Investors and Panelists · The Fusion Forum 2009

Investors

Saeed Amidi

amidi

CEO/President and Founder – Plug and Play Tech Center
Founding General Partner – Amidzad
Founder – American Liquid Packaging Systems

Saeed Amidi is the Founder, President and CEO of Plug and Play Tech Center. Plug and Play is the premier technology startup accelerator with over 250 companies which collectively have raised an excess of $650 million.

Additionally, Saeed is a General Partner in Amidzad. The fund has been investing in technology companies for over 15 years and it holds successful investments in over 70 technology companies some of which are: PayPal, Powerset, Danger, Bix, Powerset, DropBox etc.

Saeed is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over 28 years of experience in founding, operating, and growing successful companies. He has successfully started and grown businesses both nationally as well as internationally in countries like: Spain, Italy, France, Austria etc.

Saeed’s recent passion is inspiring and helping entrepreneurs and startups out of universities. In this respect, he is working closely with MIT, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara, Wharton, and Dartmouth to identify great entrepreneurs with a passion to execute on their ideas.

Saeed is an active member of the technology community and a frequent contributor to numerous charitable foundations. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a world-class network of Fortune 500 CEOs, accomplished serial entrepreneurs, and veteran financial executives.

Tim Chang

Principal
Norwest Venture Partners
Juror, Mobile, New Platforms & Applications
Speaker, State of the Nation panel discussion

Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in mobile, gaming, digital media, and also leads NVP’s investment practice in China and Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP’s investments in and joined the boards of directors of ngmoco, Lumos Labs, Brite Semiconductor and 3jam. He also led NVP’s investment in PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim is a board observer working closely with Borqs, deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.

Prior to joining NVP in 2006, Tim was a principal at Gabriel Venture Partners where he was actively involved in over a dozen wireless-related deals and led Gabriel’s investments in Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm), Sequoia Communications, Sandbridge, and Kajeet. He also contributed to the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), TestQuest, NextG Networks, and IPWireless. Tim built Gabriel’s wireless sector practice and helped establish business development capabilities through strong, strategic relationships across the wireless value chain, particularly in Asia-Pacific.

Prior to joining Gabriel, Tim spent more than five years working in Japan. He was a product manager at Gateway Inc. where he successfully launched direct-marketed PC servers in the Japanese market and quickly grew an enterprise product line into a full offering of network desktops, workstations, servers and configurable turn-key solutions. Prior to Gateway, Tim was a development engineer for General Motors. As a tri-lingual engineer based in Tokyo, Tim led project teams in China, Korea and Japan in the development, testing and sales of advanced chassis control systems for clients such as Toyota and Daewoo.

Tim began his career in venture capital in 1999 during his time at Stanford Business School as part of the founding team of CTR Ventures K.K., a venture accelerator in Tokyo focused on seed and early-stage mobile consumer applications for the Japanese market.

Tim currently serves on the advisory boards of the Silicon Valley Telecom Council, Dealmaker Media, Digital Hollywood, TiE Wireless SIG, MIT/Stanford VLAB, VC Task Force, and Silicon Valley Chinese Wireless Association. He was also listed on the AlwaysON Hollywood IT List recognizing technology leaders in the entertainment industry, as well as by The Deal as one of five emerging VCs to watch.

Tim holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in electrical engineering/system engineering as well as a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan.

Jeff Clavier

Founder/ Managing Partner
SoftTech VC
Juror, Games, Web 2.0 & Social Media
Speaker, State of the Nation panel discussion

Based in Palo Alto, California, Jean-Francois “Jeff” Clavier is the aFounder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage investors in Web 2.0 startups. In 2007, Jeff was recognized as one of the 13 “Web 2.0 King Makers” by (late) Business 2.0, and in 2008, BusinessWeek named him one of “The 25 Most Influential People on the Web”.

Since 2004, Jeff has invested in more than 50 consumer Internet companies in areas like social media, communities, search, gaming or consumer infrastructure, almost exclusively in Silicon Valley. With over 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial and venture capital experience, Jeff is able to add relevant perspective and value to his companies as they grow from inception to maturity, and hopefully, success. He is often noted for his investments in categories such as “passion-centric communities” or online gaming, or for having sold five of his Web 2.0 startups to the likes of Yahoo, AOL or Hearst Interactive.In September 2007, Jeff announced the formation of SoftTech VC II, L.P. – a $15M seed fund backed by a mix of institutional and private investors that will invest in 50+ consumer Internet companies over 3 years. During its first 24 months of activity, the fund has closed 40+ investments, most of them still operating in stealth/pre-launch mode.

A popular speaker and moderator, Jeff appears at dozens of industry events per year. Ranging from local Silicon Valley keynotes or panel discussions to international conferences, he shares his passion for building Internet startups, angel and VC investing, innovation and entrepreneurship. Jeff has produced a number of technology conferences and is a founding co-chair of the SDForum Search Special Interest Group.

Believing that you have to practice what you invest in, and vice-versa, Jeff started Software Only in 2004, one of the early venture capital blogs where he primarily covered social media, search, online communities and investing. After a few years of active posting, Jeff switched to micro-blogging, and a less time consuming production, mostly through @jeff on Twitter.

Prior to founding SoftTech VC, Jeff spent more than 16 years in the enterprise software world as an entrepreneur, senior executive and venture capitalist. Throughout his career, he was exposed to global markets leading development teams in Europe and on Wall Street, designing products sold internationally and investing in software infrastructure startups across the U.S. and Europe.

In 2000, Jeff became President of RVC Capital, the firm managing the Reuters Greenhouse Fund with $600M invested in 82 companies, including Yahoo!, Verisign, Phone.com and Infoseek. He joined the venture arm of Reuters from the company’s product development division, where he was leading a 250+ staff in Paris, London and New York, and was responsible for the Risk Management and Desktop products. Jeff joined Reuters through the acquisition of Effix Systems, a Paris-based startup company he helped develop in 1989 while still in school.

Jeff was born, raised and educated in France, earning a MS in Computer Science and a research degree in Distributed Computing. He has been happily living in Silicon Valley since 2000 with his wife Bernadette and their two children.

