Santa Clara University

Jack Balletto, Founder and Managing Member, Sunrise Capital Funds
Jack Balletto, a 37-year Silicon Valley veteran, is a respected venture investor and entrepreneur. Balletto received master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Santa Clara, and in 2002 was honored by the University as one of its distinguished engineering graduates. 

His career began at Lockheed where he worked in the microwave/ECM (electronic countermeasure) field. He then joined Fairchild Semiconductor in 1969. After Fairchild and a short stint at Ricoh Electronics, Balletto co-founded his first semiconductor company – Synertek – with two associates from Fairchild Semiconductor. Synertek became a major factor in the advent of both the video game and the PC industries. The company was successfully acquired by Honeywell in 1978.

At his second startup, VLSI Technology, Balletto was a founder and its first CEO. In 1983, 26 months after its first and only venture round, VLSI had an IPO which raised over $60 million. VLSI was largely responsible for launching the EDA, foundry, and ASIC industries. After a 20-year existence as one of the Valley’s most innovative companies, VLSI was acquired by Philips Semiconductor in 1999.

After co-founding two vertically integrated semiconductor companies and spending twenty years in a variety of operating roles in the semiconductor and microwave industries, Balletto launched his career in venture capital.  He worked in Hambrecht & Quist's (H&Q) venture capital group where he was involved with joint ventures in Japan, London, and Australia. He also sourced the first financing round for Xilinx to H&Q and later sponsored a capital equipment company, ATEQ, whose scanning laser lithography machines are now responsible for producing a significant percentage of the reticles printed in the United States. Eventually the company was acquired by Applied Materials. In 1996 he formed the first of three Sunrise Capital funds.

Graham Barnes, Chief Executive Officer, BidShift
Graham Barnes is the CEO of BidShift, a staffing service for the healthcare industry.  Prior to BidShift, Barnes was the founder and CEO of NextWeb, Inc., California’s largest fixed wireless Internet service provider (WISP) for businesses, until its acquisition by Covad in February of 2006.  With over twenty-five years of experience, Mr. Barnes is an expert in the wireless telecommunications industry both domestically and abroad. 

Previously, as Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Service with Western Multiplex Corporation (now Proxim), Mr. Barnes was responsible for driving sales growth from less than $4M to more than $50M. In addition, Mr. Barnes held a variety of management positions with Harris Corporation, a $2 billion international communications firm.

Mr. Graham received a BSEE from Imperial College, University of London, and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Robb Browne has 20 years of industry experience, serving private and publicly held technology companies ranging from rapid growth pre-IPO to large multi-national’s. Robb also leads the firms Venture Capital Advisory Practice based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this role Robb manages relationships with the Sand Hill venture capital community and is a frequent speaker on venture capital funding and the complex issues that face today's start ups. Robb also leads the firms efforts with on going  venture financing analysis in collaboration with Venture One. Robb is a well recognized thought leader in the finance community in venture capital matters and funding new enterprises.

Robb also has extensive experience in SEC practice and initial public offerings, design of strategic corporate collaborations, corporate equity placements and design of internal control systems. Robb has spent a considerable amount of time and effort in the past few years consulting on Sarbanes–Oxley with a number of top tier Silicon Valley companies and Venture Capital Firms. 

Robb is one of only a few Ernst & Young Partners that has obtained valuable “real world” experience leading the finance organizations at two venture-backed start-up companies. His industry experience is an invaluable asset to the clients he serves, as he brings a deep perspective and understanding of both internal and external business imperatives that today’s companies face. Robb also is a Partner with the Silicon Valley Chapter of Financial Executive International (FEI), is certified to practice in California and Massachusetts and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.  Robb lives in San Jose with his wife Emily and daughter Hannah.

James C. Chapman, Founding Partner, Silicon Valley Law Group
Jim Chapman is a founding partner of Silicon Valley Law Group and serves as chair of the Corporate Group. His law practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, and securities and technology licensing and protection.  Jim has been involved in over 100 mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. In July 2003, San Jose Magazine selected Jim as one of Silicon Valley’s top lawyers.

