Speakers

Jamey is a portfolio manager for the Private Equity Fund of Funds group. He joined Morgan Stanley AIP in 2001 and has over 20 years of relevant industry experience. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was a serial entrepreneur, co-founding four businesses, including two marketing automation service companies (TeamToolz and Nimblefish Technologies), and a New York-based private advisory firm. Prior to that, Jamey was as a senior consultant with Bain & Company. In this capacity, he advised both public and private companies on strategic, financial and operational issues. He received dual BAs with High Honors from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Bernard joined Logitech in 1992, and has been in charge of Corporate Business Development at the company since 1997. Among his activities, Bernard is involved in the pursuit of new business opportunities, including M&A, Corporate Venturing and Technology Licensing. Bernard also serves as board member and/or advisor for numerous high-tech startups across Europe. Bernard holds a BA in Engineering and an MBA in Finance and International Management from the University of San Francisco Business School.

“I am convinced that White Bull is the ideal forum to bring together large companies, rising talent, and new opportunities. Here we'll exchange ideas and engage in lively discussion.” - Bernard Gander

Eran has been Managing Partner of Hasso Plattner Ventures since its foundation in 2005 and is mainly involved with B2C deals.

From 2002 to 2005 he served as CEO for ProSeed Capital Fund in Tel Aviv. Under his auspices the Technion Technology Incubator was taken over and privatized and went on to become the most successful technology incubator in Israel. Before that Eran served as the Managing Partner at Eurofund 2000 LP in Israel. From 1996 to 2000 he was Vice President at Inventech Industrial Ventures in Tel Aviv. ProSeed, Eurofund and Inventech are venture capital suppliers that invested in early-stage high-tech companies and most of the investments have since developed into fully mature enterprises and some are being traded on the NASDAQ and other international stock exchanges. From 1995 to 1996 Eran served as Vice President of Open Sky Ltd. and from 1991 to 1993 he headed his own law company.

Eran received a degree in Law from Tel Aviv University and holds an MBA.

Ralph Silva is a director and broadcast analyst working with SRN out of the company's London office where he covers the innovation and emerging trends affecting Fortune 1000 companies.

Mr. Silva is a prominent broadcaster with an average weekly audience of 85 million through his work with the BBC, CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV. In addition to his broadcasting Mr. Silva is a talented public speaker who has presented at thousands of events through his 23 year career including countless IPO roadshows and keynote appearances.

Mr. Silva has over 23 years of global experience beginning with 12 years as an investment banker in San Francisco managing the IPO process for financial and IT companies. He then moved on to become one of Gartner’s most prominent analysts focused on the financial services industry before he moving to become the first full time analyst for TowerGroup in Europe. He now runs his own business providing content for broadcasters and multinational marketing departments.

Mr. Silva can often be found tweeting here: @rsilvalondon

“We need to focus on funding Innovation. We are losing focus on tomorrow by our obsession with today.” - Ralph Silva

Neal was Founding Investor in Starbucks - just one of many great decisions he made based upon an intuitive sense of which entrepreneurs have the right DNA for success.

Now Senior Partner at Bay, Neal is responsible for 9 board seats and driving the company’s investment towards liquidity, together with his partners.  Through cycles of change, Neal’s investment approach has remained constant – the best investment is the entrepreneur with passion and perseverance and who understands the art of listening.  His company has invested in industry-changing companies like Brocade, Exodus, and Informatica. 
 
With 17 IPOs in 20 years and 10 M&A deals, Neal and his team have generated significant results by working with companies that altered the way the technology industry works, such as Red Brick Software, a first in data warehousing, Exodus, which delivered the first web hosting services, Brocade, which defined the storage market, and Informatica on of the first data mart technologies.  Neal is comfortable not only advising a company at the initial stage, but also getting involved during trying times to help re-direct and find a profitable path to liquidity.  This ability to drive successful portfolios has made Bay's 2006 vintage fund currently one of the Industry's best performing funds.

Before joining Bay Partners, Neal served as the CEO of Qubix Graphics, which he took through an initial public offering.  His experiences as a CEO molded his skills as a VC and mentor.
 