Tom Duterme

Corporate Development Manager
Google Inc.
“BEST IN SHOW” Judge

Tom is a Corporate Development Manager at Google. In this role, he focuses on acquisitions for Google in both the US and international markets. Tom previously worked in New Business Development and spearheaded early stage businesses for Google including Adsense for Games and also helped develop infrastructure partnerships for Google Voice.

Prior to joining Google, Tom helped launch two companies in the Internet space in China, playing the role of CTO and head of sales for each venture. While in China, Tom also helped multinational corporations negotiate market entries in the form of domestic acquisitions and joint ventures.

Tom graduated with a degree in physics from Macalester College. He also possesses an MBA from the MIT Sloan of Management. Tom is fluent in Mandarin and French, and has lived in China, Japan, France, Belgium, and various parts of the U.S.

Anthony Lee

Anthony Lee 2 General Partner
Altos Ventures
(Virtual Participant, Nov 13 meetings only)

Anthony Lee is a General Partner of Altos Ventures, where he focuses on software and digital media investments. Based in Silicon Valley, Altos takes a different approach to venture capital by leading small investments in high-growth, bootstrapped, founder-led technology companies. Anthony currently serves as a director of CrownPeak, BrightEdge, Demandbase, GuardianEdge Technologies, Hooked Media Group, Koofers.com, Netbase Solutions, Roblox, and Xignite.

Altos Ventures invests in founder-led, high-growth companies that have bootstrapped to revenues/profits. They are typically the first institutional investor, have no minimum investment and can invest up to $10M, though our most typical investment is around $1-3M. Anthony is actively seeking software, digital media, tech-enabled services investments in BC.

Before joining Altos Ventures in 2000, Anthony led marketing efforts for three start-up companies. He served as Vice President of Marketing for services automation leader Evolve Software (Nasdaq: EVLV, later acquired by Oracle/Primavera) and Vice President of Marketing for social search pioneer Clip2.com. He also co-founded Signature Wines, a national distributor of private-labeled wines. Previously, Anthony was a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company and published a national magazine.

Anthony serves as Vice Chairman of TechSoup Global, the world’s largest non-profit distributor of computer software and hardware. Anthony is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a charter member of the Pacific Council of International Policy. He is a founding member of the Full Circle Fund, a venture philanthropy group based in San Francisco. Anthony received his MBA from Stanford University and earned a BA in Politics and Economics from Princeton University

Bill Maris

Managing Partner
Google Ventures
Juror, Games
Speaker, State of the Nation panel discussion

Bill Maris is a Managing Partner of Google Ventures. Bill brings more than a decade of diverse operational, entrepreneurial and leadership experience to Google Ventures. Bill’s past successes include founding Web hosting pioneer Burle e.com, which he subsequently sold to Interland, Inc. (NASDAQ: WWWW), now known as Web.com. Prior to that, Bill was a portfolio manager for Stockholm, Sweden-based Investor AB,one of the world’s largest industrial holding companies, where heco-managed the biotechnology and health care portfolios.

Bill’s background also includes scientific research into cholinergic visual pathways, cell membrane patch clamping techniques and in-vivo neuronal cell injection at Duke University Medical Center, Department of Neurobiology. Bill is based in Mountain View, CA and received an A.B. with honors in Neuroscience from Middlebury College.

Neil Martin

NEILMART2 Business Development Director
British Sky Broadcasting
Speaker, State of the Nation panel discussion

Neil’s main focus is the development of new scale opportunities for the group, including new parallel sectors and adjuncts to existing businesses, multi-platform content distribution, the provision of broadband enabled services, managing strategic partnerships and the negotiation of rights to facilitate these new services. He has been instrumental in the majority of Sky’s developments in the Digital sector and has experience in ‘over the top’ Internet TV, Mobile TV, the evolution of portals and social media, digital music services, the Games sector, and value added services associated with Broadband.

Gordon Smythe

General Partner – Propel Partners
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member

Gordon Smythe has almost 20 years of technology experience. In addition to founding Propel Partners, a seed stage investment firm, Gordon was the Director of Operations at Chipshot.com, an online golf retailer; the founder of Pelnar, a computer hardware company; and the European Operations Manager for CMS Enhancements, a computer peripherals company. Propel Partners takes a generalist investment approach, while they currently focus is on next generation web companies. As entrepreneurs themselves, their strategy is to invest at the seed-stage and work closely with their portfolio companies.

Gordon also represents Invest BC in Silicon Valley where he helps drive investment and trade from Western United States to the Province of British Columbia and is the founder of VC Forum, an event management company that caters to the venture capital community, helping connect early-stage technology companies with established Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors in 15 US States.

Gordon has an MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies and Finance from the Marshall School of Business at USC and a BA in International Business from Cal State University, Fullerton. Gordon is an active supporter of affordable housing and microfinance organizations.

Local Investors

Charles Cook

Vice-President & CFO
Discovery Capital

Charles Cook has been with Discovery Capital since March 2001. In this role, Charles identifies and structures investments for BC Discovery Fund, and works with the management of portfolio companies to assist in creating value, typically as a member of the board of directors. He is also CFO of the Fund, and responsible for its financial management and capital raising activities. Charles brings nine years of investment banking experience in advising private and public companies to Discovery Capital, and assists Discovery Capital portfolio companies in structuring financings and in completing acquisition and divestiture transactions.

Prior to joining Discovery Capital, Charles was a director of Dundee Securities Corporation, providing investment banking services in Alberta and British Columbia, prior to which he worked in a similar role in the Vancouver office of a national investment dealer. As well as being a CMA, he holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia.

Jim Derbyshire

JIM Derbyshire Angel Investor
Boot Camp Mentor

Jim Derbyshire is an Angel Investor, Serial Entrepreneur and Advisor increasingly focused on consumer internet, wireless application and casual gaming opportunities. Following an early career in larger companies, he has been in the start up world as founder, CEO (Symbionics, SiGe), Angel, VC and Board member for the last 21 years. He has experienced growing businesses in many business models, low capital “bootstrap”, Angel, Corporate and VC backed, raising over $100M of finance during his career and selling several companies. Jim is currently angel investing, the Mentor-In-Residence at SFU, a mentor at NVBC and Board member at BC SVP.

