Philippe Tregon – Silicon Valley
Philippe has over 20 years of corporate “Profit & Loss” general-management operations and financial experience, internationally as a Resort CFO for Club Med S.A., and in the United States, as a founder and successful GM of Silicon Valley-based retail and full-service restaurant businesses. As a Consumer facing and service expert, Philippe mentors Startup entrepreneurs regarding creating and setting up businesses and in understanding business-to-consumer relationship-based communications, often for the creation of new Internet and mobile solutions and services. His clients have included health and wellness, real estate, hospitality, and tourism enterprises. Philippe brings experience in new-technology evangelization, starting from his work in IT implementation and training for all financial services employees in multiple Club Med Resorts. Philippe earned an Accounting, Financial Analysis and a Business Management degree from the University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France.
Thomas J. Buckholtz – Silicon Valley
Tom Buckholtz advises businesses and consults regarding innovation. He has helped pioneer information technologies; information-technology marketplace practices; productivity gains via work simplification and automation; and initiatives in international charity, national-through-local governance, national politics, and the environment. Dr. Buckholtz has worked in numerous industries, served as a corporate officer for startups, and led a $1 billion business unit. He served as a Commissioner in the United States General Services Administration. Tom authored the books “Information Proficiency: Your Key to the Information Age” and “Innovate Incisively: Gain Impact. Save Time.” The latter book presents straightforward “thinking tools” pivotally useful throughout business activities. Tom earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, after receiving an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology.
Arlene Marom – Israel
Originally from Miami, Florida, Arlene Marom has been providing business development and marketing communications services – including business plans and executive summaries – to Israel’s high tech community since 1995, through her company, Tech River. Her clients include startups and established companies developing a wide range of innovative solutions in the areas of Internet, IT security, telecommunications, mobile applications, banking, electronic payment systems, automatic translations, homeland security, clean tech, etc. Arlene represents DEMO Germany in Israel, and helped launch the first European DEMO event, bringing 9 of the 20 selected companies. Prior to moving to Israel, she was the Managing Editor of two monthly publications in the field of construction, and worked as a Medical Librarian at major medical centers in Miami.
Patrick B. Berbon – United States
Patrick Berbon is co-founder and Managing Partner of Due Diligence Group. He has overall responsibilities for the success of DDG ventures in technology assessment, technology transfer, and business development. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Material Science ( 1998 ) from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and a M.S. degree in Engineering ( 1994 ) from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in France and Tsinghua University in Beijing, PR China. Patrick spun out DDG Cryogenics from Rockwell Scientific Company (RSC) in 2005, successfully grew the company and merged it with another Materials Science start-up. The joint company was renamed California Nanotechnologies and was listed on the Toronto Venture exchange in February 2007. Dr. Berbon previously worked as a research scientist at RSC. He has a broad international experience and network, having attended school and/or worked in France, China, Japan, Switzerland, and the USA.
Stefan Herbert – Germany
After 18 years in Sales and Marketing management positions at companies like NCR, EDS, QAD and Mercury Interactive, Stefan Herbert co-founded MagniGROUP in 2005 to provide business development services to German and international ICT companies. Besides consulting and recruiting services to marquee customers such as SAP, CSC, Tyco – and midsize SW companies such as QAD, Serena and Quest – MagniGROUP also acts as a business angel for start-ups. In 2007, Stefan Herbert brought IDG’s prestigious DEMO event to Europe as the Executive Producer. In this function, he is responsible for qualifying innovative solutions to be launched at DEMO Germany, and works with an Advisory Board comprised of industry leaders from SAP, Bertelsmann, Siemens Ventures and Mountain Partners, to name a few.
Tapani Huikuri – Finland
Tapani Huikuri is a partner and CEO of a Finnish management consulting company Success Factory. He has broad experience – in industry and services – in strategy and business development, including developing new business models, expanding to new markets and customer segments, networking and development of new offerings both domestically and internationally. Tapani has been involved in developing BECOS (Business Eco System) – a new platform and source of comprehensive expertise to speed up the development of technology industries and to build a network of 60 companies to provide a sound customer interface, harmonized quality in operations, and an all-season offering in an international fast-growing tourist center. He has 13 years of experience in the aerospace industry working with world-leading companies as a sales and marketing director and earlier as a production director. He holds the position of the chairman of the board of two companies, and he is a partner in a startup technology company CSI – Composite Solutions and Innovations Ltd (www.csi-composites.fi).
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