JUDGES ARE GROUPED BY TRACK
TRACKS ARE IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

AERO / ASTRO TRACK

John Gannon
General Partner, SunBridge Partners

John Gannon is a founder and General Partner of SunBridge Partners with an investment focus in aerospace and power. Mr. Gannon co-founded SunBridge Partners and its predecessor Equitek Capital, and has played a key role in each firm’s development and investments including Eclipse Aviation, Embedded Planet, Alien Technology, Flarion, The New Media Group and Thin Battery Technology.  Mr. Gannon is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Embedded Planet and Thin Battery Technology.

Mr. Gannon began his career as an engineer in the aerospace industry for the General Electric Astro-Space Division, where he worked as a propulsion and orbit operations specialist on the Defense Satellite Communication System (DSCS) satellite program.  Following work at General Electric, Mr. Gannon earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and began a seven-year period of work in the field of currency derivative trading at Merrill Lynch in New York, Nations Bank in Chicago and Barclays Bank in London. Mr. Gannon received an MBA from the University of Chicago in 1993 and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Penn State University in 1989.

Joe Parrish
VP, Payload Systems at Aurora Flight Sciences

Mr. Parrish joined Aurora Flight Sciences in October 2007. From 2002 to 2007, Mr. Parrish was the President of Payload Systems Inc. in Cambridge, MA, where he led that organization and managed several successful technology development programs for government, industry, and academic customers. From 1990 to 2002, Mr. Parrish was employed by NASA in Washington, DC. During his tenure at NASA, Mr. Parrish held positions of responsibility for space station assembly and maintenance planning, space telerobotic system development, and planetary exploration mission development. His final assignment at NASA was in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters, where he was the Program Executive for the Mars Science Laboratory, Mars Scouts, and Mars Sample Return missions, as well as several key technologies for planetary exploration. Prior to joining NASA, Mr. Parrish was employed as a senior engineer at Booz-Allen & Hamilton and at Oceaneering Space Systems, providing technical consulting and system engineering for space and underwater applications. Mr. Parrish has received several career awards, including the DeFlorez Prize, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Group Achievement Award, and the NASA Exceptional Performance Award. Mr. Parrish holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, with academic and research emphasis on space systems, automation and robotics, and on-orbit assembly and maintenance.

John Tylko
Board of Directors, Aurora

Mr. Tylko was a founding member of Aurora?s Board of Directors and has been continuously involved with the company since its inception in 1989. Mr. Tylko was an Advanced Manufacturing Engineer at General Electric?s Aircraft Engine Group from 1979 to 1981 where he was responsible for development of composite material structures on the F-404 and T-700 military aircraft engines. Mr. Tylko co-founded General Computer Company (?GCC?) in 1981 and served as its Chief Operating Officer from 1987 to 2003. GCC developed a variety of innovative products in the consumer electronics and personal computer markets, ranging from video games to laser printers. Mr. Tylko was responsible for all aspects of operational management necessary to grow the company from startup to over $50 million in revenue. He also co-founded VideoGuide in 1993 and was instrumental in its sale to Gemstar TV Guide International. VideoGuide develops interactive electronic program guides for television. Mr. Tylko served as a Vice President of Aurora since May, 2003. He led Aurora?s Aerostructures business sector through May, 2006 and played a major role in managing Aurora?s Global Hawk manufacturing program. He led the transition of Aurora?s West Virginia manufacturing plant to a state-of-the-art composite structures manufacturing center. In May, 2006 he assumed overall responsibility for Aurora?s business development and strategic planning. Mr. Tylko holds a SB in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a lecturer in MIT?s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is a recipient of MIT?s Founders Award which recognizes entrepreneurship.

George T. Whitesides
Executive Director, National Space Society

George T. Whitesides is the executive director of the National Space Society, the largest advocacy group dedicated to human spaceflight, and senior advisor to Virgin Galactic, which is on track to becoming the world?s first spaceline; founded by Sir Richard Branson, it was established to undertake the challenge of making private space travel available to everyone. Whitesides is an appointed member of Comstac, the advisory committee of the Department of Transportation?s Commercial Space Transportation Division. A former Fulbright scholar, he is a graduate of Cambridge and Princeton. Whitesides is also a private pilot and parabolic flight coach.

