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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
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
GOING TO THE GYM - WEB-MEDIA & SEARCH - GOOGLE, YAHOO AND MICROSOFT HEAD EAST - TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY AND PROMINENT CAPITAL SCENE?
Over the last few years three of the country's west-coast based technology giants, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, have established a significant presence in the Boston/Cambridge area through both acquisition and expansion. Microsoft now has research and start-up labs in Kendall Square and Google has their Development Center in Kendall Square while Yahoo has set up a presence via acquisition. The groups’ investments and acquisitions of Groove Networks, SoftGrid, VMware and Maven Networks speaks favorably about Boston’s area's rich technology ecosystem, established entrepreneurial community and significant angel, VC and institutional capital providers which have supported, nurtured and invested in new ideas and start-up companies for over three decades…and the pace continues.
At this EntreTech Forum session, we will delve into this newly established presence and investment of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in the Boston area by addressing the following questions:
- Why have they committed such a strong presence in the Boston area?
- Has their local presence accelerated company creation, partnering, acquisition, and investment in the Boston area.
- What do they view as their relationship to the Boston area universities and innovation community?
- What particular areas of technology and what market needs are they emphasizing in their Centers and Labs?
Moderator:
Jerry Katzke, Principal, JK Associates
Panelists:Investor:
Dayna B. Grayson, Principal, North Bridge Ventures
Google:
Steve Vinter, Director, Google Boston Development Center
Yahoo:
Beth Crow, Campus Relations Manager, Yahoo! Labs' Academic Relations Group
Microsoft:
Sara Spalding, Senior Director, Microsoft New England Research and Development Center
University:
David R. Kaeli, Professor, Director, Northeastern University Computer Architecture Research Laboratory
Neena Buck, Senior Industrial Liaison Officer, MIT Office of Corporate Relations
Jerry Katzke – Principal, JK Associates
Jerry is an independent principal consultant who has done technical, project and program management consulting for a number of high technology software companies. He has worked with a number of start-up and more established companies in the areas of product and process definition, architecture, conceptual design, SDLC methodology and tools adoption and product implementation, due diligence and market need and funding viability assessment.
Jerry has been the Vice President of Software Development at Index Technology, Spinnaker Software and Riverton Software Corporation and the Director of Engines at Profitlogic. In those roles he has consistently driven the entire software development process from understanding the business requirements of the product to putting the right people, processes and technology in place to deliver a robust product that meets the market need in a timely manner. At Riverton Software he was the co-founder and Vice President of Development and helped raise over $30M of investment funds from some of the leading Venture Capital Firms in New England such as Flagship Venture, Charles River Venture, North BridgeVenture, Sigma Partners, Commonwealth Capital and Venture Fund of New England. He was responsible for all aspects of delivering the product to market including hiring a quality staff, completing the specification, design, architecture and project plan and implementing, testing, documenting and supporting all versions of the product.
He has both B.A. and M.S. Degrees from New York University.
Dayna B. Grayson – Principal, North Bridge Venture Partners
Dayna B. Grayson is a Principal at North Bridge Venture Partners. She focuses on early stage investments in the internet applications, consumer services and media infrastructure spaces. Companies that Dayna works with include OfferPal Media, Viximo, Currensee, and Awareness Inc.
Prior to North Bridge, Dayna led new product development efforts at Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the leading global provider of software to nonprofit organizations. Dayna managed products throughout their life cycle as the company grew to over $130 Million in revenue and completed a successful public offering.
Prior to joining Blackbaud, Dayna was a consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst and Young were she led business analysis efforts for the largest custom development projects the firm had undertaken to date. These projects pioneered the development of large scale applications on web-based platforms. She started her career as an early employee at Eye Response Technologies, which developed breakthrough gaze-tracking technology.
Dayna has a B.S. from the University of Virginia's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Steve Vinter – Director, Google Boston Development Center
Steve Vinter is an Engineering Director at Google Boston, and also acts as the site's director. Since joining Google in March, 2007 the site has grown from 50 to over 200, drawing heavily on the wealth of talented graduates from local colleges and universities. Steve received his PhD from UMass, Amherst, and has over 20 years of industry experience working in the Boston area at companies including BBN, Software.com, and Openwave Systems. For the past 10 years, including his work at Google, Steve has focused on building products and services for hundreds of millions of users of mobile and cloud computing.
Beth Crow – Campus Relations Manager, Yahoo! Labs' Academic Relations Group
Beth Crow is with Yahoo! Labs as a Campus Relationship Manager, focusing on strategic research relationships with key universities. Beth has extensive experience in developing meaningful partnerships between industry and higher education, having spent ten years directing corporate relations for the University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. Previous industry roles included creating and launching a research-centered academic relations program in North American for the global telecommunications company, Marconi Communications.
Sara Spalding – Senior Director, Microsoft New England Research and Development Center
Sara Spalding is the Senior Director of Microsoft's New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. Sara is a 15-year Microsoft veteran; prior to leading Microsoft's efforts in Cambridge, Sara was the Product Unit Manager for MSDN, where she was responsible for the MSDN subscription business, website and magazine. Prior to that, she was a Product Unit Manager on the .NET Framework, where she was responsible for a variety of engineering services. Previously, she was a program manager on Internet Explorer and a Technical Evangelist. Sara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Math from the University of Puget Sound, and lives outside of Boston with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Professor David R. Kaeli – Director, Northeastern Univ. Computer Architecture Research Lab
Dr. Kaeli is the Director of the Northeastern University Computer Architecture Research Laboratory (NUCAR). He is the co-leader of the Northeastern University Institute for Information Assurance (IIA) . He is a Research Thrust Leader for the NSF Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS) . He is also a member of the Northeastern University Institute for Complex Scientific Software (ICSS).
Dr. Kaeli received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in 1992. He received his M.S. in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University in 1985 and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers University in 1981.For the 2001-2002 academic year he spent a year as a Visiting Professor at the Departament of d'Arquitectura de Computadors at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya.
Neena Buck – Senior Industrial Liasion Officer – MIT Office of Corporate Relations
Neena Buck joined the Office of Corporate Relations at MIT as a Senior Industrial Liaison Officer and works with companies in India, Japan and the United States.
Ms. Buck was previously a Vice President at Strategy Analytics, an industry analysis and market research firm, where she launched the company's Emerging Frontiers program and was responsible for managing research in embedded intelligence. Prior to this, Ms. Buck was the founder of Common Knowledge Cambridge, a research, analysis and technology strategy firm focused on tracking and anticipating under-the-radar technologies and their impact on businesses, consumers and society. She served as Director of Marketing at DRI/McGraw-Hill, the economic forecasting arm of Standard & Poor's (now Global Insights). Before this, she was Vice President and Research Director of emerging technologies at New Science Associates, a market research and technology strategy firm (now a part of Gartner).
She has worked in advanced technology research, marketing, software development and hardware design at IBM Corporation and General Motors. At IBM she worked on the development and marketing of new-generation computing architectures, intelligent systems and natural language processing software. At GM's Delco Electronics (now Delphi) she was the lead hardware design engineer for one of the Cadillac Division's first engine-control computers.
Ms. Buck serves on the Visiting Committee of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is widely quoted in the press as an analyst covering intelligent systems and robotics, and has published articles in various magazines.
She holds a B.S. In Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A from the Carlson School of Management.