Robert de Wit

Bob dewit Angel Investor
Boot Camp Mentor

Robert is a management consultant with executive experience in corporate development, M&A strategy and execution, corporate finance, raising equity capital, and competitive market intelligence. Specifically he consults to chief executive officers of growth-stage technology companies in the areas of corporate finance and corporate acquisitions. He is co-founder, advisor or angel investor to Canadian V-Chip Design Inc., Axonwave Software Ltd., TechBC Corporation, UBC Research Enterprises Inc. (dba Flintbox.com), the Fraser Valley Technology Network Society (which was wound down in 2006), RIP.TV Inc. and ClearVision Technologies

Glenn Entis

glen Co-Founder & General Partner
VanEdge Capital

Glenn Entis is a pioneer of computer graphics and digital media with over 30 years of experience in some of the leading companies in the industry. Before co-founding VanEdge Capital, Glenn was Senior Vice-president / Chief Visual and Technical Officer of Electronic Arts’ Worldwide Studios, leading EA’s 3000 artists and engineers across EA’s 14 studios worldwide. Prior to joining EA in 2000, Mr. Entis was the first and only CEO of DreamWorks Interactive, where he worked closely with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg and oversaw the development of the first titles in the hit Medal of Honor series. DreamWorks Interactive, a joint venture of DreamWorks SKG and Microsoft, was purchased by Electronic Arts in 2000, and Mr. Entis remained with the studio to become the first General Manager of the newly re-christened EALA.

Prior to DreamWorks Interactive, Mr. Entis was a co-founder (and VP/COO) of the pioneering computer animation studio Pacific Data Images (PDI), guiding that studio’s growth from its inception as a computer animation studio in 1982 until he left for the games industry in 1994. PDI was one of the first successful computer animation studios, and in fact thrived through a time that saw the collapse of all of its major competitors. PDI remained independent until DreamWorks Animation acquired a minority share in 1996, followed up by full acquisition in 2000. In partnership with DreamWorks Animation, PDI produced the hit films Antz, Shrek & Madagascar (all films in the series), and it continues to thrive with over 500 employees.

Mr. Entis is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art (with Honors) and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. After graduation he studied computer graphics under the legendary Dr. Ed Catmull at what was then the center of the CG world, New York Institute of Technology. He has worked as a software engineer at Hewlett Packard and Ampex prior to co-founding Pacific Data Images, and in 1998 he received the Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts (Academy Award) for his design and implementation of PDI’s animation software.

Mr. Entis is an active leader in the computer graphics community worldwide. He was the featured keynote presenter at SIGGRAPH 2007, and continues to be in heavy demand as a keynote presenter at computer graphics conferences, including France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, London, San Diego, Montreal and Vancouver. He is a former Chair of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, is currently President of the Vancouver chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH (the world’s most active chapter), is a member of the Board of Governors of Emily Carr University, and is an Advisory Board member for the Great Northern Way Digital Media Program in Vancouver.

Steve Hnatiuk

Founder and Partner
Yaletown Venture Partners
Fusion 09 Advisory Board
“BEST IN SHOW” Judge

Steve is a founder of Yaletown Venture Partners and has more than 18 years experience financing and working with entrepreneurial technology teams. Yaletown focuses on early-stage IT and cleantech investments in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and is backed by leading US and Canadian institutional investors and a network of successful technology entrepreneurs.

Steve is presently active on the boards of Constructive Media, Mixpo, GenoLogics, the Canadian Venture Capital Association, and is a past director of ActiveState (acquired by Sophos PLC in 2004). He is on the editorial boards of Private Capital magazine, Business In Vancouver newspaper, and is a member of the steering committee responsible for the landmark report on the Economic Impact of Venture Capital in Canada – published January 2009.

Prior to co-founding Yaletown in 2001, Steve established and built TD Bank’s technology financing business on the west coast of Canada, was a senior executive in the Technology, Communications, and Entertainment group of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and began his career as a software engineer with Accenture where he designed and built workflow systems for the energy industry. Steve is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and British Columbia Institute of Technology magna cum laude.

Brent Holliday

brent Head of Technology Practice
Capital West Partners
Bootcamp Speaker (Valuations)

Brent is head of the Technology Practice for Capital West Partners, a mid-market, transaction focused investment bank in Vancouver. He started the technology practice at Capital West in early 2008 after 12 years in venture capital investing in early stage technology companies across Canada and in the US. Prior to that, he was General Manager and co-founder of an Internet start-up. He has an MBA from the University of British Columbia and an Honours B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario. Brent is a long time columnist and commentator on the BC technology landscape and is currently a contributor to BC Business magazine. He currently sits on the Boards of the BC Technology Industry Association, VIATec and is a former member of New Media BC’s Board.

Mike Lee

Michael_Lee VP – Rogers Ventures
Rogers Communications Inc

Michael Lee is Vice-President, New Ventures for Rogers Communications Inc. Mike is responsible for new ventures assessment, investment and development for the Rogers Communications’ group of companies, which includes Rogers Cable, Rogers Wireless, Rogers Media.

V. Paul Lee

Managing General Partner
Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd
Chairman of Fusion ‘09 Advisory Board
Speaker, State of the Nation panel discussion

Paul is the Managing General Partner of Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd., a venture capital fund established to focus on opportunities in the interactive digital media space.

The market for interactive and digital entertainment and media is massive, growing, and changing at an extremely rapid pace. It affects the ways companies use the Internet to attract and engage target audiences and conduct commerce electronically.

Lee is the former President of Electronic Arts, Inc., the global leader in interactive software, and was responsible for its Worldwide Studio group. Electronic Arts had fiscal 2008 revenues of US $3.67 billion. He managed more than 6,000 employees and US$1 billion in annual capital and operating expenses in the development studios making it the largest entertainment studio in the world.

In 1987 Lee graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours Degree and was one of six students selected to enter the prestigious Portfolio Management Fund program at the UBC Sauder School of Business. Lee is a Leslie Wong Fellow and is also a designated Chartered Financial Analyst. From 1987 – 1989 Lee worked at Chrysler Canada as an Investment Manager for the pension fund and health and welfare benefit plans.

Lee invested in and joined Distinctive Software as a Principal in 1989, having been a member of its board for several years prior. Distinctive Software became a leading independent videogame developer and was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1991. Lee has been a member of the executive management team since, holding a variety of positions.