Mr. Chapman is a graduate of the Catholic University of America and received his J.D., M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.

Alex Mendez, Founding Partner, Storm Ventures LLC
Prior to founding Storm Ventures in October 2000, Alex spent twenty-five years in high tech at ROLM, IBM, Stratacom, and Cisco, holding several executive positions, most recently as an SVP/GMat Cisco. He was part of the founding team of Stratacom which Cisco acquired in 1996. He was also CEO and Chairman of Sanera Systems which McData acquired in 2003.  Alex was elected to the McData Board of Directors in December 2003. 

Alex serves on the board of 3Leaf Networks, Adomo, Bivio Networks, Cellfire, Jangl, McData, Media Publisher Inc., Mobio Networks, and Venturi Wireless.

Alex holds a B.S.E.E. from Stanford University, and an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.  He likes to ski, travel, golf, and speaks both Spanish and German fluently.

Godfrey Mungal is Dean, School of Engineering, and the John M. Sobrato Professor of Engineering. Prior to being appointed Dean, Dr. Mungal was at Stanford University where he served as Associate Dean for Graduate Policy for the Stanford campus, Associate Chair in Mechanical Engineering where he coordinated the ABET accreditation process, and Director of the High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory.

He received a B.S. in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto and Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.  He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

His research efforts have covered subsonic and supersonic mixing and combustion, turbulent reacting jets in coflow and crossflow, image processing (volume rendering) of turbulent flows, drag reduction of bluff bodies, flame stability – liftoff and blowout, flow in microchannels, studies of drag reducing polymers in turbulent boundary layer flows, and most recently, the use of pulsed plasmas to control flame stability. He is the author or co-author of more than 150 refereed and conference papers in these areas.

Dr. Mungal has a strong, demonstrated commitment to diversity, recruitment and retention issues in education, and he is particularly interested in the role of engineering in advancing the cause of under-represented and first-generation students.

He has received a number of teaching and advising awards, including Stanford's Tau Beta Pi award for excellence in undergraduate teaching and the School of Engineering Distinguished Advisor Award. He has served on review panels for NIST, NSF, NASA and Sandia Livermore, and he has given invited lectures and short courses throughout the world, including Australia, Belgium, France, India, Italy, Japan and South Africa.

Larry Nally is currently the Managing Partner of Pima Direct.  Prior to joining Pima, Nally served as the CFO of Insulair, a producer of paper cups that was acquired by Georgia Pacific, maker of Dixie Cups.  Nally has significant experience as a start-up CFO, including serving as CFO of Chevy's Mexican Restaurants where he oversaw the acquisition by PepsiCo, as well as the growth CFO of Gordon Biersch.  Larry Nally is a graduate of Santa Clara University.

Bryan Neider, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios

Bryan Neider is Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of EA Worldwide Studios with responsibility for managing budgets and financial operations.  Mr. Neider joined Electronic Arts in 1989 and held several positions in finance, operations, and corporate development.

Rocky Pimentel, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Glu Inc.

As executive vice president and chief financial officer, Rocky Pimentel directs financial policies and functions of Glu Inc. worldwide. Mr. Pimentel joined Glu Inc. from Zone Labs where, as executive vice president and chief financial officer, he oversaw the company’s successful negotiation and merger with Check Point Software. Prior to Zone Labs, Mr. Pimentel was a partner with Redpoint Ventures, where he managed the firm’s operational activities as well as contributing to business development and new investment development. Mr. Pimentel’s career has also included leadership positions with WebTV Networks (acquired by Microsoft, Nasdaq: MSFT); LSI Logic Corporation (NYSE: LSI). Mr. Pimentel was a member of the founding management teams of Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX), a NYSE-listed Global 500 developer, and Conner Peripherals, Inc., which was acquired by Seagate in 1996.  Mr. Pimentel has also held board of director positions with Livingston Communications, where he advised the company’s sale to Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) for more than $1 billion; Crossworlds Software, where he assisted in the sale of the company to IBM for approximately $250 million; SoftCom Microsystems, where he advised management in its sale to Intel Corporation (Nasdaq:INTC).  In addition to his board of directors positions, Mr. Pimentel also sponsored early-stage corporate investments in Brocade Communications (Nasdaq: BRCD)  and Siebel Systems (Nasdaq: SEBL) during his business career.