BIOTECH TRACK

Steve Brown

25 years experience in industry working in research, development, sales, marketing, and business management generally focused on new products and businesses. 10 years of experience selecting inventions to patent and then licensing those patents to startups and others. Former Presidential Exchange Executive at the Small Business Administration.worked on issued related to high tech startups. Consultant and Lecturer on how companies can strategically use intellectual property tools to create sustainable competitive advantages.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Carbeck
CTO WMR Biomedical

Dr. Jeffrey D. Carbeck is a Partner and Chief Science Advisor of NanoTerra, and scientific co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of WMR Biomedical. Prior to joining NanoTerra and starting WMR, Dr. Carbeck was a faculty member of the departments of Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology at Princeton University. At Princeton he built a research program focused on biochemical engineering, material science and nanotechnology. He also served as the Director of the Program in Engineering Biology. Dr. Carbeck was a member of Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) and served on its executive steering committee. While at Princeton Dr. Carbeck received many awards including the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, National Science Foundation Career Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and Howard B. Wentz Award for Excellence in Research and Teaching. Recently the Boston Business Journal recognized Dr. Carbeck as one of the 40 outstanding professionals under the age of 40 for his business success and community contributions. Dr. Carbeck was born in Seville, Spain and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received a BSE in Material Science from the University of Michigan in 1990. He earned his PhD in Materials Science from MIT in 1996. Dr. Carbeck spent two years doing post doctorate research at Harvard University in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Richard Kivel

Rich presently serves as CEO of TheraGenetics, Ltd. TheraGenetics is a London, England based company focused on the development and commercialization of pharmacogenetic diagnostic tests to help guide and improve the treatment of CNS disorders such as Schizophrenia, Depression, and Alzheimer's. The technology, which was developed at Kings College London, is based upon genetic factors involved in influencing an individual's response to antipsychotic drugs. The company is engaged in diagnostics, clinical consultancy and drug discovery.

More about Richard Kivel

Noah Kroloff

Noah Kroloff is a Partner at NGN Capital, a healthcare venture capital firm with offices in New York and Heidelberg. Mr. Kroloff, who has more than 18 years experience in healthcare, most recently served as an executive officer at i-STAT Corporation, a publicly-traded medical device company where he was VP for International Sales & Marketing and Corporate Development. He was actively involved in the sale of i-STAT to Abbott Laboratories. He also led the creation of a global alliance with Abbott and a $61 million alliance with Hewlett-Packard Medical Products Group and created i-STAT's international distribution network. Prior to i-STAT, Mr. Kroloff was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Co. where he advised leading pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies on R&D management, portfolio strategy, and alliance formation. Prior to his work in healthcare, he was a senior analyst at Fannie Mae and an associate at Industrial Economics, Inc. Mr. Kroloff received his BA in general science from Brandeis University and his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was a founder of the MIT $10K (now $100K) Entrepreneurship Competition. He is a member of the board of BeneChill, Inc. and Coagulation Sciences LLC.

Kingsley Taft

I am a partner in Goodwin | Procter LLP's Business Law Department, where I focus my practice on the life sciences industry. I know MIT well - before going to law school, I earned a Ph.D. from MIT in chemistry working with Professor Stephen J. Lippard.

More about Kingsley Taft

Dean Banks
Vice President - Highland Capital Venture Partners

Dean is a Vice President focusing on healthcare investments and specializing in medical devices and diagnostics. Prior to joining Highland, Dean was an Associate Principal at Cytyc Corporation, a leading diagnostic and medical device company dedicated to the improvement of womenÕs health. As a member of the corporate development group he worked to develop and execute the company's strategic growthplan through acquisitions, investments, licensing and collaborations. Before joining Cytyc, Dean worked for Cambridge Endoscopic Devices as a VP of Business Development and Marketing. Dean began his business career at Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a J&J company marketing advanced medical devices for minimally invasive surgical procedures. During his five-year tenure, he held a variety of positions in management, sales and professional education. His past experience also includes four years of service within the United States Marine Corps.Dean is a current board member of MedTech IGNITE, an initiative of the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC) for nurturing medical device entrepreneurs at the early stages of their company's development.