1994 saw Lee recognized as one of the “40 Under 40” business leaders by Business in Vancouver. In 1996 he was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of British Columbia. In 2002 Lee was awarded the BC Technology Industries Association Person of the Year Award for his outstanding leadership in the high technology industry. Lee has also received numerous awards for his community service including the Commemorative Medal for the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for significant contribution in the form of public service in 2003. In 2005 he was recognized as an Honorary Fellow of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. Lee has served as Chair of the BC Technology Industries Association from 1998 to 2001. Lee was an investor and member of the Board of Directors of A.L.I. Technologies until its landmark sale to McKesson Corporation in 2002. Lee was Co-Chair, along with the Premier of British Columbia, of the Premier’s Technology Council from its inception in 2001 until 2005 and remains a member of the Council. Lee currently serves as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, is a member of the Minister’s Steering Committee for the Vancouver International Financial Institutions Sector, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Board of Trade and New Media B.C. He is Chair of the Board of Directors at D-Wave Systems, a company working to build the world’s first commercial quantum computer.

Owen Matthews

Executive Vice President
Wesley Clover and Vice Chairman of the Board Counterpath Corporation
Bootcamp speaker (Raising Capital)

Owen Matthews is the Executive Vice-President of Wesley Clover Corporation, an investment management company. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the Board and a director of CounterPath Corporation, based in Vancouver, BC. Between October 1998 and August 2, 2007, Mr. Matthews was Chief Executive Officer of NewHeights Software Inc. In this capacity, Mr. Matthews was responsible for NewHeights’ overall corporate growth and ensuring that the company delivered the most evolved personal communications management solutions in the industry. Mr. Matthews was active in driving the NewHeights’ sales process, both domestically and internationally, and regularly engaged in technology strategy sessions with carriers, customer-premise equipment vendors and PC equipment manufacturers.

In 1998, Mr. Matthews co-founded NewHeights in response to the emerging shift towards the development of commercial IP Telephony systems. Foreseeing the widespread adoption of IP PBXs and hosted IP Centrex, he launched NewHeights to develop an intuitive, next-generation software client that would bring together the power of both the telephony and data networks in an intuitive graphic interface. Mr. Matthews has been extensively involved in the business of telecommunications and delivering innovation to market for over a decade and is also the son of Terence Matthews, founder of Mitel Networks and NewBridge Networks. Mr. Matthew’s business and technology acumen was in part seasoned under various Matthews’ business holdings, including NewBridge Networks and the Wesley Clover Corporation and its portfolio of technology corporations.

Maria Pacella

Investment Manager, Information Technology
GrowthWorks Capital
Juror, Web 2.0 & Social Media

Maria Pacella joined GrowthWorks Capital in April 2001. Previously she worked for an investment bank in mergers and acquisitions across a variety of industries including financial services and technology. More recently, Maria worked at an interactive media firm assisting the company in operational activities and strategic initiatives.

Maria has a degree in Business Administration and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Maria sits on the boards of Genologics Life Sciences Software, Redlen Technologies, BuildDirect.com, Colligo Networks and Adnavance Technologies.

Tanner Philp

Partner and CFO, Lions Capital
Manager of BC Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member
Juror, New Platforms & Applications

Tanner is a Partner and CFO of Lions Capital, manager of BC Advantage Funds (VCC) Ltd. and Lions Liquidity Investment Fund I Limited Partnership. Tanner focuses on Lions Capital’s software, telecommunications and internet/new media investments. Tanner currently serves as a director or advisor of Conasys, RewardStream, Urodynamix Technologies (TSX-V: URO), Vigil Health Solutions (TSX-V: VGL), and Voice Mobility (TSX: VMY) and is an observer at Zeugma Systems. Tanner is a Chartered Accountant who worked previously at KPMG Vancouver and London (UK) where he specialized in providing assurance, consulting and corporate finance services to asset management and private equity firms.

Tanner has a Bachelor of Business Administration concentrated in Finance from Simon Fraser University. In addition to his professional endeavours, Tanner is a seminar leader for New Ventures BC and BC Excels (a division of Life Sciences BC) where he teaches entrepreneurs how to raise money. In 2007 Tanner was awarded the Early Achievement Award by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of BC.

Kalle Radage

Director
BDC Venture Capital
Juror, Mobile

Kalle has an extensive mobile, digital media, and enterprise software background. Kalle is Director at BDC Venture Capital. Prior, Kalle co-founded a digital media venture in Boston and Finland for Nokia Ventures, where he ran the product management, business development and strategy teams. The venture grew into a business unit for Nokia. Before starting the venture, Kalle was an early stage venture capital investor in Silicon Valley for Nokia Ventures. Kalle has also held senior product roles at Oracle and a start-up, which was successfully acquired by 24/7 Real Media.

Danny Robinson

Managing Director at Bootup Labs
Co-Founder at Launch Party Vancouver
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member
Bootcamp Speaker (The Perfect Pitch)
Juror, Web 2.0 and Social Media

Danny is the Managing Director at Bootup Labs, the Vancouver-based technology assembly line designed to help founders build tech startups. For Founders, they help create a company that can be funded. For Funders, they help provide a window into the Vancouver tech community and deal flow. Bootup Labs work exclusively in the areas of consumer Internet, mobile, casual gaming and web based productivity software.

He is also the founder of the Launch Party Entrepreneur society and Board Advisor at Lypp. Danny has raised 9 rounds of equity and debt financing totaling well over $100M from Friends and Family, Angel Investors, and VCs like Mobius (then Softbank), Spectrum Equity, Deutsche Banc AB, 3i, BV Capital, Battery Ventures, Growthworks and others.

Dr. Boris Wertz

boris-wertz-PIC copy Entrepreneur, Investor
CEO of W Media Ventures
Juror, New Platforms and Applications

Dr. Boris Wertz is an Internet entrepreneur and investor and the CEO of W Media Ventures, a Vancouver-based venture capital firm that focuses on Consumer Internet investments in the Pacific Northwest. He is also venture partner for Munich-based Acton Capital, a late-stage Consumer Internet fund. Previously, Boris was the Chief Operating Officer of AbeBooks.com, the world’s largest marketplace for new, used and rare and out-of print books which got sold to Amazon in 2008.

Boris joined the company in 2002 after JustBooks, the German company he co-founded in 1999, was acquired by AbeBooks. Boris successfully finished his PhD as well as his graduate studies at the Graduate School of Management (WHU), Koblenz, majoring in Business Economics / Business Management. Boris serves on the boards of Suite101; Yapta; Nexopia; Tripsbytips, Escapio; Indochino; TeamPages; Techvibes; and LiveCurrent.

