TITLE: Investment Insights
DATE: Thursday, September 10th
TIME: 1:00PM Pacific
The event is FREE but you must Register below
ABOUT THE WEBINAR:
Investors have different investment thesis and look for different attributes and performance milestones before committing to research projects or early stage companies. Hear from several top representatives of venture funds that work with academia on value creation.
MODERATOR:
Amir Naiberg, Associate Vice Chancellor and CEO & President, UCLA Technology Development Group
PANELISTS:
Jim Demetriades, CEO and Founder, Kairos Ventures
Jim Demetriades is a lifelong inventor, entrepreneur and investor. At the age of 26 and with only $5,000, he founded SeeBeyond which grew to 1,600 employees with offices in 35 countries and a client list that included GM, Porsche, BMW, Pepsi, NY Columbia Presbyterian, JP Morgan Chase, Unilever, Air Liquide, the British NHS, Aetna, the Cleveland Clinic, and about 10,000 others. Mr. Demetriades took SeeBeyond—which became the world's largest organically grown integration software company and whose products were ranked #1 globally by the Gartner Group—public in 2000 and in 2005 successfully sold it to Sun Microsystems, a subsidiary of Oracle, for $386 million. Mr. Demetriades went on to found and continues to manage Kairos Ventures, his own venture capital investment company, Multiversal, a real estate development and management company, and created Inspero.net, his own unique children’s internet education media company. Mr. Demetriades also serves on the boards of numerous technology companies in a variety of industries. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics, with a second major in Computer Science, and minors in Marketing and Mathematics, all from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
Zach Jonasson, Managing Partner, Phoenix Venture Partners
Dr. Jonasson is a Managing Partner and co-founder of Phoenix Venture Partners (PVP) where he focuses on life sciences and healthcare related investments. He brings over 25 years of experience in venture capital, entrepreneurship, and start-ups operations. He was the co-founder and initial CEO of ReForm Biologics, a start-up developing next generation formulations technologies for biotherapeutics, and a cofounder of Crop Enhancement, a start-up developing sustainable pesticides and fertilizers for sustainable agriculture. Previously, he was a General Partner and Kauffman Fellow at Seaflower Ventures. Earlier in his career, while still a doctoral student, Dr. Jonasson was part of the initial team at RCM (acquired), where he designed process optimization instrumentation for major chemicals and energy companies, including Eastman Chemical, Shell, and Sempra. Dr.Jonasson's prior and current investments include Serenex (acquired), MetaWorks (acquired), and Valeritas (VLRX), AbSci, Sentinel Monitoring Systems, and Lucira Health.
Dr. Jonasson earned a BS from Georgetown University and an AM and PhD from Harvard University, where he was a Sackler Scholar. He has taught at Harvard Business School. In addition to his investment and board roles at PVP, Dr. Jonasson serves on the board of the Oregon Translational Research and Development Institute (OTRADI), on the Commercialization Council of the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI), on the Advisory Board for the Oregon Innovation Cluster (OIC), and on the Advisory Board of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia.
Michelle Kim-Danely, SVP Operations, Autobahn Labs
Dr. Michelle Kim-Danely is Senior Vice President of Operations at Autobahn Labs. Over the past 15 years, she has held business and scientific roles that span the life sciences early value creation chain within both academic and industrial settings. Prior to joining Autobahn Labs, she served as a consultant to venture capitalists and early stage biotech companies, advising on a range of topics from opportunity sourcing and scientific diligence to business / corporate development and negotiations. Dr. Kim-Danely has held operational roles in Series A and B venture-backed drug discovery platform companies, first as Vice President of Business Development at Vium where she managed strategic partnerships with both large pharma and startup companies, followed by management of the BD, sales and marketing team as Vice President of Business Development at Biodesy.
Prior to her startup experience, Dr. Kim-Danely held positions that focused on evaluating and developing the commercialization potential of academic research. Within the UCSF community, she supported efforts at QB3 and Mission Bay Capital to diligence investment opportunities and develop scientific projects of various faculty members. In addition, she worked within the technology transfer office to assess patentability and to market technology assets to commercial partners. Subsequently, she was the Portfolio Manager at Breakout Labs, a program operating out of Peter Thiel’s non-profit foundation that funds and supports academic spinout companies at the intersection of biology and technology. She managed a portfolio of 22 companies, advising management teams on Proof-of-Concept and prototype development, go-to-market strategy, partnering, and fundraising efforts from company inception to Series A financing.
Dr. Kim-Danely holds an AB in Biological Sciences from Cornell University, and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from Columbia University, where she conducted her dissertation research in the laboratory of Richard Axel, MD (2004 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine). She completed her postdoctoral work in the Neuroscience group at Roche Palo Alto, followed by several years of drug discovery research as a Scientist at FibroGen
Robey Miller, Investing and Research, Alphaedison
Before joining Alpha Edison, Robey was a Director at Strathspey Crown, a Newport Beach-based growth equity firm focused on Healthcare and Technology, where he led diligence efforts, financial analysis, deal execution, and portfolio company operations for a variety of early-stage companies. Prior to Strathspey Crown, Robey spent several years working as a management consultant at Monitor Deloitte, concentrating primarily on growth strategy and corporate development initiatives.
Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Robey studied Economics at Claremont McKenna College, attracted to Southern California weather and strong corporate finance program. While at Claremont, Robey was the Captain and President of the Men’s Lacrosse Team and regrettably attempted to learn Mandarin and econometrics.
When not working, Robey enjoys hiking with Hendricks (his black Lab and the official Alpha Edison mascot), reading investigative journalism non-fiction tomes (recent favorites include “American Kingpin: The Silk Road Story” by Nick Bilton and “Black Edge” by Sheelah Kolhatkar) and playing golf when his fiancee Calida (a radiation oncologist) permits. Robey and his fiancee also enjoy live music (their favorite venue in LA is Hollywood Forever Cemetery where they last saw Tame Impala) and debating how to fix the US healthcare system - Calida typically gets the last word though.
Manny Stockman, Principal, Osage University Partners
Manny joined Osage University Partners in 2015. At Osage, he has focused on core technology areas across software, computing, and IoT. He is a board director at PsiKick, an observer at NuMat, and has led Osage’s investments in SiFive and IonQ. Prior to joining Osage, Manny was at Lockheed Martin ATL and Skunkworks. As an engineer executing on the transition of early stage technologies into the defense industry, he often joined university researchers with his industry team to develop unique technology solutions across the materials, applied physics and photonics domains.
Manny holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Physics and a B.S.E in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.