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Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Venture Partners |
Tim brings a combination of operational, technical and international business experience to Norwest Venture Partners. Tim focuses on investments in mobile, gaming, digital media, and also leads NVP's investment practice in China and Asia-Pacific. Tim led NVP's investments in and joined the boards of directors of ngmoco, Lumos Labs, Brite Semiconductor and 3jam. He also led NVP's investment in Playdom, a leader in social gaming, and PCH International, a turnkey global supply chain services firm based in Shenzhen. Tim is a board observer working closely with Borqs, deCarta, Double Fusion and Veveo.
Prior to joining NVP in 2006, Tim was a principal at Gabriel Venture Partners where he was actively involved in over a dozen wireless-related deals and led Gabriel's investments in Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm), Sequoia Communications, Sandbridge, and Kajeet. He also contributed to the boards of Placeware (acquired by Microsoft) and Arula Systems (acquired by Raritan), TestQuest, NextG Networks, and IPWireless. Tim built Gabriel's wireless sector practice and helped establish business development capabilities through strong, strategic relationships across the wireless value chain, particularly in Asia-Pacific.
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Chia Chi, Marketing Executive, IBM Diversity Market Development |
Chia Chi is responsible for developing B2B marketplace with a focus on businesses owned or operated by Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Women in the U.S. and women-owned business in Asia.
Ms. Chi is a veteran in IT industry. She joined IBM in 1987 as a programmer. She spent the past 16 years in marketing strategy, product marketing and market development for IBM. Before joining IBM, Mrs. Chi was an entrepreneur running a startup software development company. She is passionate with her work in supporting the entrepreneur communities. She represents IBM as a corporate sponsor in many Chambers of Commerce and non-profit technology organizations around the country.
Ms. Chi was the Chairwoman for IBM Asian Diversity Network Group in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the winner of IBM Diversity and Inclusion Award in 2009.
Ms. Chi received her master degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University. She is married with two adult children.
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Albert Wang, Investment Manager, Qualcomm Venture |
Albert Wang is an Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures. His investment interests include emerging wireless technologies that enable new value chains and mobile platforms that exhibit strong self-reinforcing network effects.
Prior to Qualcomm Ventures, Albert worked in various engineering and management roles in both startups and public companies. Most recently, he worked in Lux Capital Management focusing on MEMS and nanotechnology startups in the wireless industry. He also spent 4 years at Skyworks Solutions and managed the full lifecycle of several wireless semiconductor products that went into some of the most popular 3G WCDMA handsets. Before Skyworks, he played a key technical role in Tavanza, an RFIC startup that was eventually acquired by Anadigics. Currently, Albert also serves as a Board Director for the non-profit Silicon Valley - China Wireless Technology Association.
Albert received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, and his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Zhejiang University.
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Vish Mishra, Clearstone |
Vish Mishra is a venture capitalist with Clearstone Venture Partners since 2002. Clearstone is an early-stage technology fund with over $650M in committed capital with offices in Santa Monica, Menlo Park, California and Mumbai India. A Silicon Valley veteran, Vish has over 30 years of leadership and management experience in the technology industry covering computers, internet, communications and software. He has served as a founder of Telera (sold to Alcatel) and co-founder of Excelan (sold to Novell), generating over $1B in revenues. Vish has also served as a CEO and director of several startup companies.
Vish is very involved with Clearstone's India strategy and investments. He has spoken at numerous industry and academic gatherings on topics of entrepreneurship, investing and business-building. Through Clearstone's two dozen investments with global operations, Vish brings direct knowledge about global investing and business trends.
Vish’s personal philosophy is Investing in good people is the best way to assure success. So, look for people who bring smarts, passion, commitment and integrity to their new venture, along with market knowledge technology expertise.
Vish holds a BSEE from the Institute of Technology at Benares Hindu University, India and MSEE from North Dakota University. Vish's community involvement includes TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), a global network of entrepreneurs and professionals dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. Vish is TiE Silicon Valley’s incoming president. Vish serves as an advisor to Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship at College of Business, San Jose State University. Vish also serves a director of India Community Center in Silicon Valley, the largest facility-based Indo-American center in the U.S.
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Winston Choe, Director of Business Development, Intel |
Winston is currently the Business Development Director at the Intel Mobile and Communications Group where he manages development of key-customers, strategic-partners, and new market-development.
