Survive or thrive? Good companies learn how to weather economic downturns. Great companies know how to turn a recession into opportunity. Our expert panel will discuss different strategies of how to profit during economic downturns, and what investors look for when they are investing in emerging companies.
Speakers: Walter Birdis Vice President of the leading edge venture capital firm, TheMassachusetts Technology Corporation. Edward C. Williams III, Partner, Brook Venture Partners , is General Partner and a member of the fund's Investment Committee. He is an active investor in and serves on several of Brook's portfolio company board of directors in both medical and information technology. Allan Huntley, CEO and founder of Abacus Travel and member of Beacon Angels.
How to raise money in a recession, Part 1 How to raise money in a recession, Part 2
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Speaker: Walter M. Bird, Vice President, Massachusetts Development Technology Corporation
Jerry Bird is the vice-president of Massachusetts Development Technology Corporation (MTDC). MTDC is a Quasi-public venture capital firm that addresses the "capital gap" for start-up and expansion of early-stage technology companies operating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MTDC has invested in many of Massachusetts' most promising new technology-based companies. He is responsible for generating investment opportunities, identifying marketable technologies making new and follow-on investments
Mr. Bird has served on the board of over a dozen Massachusetts based technology companies including UCMS (UMS.au), Andover.net (Lnux), Bitpipe and Ze-gen. He has over 21 years of investing and financial experience. Before joining MTDC in 2005 he had been President of Boston-based Claflin Capital Management which he joined as a general partner in 1996 and was a general partner of the three most recent funds. While at Claflin, he frequently co-invested with MTDC. Prior to joining Claflin Capital Management, he spent 10 years at BankBoston in several varied capacities. Mr. Bird graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1980 and received his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1986.
MTDC is a leading edge venture capital firm that addresses the "capital gap" for start-up and expansion of early-stage technology companies operating in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MTDC has invested in many of Massachusetts' most promising new technology-based companies. Mr. Bird is a board member or board observer at BEZ Systems, Clarity Imaging and Ze-gen, Inc.
Speaker: Allan Huntley, CEO and Founder of Abacus Travel, Member of Beacon Angels Mr. Huntley's career has spanned a number of industries that include software development, management consulting, litigation support, real estate and travel. Allan is a founder and CEO of Abacus Travel, Inc., an INC 500 company, that serves approximately 450 companies throughout the U.S.
Speaker: Edward C. Williams III, Partner, Brook Venture Partners
Ned has spent a total of 21 years in private equity investing and has been responsible for dozens of rounds of financing in both early and expansion companies. Ned joined Brook Venture Partners in 1999 as a General Partner and a member of the fund's Investment Committee and is an active investor in and serves on several of Brook's portfolio company board of directors in both medical and information technology. Ned is a steering committee member of The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center, which offers inventors and executives of the state's smaller medical device company’s easy, affordable, and coordinated access to world-class researchers and resources. Additionally Mr. Williams is a member of University of Massachusetts High Tech Executive Council, a group of senior technology executives who meet with President Jack Wilson to advise him on the University’s science and technology strategy and initiatives.
Prior to joining Brook, Ned was a Managing Director at Saturn Asset Management, a Boston-based private equity firm. He was involved with all aspects of the firm's investment activities, including leading the financing of both Constant Contact (CTCT) and FreeMarkets Online a Pittsburg based company that was brought public by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and closed on its first day of trading with a market capitalization in excess of 10 Billion Dollars.
Earlier in his career he was with Morgan Stanley in New York City where he was involved with over 25 Initial Public Offerings including the Netscape IPO as well as the spinout of Lucent Technologies from AT&T.
Ned holds a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Speaker: Walter M. Bird, Vice President, Massachusetts Development Technology Corporation