Neal volunteers his time as an advisor to non-profit organizations.  He created the Dempsey Foundation to focus on his three areas of interest:  higher education, children and the environment. Through his foundation and volunteer time, he has served organizations for children such as Families First.  His commitment to higher education led him to establish the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program at the University of Washington Business School. The foundation also funds scholarships for students, athletes, and junior faculty.

Hjalmar Winbladh is a serial entrepreneur based in Sweden. His latest Wrapp, recently launched in Sweden, offering a new take on social and mobile gifting.

After just 24 hours in Apple’s Swedish App Store, Wrapp reached the top of the list. The company will reportedly soon launch in the U.S., U.K., and across Europe.

In January 2012 Wrapp closed its Series A funding from Atomico, Greylock Partners and the Nordic VC firm Creandum. Niklas Zennström (Skype) and Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn) joined Wrapp’s board of directors.

Prior to Wrapp, Winbladh co-founded and was the CEO of Rebtel, which identifies itself the world’s largest independent mobile Voice over IP company, where he still serves as chairman.

In 1994 Winbladh co-founded and was the CEO of Sendit AB, the first mobile Internet company, which Microsoft acquired in 1999.

Today, Winbaldh serves as an advisor to EQT Partners and Creandum, is a member of the board at Springer Science+Business Media, and an angel investor in iZettle and EpidemicSound.

Christopher Pommerening started his professional career in Spain in 1998 co-founding AutoScout24 Spain as CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Autoscout24 is part of the Scout24 Group, Europe’s leading operator of virtual market places. Christopher was appointed Managing Director of Scout24 Spain in 2001. While preparing the internationalisation of the Scout24 Group, he also set up B24 Networks, a Europe wide on-line market place for the yachting sector.

In 2002 he decided to devote himself full time to venture capital and entrepreneurship through his already established venture catalyst company VCMORE by offering consulting services and investment to start-ups through a network of business angels. Over the years he has established a wide contact network in Europe and in the US of entrepreneurs, private and institutional investors, advisor's and industry specialists. Alongside the latter, in 2002, he co-started the Spanish chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) being one of the largest entrepreneur organisations in the world, and in the same year he co-founded Active Venture Partners, one of Europe’s few entrepreneurial driven VC companies.

In 2006 He has been elected to be the Ambassador for EO Europe & Africa for a 2 year period, growing the organisation in 12 countries from 250 to more than 500 members. In 2007 Christopher co-founded Linqia, the first marketplace for online communities.

In 2007 he created the terminology for Venturepreneurship and Venturepreneurs and created the Venturepreneurs’ Organisation. He was also appointed member of the Board of Directors of BuyVIP, which was sold to Amazon in 2010.

In 2008 he initiated the Global Entrepreneurs Week in Spain and created the vision for the Barcelona Entrepreneurship City converting the city into the hot spot for entrepreneurship by 2020.

In 2009 he co-founded the international digital media event SIME Barcelona.

Currently he is Managing Partner of Active Venture Partners, Non Executive co-founder and Advisor of Foundum and Linqia, member of the Venture Committee of ASCRI, Advisor to Gild International and Chairman of the Venturepreneurs' Organisation & of the Barcelona Entrepreneurship City Commission. 

Andreas specialises in private equity, M&A and corporate & securities law in the IT and communications sectors. He has advised both national and international clients in a large number of complex transactions, IPOs and security issues, involving both private and public companies.
 
Andreas’ services also include advice on technology/IPR related and complex cross border investment, joint ventures and due diligence investigations.

A persuasive advocate who is passionate about inspiring business leaders to make the most of their talents and their people; Ashley is a Director of European Leaders and heads its performance services and leadership academies. Much of his work today is facilitating the rapid performance increase of management teams which is usually required in the countdown to exit.