Shawna Vogel
Technology Licensing Officer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shawna Vogel is a Technology Licensing Officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she has been active since 2001.  She oversees a portfolio of several hundred biotechnology inventions from M.I.T. and the Whitehead Institute and has had primary responsibility for protecting and licensing inventions out of the Broad Institute since its inception in 2003.  The Broad Institute, housed and administered at MIT, is a collaboration of M.I.T., Whitehead, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals.  Ms Vogel also manages the use of MIT’s names, marks and images. 

Ms Vogel holds a B.S. in biology from MIT and is pursuing an MBA at Babson College. Prior to joining the TLO, Ms Vogel spent 14 years in scientific journalism. She is the author of numerous newspaper, web and magazine articles as well as two internationally published books: Naked Earth (1996) and The Skinny On Fat (1999). She was an MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow during the years 1991-92.Ms Vogel is presently a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Startup Clinic Committee and is on the grant review committee for MIT’s Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. 

DEVELOPMENT TRACK

Dr. Mark S. Albion
Co-Founder, Net Impact

Mark is a social entrepreneur and author. He spent eighteen years as a student and professor at Harvard University and its Business School, profiled on 60 Minutes as a top young business professor in the United States. He consulted and sat on the boards of major retailers and consumer product giants Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble, and wrote three-award winning marketing books. He left Harvard to develop a community of service-minded MBAs and co-founded Net Impact in 1993, traveling to over 125 business schools on five continents, for which Business Week called him "the savior of b-school souls."

Daniel Alexander

You can find my more detailed bio at www.cambridgelight.com. Over 25 years ago I left McKinsey & Company in New York City to start a career in technology venture capital. The venture capital industry was much, much smaller then. About six years ago we started CambridgeLight Partners, a very, very early stage technology cofounder and investor. Some of my recent investments include CarsDirect.com (now Internet Brands), GoTo.com (subsequently Overture, Inc., acquired by Yahoo) and more recently United Villages (www.unitedvillages.com) (an outgrowth of First Mile Solutions, a recent $100k participant).

Ben Powell
Co-founder and Managing Partner, Agora Partnerships

Ben Powell is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Agora Partnerships, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship in developing countries. Ben is also a Director of the Agora Venture Fund, a fund that invests patient capital into socially responsible small businesses in Nicaragua. He became convinced of the power of small business to transform poor communities as an investor and entrepreneur in Mexico, where he co-founded CityGolf:Puebla, a family entertainment park. Ben has been an examiner in the International Affairs Division of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and has worked at Ashoka on its Full Economic Citizenship initiative. He has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a BA from Haverford College. Ben is a frequent speaker on social entrepreneurship and micro venture capital and was awarded the I-Qube award for innovation from Dalberg Global Advisors. He lives in Washington DC with his wife and two sons.

Randy Zadra

Managing Director of ICA - $20 M fund to support IT projects in emerging markets. I founded ICA and manage the team, help to evaluate projects and business plans. Also co-teach a course called developmental entrepreneurship at the MIT Media Lab, and work on the developmental entrepreneurship program at MIT. Previously was a VP at Teleglobe which was sold to BCE Inc. for $4.5B in 2002. I also advise and sit on the board of several IT companies. I focus largely on the IT and telecom industries as well as health technologies, and alternative energy.

ENERGY TRACK

Please visit the MIT Clean Energy Enterpreneurship Website for all details at www.mitceep.com.

MOBILE TRACK

Jamie Goldstein
General Partner - Northbridge Venture Partners

Jamie Goldstein joined North Bridge Venture Partners in 1998. Prior to joining North Bridge, Jamie co-founded PureSpeech, a venture-backed speech recognition software and applications company targeting service providers and enterprise call centers. Jamie served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing, driving revenue through OEM relationships with leading PC manufacturers and voice services platform providers. PureSpeech was acquired by Voice Control Systems (NASDAQ: VCSI) and subsequently sold to Scansoft (NASDAQ: SSFT). Before PureSpeech Jamie was an early employee with Symmetrix, a provider of manufacturing execution software that helped old-line manufacturing companies streamline their operations. Symmetrix grew to nearly 200 employees before its acquisition by SAIC. Jamie’s investment interests are diverse Ð software, storage, wireless, semiconductor and materials companies. He is a graduate of MIT, 1989 and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, 1994. He is actively involved in the MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation, is a Trustee of the MATCH School (a Boston-area Charter school) and serves on the Board of the New England Venture Capital Association.