His background covers 20 years in the Mobility, Communications, Software, and Services industries, where he has developed businesses at startup ventures and multinational-corporations across the US and Asia. Winston has founded 3 software ventures in Mobile Cloud-Computing and Networked-Multimedia, and most recently the Founder/CEO at Confidantly, a business-networking software company. He has worked with over 100 new ventures through the Nexus Group which he founded to develop US/Asia cross-border opportunities, and also through affiliations with two leading Tech Incubators in Silicon Valley.
Winston has held Sales and Business-Development leadership roles in the HP Handheld, Nokia Mobility, Sun Consumer Mobile, and DEC Global Services organizations.
Isabel Ge Mahe, Vice President of iPhone Wireless Technology, Apple, Inc.
Isabel Ge Mahe is currently Vice President of iPhone Wireless Technology at Apple, Inc. Prior to that she was Vice President of Wireless Technology at Palm, Inc, where she built the wireless technology group at Palm from ground up and was instrumental in the design and successful launch of many generations of Palm smart phones.
She was born in P.R. China, moved to Canada as a teenager and came to US in 2000. She holds a BSEE and MSEE from Simon Fraser University as well as MBA from UC Berkeley.
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George Koo, Director of Chinese Services Group, Deloitte & Touche LLP |
For the last 20 years, George has been working with high tech companies across the Pacific. He advises clients on strategic issues preparatory to establishing a local presence and assists in cross-cultural communications and negotiations.
Prior to founding International Strategic Alliances in Mountain View and Bear Stearns China Trade Advisors (New York), he was Vice President and co-director of Chase Pacific Trade Advisors of Chase Manhattan Bank.
He received his S.B. and S.M. degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sc.D. from Stevens Institute of Technology and a M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.
He is a former Chairman of Asian American Multi-technology Association and has been chairman of several past conferences on Asian financing and alliances sponsored by the AAMA and held in Silicon Valley.
Dr. Koo is a frequent speaker in various public forums on how American business can succeed in Asia. He writes for Pacific News Service on issues relating to Asia. He is also a vice chairman of the Committee of 100, a national organization of prominent Chinese Americans, and he served as the chairman of their national conference held in May 2002 in San Jose.
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Bob Fu-Yuan Lin, Co-Founder & General Partner, Acorn Campus and Acorn Angels |
Bob is the co-founder of Acorn Campus and Acorn Angels, two of the most reputable investment organizations in Asian American community. In addition to having extensive angels and corporate investment expertise with multiple IPOs, he also has more than 20 years of international business start-up, marketing, and management experiences. He is very well known for being the first launching investor of Avanti (IPO ‘95), AltiGen (IPO ‘97) and LightLogic (Sold to Intel for $400M ’01). He is an early investor in Vertex Network (Sold to Mitel for $200M ’99). He is also the co-founder of Pine Photonics (sold to Hitachi/Opnext ’03). With Acorn, Bob was also an investor of AFOP (IPO ’00) and Rapidstream (M&A, ’02).
Bob is the co-owner and board director of several medium-size manufacturing companies in Asia with a combined number of employees near 4,000. Bob also serves as the Chairman of Mobile Radius, a wireless platform company in California, and on the board of Pine Photonics and Luxnet in Fremont, California, as well as Atonics, a SoC Semiconductor company in Taiwan, plus EPIN Wireless System in Beijing.
Bob is also the author of an inspiring book “Pursuit of Success & Happiness” and has been asked to write several more books for the next few years. In the past, he had been the lead guitarist and pianist of the rock band “Southern Breed” in Taiwan.
Bob has been very active in generous community services. He was the Chairman twice in Chinese Association of International Trade (CAIT), Board member of Monte Jade Association, Board member of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce. He has also served both as the Commissioner and the Chairman of Santa Clara County – HsinChu County Commission. Bob has a MSEE degree from University of California at Santa Barbara. He has been very active in community services.
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Dr Guolin Wang, President, Research and Development Center at FutureWei Technologies, Inc. |
At FutureWei Technologies, Inc., the US-based subsidiary of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. of China, Dr. Wang directs, leads and overseas management and activities to support Huawei’s continued business expansion in North America. Dr. Wang joined Huawei in 1998, and has over ten years of professional experience in top-level executive and managerial positions with the company. Prior to his FutureWei role, Dr. Wang was the President of Huawei Sweden Research Center. Before that, he served as the General Manager of UMTS Radio Network Planning.
In 2010, Huawei’s global sales exceeded $28 billion dollars, a remarkable 24.2% increase from 2009. FutureWei currently employs more than 1,400 professionals to carry out its US operations.