As a seven times CEO over 26 years with four public offerings behind him, he has experienced extreme learning. He led the IPO of Orchestream in 2000 to its £1b market cap, and as MD of Cray Communications/Anite Networks led the turnaround and executed its sale in two parts to Cable & Wireless and Intel. Ashley has been involved in around 20 M&A transactions as CEO as well as around 20 individual VC funding deals. He is a former professional racing driver and instructor and competed at international level for 13 seasons and over 200 races.

Ashley designs and lead facilitates learning and development workshops for GMs & CEOs and HR leaders. He is also part of the team delivering European Leaders’ innovative performance based consulting, coaching and mentoring services.

Tony joined Index Ventures in 2005. At Index Tony is principally focused on Growth-stage investments in the eCommerce and branded consumer goods spaces, working with portfolio companies such as Nasty Gal, Privalia, Ozon and Moleskine.

Prior to joining Index, he worked for STMicroelectronics, where he was responsible for Mergers & Acquisitions, equity investments and strategy formulation. Previously he worked as a strategy consultant in London and in Boston for L.E.K. Consulting.

He has a Masters in Electrical and Information Sciences from Christ's College, Cambridge and an MBA from INSEAD.

Jason Ball is a Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures Europe and is based in London. Jason has 8 years experience working with internet and mobile software start-ups. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he was the Investment Director at London Seed Capital, a seed and early stage venture capital fund, where he focused on material science and internet technology investments.

Jason holds an MBA from ESADE in Barcelona, where he was given the “Innovation and Strategy Award” from the Boston Consulting Group, and a BS in Chemistry from Mississippi College.

Edwin is an investment Manager at Van den Ende & Deitmers, where he focuses on opportunities within the eCommerce and digital advertising & technology sectors. He joined the firm as a business development manager in 2008 and worked on a razor focus of investment efforts and improved international network. Edwin is actively involved with Quadia, a video technology platform and web TV provider. He is also an observer of the board of Pictura, a business that digitizes & unlocks cultural heritage; and Unruly, a social video advertising company based in the UK.
 

Prior to joining Van den Ende & Deitmers, Edwin Hengstmengel was Investment Manager at Cyrte Investments, responsible for managing the Media & Internet portfolio. In 2006, Edwin joined the Private Equity team and gained a widespread knowledge in many traditional (broadcasting, newspapers, radio) and new media (online advertising, Internet) sectors. 
 

He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration and Financial Economics from the VU University of Amsterdam but showed real perspiration by running the Athens marathon, 2500 years after Greek soldier Pheidippides was sent for a message. In 2012, Edwin will run a marathon in Spain.

Bernard-Louis Roques is Truffle Capital's Managing Partner for information technology investments and is an IT venture capital industry pioneer. Prior to joining Truffle Capital, Bernard-Louis held a series of senior management posts at ABN AMRO Capital France, where he notably created the firm's IT investment activity by closing 35 deals, including 14 in companies which have since gone public. Bernard-Louis is an experienced entrepreneur and notably acquired a small French industrial business, restored it to profitability and sold it on 18 months later. He started his career in France and Italy as a trader at HSBC.

Bernard-Louis holds an MBA from ESSEC Management School (Paris, France) and an Executive Certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a Board Member of Deny-All, Equitime, Keyyo, Netbooster and LeadMedia Group. He is also a Member of the Supervisory Board of MoMac, People Cube, Boostermedia and NetMediaEurope.

Jennifer is a contributor with Forbes.com via Dante’s Soma - http://blogs.forbes.com/jenniferhicks/ and covers robotics, science and technology and how it all affects our lives. She is also the creator of Tattletech.net, a digital tech news bullhorn. She was also named one of the top 100 women in technology in Europe in 2012.

