Leadership
Team Position Statement for the March 2004 e-club election (pdf)
2004-2005 LEADERSHIP BIOS
The 2004- 2005 E-club year is in honor of James Hsu, a great person,
friend and entrepreneur.
After
leaving Nokia in 2000, Sami Inkinen (co-president)
co-founded a wireless software company, acquired Eur1.7M of funding,
recruited core team, closed initial deals with TV broadcasters such
as CNBC in Singapore, and after 3 years of operations sold the profitable
company to a German acquirer. Sami has also worked for McKinsey&Company
and an online stockbroker from inception to IPO. Currently Sami is starting
a venture in audio technology developed by a Stanford PhD. Sami holds
a Masters Degree in Engineering in applied math and business strategy.
Erik
Mikysa (co-president) is currently working to start a business,
FullPro Protective Gear, from scratch with a cross-functional (engineering,
law, GSB, HBS) team. He is forgoing an internship this summer to work
exclusively on launching FullPro. Prior to the GSB, Erik was a successful
consultant at BCG and then moved to Delta Air Lines, where he negotiated
technology deals with start-ups. In addition to FullPro, Erik is working
to launch a new program at the GSB – The
Global Exchange.
In
1999, James Gutierrez (co-president) founded Magic
Beanstalk (MBS), a provider of corporate recruiting software and event
management services to small companies in the US and Brazil. As CEO,
he raised $5M in venture capital, built a team of 40+ employees, and
established key customer relationships. In 2001, he restructured MBS,
hired a new CEO, and successfully sold the company to Pure Carbon (later
bought by Workstream (NASDAQ: WSTM)). James then worked as a venture
investor in Spain, where he helped restructure a $300M company in Germany.
At Stanford, James co-founded the Havana Beach Club to create a forum
for peer learning and co-organized the “Bouncing Back” panel
at the E-conference. He is writing a case with Prof. Barnett for the
entrepreneurship course.
Shoshanna
Stussy (e-conference co-chair) was most recently an associate
at WaldenVC, a cross-stage media technology venture capital firm. She
spent three years in VC where she worked with entrepreneurs from a variety
of technology industries. Prior to Walden, she was an Equity Research
associate at Deutsche Bank, in the firm's New Media group. She is currently
working with a GSB team on an entrepreneurial project for a music technology
start-up. This year Shoshanna co-coordinated the panel, "Creative
Approaches to Financing."
Andres
Obregon (e-conference co-chair) left Wal-Mart Stores to pursue
much desired entrepreneurial plans. His first venture TextilesInternet,
a B2B e-marketplace, was swept by the dot-com crash. That did not stop
Andres from co-founding Mercadio. His tech start-up develops system
integration solutions. His responsibilities as CEO included securing
funding from investors, overview of operations as well as management
of client relationships with the likes of Ford Motor Co. and Philips
Electronics. At Stanford, he was part of the Latin American Business
Conference leadership team.
Jihye
Whang began her career at Motorola Semiconductor Products.
After completing her Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science at MIT, she joined Tyco designing wireless chipsets
for Nokia & Samsung cellular phones. Recently she was employed at
Hittite Microwave Corporation (HMC) playing critical role between development
teams, partners and the management. Jihye was the webmaster for the
Entrepreneur Conference www.econference.org
and a co-leader for the “Entertainment & Technology”
panel. She is currently pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities with
her hardware & software engineering colleagues.
Mark
Jorgensen (chief financial officer) most recently worked as
an investment banker at Lehman Brothers where he analyzed companies
across a variety of industries while providing coverage to large private
equity firms and their portfolio companies. Previously, he served in
the U.S. Navy for 5 years where he designed, built, and managed the
retail, inventory, and accounting control systems and services division
on a newly constructed guided missile destroyer. Mark graduated from
UCLA with a B.A. in Business Economics and Accounting Minor.
Samuel
Ulloa (vp of e-treks), Co-Founded Innetvations Inc. an International
Professional Services start-up company offering Enterprise Application
Integration (EAI), B2B Integration, and Web-Enablement of legacy systems
to medium and large enterprises in the United States and Latin America,
primarily Mexico. Samuel, is most interested in leveraging his relationships
with entrepreneurs to bridge the GSB experience with the Entrepreneur
community. His vision for the e-Trek committee is what that will inspire
GSBers to execute on their entrepreneurial dreams. He is a firm believer
that entrepreneurial success is largely driven by competence, passion
and execution.