Donald Polden, Dean, Santa Clara University School of Law
Donald J. Polden is Dean and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University.  

Previous to being appointed Dean in 2003, Dr. Polden served as Dean and Professor of Law at the University of Memphis (1993-2003) where he taught courses in corporate law, antitrust law, federal securities regulation and employment law. In addition, he served as Associate Dean (1991-1993) and Professor of Law (1976-1993) at Drake University School of Law.

Dean Polden received a B.B.A in Economics from George Washington University and a J.D. from Indiana University Law School.  He has practiced law, principally in the areas of federal antitrust law and employment law, in the federal and state courts. Dean Polden has participated in antitrust cases in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court and has argued cases involving claims of price-fixing,monopolization and attempts to monopolize before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.  He is co-author (with U.S. District Court Judge Mark Bennett) of Employment Relationships: Law and Practice, published by Aspen Publishing Company.  He also is the author of several law review articles on topics of federal antitrust and securities law and legal education. His 1989 article on standing to sue in private antitrust litigation was cited by the United States Supreme Court. Dean Polden was elected to membership in the American Law Institute in 1993, is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and was recently elected as a Fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He also serves on standing committees of the American Bar Association's Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and the Association of American Law Schools.

Barry Z. Posner is the Dean of the Leavey School of Business and Professor of Leadership.  He assumed the Dean's position in 1997, after having served previously as Managing Partner of the Executive Development Center, and Associate Dean, Graduate Programs.

Dr. Posner received a Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1970), a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Ohio State University (1972), and a Doctorate in Organizational Behavior and Administrative Theory from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1976).  Dr. Posner joined the faculty at SCU in 1976, and has received the President's Distinguished Faculty Award, the Dean's Extraordinary Faculty Award, and a number of other teaching and scholarly recognitions.  In 2001 he received the McFeely Award from the International Management Council as recognition of being one of the nation's top management and leadership educators.

Dr.Posner is an internationally renowned scholar in the area of leadership, as the co-author of seven books in this area, including the award winning and best-selling The Leadership Challenge. He has published over 80 articles in both academic and practitioner-oriented journals and publications, and currently serves as Section Editor for the Journal of Management, and on the editorial review board of the Journal of Business Ethics. Dr. Posner has consulted with organizations around the globe, and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the San Jose Repertory Theatre.

SVB Financial Group (SVB) is a leading provider of diversified financial products and services (commercial, investment, and merchant banking) to technology, life science, and private equity firms globally.  Mike Selfridge has been with SVB for 13 years and has held a variety of leadership positions in sales, credit, international, operations, and financing for technology and venture capital firms.

Mr. Selfridge is currently the Head of SVB’s Global Products Division and a member of the commercial bank’s senior management team.  In his current role,Selfridge leads several groups of the commercial bank, including SVB Asset Management, Global Investments (SVB’s broker-dealer), International Credit Products, foreign currency trading, International Trade Services, and Global Cash Management.  Combined, this group represents over $18 billion in assets under management, trades over $12 billion in annual foreign currency volume, and delivers and executes on SVB products and services that generate over 30% of the commercial bank’s total pre-tax profit.  Selfridge is a member of the executive team responsible for developing the commercial bank’s strategy, as well as identifying the product and sales opportunities to further revenue and asset growth in addition to global expansion.  His division is responsible for the continued development and implementation of the bank’s internet banking platform, SVBeConnect. This proprietary technology platform serves as a key strategic competitive advantage for SVB and is the primary portal to support clients’ global online banking and investment activities.