Carl Stjernfeldt
General Partner - Castile Ventures

Carl Stjernfeldt has an investment focus on wired and wireless communications technologies and services. He also has a strong interest in the intersection of content mobility, transport, and trust. Prior to Castile, Mr. Stjernfeldt was a partner at Battery Ventures where he spent seven years investing in leading IT companies. Currently he serves on the board of PermissionTV, and has also served on the boards of Arbor Networks, Agito Networks, Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola), Cedar Point Communications, and Tejas Networks, and was a board observer of Optium (NASDAQ: OPTM). Prior to Battery Ventures Mr. Stjernfeldt worked for Cambridge Technology Partners as a client partner and project manager and at Summa Four developing telecommunications solutions for domestic and international service providers. Mr. Stjernfeldt holds a dual MS in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Northeastern University in Boston, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, where he now teaches a course in entrepreneurial finance.

Jeremy Wright
Global Director, Mobile Brand Strategy, of the Nokia Ad Business

Jeremy Wright is Global Director, Mobile Brand Strategy, of the Nokia Ad Business. He was previously Co-Founder and CMO of Enpocket, the mobile advertising technology and services company acquired by Nokia in October this year.  

At Enpocket, Jeremy also served two years as Chairman of the UK Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), where he led development of the first comprehensive code of conduct for the mobile marketing industry. Jeremy was previously Marketing Director and subsequently Managing Director of Engage Europe, the online media sales, analytics and technology company. Jeremy brings 20 years’ experience in publishing, broadcasting, ad agencies and online to the mobile medium.

Jeff Janer

An experienced digital technology marketer with a proven track record of identifying and developing new opportunities and new markets, Jeff Janer was most recently CMO of Third Screen Media, responsible for the company’s marketing and product management initiatives.

Before joining Third Screen Media, Janer was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Britemoon, an online marketing solutions provider. In 2000, he was a founding partner of Traverse Partners, a firm providing strategic consulting and interim operational management to VCs and emerging growth companies. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President of Fidelity eBusiness, a 90-person internet strategy and development organization. He was also President and CEO of Larry Miller Productions, a marketing communications firm acquired in 1998 by iXL, an internet professional services firm, where he was an Executive Vice President.

Janer holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University.

Damien Balsan
Director, Head of NFC Business Development Americas, Nokia

Damien Balsan has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications, mobile, bank card, and payment industry. Damien started his career in Mexico at France Telecom, in charge of developing the Minitel concept following France Telecom's investment of $500M in Telmex (Telefonos de Mexico). He has held several positions at Gemplus, the leading smart card manufacturer, including: Sales Director of Central and Eastern, General Manager for South America, and Director of Marketing for the Gemplus Mobile Business unit that focused in mobile banking and mobile commerce applications.

Damien graduated from MIT's Sloan School of Management and was one of the first Developmental Entrepreneurship alumni, completing his thesis on Mobile Commerce Business Models with a particular focus on emerging countries. The ideas developed in this thesis led him to become a co-founder of WAY Systems, an international leader in mobile point-of-sale devices in which he stayed 5 years. He now heads Nokia Mobile Payment activities and NFC in the Americas based in Burlington MA.

Kartik Raghavan

Most recently, Kartik was a Director and Technical Assistant working directly for Ray Ozzie on Microsoft’s Live services strategy and announcements including The Services Disruption Memo and was a founding member of the Windows Live Core Platform team. Previously, Kartik was the Technical Assistant to Jeff Raikes, President Microsoft Business Division, where he worked on numerous business strategy and technical projects including the acquisition of Groove Networks and the creation of Microsoft’s Office Live group. Kartik joined Microsoft in 1996 where he contributed to multiple releases of Windows Client and Server, as well as leading several successful technology incubation projects and teams in Windows including Windows Small Business Server, Windows Enterprise Server, and products in the web and storage appliance space.  Kartik received an AB in Engineering and Economics from Dartmouth College.  He also held a post-graduate fellowship at the University of Leiden, Holland.   Kartik was also selected as a White House Regional Finalist for the 2006-2007 calendar year and is a member of Senator Obama's Technology, Media, and Telecommunications policy team.  He is also a board member of the Dartmouth Club of Western Washington. A native of Los Altos, California, Kartik lives in the Queen Anne area of Seattle.

