Our moderator will be David A. Gurwin, Shareholder, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC. David chairs the firm’s Entertainment and Media Law Group. He is also chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group, whose members focus on representing companies and individuals, regardless of the industry, with commercial transactions involving technology-related issues.

David represents clients in a variety of industries, with a particular focus on Internet, computer, advertising, life sciences and technology clients, as well as those involved in the entertainment industries. A professional jazz pianist himself, David possesses firsthand experience with the entertainment industry and assists clients with contractual drafting and negotiations, business formation, licensing and intellectual property matters involving the protection and commercialization of entertainment talents, works and persona.

Babs Carryer, President, Carryer Consulting, providing strategic marketing and business planning services to technology companies and organizations in the software and life sciences sectors. Babs has been involved with hundreds of early-stage companies seeking financing, growth, or acquisition partners. Currently, Babs is Director of Deal Flow for BlueTree Allied Angels. She is also Embedded Entrepreneur for Project Olympus, which within the School of Computer Science at CMU to stimulate commercialization of new technologies. Babs co-founded LaunchCyte, a development company that creates, seeds, and harvests life sciences innovations from leading research universities across the U.S.

Babs has a Masters in Management from CMU, and is Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at CMU in the Don Jones Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business, and in the Heinz School. She is an Innovation Advisor for CMU’s Institute for Social Innovation and teaches the annual course, "From Benchtop to Bedside" for the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Enterprise Development.

Craig Gomulka, CFA, Director, Draper Triangle Ventures. Prior to joining Draper Triangle, Craig worked as a summer associate for Intel Corporation where he developed supplier cost models and price negotiation tools.

Prior to graduate school, Craig was employed by RRZ Investment Management, an institutional money management firm where he was responsible for portfolio management and trading of $100 million of fixed income investments, and the design and programming of fixed and equity trading tools. Craig is involved in the community, where he has participated as a Big Brother since 1986. Craig received his B.A. in Geology, concentrating in geochemistry and crystallography, from Colgate University in 1994, and achieved his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University Graduate School of Industrial Administration in 2000. In addition, Craig was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst designation in September of 2000.

Mel Pirchesky, President of Eagle Ventures
Having likely raised much more equity from angel investors than anyone else in the Pittsburgh region, Mel Pirchesky is a long-time Pittsburgh entrepreneur. He’s raised over $60 million of equity for more than 30 deals solely from individuals, most of them located in the Pittsburgh region. Eagle Ventures’ most recent transaction was a $9 million financing completed this past summer where Mel and 60 others invested in Cardiorobotics, a robotic medical device company that spun out of CMU and Pitt.

He is the "go-to" guy for coaching on Elevator Pitches. He delivers high impact coaching to entrepreneurs whereby they dramatically improve how they articulate their company’s value proposition.

Alan C. Veeck, Principal, Meakem Becker Venture Capital. Alan Veeck joined Meakem Becker as a Principal in 2006 and brings academic depth and over ten years of industry and executive experience to our team. In his role, Alan focuses on identifying, performing diligence on, and investing in new companies. He also spends a significant amount of time coaching, mentoring, and sitting on the boards of portfolio companies.

Prior to joining Meakem Becker, Alan was a Director with the Global Account Management team at Ariba (NASDAQ:ARBA) and was formerly with FreeMarkets. Prior to joining FreeMarkets, Alan was an associate with McKinsey & Company. Alan holds a B.S. degree in chemistry summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

Bo Fishback, VP, Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation where he is responsible for developing and advancing transformative programs that strengthen entrepreneurial engagement in the economy.

Helen Greiner ’89, SM ’90, CEO, The Droid Works, a startup company whose mission is to be a "SkunkWorks" for robotics. She is co-founder of iRobot which she transformed, with business partners Colin Angle and Rod Brooks, from a MIT spin-off into a ~$300Million business and the global leader of practical robots.

Daphne Zohar, Founder, Managing Partner, PureTech Ventures, a Boston-based venture firm specializing in translating breakthrough research from top tier academic institutions into therapies that will impact human health and well-being. Zohar was named one of the world’s top young innovators who will shape the future of technology by MIT’s Technology Review magazine and one of the top "40 under 40" by the Boston Business Journal.