From 2003 to 2005, Selfridge was based in Boston, MA as SVB’s Northeast Division Manager.  In this role, he was responsible for the management and leadership of SVB’s largest regional division, which represented approximately 25% of the commercial bank’s total gross profit.  At the time, the Northeast Division served over 2,000 technology, life science, and private equity clients throughout nine Northeastern states.

From 1998 to 2003, Selfridge was based in Washington D.C.  In Washington, Selfridge served as the Senior Credit Officer for SVB’s Southeast region, where he was responsible for approving all regional lending transactions and leading the sales teams with regard to the region’s technology and venture capital financing and activities in the Southeastern region.  He was also responsible for all asset-based lending activities in the Southeast region.  From October 1998 to January 2002, he was Senior Vice President and Manager of the Northern Virginia Technology Group,where he was responsible for the region’s lending activities to early and later stage technology companies and venture capital firms.  Prior to moving to Northern Virginia in 1998, Selfridge was based in Santa Clara, CA, having served as Senior VP of SVB’s Structured Trade Finance Group.  Before joining Silicon Valley Bank, Selfridge served in both corporate and international banking positions with HSBC and Wells Fargo Bank. While at HSBC, Selfridge managed the corporate banking relationship for several well-known technology companies, including Cisco Systems in its earlier stages.
 
Selfridge holds a B.S. degree from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.  He currently serves on the advisory board of the IBOS Association, a European based banking alliance between 14 major financial institutions focused on providing global corporations with global treasury management solutions.  He is a member of several of SVB’s executive committees, including the Commercial Bank Steering Committee, SVB Asset Management Investment Committee, the IT Steering Committee, and the Credit Policy Committee.  He Co-Chairs the International Steering Committee and serves on the board of directors of the SVB Foundation.  He serves on the board of the Housing Trust of Santa Clara and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Business School at Santa Clara University.

Bryan Stolle, a former entrepreneur, founder and chief executive officer, brings significant company building expertise to MDV. He focuses on and invests in people, ideas, and companies that are trying to solve big important business problems using new technologies,business models, and /or processes.

Stolle co-founded MDV-backed Agile Software in March 1995. He then served as a member of the Agile board of directors and as Agile CEO through April 2006, and remains Chairman of the Board. Prior to founding Agile, Stolle served in various executive marketing roles at Sherpa Corporation, a developer of enterprise product data management software and Rexcom Systems, a software company he co-founded. He started his career at EDS.

Stolle holds a B.A. in Business Administration and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. Stolle is a visionary and pioneer in the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) industry, and is a popular speaker on the topics of PLM, enterprise product strategy, and outsourcing. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business and the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, as well as the board of the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum.

W. Atom Yee is the chief academic officer of the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest academic unit on campus comprising approximately 60% of undergraduate students and a comparable percentage of the Santa Clara University faculty. The College provides undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences, including a large fraction of the University Core Curriculum required of all undergraduate students. To support the University Strategic Plan, Dr. Yee identified the following projects as his priorities for the College during his 2002‑2003 appointment: (1) assist the University in further development of the Residential Learning Communities (2) assist the University with the initiation and implementation of a systematic program review process; and (3) assist the University in promoting the Teaching Scholar model.  A Professor of Chemistry and former chair of the Department, Dr. Yee also serves as Dean of Santa Clara University's Undergraduate Summer Program and Center for Professional Development.

Previous to being appointed Dean in Spring 2004, Dr. Yee served as Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2002-2004).  Before coming to Santa Clara in 1983, he served two years as Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz and four years as Assistant Professor at the State University of New York, College at Purchase. 

Dr. Yee received his B.S. at Yale University and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz, both in Chemistry.  His research focuses on chemical reactions initiated by absorption of ultraviolet light.  Dr. Yee has contributed numerous articles to scientific journals and is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Chemical Society and the Western Spectroscopy Association.  He was elected to the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC) Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities in 1998, and he has served on a number of WASC visit teams as an evaluator for curriculum, faculty, diversity issues, and student services.