Katie Thompson
Partner at Trilogy Partnership

Katie Thompson is a Seattle native with a combined background of entrepreneurial, enterprise, and investing experience.  Katie began her career at McCaw Cellular working to secure new international operations for the company, focused primarily in Latin America and Europe.  After the acquisition by AT&T of McCaw, Katie moved to Washington DC as an early member of a venture backed start-up, Columbia Spectrum Management, which was then successfully sold to P-Com Services.  Katie went on to join Nextel Communications, a then-emerging nationwide wireless carrier, where she executed over $1B in acquisitions of operational SMR businesses. As an entrepreneur, Katie co-founded Alpine Tower, a U.S. based wireless tower company, and Sierra Tower, the first wireless tower company in Mexico both of which were sold successfully to large national tower companies. Katie then founded The Cascade Group, a wireless M&A and consulting firm.  With Cascade she negotiated more than $800 million in deals for clients, including AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, and Leap Wireless.  Katie returned to Seattle and joined Kellett Investment Corporation, a regional venture capital firm, as a vice president, where she co-led investment activities in a $110M fund targeting early stage telecom, software, and Internet companies which included Evite, Infospace, Lydian Bank, Overstock.com, and Revenue Science.  Katie holds a B.A. in History and in Asian Studies from Connecticut College.

Craig Cumberland
Nokia

B. Craig Cumberland, a 15 year Software industry veteran, currently serves as the head of globally focused Technology and Application Marketing team, Software programs group within Nokia.  Prior to Nokia, Mr. Cumberland was Director of Global Product Marketing for AOL Wireless, focusing on mobile applications platforms and services.  Additionally, Mr. Cumberland has held Sr. Positions at Openwave Software, Microsoft Research and Microsoft Corporation.  A published technology author/editor, he holds degrees from Texas A&M University and MBA from Indiana University.

PRODUCTS & SERVICES TRACK

Jeff Fagnan

Jeff Fagnan is a Partner with Atlas Venture and joined the firm in 2004. Before Atlas, he was the head of Seed Capital Partners' Boston office. Jeff focuses on building capital-efficient businesses in the areas of connectivity infrastructure, networking convergence and advanced materials. Jeff is the lead and founding investor in AEB, Bit9, DataPower (sold to IBM in 2005), Way Systems, and Polychromix. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Jeff built strategic and operational solutions for communications, media and technology clients as an associate at Booz.Allen & Hamilton. During his previous experience at Nortel Networks in a variety of different mergers and acquisitions and strategy roles, he focused on broadband convergence and Internet initiatives. Jeff often speaks at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and Boston University. He is very proactive in commercializing the technologies developed at the MIT Deshpande Center for Innovation as well as other labs throughout these universities.

Joe Hadzima

I graduated from MIT in 1973 and went to work as the third employee of a MIT startup doing systems dynamics computer modeling when there were few startups in New England. After two years I went back to school (Harvard Law 1979 and Sloan 1977). I spend the next 17 years in law practice in Boston starting at Ropes & Gray (3 years) and then Sullivan & Worcester (14 years) doing primarily High Tech/New Ventures. In my legal career I worked with over 120 companies from raw startups to billion dollar companies in areas ranging from venture capital, IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and securities law, intellectual property, licensing, distribution, etc. I also represented numerous venture capital funds, investment banks/underwriters and other financial institutions. I am a Senior Lecturer at Sloan, where I have been teaching part-time since 1984 (Manager's Legal Function, Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans, various guest lectures). I was a founding judge of the $10k (now $100k). I am Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum (some 20 chapters in the US and around the world).

Greg Schmergel

Co-founder, President, and CEO of Nantero, Inc., which is developing nonvolatile random access memory using nanotechnology. Our product, NRAM, is designed to replace all existing forms of memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, and flash. Nantero was founded in early 2001, and is funded by Charles River Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Harris & Harris Group, Stata Venture Partners, Alex d'Arbeloff, and others. My previous two startup companies were ExpertCentral.com (bought by About.com in 2000) and TowerGroup (bought by Reuters). I also worked at Bain & Company and have an MBA from Harvard Business School.