Aaron
Tolson recently finished a five-year commitment as an Armor
Officer in the U.S. Army, where he served in various positions to include
tank platoon leader, company executive officer, and a General’s
aide-de-camp. Based out of Fort Stewart Georgia, he lead soldiers on
deployments to Bosnia , Kuwait , and Iraq and served his final year
just outside Seoul , Korea . He is currently working to coordinate various
E-treks for the year as well as the “How to Turn a Company Around”
panel for the Entrepreneurship Conference.
Mia Huoponen
has been involved in high-technology innovation and entrepreneurship
since 1997. She was most recently an Investment Director at TLcom Capital
Partners in London, a €185M Venture Capital Fund investing in early-stage
technology companies in Europe and Israel. She completed 9 investments
and observed on the board of directors of Cellglide and Cognima. Prior,
at Broadview Int’l in London Mia executed on the largest wireless
technology M&A and private placement transactions in Europe, worth
over $1.3 bn. Before the heydays, Mia worked in business development
at Ericsson managing new network product launches and reassessing Ericsson’s
innovation, investment and acquisition strategy that resulted in the
launch of Ericsson Innovation Management and Ericsson Venture Capital
funds. At Stanford, Mia is co-organizing the E-Club’s “Skill
Development Series” and the “Building a Management Team”
panel at the 2005 E-Conference.
Avi Alimchandani
initiated his career at Jyoti Structures, an Indian power transmission
company. In 2000, he returned to Chicago and joined Alim Builders, a
high-end custom home design and build firm. Working in a loosely-structured
family business environment, Avi co-developed and executed several successful
entrepreneurial projects including a $3 million showcase home that integrated
traditional Country French architecture with innovative home technology
applications. At present, his focus has shifted to real estate development
and related entrepreneurial opportunities in the West Coast, Hawaii
and India.
Molly
Voorhees was most recently a Product Manager for Telephia,
Inc., where she helped launch a longitudinal wireless bill panel that
utilized screen-scraping technology to acquire subscriber revenue and
usage information. Prior to Telephia, Molly worked for AT&T Wireless
as an Offer Manager on voice information and voice dialing services.
She first moved to the Bay Area to work for Tellme Networks as an Account
Manager. Molly graduated from Middlebury College in 1998 and returned
in 2003 to participate on a panel for the Digital Bridges Conference,
“The Pervasive Internet.”
Joe
DiPasquale comes to the Entrepreneur Club with a background
in Strategy Consulting, where he worked for IBM Business Consulting
Services, Bain, and McKinsey. His entrepreneurial experience includes
work on a yet-to-launch channel for MTV Networks, a newly-founded pet
supplies company, and the since-sold JobDirect.com. His venture capital
experience includes work for Venturepark Investors. His seemingly northeastern
background belies a youth in Alabama and work experience in Berlin and
Amsterdam, but he will maintain he grew up in Connecticut, went to college
at Harvard, and lived in New York City before joining us at the GSB.
Dave
Kashen (VP, alumni relations) worked as an investment banker
at Goldman, Sachs from 1999 until 2001, serving clients in the real
estate, hotel and casino industries. In 2001, he joined SPO Partners
& Co. in Mill Valley, where he served as an investment associate
and participated in investments in a variety of industries, including
professional services, consumer products, cable and media, telecommunications,
enterprise software, natural resources, real estate and hotels, and
specialty chemicals. This past summer, he worked in Strategic Planning
for Nike's Global Apparel group analyzing new business opportunities
for Nike's apparel business, and at Active.com, an online event registration
provider, managing several projects. Dave is committed to entrepreneurship
in its many forms and is intent on helping to build and solidify relations
between GSB students and Stanford's entrepreneurial alumni. Dave holds
a B.S. Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Marcin
Borowiecki worked as consultant for McKinsey and Co. in Poland,
Germany, Romania, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and the United Arab
Emirates. His focus was on strategy and business building for financial
institutions, telecom and high-tech clients. Marcin helped to launch
several new businesses - an innovative low-cost mobile telephony concept,
a personal financial advisory company and an Islamic bank.
