An Evening with UCLA Anderson
Investing in Economic Growth: A panel discussion on the state of Innovation, Venture Capital & the Financial Markets
Join Dean Judy Olian for a panel discussion on entrepreneurship’s impact on the changing global financial markets
Wednesday April 28th, 2010
The San Francisco Film Centre
39 Mesa Street, Suite 107
The Presidio
San Francisco, CA 94129
6:00 PM - Cocktails
7:00 PM - Panel Discussion
Panelists:
Ira Ehrenpreis (BA '91), General Partner, Technology Partners & Board Member, National Venture Capital Association
Professor Mark Garmaise, Faculty, UCLA Anderson School of Management
Susan Mason ('96), General Partner, Onset Ventures & Chair, Center for Venture Education
Dean Riskas ('75), Senior Managing Director & President, North America, TriplePoint Capital
To register, visit: https://www.123signup.com/register?id=mjcbz
About Ira Ehrenpreis
Ira Ehrenpreis is a General Partner with Technology Partners. He has been with the firm since 1996. Ira leads Technology Partners’ Cleantech investment practice, investing in Energy Technology, Water Technology, and Advanced Materials opportunities.
Ira is a recognized leader in both the venture capital industry and the Cleantech sector, and in 2007, was named one of the “Top 50 Most Influential Men Under 45” by Details Magazine. In the venture community, Ira serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and on the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC). Ira serves as Chairman of the 2010 NVCA Annual Meeting. He is also the Co-Chairman of both the VCNetwork and the YVCA, two non-profit organizations comprising more than 1,000 venture capitalists. In the Cleantech sector, Ira has served on several industry Boards, including the Clean-Tech Investor Summit (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 Conference Chairman), Cleantech Venture Network (Past Chairman of Advisory Board), ACORE (American Council on Renewable Energy), Energy Investors Forum (Past Conference Chairman), Energy Venture Fair, and California Climate Change Advisory Board. He has also served on the Advisory Boards of the Southern California Tech Coast Alliance, Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE), and the Comerica Venture Capital Advisory Board.
Ira is an active leader at Stanford University, where his contributions have included teaching the course on Venture Capital and serving on the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School. Ira is also a Contributor to Nimmer on Copyright, the leading copyright treatise. Ira received his JD/MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of Stanford Law Review. He holds a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude.
About Mark Garmaise
Mark Garmaise's primary research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, real estate, entrepreneurship and banking. With his co-author Tobias Moskowitz, he received the 2004 BGI Brennan Award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies and the 2005 BGI Brennan Runner-up Award for the best paper published in the Review of Financial Studies.
Dr. Garmaise teaches the core corporate finance course and an elective on venture capital and private equity. He was awarded the 2005 Dean George W. Robbins Assistant Professor Teaching Award, the 2006 Eric and “E” Juline Excellence in Research Award, the 2007 Citibank Teaching Award for most outstanding MBA teacher and the 2009 Fully Employed MBA Teaching Excellence Award. He has published in the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Finance and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Dr. Garmaise taught at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business before joining the faculty at UCLA Anderson.
About Susan Mason
Susan Mason is a General Partner at ONSET Ventures and came to ONSET in 1996 after holding positions in high technology engineering, marketing and business development. Susan most recently led a successful consulting practice, helping Fortune 100 corporations capitalize on emerging markets and technologies. Early in her career, she held positions in marketing and engineering design of high-performance systems and microprocessors for Fujitsu Microelectronics, Fairchild Semiconductor and NCR Microelectronics.
At ONSET Ventures, Susan specializes in hardware and software investments in the communications, networking and security arenas. She currently serves on the boards of 1020, Brilliant Networks, ClariPhy Communications, Glimmerglass, Obopay, PacketMotion, Securent (acquired by Cisco in 2007), SS8 Networks and Vidder.
Susan received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado and her MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Susan is a Kauffman Fellow and a founding board member and Chairman of the Center for Venture Education.
About Dean Riskas
Dean Riskas serves as Senior Managing Director and President, North America. Prior to joining TriplePoint, Mr. Riskas was the co-founder of Trinity Advisors, Inc., providing lessor advisory services to institutional investors in connection with highly structured, domestic and cross-border leveraged lease transactions. He developed a new line of business for the firm, financing more than $5 billion of equipment during the period 1997 through 2003.
Prior to Trinity Advisors, Mr. Riskas oversaw the lease equity placement group at Comdisco, Inc., closing several billion dollars of equipment lease transactions, including those designed to optimize the tax aspects of mergers, acquisitions and leveraged buyouts.
Prior to Comdisco, Mr. Riskas was with Bank of America. He was responsible for making commercial and real estate loans to small, medium, and large businesses in the construction, manufacturing, real estate development, technology, and retail industries.
As a lifetime member of the Atherton community, Mr. Riskas has served a number of leadership roles in the area including that of President of the Menlo Circus Club, member of the Executive Committee of the Menlo School Board of Trustees, member of the Finance Committee of the COPF Foundation, and Elder of the Menlo Park Presbyterian Church.
He is a member of the UCLA CLAS Venture Capital Fund, the UCLA Chancellor Associates, the UCLA TFT “Angels,” and the Friends of Princeton Athletics.
Mr. Riskas has published a number of articles focused on finance and leasing; he is a long-time member of the Equipment Leasing Association and has been involved in the equipment leasing industry since 1977.
Mr. Riskas holds an M.B.A. in Accounting and Finance and a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