David Gammell
Brown Rudnick LLP

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

WEB 2.0 / IT TRACK

Mark Gorenberg
Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Mark Gorenberg, Managing Director, joined Hummer Winblad Venture Partners in 1990. He has served as a board member for start-up and public software companies, including AdForce, HomeGrocer, NetDynamics and Scopus Technologies. Currently, he serves as a Director of Aria Systems, Cenzic, Infopia, Kwiry, Lathian Systems, ontheFRONTIER, Omniture (NASDAQ: OMTR), Replay Solutions and Tizor Systems.

Mark is also a member of the Board of Trustees for Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation and The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and The Environment.

Prior to joining Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Mark managed a number of new media areas and was a member of the original SparcStation I team at Sun Microsystems. He received a BSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MSEE from the University of Minnesota, and an MS in Engineering Management from Stanford University.

Stan Fung

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

Simeon Simeonov

Simeon Simeonov is a technology partner based in Polaris Venture Partners' Boston office. He joined Polaris in March of 2002 and invests primarily in Internet, mobile and enterprise technologies. Sim's blog is simeons.wordpress.com.

Prior to joining Polaris, Sim was vice president of emerging technologies and chief architect at Macromedia (now Adobe). Earlier, Sim was a founding member and chief architect at Allaire which went from a tiny startup to become one of New England's most successful IPOs. Sim's expertise covers the gamut from strategy definition and positioning to R&D execution to go-to-market and alliances development. He has played a key role in eight v1.0 product initiatives and eight M&A and spinout transactions. Sim's innovation and leadership have brought about category-defining products with significant market impact: the first Web application server (ColdFusion), a pre-cursor to Web services and AJAX (WDDX), the best open-source Web services engine (Apache Axis) and the first rich Internet application platform (Flash/Flex). Sim has a track record of partnering with entrepreneurs prior to company creation.

Sim has a master's degree summa cum laude in computer science from Boston University and bachelor degrees summa cum laude in computer science, economics and mathematics from Macalester College. His research interests have ranged from soft artificial intelligence to shared multi-user virtual environments to economic modeling of Russian privatization. Sim has a number of awards from the American Statistical Association, the Association of Computing Machinery, the Minnesota Economics Association, MIT Technology Review and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Jon Gworek

I am a partner in the law firm of Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, P.C. MBBP is a boutique business law firm with a heavy emphasis on the needs of start up and emerging technology companies-- we also represent venture capital and other private equity investors. Our clients include hardware, software and service companies in all sectors of the information technology and telecommunications industries. My particular focus is in working with companies from the earliest stages of conception of idea as a general corporate attorney assisting in matters including organization, founder's equity, incentive compensation, angel and venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, trademark and licensing issues.

John Pyrovolakis

Mr. Pyrovolakis is currently a director at the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship's Innovation Network Initiative.

Mr. Pyrovolakis entered the MIT Entrepreneurship competition in 1996, and launched Collegescape, which he sold to the Thomson Corporation (NYSE:"TOC") two years later.  Mr. Pyrovolakis then founded a software company, which shall go unnamed because he is in the process of selling it.  Simultaneously with the development of that company, Mr. Pyrovolakis has consulted with several organizations vetting early stage IT deals or new technology initiatives, such as MasterCard, United Health Care, and the U.S. Department of Education.

More about John Pyrovolakis

Marcus Ruark

I've been involved in the MIT $100K since 2000 (it was just the "$100k" back then), first as a contestant, then as a mentor and frequent speaker and panelist. I'm currently based in Dallas, Texas, working for PanGo Networks, a leader in enterprise real-time location services. I also remain involved with Optiant, Inc., the company I co-founded back in 2000 (we were Semi-Finalists in that year's $100k competition), as an Advisor to the company. Prior to starting Optiant, I co-founded an industrial automation software company in San Francisco; I managed a $20M advanced technology development program for US Space Command in Los Angeles; and I funded and conducted advanced research at the National Security Agency near Washington, D.C. I have an electrical engineering BS and an engineering-economic systems MS, both from Stanford University.

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