Jennifer also founded ink Communications, an international PR and Social Communications agency made up of a global team of slightly over caffeinated, cocktail-loving, mobile, consumer electronics & web 2.0 tech junkies. Founded way back in 2001, ink Communications is one of the first online intelligent digital communications agencies on the planet catering to the new globally networked economy.  Jennifer is a new world order PR warrior on the front edge of the changing communications landscape. Jennifer broke new ground in 2001 with ink operating across borders to help clients from North America to EMEA to Asia Pacific translate their PR and social communications efforts into a competitive advantage. Whether she's blogging the highlights of the latest trade show, creating a strategic roadmap for a client to navigate market shifts, matchmaking for a seed round or illuminating the wilds of social media, Jennifer has made a name coaching startups on their communications and marketing strategies that help them find their own niche in the world. Her specialty is IPTV, mobile and web 2.0 companies. Jennifer created and runs the Bullpen at WhiteBull Summits. You can follow her on Twitter @JennaLee

With over 20 years experience in communications, Jane Gideon currently serves as CEO of Incendio International, which she founded in 1994. Incendio focuses on international public relations and corporate communications activities, with offices in San Francisco, Atlanta and London.  Jane is responsible for the overall management of Incendio’s international operations and clients.   Incendio has served such clients as Amnesty International, Apple Computer, Boston Red Sox, Cisco Systems, Deckers Corporation, Hyperion Corporation, IBM Corporation and Flextronics International, President Obama and has conducted PR programs in 24 countries in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Asia.  

During her career, Jane has also served in the primary communications role for high-level executives such as Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs and John Sculley of Apple, Frank Calderoni of Cisco, Scott Cook of Intuit, and Scott McNealy and Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems.  She has placed these executives as keynote speakers at conferences such as the World Economic Forum and handled crucial executive testimony before US and EU government bodies.   

Jane brings extensive knowledge and experience in international mergers and acquisitions, including investor, employee, customer and influencer engagement, change management following an acquisition and complying with all international communications standards for publicly-traded companies.  Her M&A experience includes heading up M&A communications for Cisco, Intuit, Hyperion, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.  She currently works with the CFO’s office at Cisco where she is responsible for all M&A communications globally, including employee, investor, press and analyst communications.  She also serves on the company’s integration management team which covers all aspects of acquisitions from making the deal to logistics of integration and onboarding employees.

Jane’s experience outside of the technology industry includes work with Amnesty International, the Boston Red Sox, UGG shoe brands and Attune Foods.  She also headed up the press conference activities for President Obama’s visit to France during the 2009 D-Day events, where she worked with President Sarkozy of France and his communications team to coordinate press efforts.

Jane began her career at Alexander Communications and in 1990 launched that company’s West Coast operations. She has also directed such prominent accounts as Intuit and Symantec. Working with Waggener Edstrom, Gideon directed two of the most high profile PR programs of the decade with the launches of Windows NT and Windows 95.  

Jane received her Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Psychology from Vanderbilt University and did graduate studies in business administration at Emory University.

Mindy M. Hull is the Founder and Managing Director of Mercury Global Partners, a multi-discipline, boutique marketing and PR firm with virtual offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam and London. Mercury Global Partners works with US and European businesses of all sizes - from startups to publicly traded companies - and is uniquely geared to provide an unmatched range of 360-degree marketing and PR services in both the online and offline world. MGP specializes in working with B2B and B2C companies within the TMT (tech, media and telecom) sectors with a strong focus on mobile, enterprise, cloud, media and Web 2.0 companies.

Mindy brings significant executive-level experience to her role at Mercury Global Partners with over 15 years of B2B and B2C expertise in marketing, PR/corporate communications, business development, product development and operations within the tech, mobile, internet, publishing and digital media sectors. Throughout her career, she has refined an expertise in developing and executing innovative strategies that repeatedly generate revenue while promoting goodwill and understanding between companies, their partners, their investors and their publics. She consistently wins media coverage for clients in some of the most respected media outlets in the world including the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, PC World, Wired, Fast Company, TechCrunch, Mashable, GigaOm, and The Guardian amongst others.

Prior to founding Mercury Global Partners, Mindy spent over 10 years working in the publishing and digital media industries in a variety of roles including VP, Business Development, VP of Marketing, Director of Channel Development, Director of Operations, Circulation Director, and Consumer Sales and Marketing Director.

Mindy attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she studied Business Administration and Marketing. Follow Mindy on Twitter at mmhull or MercuryGlobal or visit www.mercuryglobalpartners.com to learn more.