Speakers/Panelists

Stewart Butterfield

STEWART BUTTERFIELD IN HAT[1] Co-Founder of Flickr
Keynote Speaker

Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder of Flickr, the popular photosharing website. Named by Time magazine as One of the 100 Most Influential People in the World, Butterfield is a founding father of participatory media. Alongside the giants of social media — Facebook, MySpace and YouTube — Flickr has produced a seismic shift in the way people use technology in their everyday lives. Newsweek calls it “a poster child on how a well-executed Net effort can make big changes in people’s habits.”

Butterfield grew Flickr from a tiny Canadian operation to a worldwide phenomenon. As “The Eyes of the World,” Flickr boasts over 50 million users a month, and is the largest repository of publicly available photographs, with over 3 billion pictures, and over 2.5 million new photos uploaded every day. In 2005, Butterfield sold Flickr to Yahoo!, where he continued to work, before leaving in 2008 to pursue new projects. Butterfield has been nominated for the Chrysler Design Award, and has been named a Best Leader by Business Week, and one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT. He also founded the 5k Awards, a competition highlighting the best use of simple design solutions.

Photograph credit: Kris Krüg

Michael Bidu

WINBC_MichaelBidu Executive Director
Wireless Innovation Network of British Columbia
Bootcamp Judge

Michael has more than 15 years of experience in executive management, business development, branding, direct marketing, CRM and strategic communications across traditional, web and wireless platforms on the agency and client side.

He is a serial entrepreneur who founded or co-founded ventures in fashion, Internet adventure travel, interactive marketing, software and Web 2.0/wireless in tourism. He is also a recipient of the 2002 Award for Advertising Excellence from the BC American Advertising Association.

His latest entrepreneurial venture includes CityDazz Interactive Inc. (Founder & CEO), a web/wireless focused on helping consumers find “dazzling customer experiences” via innovative location-based services, local/city advertising and deep user generated content on their mobile phones (kinda Travel 2.0).

Steve Bocska

STEVE B Founding President
Pug Pharm Productions Inc.
Bootcamp Mentor

Steve Bocska is currently the founding President of Pug Pharm Productions Inc., a startup in Vancouver focusing purely on social networking online games. He has over 9 years of direct experience in the video game industry, having worked for Disney Interactive, Black Box (E.A.), and Radical Entertainment in roles as lead designer, producer, and executive producer. In 2006, he became the founding President and CEO of Hothead Games, winner of the Canadian New Media Association’s award for “Most Promising New Company of 2007.”

Steve also possesses extensive business planning and award-winning strategic planning skills, and is skilled at anticipating trends and patterns within the video game industry. He has advised and consulted for more than 100 business startups, organizations, partnerships, and sole proprietorships in the roles of business planner, strategic planner, market analyst, and operations consultant. He has led projects for Hewlett-Packard, Royal Roads University, Industry Canada, Sheridan Visualization Design Institute, and several other companies and agencies.

Steve has 10 years of post-secondary education, including a B.A. (Honours), M.A. (Planning), and an M.B.A. (Entrepreneurship). He currently serves on the founding Board of Directors for GDC Canada, Advisory Board for GameOn Finance, and has spoken at a variety of video game industry events, including Game Developer’s Conference (San Jose, California), South by Southwest (Austin, Texas), Vancouver International Game Summit (Vancouver, BC), VIDFEST (Vancouver, BC), Banff New Media Festival (Banff, Alberta), GameON Finance (Toronto, Ontario) and several others.

Sean Cassidy

Sean Cassidy Consultant, Oxygen Capital, LLC
Bootcamp Judge

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Jessica Doig

jessica doig Vice President, Netgenetix Media
Bootcamp Judge

Jessica is the Vice President at Netgenetix Media, a Vancouver interactive design and development company that focuses on technology solutions for experiential marketing. Jessica enjoys the balance of business strategy, project management, technical knowledge, and creative aesthetic involved in her role. Jessica’s education includes a Science Degree (UBC) and an MBA in progress (University Canada West). She also gains valuable experience in leadership and public speaking as Area Governor for Toastmasters International. She is an avid reader of business strategy – her latest recommendation is Tribes, by Seth Godin. Jessica’s goals for 2009 include expanding her business network in Vancouver, especially in the New Media industry.

Howard Donaldson

Vice President, Studio Operations
Disney Interactive Studios
Board Member, New Media BC
Juror, Games

Howard Donaldson is currently Vice President, Studio Operations for Disney Interactive Studios of The Walt Disney Company. Prior to this Donaldson co-founded Propaganda Games in Vancouver, BC. Propaganda Games is one of the internal studios for Disney Interactive Studios. Donaldson also served as the Chief Financial Officer for EA Canada.

As a key member of the executive team, he was responsible for managing the company’s financial performance and directing long-term business planning that led to EA Canada’s double-digit annual growth. Before joining EA Canada, Donaldson was the Vice President of Finance and Administration for Disney Interactive in Glendale, CA. He previously served in several financial and operational executive positions at McGraw-Hill, Unysis and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Donaldson has over 10 years experience in the video game industry and over 20 years of corporate leadership experience. Donaldson also serves as a Director for New Media BC and prior as Advisory Chair for Vancouver International Games Summit. Donaldson holds an MBA and CPA.

Tom Frisina

frisina Talent Development Executive, Electronic Arts
Past VP and GM, EA Partners Publishing Studio

Tom Frisina joined EA in 1997 as Vice President of EA’s affiliated label business, then called EA Distribution. He was chartered with taking EAD from a distribution business into a world class third party interactive publisher.

Between 1997 and 2006 Frisina managed this unit’s growth (now EA Partners) and was responsible for bringing the Bond,Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Valve Half-Life Distribution, Lord of the Rings, and Crysis franchises to EA, and facilitated Harmonix joining as a distribution partner with Rock Band.

EA Partners today continues in this pursuit of nurturing and capturing other developers’ creativity, adding these valuable commodities to EA’s growing list of franchise assets. As General Manager of this combined Studio and Business Development Group, he had the opportunity to affect both business deal structures and product quality in the most unique manner within all of EA. Through October, 2006, EA Partners had delivered 27 titles on a variety of hand-held, console, PC and large, multi-player based content connections. Combined revenue during his 9 years at EAP exceeded $1,000,000,000. EAP’s business today approaches $1B annually.

