles W. Seets
Principal, Southeast Area Leadership Team, Ernst & Young

Seets is a Principal and member of the Ernst & Young’s Southeast Area Leadership Team. He has over 24 years of experience is a variety of industries in both corporate and firm roles. Among his current responsibilities, Chuck currently leads a practice unit focused on areas such as client retention and satisfaction, marketing operations, and business development with strategic companies throughout the Southeast. In this capacity, he often meets with Fortune 1000 companies to understand their business issues domestically and abroad to properly align the resources of Ernst & Young accordingly.

Glen Whitley
Executive Director, TechAmerica Southeast

Whitley was appointed as Executive Director of TechAmerica Southeast in April 2008. Formerly the AeA, TechAmerica is the leading national technology trade association in the US. He manages the southeast region to increase the value opportunities for technology members in the region. He brings a strong technology background and international technology economic development experience to the position.

Jeffrey Leavitt
Partner, DLA Piper

Leavitt works with emerging growth companies, private investment entities, and the various groups that advise them. He is the only practicing attorney in the country to have completed the Kauffman Fellows Program, receiving specialized training in venture capital investment techniques and developing an extensive network throughout the private equity industry. A regular speaker in the Atlanta technology community, Leavitt was named one of Atlanta’s “Top Twenty Techies to Know” by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Neal Miller
Partner, TechCFO

Miller brings over 20 years of executive financial experience, having served in senior positions in private and public companies ranging from $2 million to $2 billion in revenues. Neal has significant experience in software, telecommunications and subscriber based services. Previously, Miller served as CFO at publicly held companies American Software Inc., Syntellect Inc. and Cypress Communications Inc., and in a senior financial management position with Tandem Computers. His early stage experience includes venture backed CES International where he prepared the company for an IPO and raised nearly $20 million in venture capital, and Agentis Software, where he currently serves as a Director, and CFO.

Kathryn Furman
Partner, King & Spalding

Furman is a partner is King & Spalding’s corporate practice primarily practicing in fund formation and mergers and acquisitions. She advises fund sponsors in the structuring and formation of investment funds and fund investors in reviewing and negotiating the terms of their investments. She also has extensive experience in a variety of M&A transactions, including public and private company mergers, leveraged buyouts, going private transactions, joint ventures and strategic investments.