Our Moderator is Dennis S. Meteny, currently President & CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of Cygnus Manufacturing Company (CMC), a manufacturing services company serving the medical device, scientific instrumentation, energy, aerospace and transportation markets. Dennis is a former Executive in Residence with The Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse and a former President and Board Member of TissueInformatics Inc. He also spent fifteen years with Respironics Inc., (NASD; RESP) a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of sleep and respiratory products. He was the President & CEO of Respironics from 1994 to 1999 and a member of its Board of Directors from 1988 to 1999. Dennis started his career with Ernst & Young, working in their Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh offices.

Matt Harbaugh, Chief Investment Officer, Innovation Works (IW), www.innovationworks.org , a Pittsburgh-based seed fund that has provided over $30 million in risk capital and business assistance to more than 80 seed-stage companies since 2000. Matt oversees IW’s investment fund, chairs its investment committee and helps IW find, evaluate and invest in the region’s most promising startups.

Since joining IW in early 2001, Matt has worked with hundreds of early-stage technology companies while serving on IW’s investment committee and in his prior roles of Director of External Finance and Enterprise Associate. Matt has deep expertise in capital formation, and utilizes this knowledge in advising companies on raising outside capital and working with follow-on investors. During his tenure at IW, portfolio companies have been successful in raising more than $250 million in follow-on funding from VCs, angels and strategic investors.

Matt works closely with many of the region’s technology investors and economic development organizations in collaborative efforts to improve the overall early-stage investment climate in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Matt has played a key role in the development of many of the region’s investor-focused initiatives, including the creation of the Pittsburgh Angel Fund, the Southwest Pennsylvania Angel Network and the Pittsburgh Angel Venture Fair.

Prior to Innovation Works, Matt served as Vice President of Finance for a venture-backed startup and was an investment banker at PNC Capital Markets, where he helped middle-market companies raise growth capital through private placements of debt and equity.

Matt is active in the Pittsburgh community – he is a member of the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association and serves on the Board of Trustees of the region’s Smithsonian-affiliated history museum. Matt is a graduate of the Leadership Development Initiative, a program of Leadership Pittsburgh, and was a member of the transition team of former Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey.

Matt received his J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from George Washington University, and his B.A. from Duke University. He currently lives in Mt. Lebanon, PA with his wife and daughter.

Don A. Linzer, JD, LLM, CFP® a shareholder with Schneider Downs since 1985, and serves as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. In addition, Don is the Chairman of Schneider Down’s Specialty Tax Group and the CEO of Schneider Downs Corporate Finance, LP and Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors, LP. He is a frequent contributor to business and tax publications, and is often interviewed by trade and national media on topics related to his expertise. Don has served as a keynote speaker for many organizations, including the Allegheny Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the SMC Business Councils.

Michael K. Maggs, co-founder and president of AvantX Corporation (formerly Payroll Solutions), a workforce management software and services company specializing in payroll, HRMS and time & labor management. In 1994, Michael co-founded Payroll Solutions, a regional payroll service bureau, on the belief that a company could exist which would encompass every facet of the payroll service industry, with technology that surpasses that of its competitors, while still providing clients with superior personalized service often lost as a trade-off to growth. Today, AvantX has 65 employees across the country. With offices in Pittsburgh, PA and Orange County, CA, AvantX services more than 2000 companies nationwide.

Our moderator is Arthur A. Boni, Ph. D. He has held the John R. Thorne Chair of Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University since 2003. He is the Director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship and teaches undergraduates, MBAs and executives in emerging companies. Dr. Boni’s educational background includes a BS from Carnegie Mellon University (Mechanical Engineering), MS from the University of Southern California (Mechanical Engineering), and a Ph. D. from the University of California, San Diego (Engineering Science/Engineering Physics). He served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale University and has over 80 open literature publications.