In November 2006 he stepped down from his VP/GM role into a newly created position of Talent Development Executive. Teaching a course at USC on “The Business and Management of Interactive Entertainment” and an expanded and deepened version at the Center for Digital Media Graduate School in Vancouver, B.C., and Frisina continues his work today contributing within EA University on a variety of subjects and coaching many of EA’s aspiring young executives.

Trained as symphony conductor, Frisina spent three years in Naval Intelligence with a Top Secret Clearance in the late 60’s. In 1970 he began a 12 year business career in the consumer audio business working on the brands JBL, Infinity & Harman-Kardon for Harman International Industries.

Frisina left Harman International in 1982 to join Pong creator Nolan Bushnell as a founder and CEO of media darling, Androbot, a personal robot company. Frisina left Androbot to co-founded Accolade in 1984. Frisina served as the Accolade CEO managing the launch of hit franchises, Hardball, Mean 18 and Test Drive.

Frisina left Accolade in 1988 for a six-year period as the founder/CEO of PC game publisher and developer Three-Sixty Pacific whose owners included Electronic Arts and author Tom Clancy as well as venture capital investors. Before joining EA Partners, Frisina had an interactive entertainment-consulting firm with clientele including Hasbro, Softbank Japan, Empire Interactive, and subsidiaries of 3DO and Activision.

Rochelle Grayson

rochelle-grayson2 Past Interim Executive Director
New Media BC
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member
Bootcamp Mentor

Rochelle Grayson is a social media and social gaming executive. Most recently, Rochelle was President of Work at Play, a digital media agency focused on the monetization of digital content for large entertainment companies. With an extensive background in business, technology, new media and film, Rochelle has leveraged 18 years of experience to lead and launch several innovative digital media initiatives, working with a combination of both highly analytical and creative individuals.

Rochelle is equally comfortable discussing social media trends, economic development initiatives, digital distribution business models, and web 2.0 technologies. She has spoken at the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas), New Media Day and Mobile Application Opportunities for 2010 (Vancouver), The Korea Games Conference: G-Star (Seoul), Games Developer Conference (GDC) San Francisco, and Digital Hollywood (Los Angeles and Silicon Valley). She was also appointed as a juror for the Banff World Television Festival Original Online Programs, NextMedia’s NextPITCH Competition, and New Ventures BC Competition.

In 2008, Rochelle was nominated as one of Canada’s Top 100™ Most Powerful Women and named one of Vancouver’s Top 10 Technology Women. In 2009, Rochelle received the Canadian Women in Communications’ Trailblazer: Excellence in Leadership Award and was named one of Business in Vancouver’s Top Forty under 40. Rochelle holds an MBA in Finance and Business Strategy from the University of Chicago, as well as Master Certifications in Product Development Management and Business Facilitation.

Todd Heintz

Head of New Business Development
BC Lottery Corporation
Bootcamp Judge

Mr. Heintz currently leads New Business Development for the BC Lottery Corporation where he is responsible for transformational initiatives related to new online, social and mobile games in addition to developing new methods of distribution of Lottery products. Todd has over 10 years of experience in mobile technologies and business models, having held the position of Director Marketing at Sierra Wireless from 1999-2005, where he managed smartphone hardware and software initiatives and the company’s foray into CDMA with Sprint and Verizon. While at Sierra Wireless he also led collaborations with Microsoft, Lucent, Certicom, and numerous other software vendors. In 2006/07 Mr. Heintz was Vice-President Business Development, and later Products, for EQO Communications where he helped create and launch one of the first mobile VoIP, instant messaging and social networking platforms. Previously Todd spend 6 years at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young as a Consulting Manager focused on customer relationship management and Internet self service for the Energy and Consumer Products industries. Todd is an active triathlete and Ironman athlete, cyclist, and runner. He balances this with his love of cooking and wine education and collection.

Colin How

COLIN HOW Managing Partner
Applied Human Capital Inc.
Fusion Bootcamp Judge

Colin How is the Managing Partner of Applied Human Capital Inc., where he specializes in strategic planning, organizational design, and the development of high performance culture. Colin is also the Executive Director of the Raft Cove Charitable Society, an organization committed finding a cure for childhood cancer.
As founder, president and CEO of H2ST, Colin successfully raised almost $10M in investment capital and the company was selected as a finalist for for Red Herrings Top 100, a list of North Americas most promising new technology companies.

H2ST’s flagship product, PiXPO, was awarded PC magazine Editors Choice Award as well as the Advanced Systems Institute Award for software design. Colin has been for acknowledged for his entrepreneurial success with his inclusion in the Top 40 under 40 for British Columbia and Vancouver Island, and his nomination as a finalist for Ernst and Young’s emerging entrepreneur of the year. More recently Colin assisted League Assets, with over $300M under management, by designing and implementing their human capital strategy. Colin is an active Angel Investor and past President of the Victoria Chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization. Colin has a Masters Degree in leadership and Training from Royal Roads University and is currently on the board of Daily Splice Technologies.

Mathew Levenson

mathewbiopic Digital marketing and interactive entertainment strategist
Bootcamp Judge

Mathew Levenson has spent his career producing innovative marketing and entertainment content for Web, mobile devices, game consoles, and future digital media platforms. In the 90’s Mathew was an early Web pioneer in Canada, designing Web experiences for Canadian media companies like Maclean’s Magazine, CTV, and CBC. Mathew joined EA Canada in 1998 where he was a game producer and development director. In 2001, Mather was drafted to head up the online marketing department at EA Headquarters in Silicon Valley, where he defined EA’s online marketing discipline and practice as Director of Online Marketing. He went on to be the founding Executive Producer at EA mobile, and later led the ESPN group at EA SPORTS, which integrated dynamic real time ESPN TV video and news content with EA SPORTS Video games. More recently, as Senior Creative Director at Blast Radius, an interactive digital agency in Vancouver, Mathew has been responsible for the Nintendo of America account, which includes their digital and online marketing and communications strategy.

