Daniel Button, President & CEO, Boston MicroSystems

Dan Button will be speaking on "Strategic Investors & Government Funding in Early Stage Ventures".  Dan Button has raised a total of $50 million from strategic investors for early stage ventures and millions of dollars from the government.  These financing vehicles offer numerous benefits, but are far from a panacea, particularly strategic equity investments.  Dr. Button will outline major pros and cons, and then some key success factors for strategic investments.

Dr. Button has over 20 years experience developing and growing materials-enables component businesses at DuPont Electronics, Corning Displays, E Ink Corporation, and most recently at BMS.  Dr. Button has repeatedly commercialized new products that deliver leading market share and margin positions.  Key success factors include design-in strategies and the establishment of partnerships with companies across the value chain, including strategic investments at E Ink totaling $40 million and securing $7.5M in the first equity financing at BMS from its lead customer.  Dan has a BS in Engineering from Cornell and a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT.

Emma Durand, Chief Technology Officer, American Biophysics

Emma Durand will cover �Non-exclusive Licensing�Making Your Customer into a Private Equity Enterprise� and will show how and why Home Depot gave her company, the maker of the Mosquito Magnet�,  $4M before they even had a product.

As Chief Technology Officer of American Biophysics, Ms. Durand is responsible for management of technology development for rapid product introduction, vendor qualification, and design engineering for cost reduction and ease of manufacturing and policing and protection of intellectual property.

She was also a partner, co-founder, and Chief Technology Officer of Evalutech, LLC. Her career has been devoted to understanding and improving the process of wealth creation through technological innovation. She has over 40 U.S. and international patents in her name covering diverse areas of mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering; 24 of these patents have been licensed to Fortune 100 companies.

Ms. Durand has gained significant knowledge in determining what is required for a new technology to become a commercial success. Her credentials include: founding Sublimation Systems Inc. Division of Chomerics Woburn MA, the pioneer of four color four-color printing of dyes; co-founder of Key-Tech Inc., the pioneer of engineered plastic dye infusion, and co-founder of Poly-Flex Circuits Inc., the pioneer in flexible polymer die attach circuit boards. Ms. Durand attended the University of Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jacob (Jesse) Erlich, Partner, Burns & Levinson LLP

Jacob N. (Jesse) Erlich will be discussing opportunities available from the government in the form of funding and other resources which may assist you in taking your small business to the next level. Examples of such funding sources are the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. In addition, government resources are available to businesses by way of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRDAs or CRADAs) under the Federal Technology Transfer Act. Mr. Erlich will also address the possibility of licensing government owned inventions from the government.

Jesse Erlich is a Partner and member of the Intellectual Property / SciTech, Government Relations and Science & Technology Groups. Prior to joining Burns & Levinson LLP in January 2006, Mr. Erlich was a Partner with the firm Perkins Smith & Cohen LLP. Mr. Erlich had previously served as Chief Patent Advisor for the United States Air Force.

Mr. Erlich represents a wide array of clients such as universities and small and large technology companies in diverse technological fields. He provides advice on patents and other forms of intellectual property, licensing and government related matters and is also involved with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications (U.S. and foreign).

Mr. Erlich has authored or co-authored numerous articles and books on IP and technology. Mr. Erlich is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts, the District of Columbia and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent & Trademark Office and the Canadian Patent Office, is a past President of the Boston Patent Law Association, and has recently been selected by his peers as one of the top 5% of lawyers in Massachusetts.
 

Alberto Haddad, Managing Partner, Melcion, Chassagne, & Cie

Alberto Haddad is the Boston-based Managing Partner of �Melcion, Chassagne & Cie�. He advises entrepreneurs and supports them in the development of their projects over their lifetime. Alberto Haddad has been nominated by French government decree to serve as an active Foreign Trade Advisor for the New England region. He is a member of the board of the French-American Chamber of Commerce in New England (www.faccne.org). Alberto also serves on the advisory board of Gatetrade (www.gatetrade.com), and �Innovate! Europe� (a Guidewire Group initiative). Alberto is also a member of Mentonet (www.mentonet.com).

Prior to �Melcion, Chassagne & Cie�, Mr. Haddad was the founder and CEO of a services company he sold early 2005. Before that, he ran his own advisory company, �Technology Square Partners� and acted as the CEO-US for France-based �Startup Avenue�.

Mr. Haddad holds a Msc (MBA) from MIT Sloan, a �dipl�me� in international business and Finance (Ecofi) from the Institut d�Etudes Politiques de Paris, in France and a B.A. in Economics from the American University of Beirut.

Moderator:

Michael S. Chester, President, International Manufacturing Consultants

Michael Chester ([email protected]), has founded and built several companies, set up manufacturing operations, formed strategic partnerships, set up global joint ventures, raised close to $40M, and commercialized technologies. Mike was VP Business for startup Tonbu, which grew to 142 employees and developed web-based collaborative environments which enabled global electronics companies to speed up time to market. He spent 16 years with IBM designing robots and automation, marketing and selling IBM products to manufacturing companies, setting up global operations and supply chains, and founding an IBM consulting organization for manufacturing clients which he grew into a $20M business. Mike lived in China for one year while consulting to companies owned by the Machine Building Ministry and taught graduate courses at Hunan University. He works extensively in China today. Mike serves on the board of Rudilian BV, www.rudilian.com, which is setting up wireless payment and banking systems in China and is a partner in BioHermes, www.biohermes.com, which forms partnerships between US based biotech startups and Chinese companies to develop medical devices and pharmaceuticals. He has also competed on the TV show Robot Wars. Mike earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and MS in Computer Engineering from Syracuse University and a MBA from Union College . He serves as Chairman of the IEEE Boston Entrepreneurs� Network and is a member of the Case Presentations Committee of the MIT Enterprise Forum.