About Us |
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Dave Strohm, Greylock PartnersDave Strohm joined Greylock in Boston in 1980; at the time Greylock was one of the longest-established American venture firms, founded in 1965. In 1983, Strohm moved to California and opened the Greylock office in Silicon Valley, which has since become the firm’s largest operating unit. With over 25 years of venture investing, Dave’s primary areas of focus have been on enterprise technology (especially enterprise software), and electronic design. He has been an early/ founding investor in more than 30 companies. Among these, 10 have become publicly-traded, including Mentor Graphics, Ascend Communications, Legato, Forte Software, Doubleclick, and Internet Security Systems. He has also been an early/founding investor in more than 20 companies which have resulted in successful mergers, including ccMail (Lotus/IBM); Kiva (Netscape/Sun); Octane Software (ePiphany); Net Effect (AskJeeves); Decru (Network Appliance); and Wily (Computer Associates). Dave is also on the boards of AtHoc, CoWare, , EMC Corporation, Lontra, SuccessFactors, VMware and Tabula. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard Business School. Carl Pascarella, Executive Advisor at TPG CapitalMr. Pascarella is an Executive Advisor at TPG Capital, a leading global private equity firm. He joined TPG after retiring from Visa U.S.A., Inc. in 2005, where he served as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer for 12 years. Additionally, Mr. Pascarella served as President and CEO of Visa International's Asia-Pacific Region and Director of the Asia-Pacific Regional Board. Prior to joining Visa International, he held positions as Vice President of the International Division of Crocker National Bank and Vice President, Metropolitan Banking, at Bankers Trust Company. Mr. Pascarella holds a master's of science degree in management from the Stanford Sloan Program at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Buffalo. Saar Gur, Charles River VenturesSaar is a partner at Charles River Ventures (CRV), and has over 10 years of experience working with entrepreneurs as founding investor and advisor. Prior to joining CRV, Saar was a co-founder of Brightoll, the leading network for video ads online. Saar has also been a principal investor in several companies as RockYou, Admob, Flixster, Xobni, Lotus Vodka, and Voicestar (acquired by Marchex, NASDAQ: MCHX). Before BrightRoll, Saar was VP Internet Customer Acquisition for a performance-based marketing company called Adteractive. Saar started his career in investment banking and venture capital at Lehman Brothers. He graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and has an MBA from Stanford University. Chris Larsen, CEO, ProsperChris Larsen is CEO and Co-founder of Prosper Prosper, America's largest peer-to-peer lending marketplace. Prosper is a continuation of Larsen's commitment to leveraging the Internet to make consumer lending markets more efficient, transparent, and trustworthy. Prior to Prosper, Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-Loan. Under his leadership, E-Loan was heralded as one of the America's most trusted consumer brands. During his tenure, Larsen pioneered the open access to credit scores movement by making E-Loan the first company to show consumers their FICOTM scores. Mr. Larsen also played a pivotal role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation and was hailed by Congresswoman Jackie Speier as being, "critical to the success of the bill." Mr. Larsen serves at the Board and Advisory levels at numerous companies and organizations including, ACCION International's Center for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion / Mott Foundation un- and underbanked financial services research group, CreditKarma, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Progresso Financial, Qifang, and The Silicon Valley Community Foundation's anti-payday lending policy committee. He is also a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year. TOM PATTERSON, MADRONE CAPITAL PARTNERSTom is a General Partner at Madrone Capital Partners, an investment firm based in Menlo Park, CA that was formed in 2005. Prior to joining Madrone, he was at Weston Presidio, a private equity firm focused on growth equity and leveraged buyout transactions, from 1995 until 2004. While at Weston Presidio, he was involved in a diverse range of businesses, including JetBlue Airways, MapQuest, InsulAir, and Jane Cosmetics. Prior to Weston Presidio, he worked for four years at McKinsey & Company and focused on the financial services and building materials industries. Tom earned an A.B. with honors from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. James Gutierrez, CEOJames is a leading social entrepreneur and innovator in financial services serving the unbanked and lower-income. In 2005, James co-founded Progreso Financiero to bring micro-lending to the US Hispanic community and help millions of underbanked families build credit, move up the financial ladder, and achieve their lifelong aspirations. Since 2006, Progreso has made over 35,000 loans, grown to over 120 employees and 25 locations in California and Texas, been certified by the US Treasury as a Community Development Financial Institution, and secured over $40 million in venture capital funding. By 2012, Progreso aims to help over 1 million families enter the financial mainstream while bringing fair and responsible lending practices back to the forefront of America’s banking industry. James has been featured in numerous media outlets, including the American Banker, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Week, and Bloomberg and is a frequent speaker on topics of financial empowerment for America’s poor. In 2009, James was a featured speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative, Microfinance USA, SOCAP, and the FDIC’s Advisory Board Meeting. He has also pioneered new policies on banking reform, helped co-found the Coalition of New Credit Models, and serves on the Pew Trust/New America Foundation’s Working Group on Small Dollar Lending. James also serves on the boards of organizations dedicated to strengthening the American middle class from the bottom up, including the Latino Community Foundation, PERC, and Core Innovation Capital. As a young Latino entrepreneur, he enjoys helping other entrepreneurs succeed and has invested in over 15 start-ups. In 2009, James was invited to the White House as a leading young entrepreneur and received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award by Hispanic-Net. James received his MBA from Stanford and a B.A. in Economics from Yale University. |