Mark F. DeSantis is President and Co-founder of MobileFusion, Inc., a technology firm that builds portable sensor platforms for the military, law enforcement, and the US intelligence community. Mark is also the interim Chief Executive Officer of Apangea Learning, Inc. He was previously the US Managing Director of ANGLE Technology, PLC, a publicly traded venture capital and consulting firm. Prior to joining ANGLE, Mark co-founded several technology businesses and is a director to several others. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Software Engineering Institute and Carnegie Mellon Research Institute prior that. Mark was the Director of Government Relations for Texas Instruments, Inc. in Washington D.C. and, in that capacity, was responsible for managing their public sector relationships in the U.S. and abroad.

Jeff Pepper, Board Chair, President and CEO of Touchtown, the senior living industry’s first choice for community information solutions. Jeff is one of the Pittsburgh region’s most successful builders of technology enterprises. He is the founder and past President and CEO of ServiceWare Technologies, the world’s leading provider of knowledge based software and content to the customer support market. He founded ServiceWare in the basement of his home in 1991, and grew the company to an industry-dominant position and a 1999 NASDAQ IPO. Jeff was named Western Pennsylvania’s High Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996. Jeff was an instructor in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he received his B.S. in Mathematics in 1980. He co-holds two U.S. patents.

Louis Piconi, Chief Education Officer, and Vice President of National Accounts for Apangea Learning. Louis focuses on building relationships to implement state level programs and developing the long-term competitive position of Apangea Learning’s solutions. Prior to founding Apangea Learning, Louis launched WiredOrg.com, an innovative Intranet startup company and served as COO of CommNav, Inc., an early stage portal infrastructure company. He was also Managing Director of the IT Networks for the Pittsburgh Technology Council (PTC). Louis earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from The Pennsylvania State University and his MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Carol Wooten serves as the Chief Academic Officer/Superintendent for Propel Schools. She came to Propel to become the first administrator of a Propel School and to help open future schools. She taught biology and other sciences for 18 years and served as a high school principal in the Riverview SD, worked with curriculum and instruction in the Mars Area SD, and served as a middle school principal, Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Superintendent of the South Side Area SD. She worked as a researcher and evaluator for the University of Pittsburgh on the New Futures Project, a project aimed at drop-out prevention, in the Pittsburgh City Schools. She served as co-chair of the Curriculum and Instruction Committee for PA ASCD, where she served on the Executive Board.

Dr. Robert Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor (there are 14 Institute Professors at MIT; being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member). Dr. Langer has written approximately 1,050 articles. Dr. Langer’s patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 220 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He is the most cited engineer in history.

Tom Petzinger is a director on the board of all six of LaunchCyte’s portfolio companies. Prior to founding LaunchCyte, Tom spent 22 years at The Wall Street Journal, where he served as Washington economics editor, deputy Washington bureau chief, millennium editor, and weekly columnist. Tom received his B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, where he was a Richter International Scholar.

Dr. Robert Kormos, Medical Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, discussing developing and testing technologies that have clinical and commercial promise. He also holds a position as professor with tenure specializing in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and acts as director of UPMC’s Artificial Heart and Thoracic Transplant Program.

John Glicksman, Vice President and General Counsel, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse. John provides a perspective on the range of life sciences entrepreneurial activities in the region, support mechanisms to help to link entrepreneurs with researchers, and to support the transition from research to product commercialization.

He has over 20 years of legal and business experience and has served in various senior in-house roles for publicly-held and privately-held businesses, including General Counsel and member of several Boards of Directors. He also practiced law in Washington, D. C., representing technology-related businesses, including healthcare entities, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.

David J. Dausey, Ph.D., Senior Director of Health Care Programs and Initiatives Distinguished Service Professor of Health Care Policy and Management Carnegie Mellon, will provide perspective on life sciences entrepreneurship and health care innovation from a national perspective.

He is spearheading the college’s efforts to grow and expand their health care programs and initiatives. He also holds adjunct positions at the RAND Corporation and University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. An internationally respected health care and public health expert, Dr. Dausey has worked closely with senior health officials in more than a dozen different countries and experts at international organizations and foundations such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the Global Health and Security Initiative and the Rockefeller Foundation.