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Meeting Location:
Emerging Enterprise Center at
Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center
1000 Winter Street, Suite 4000 (North Entrance)
Waltham, MAMeeting Time: 6:30 - 9:30 pm
Meeting Cost:
$25 public, $10 students
and active military; Promotional Registrations
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
6:30 - 9:30 PM
Location: Emerging Center at Foley Hoag the Bay Colony Corporate Center, Waltham, MAGreening of America: Bio-Based Everything and the Funding That Goes With it!
Back again as a favored topic from last year and updated for the rapidly changing world. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has provided billions of dollars in stimulus money, some of which has gone into green-tech. However, clean energy and the bio versions in particular, have been hit hard by the economy. Venture investments are hard to come by these days, but deals are still getting done. And yet the trend is so compelling that a Bio-economy keeps emerging with bio-agriculture, bio-energy, bio-products taking on new emphasis in our national quest for energy
independence and sustainability.
Our EntreTech panel of investors and technologists will emphasize the investment capital, growth capital, businesses, and technologies that present eco-sustainable activities for this emerging bio-economy.
Tonight we will explore...What is our panel seeing for this year and the future for themselves and their business – which you can apply? What new trends are underway? What efforts or obstacles need to be overcome, as they move forward? And of course, who has the money, who is providing the money and how does our audience get theirs?
Moderator:
Larry Grumer, Technology Associates & Alliances, iVEST Partners LLCKeynote:
Sam Nejame, Founder, Promotum
Panel:
Curtis S. Felix, CEO, Plankton LLC
Bilal Zuberi, General Catalyst
Daniel R. Dwight, Partner and Cleantech & Renewable Energy Segment Leader, Tatum LLC
Moderator:Larry Grumer, Managing Director, Technology Associates & Alliances (TAA)
TAA is a management advisory and investment company Larry founded in 1994 that commercializes technology for corporate spin-outs and earlier-stage ventures. He is also Managing Partner, iVEST Partners LLC, providing corporate development services, finance advisory and investment banking affiliation. Larry is an expert in the commercialization of technology. He has launched six companies, serving as CEO and in executive capacities and has guided businesses through, spin-out, start-up, expansion and capitalization, including joint ventures, business recovery and restart. His last venture was a high tech start-up company with 24 patents developing MEMS-based power generator devices that captures motion from the environment and converts this to useful electrical energy. He is a proposal Grant Reviewer for the National Science Foundation. Previously, Larry worked for Arthur D. Little, Textron and Foster Miller; reorganizing business operations, providing diversification strategies, managing business lines and positioning corporate strategic growth. He led the IEEE Boston Entrepreneurs' Network, was a founding Board member of the North Shore Technology Council and created the EntreTech Forum to address the commercialization of university and government technology.
Larry holds a BS-Engineering and an MBA from Northeastern University, and has held a top secret clearance.Keynote:
Sam Nejame, Founder, Promotum
For more than 20 years Sam Nejame has helped Fortune 500 Companies, Government Agencies and Universities adapt to changing technology and markets. Among his engagements, Mr. Nejame managed technology due diligence for Koch Industries $4 billion acquisition of DuPont Textiles and Interiors business unit (INVISTA). His work with Promotum revolves around the interface of biotechnology, fuels, chemicals and polymers. Prior to founding Promotum in 1996, he worked for CTMain /Parsons Corporation, where he managed environmental engineering and process design projects for clients like GE, Pfizer, UTC/Pratt & Whitney and the US Department of Defense.
Sam has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BS in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Panel:
Curtis S. Felix, CEO, Plankton LLC
Curt founded Plankton in 2006 with offices in the US, Argentina and Brazil. The company has 10 years of commercial development in algae biofuels and is currently constructing a major new facility together with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which will support a major commercial development at the Massachusetts Military Reservation. He has served as President of Wellfleet Group supplying biodiesel consulting services to the largest fuel users in Massachusetts. From 1998-2007 he was General Manager of Petroleum at Cambridge Viscosity, working with the world’s largest oil and oil field service companies. Prior to that he founded and served as Executive Vice President at AVSG a compressed natural gas company where he developed the largest CNG station in the country at Logan Airport. From 1983 until 2005, Mr. Felix served variously as in house consultant to the World Bank, for Energy Efficiency and Cogeneration, as well as consulting to and working in the electric utility industry at the Energy Research Group and Boston Edison.
Curt received degrees in Economics, Political Science and Biology from the University of Vermont.
Bilal Zuberi, General Catalyst
Bilal's focus at General Catalyst is on investments in both new and existing technology businesses in the areas of advanced materials, clean energy and environment related technologies. Bilal joined General Catalyst from GEO2 Technologies, a materials science clean tech company in automotive emissions control, where he was a co-founder and VP of Product Development. Prior to GEO2, Bilal was a strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. Bilal has been a mentor and advisor to investors and entrepreneurs. He serves on the steering committee for the University Research and Entrepreneurship Symposium and on the Entrepreneurship Taskforce of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a non-profit organization focused on helping entrepreneurs. He is a Board member of The Boston Group, a policy think tank, and is a member of the core founding team of the first science and engineering research university in Pakistan (LUMS School of Science and Engineering).
Bilal earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from MIT and was a visiting researcher at the Pacific Northwest national Labs (DoE).
Daniel Dwight, Partner and Cleantech & Renewable Energy Segment Leader, Tatum LLC
Dan works with cleantech and renewable energy companies across the spectrum of solar, wind, and biomass energy providers, biodiesel and ethanol producers and distributors, and recycling and waste treatment operators. During his career, Dan has developed a leadership track record of building businesses and operating globally as both a Fortune 500 Executive and an entrepreneur. Dan has global leadership experience in operations, finance, technology commercialization and private equity in cleantech and core industrial sectors. His skills were honed at various industrial and financial operations of GE and in high-tech startups. Prior to Tatum, Dan provided strategic, operations and financial leadership to companies at varying stages of cleantech and renewable energy development and private equity and venture capital firms. As President, CEO and CFO, Dan restructured a clean technology company into a revenue generating operation. Prior to building and selling the business to private equity investors, he spent 17 years in a steady progression of domestic and international executive roles for GE, including seven years in Asia. Dan built GE Capital’s Asian private equity business to over $120 million from scratch in four years, established GE’s first regionally sponsored and managed private equity fund, and successfully closed GE Capital’s first Sino-Foreign Joint Venture. He organized multifunctional teams that acquired or created over $1 billion in captive finance operations for U.S., Japanese and Asian manufacturers and distributors.
Dan holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BS from the University of Vermont. He is on the Board of Directors of Satcon Technology Corporation, a NASDAQ listed renewable energy company.
