Directions and a Map for Venture Forum November 14

Tickets are sold out for Sustainable Acceleration: To Infinity and Beyond, a venture forum and dinner from 5:30 to 8:30 pm on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 in the Stevenson Union at SOU, 1250 Siskiyou Boulevard, Ashland, Oregon. For more information or to be added to a waiting list, email Dennis Leidall, dennis@svtg.org.

Driving Directions: Follow Highway 99 until it becomes Siskiyou Boulevard through downtown Ashland. Turn right on Mountain Avenue and left into the first parking lot (Lot 32). Follow the signs to Stevenson Union. CLICK HERE FOR A MAP.

The venture forum will provide entrepreneurs, angel investors, business leaders and students exposure to recent venture activity, along with insights into next generation technologies. The event begins at 5:30 pm with a Jefferson Grapevine reception hosted by SOREDI in Stevenson Union, followed by the forum and dinner in the Rogue River Room. A’viands has created a menu featuring local, organic and sustainable food. Click here to read the menu. RoxyAnn is providing award-winning wines.

Read an interview with Maurice Gunderson in the Mail Tribune

Listen to a radio interview with Maurice Gunderson on KMED

The event is sponsored by Sustainable Valley Technology Group, Southern Oregon University School of Business, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc (SOREDI) and Avista Corporation.

The conference features Bay Area Venture Capitalist Maurice Gunderson, Managing Director of Earth Energy Ventures, discussing alternative energy investments, and Kirk Washington, a partner with Yaletown Venture Partners, discussing the importance of technology-based economic development..

Steve Bengston, Director of Emerging Company Services with PricewaterhouseCoopers, talking about the MoneyTree report, a quarterly summary of venture investments by region and industry. Mike Schwenk of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will discuss moving technology out of the lab and into the public domain.

Other speakers include Steve Vincent, Oregon Regional Business Manager for Avista, highlighting entrepreneur and investor opportunities for the 2013 Southern Oregon Angel Conference, and Dr. Raj Parikh, Dean of the School of Business at Southern Oregon University, and Dr. Chris Maples, President of Oregon Institute of Technology, talking about technology and training.

The cost is $40 per person and registration is limited to the first 150 people. Table sponsorships are $400 and include dinner for 8 and company name on the powerpoint. Businesses and organizations are encouraged to sponsor a table for an evening of fine dining, client development or team-building. Aviands will cater the dinner featuring local produce and award-winning RoxyAnn wines. Parking is free. Blues pianist David Sprunger and Guitarist Micah McCaw will provide music.

Register online at www.soredi.org.

To learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact Dennis Leidall, executive director, 541-414-0000, dennis@svtg.org. For event information, contact Melissa Stiles, 541-779-0569, melissa@svtg.org.

About the Speakers:

Maurice Gunderson is Managing Director of Earth Energy Ventures inOrinda,California. He specializes in thermodynamics and energy technologies and has been instrumental in developing cryogenic equipment, engines and energy conversion systems, turbo-machinery, and control systems for process plants and pipelines. He’s board chairman of Contour Energy Systems and served on boards for Amerigon, Scion-Sprays, NuScale Power and Superprotonic.

Previously he was senior partner at CMEA Capital in the Energy and Materials Division and co-founder of Nth Power, a venture capital firm specializing in investments emerging from the global restructuring of the energy industry. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Kirk Washington is a partner with Yaletown Venture Partners in Seattle. Kirk brings over 25 years of technical, operational, and investment experience in energy technologies to the Yaletown team. Kirk serves on the boards of Yaletown’s portfolio companies CoolEdge Lighting and Endurance Wind Power, is a board observer at EnerG2 and manages Yaletown’s investment in Silicor Materials
(acquired 6N Silicon).

Kirk joined Yaletown in 2002 after 13 years with a fuel cell company, Ballard Power Systems, where he directed numerous activities including research & development, operations, corporate administration, and special projects. Most recently, as Director of Corporate Development he analyzed target companies for strategic transactions, negotiated intellectual property licenses, formed joint development agreements and conducted post-merger integrations.

While at Ballard, Kirk was also a member of the investment committee of Chrysalix Energy LP, a clean-energy venture capital fund. He previously managed engineering teams and major projects at MacDonald Dettwiler here in Vancouver, and several disk drive companies in Silicon Valley and Canada. Kirk attended San Jose State University and holds 11 patents related to his work in clean energy technology.

Steve Bengston is Director of the Emerging Company Services (ECS) group at PricewaterhouseCoopers.  ECS acts as “mentor capitalists” for young, high potential companies. Before joining PwC, Steve had 20 years of experience in a variety of marketing, business development and general management roles at several high tech companies in the Bay Area.  Most recently, he was Pres/CEO of ynot.com, a leading international emarketing and greeting card company.   Previously, he was VP Marketing & Business Development at Worldview Systems, an Internet travel pioneer.  At Worldview, Steve helped launch and market Travelocity with Sabre Interactive.

Steve has a BA in Economics and MBA fromStanfordUniversity.  He works closely or sits on the Advisory Board at Churchill Club, SVASE,  Life Science Angels,  Bay Bio, and the Stanford/MIT Venture Lab, has taught classes on start ups at UC Berkeley, San Jose State,  Santa Clara Law School, Hastings Law School, and Stanford,  and is active in a variety of other organizations in the Bay Area targeting entrepreneurs and investors. He is a frequent moderator/panelist at both university and industry sponsored events.

Mike Schwenk is Director of Technology Development & Outreach at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Mike has more than 30 years of technical and business management experience in government, non-profit, entrepreneurial and corporate settings. He has championed numerous efforts to move research out of the laboratory and into the hands of business. His passion is technology-based economic development.

Mike managed the award winning commercialization and economic development activities at one of the nation’s national laboratories. He has chaired two corporate councils comprised of six national laboratories dedicated to improving the innovation process. Mike has also served as Battelle’s single point of contact to the Department of Energy on technology transfer matters, and is helping design an innovation agenda for the United Kingdom’s first contractor operated national laboratory.

Nationally, Mike chairs the Industrial Research Institute’s (IRI) Science and Technology Policy Committee and launched IRI’s Managing Technology Transfer working group. He sits on the Public Policy Advisory Committee for the International Economic Development Council, including subgroups on Innovation and Energy.

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