Mark J. Longo

MJLongo Partner
Clark Wilson LLP
Fusion Bootcamp Speaker (Tackling Legal issues)

Mark Longo is a Partner with Clark Wilson LLP’s Technology & Intellectual Property and Corporate Finance / Securities Practice Groups. Mark brings a practical skill set and business perspective that are invaluable in advising multinational technology clients throughout the entire life cycle of their companies, from start up through to exit. Mark has served in senior executive, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary capacities for a number of international technology companies, including most recently as Vice President Corporate Development, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Intrinsyc Software International Inc. (TSX:ICS), a leading international provider of software solutions for mobile devices headquartered in Vancouver. He previously served as Vice President Business Development, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of Datawire Communication Networks Inc., a privately held company headquartered in Toronto that provided Internet transaction delivery network services to the payment processing market.

Mark also served as General Counsel and in various executive roles at Star Data Systems Inc., a TSX-listed company that provided real- time information services and transaction processing software to the financial services industry. Mark holds a Masters of Business Administration (Executive MBA Program) from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario (2001), and received his Bachelor of Laws from Queen’s University (1992) and his Bachelor of Arts (Political Science/Economics) from McGill University (1989) . Mark is called to the Bar in British Columbia and Ontario.

Clark Wilson LLP

Clark Wilson is a leading law firm in British Columbia. Our firm’s 80 lawyers provide capable, effective and experienced legal counsel on a comprehensive range of business and legal issues, including technology and intellectual property matters, commercial transactions, corporate finance, real estate, construction, labour and employment, immigration, natural resources and energy. As BC’s Law Firm for Business we bring a unique local perspective to legal issues affecting businesses operating in British Columbia. Our commercial clients include entrepreneurs, multinational corporations, family-owned enterprises and publicly traded companies operating in a range of industries including technology, transportation, health care, education, financial services, construction, natural resources, manufacturing and retail.

Brad Lowe

Brad-Lowe Industry/University Relations Advisor
Wavefront
Bootcamp Judge

Brad Lowe has been active in the Vancouver technology community for 20 years, working in various management positions at MacDonald Dettwiler, Abatis, Redback Networks, and Nokia. Most recently, Brad was Director of Research and Development and Head of Nokia’s Program Centre in Vancouver, BC. The Nokia Vancouver Program Centre led the successful introduction of the Nokia N91 and the Nokia N96 multimedia computers. In addition, Nokia Vancouver led the development of solutions for Nokia’s gaming and music service businesses.

James Maynard

James Maynard-semiformal President
Wavefront
Juror, Mobile

James Maynard is President of Wavefront, a commercialization centre supporting the growth of British Columbia’s more than 1,000 wireless and new media development companies. Mr. Maynard is an accomplished business development strategist, having over 20 years of exceptional performance in a variety of demanding sales and marketing roles. He has the unique ability to quickly grasp key issues and then develop pivotal strategies, processes and partnerships to transform new concepts and products into accelerated and sustainable revenue growth.

Prior to this, Mr. Maynard was the founder of VST Canada in 2002. He led its growth into Canada’s largest digital narrow-casting network until VST Canada was acquired by VST International in 2004. Mr. Maynard was responsible for the key role of new business development at VST International and was a member of the leadership team that successfully concluded the joint venture with Daktronics to form Fuelcast Media Networks.

Prior to VST, Mr. Maynard established Sapient Technologies Group Inc. in 1996, a business strategy consultancy for early to mid-stage technology companies. Mr. Maynard’s previous experience also included roles with Wang Labs and Sun Microsystems.

Sean Murch

SEAN Head of Business Development
Next Level Games
Juror, Games

Sean worked on his first video game in 1994, while working as a producer at Radical Entertainment. Before this, he enjoyed a successful career as a writer and development executive in the film and television industry, most notably as Head of Development and Sales for Nelvana Enterprises, a 550M company focused on children and youth programming; and as a development producer for director Francis Ford Coppola. More recently, Sean worked at Electronic Arts, where he designed, built and managed a department of over 100 content creators, tasked with providing art content to all of the EA Sports line of products. Before joining Next Level Games, Sean was CEO of Playful Entertainment, a boutique publishing company based in Vancouver.

Dean Prelazzi

Director of ICT, New Media and Wireless
B.C. Innovation Council
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member
Bootcamp Judge

Currently Director of ICT, New Media and Wireless at the B.C. Innovation Council, Dean brings a diverse range of early-stage technology company experience in sales, marketing, and product management with former employers including CrossKeys Systems (acquired by Orchestream), webHancer (acquired by Microsoft), ACL Services, and Vivonet Canada. Dean spent four years in the U.S. (Virginia and Silicon Valley) during the crest of the tech bubble and his technology background includes carrier-grade telecommunications networking, thin-client computing, data analysis, Internet performance, enterprise and business productivity applications, digital media/social networking, and SaaS applications.

An original corporate member of Silicon Valley’s ASP Forum in the late nineties, he has spoken at numerous technology events including Telemanagement Forum, The Software Industry Information Association, Vancouver Enterprise Forum, and Business in Vancouver Breakfast Series. He earned an Executive MBA from the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management specializing in high technology sales and marketing strategy and is a volunteer mentor with New Ventures BC, SFU Technology Mentorship Program, and the Kootenay Association of Science and Technology mentorship program. Dean is also a marketing instructor at the B.C. Institute of Technology and a member of the Board of the Kids Up Front Foundation Vancouver Chapter.

Peter Severinson

peter_headshot[2] Assistant Editor
BCBusiness
Moderator, State of the Nation panel discussion

BCBusiness has been a standard in B.C.’s business community for more than 30 years. With a circulation of 26,000, BCB is Canada’s best-read regional business magazine. Peter joined the team in early 2007. One of his key roles is moderating BCB’s bimonthly Round Table segment, where he gathers some of B.C.’s top business, political and the academic thinkers for in-depth discussions on the major challenges affecting B.C.’s economy. He earned his bachelor of journalism at Carleton University and has worked in many newsrooms in B.C. and Ontario, including the Vancouver Province, the Ottawa Citizen and the Kingston Whig-Standard.

Matthew Snyder

Mathew Snyder CEO & Founder, ADObjects-Inc
Bootcamp Judge

Matthew has 25 years in Mobility and Consumer Services, and most recently working as consultant on mobile business strategies and digital convergence with his Agency, ADObjects-Inc (Analog.Digital.Objects-Inc). Past Clients/Partners include: Bing, CBSradio, Canadian Music Week, mSearchGroove, Nokia, IAB, WebMediaBrands and Mobility Ventures. Matthew spent 12 years at Nokia as both Device Program Manager and Global Director of Strategy in the Multimedia Group running strategies and the first execution programs for Music, Games, Advertising, Location Based Services, and Search.

He can be considered the individual that created the industry term “Mobile Search” and executed one of Nokia’s first embedded mapping deals with NAVTEQ prior to the acquisition. He was the lead strategist and business owner behind the first syndication deals with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and over 30 Global Directory Companies. Matt brought hundreds of unique start-ups globally into the product and service mix at Nokia, and moved to Vancouver BC from Japan in 2003 to work on the overall Games Publishing Business Strategy and Operational launch. Prior to Nokia, Matt was at Sony Corporation in Japan and worked as an engineer on some of the first handheld industry Video Camcorders. He is versatile in Hardware, Software, Services and spent a total of 18 years in Japan, thus fluent in Japanese.

Michael Tippett

tippett_headshot APR 22 Founder & President
NowPublic
Bootcamp Mentor

An Emmy nominee and successful entrepreneur for almost two decades, Tippett is recognized an as international expert on emerging news models. In 2005, Tippett co-founded NowPublic. The company has been named one of the top five most useful new sites on the web by The Guardian and Time magazine named it one of the Top 50 Websites for 2007.
In 1995, Tippett founded the WebPool Syndicate, one of Canada’s first Internet companies. After the success of the WebPool venture, Tippett travelled to the United States and worked for some of the largest web companies in North America, including TheGlobe.com, Afternic and Register.com.

Outside of his role at NowPublic, Tippett is a member of the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism Advisory Board, Capilano University, Bachelor of Professional Communication Advisory Committee and is also a board member of CABINET, a Vancouver-based arts organization. He is also an advisor to The Wireless Innovation Network British Columbia (WINBC).

He has also contributed to digital culture in fields such as media arts. In 2004 he collaborated with Kate Armstrong to produce Grafik Dynamo, a net art piece that loads live images from blogs and news sources on the web into a live action comic strip. Grafik Dynamo was a commission of Turbulence, made possible with funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Tippett graduated from Queen’s University with a degree in Philosophy.

Steve Wandler

SPECIAL GUEST SPEAKER
Founder of YourTechOnline.com
Board Member of Okanagan Science & Technology Council (OSTEC)
Fusion 09 Advisory Board Member

Born and raised in Cold Lake, Alberta, with his high school degree Steve Wandler moved to Kelowna, British Columbia to startYourTechOnline.com in 2000, an online technical support company with a 100% work from home agent model. Over the next several years, the company gained notoriety and myriad honors, including 2004’s “Technology Business of the Year” by the Business Development Bank of Canada, 2005’s “Editor’s Choice” by PC Magazine, and 2007’s “Small/Medium Business of the Year” by PC Magazine.

Steve Wandler further drove his company to success by appearing in several media appearances such as Shaw Television a Canadian Broadcaster, CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation), ABC, NBC and appeared as a guest on Martha Stewart’s radio show.Steve Wandler later sold the company to Silicon Valley-based Support.com. Wandler sits on several technology company boards as well the Okanagan Science and Technology Council (OSTEC). Wandler also heads the charge with “metabridge”, an Economic Development Commission of Canada initiative to create a strong connection between Canadian high tech companies and Silicon Valley. This first metabridge event was a huge success in 2009, with 10 Bay Area Sr. Executives from HP, AVG, Mitel, RIM and Trend Micro to name a few.

With so many work obligations, it is hard to believe Steve Wandler has time for anything else, yet he has managed to squeeze in plenty of community service over the years, particularly when he was driving the success of YourTechOnline.com. In addition Wandler also set up a program that would help Africa obtain better access to technology. To date, his company has provided training and support to companies in Africa that provide network support for hospitals, health care centers, and schools. Steve Wandler currently lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada with an office in the California Bay Area.

Tony Wanless

tony Principal and CEO
Knowpreneur Consultants
Interviewer, Fire Side chat with Steve Wandler

Tony Wanless, CMC (Certified Management Consultant), principal and CEO of Knowpreneur Consultants, is a business advisor, communicator and management consultant. A prolific business writer, columnist and blogger, Wanless formed Knowpreneur in 2004 to assist knowledge entrepreneurs with strategic planning, creativity, innovation, and marketing. A new venture, Reinventionist, guides career professionals in the conversion to entrepreneurship. A specialist in information flow analysis and design, idea synthesis, and articulation, Wanless has also produced or contributed to eight books on clean technology, entrepreneurship, and business management. Recently, he was appointed Information Curator with the Global Challenge Institute, of New York, which is conducting a worldwide competition to develop innovative solutions to global-scale problems.

Tarrnie Williams

Tarrnie_web22 President and Executive Producer
Piccadilly North Productions Inc.
Bootcamp Judge

Tarrnie Williams has 20 years of games industry experience, most recently as studio head of Relic Entertainment. Prior to that, he served for over 12 years in multiple roles at Electronic Arts in their Vancouver and Los Angeles studios. Tarrnie has overseen award-winning game franchises across multiple genres, such as Need For Speed, Medal of Honor, NBA Live, Company of Heroes, and Dawn of War. Tarrnie is passionate about collaboration and teamwork, innovation and change, and is always in search of new boundaries to explore and new directions to take games. Tarrnie is currently engaged in various industry ventures through his production company, Piccadilly North.

Hong-Yee Wong, Ph.D.

Founding CEO
IUGO Mobile Entertainment
Juror, Mobile

Dr. Wong has more than ten years of passionate leadership experience in computer graphics, visualization, and digital entertainment. Most recently, he founded IUGO Mobile Entertainment – an energetic game studio based in Vancouver. He formulated and executed winning strategies that led the studio from a young technology startup to a reputable and well-respected mobile games developer and publisher.

Before leading the charge as a technopreneur, he excelled in his previous career as a Research Scientist, directing multi-disciplinary research in Immersive Visualization, Rich Media Entertainment, Human Centered Design, and Broadband and Wireless Networks. Dr. Wong earned his Doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario. He is well published and has supervised research at several Universities. Dr. Wong lives in Vancouver with his wife and four children. He enjoys snowboarding, kayaking, photography, and travel.

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