Finance 2.0: New Business Models in Financial Services

Dr. Kedrosky is a venture capitalist, media personality, and entrepreneur. He is a sought-after speaker; an analyst for CNBC television; a columnist for TheStreet/RealMoney; the editor of Infectious Greed, one of the best known business blogs on the Internet; and he is frequently quoted in major publications around the world.

Most recently he has been the Executive Director of the William J. von Liebig Center in San Diego, California. Using an innovative seed capital program, the Center catalyzes the commercialization of technologies from the internationally-ranked University of California, San Diego.

He is a venture partner with Ventures West, Canada’s largest institutional venture capital firm. In that capacity his interests include consumer technologies, media, semiconductors, and life sciences. He is currently on the board of Marqui Corporation, a marketing automation software firm, as well as Dabbledb, a hosted data management company.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Kedrosky founded the technology equity research practice at HSBC James Capel. As a highly-ranked technology equity analyst, transactions with which he was involved created in excess of a billion dollars in public market value. Dr. Kedrosky was one of the first analysts to cover Internet companies, as well as making early and timely calls in networking and communications.

Dr. Kedrosky has also been a successful entrepreneur. In 1999 he financed and launched one of the first hosted blogging services, GrokSoup. The service grew to more than a thousand subscribers. Relatedly, he wrote for Harvard Business Review what is widely regarded as the seminal article on dark matter and syndication technologies.

Dr. Kedrosky is a sought after media personality. He has hosted a television program, “Profiles on Innovation”, that is available on cable in the U.S., as well as on the web (at www.ucsd.tv). He has written influential columns for Business 2.0 magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Harvard Business Review, and others. He has also appeared on many media outlets, including CNN, PBS Newshour, ABC Nightline, and the New York Times, and he can be seen frequently on CNBC’s “On the Money”. He maintains one of the best known technology, venture capital, & finance blogs at http://paul.kedrosky.com.

Dr. Kedrosky currently divides his time between La Jolla, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

• Web site

Michiel de Boer, PhD, is director of product development at Zecco.com, the online trading and investment community. He has extensive experience with new business development and entrepreneurial processes at both established and start-up firms. During the first digital wave in the 1990s, he conducted his doctoral research at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam into the impact of multimedia on the publishing industry. During the turbulent times of digitalization impacting the photo imaging industry, he was managing director at the Technotape Group, a multi-national supplier to this industry. In between, he has acted as consultant with Gemini Consulting as well as independently to a wide variety of industries and companies dealing with strategic change.

• Web site

Aaron is both the visionary and technical mind behind Mint, the first free, automatic and secure way to manage and save money online. He designed Mint to meet his own needs and those of people like him who value the immediacy of the Web, simplicity and their free time. With 10 patents filed or pending, Aaron brings strong innovation skills to Mint. Prior to founding Mint, Aaron was an architect and technical lead for the San Jose division of Nascentric. Before Nascentric, Aaron worked for IBM and founded two web development and online marketing companies: PWeb and International. Aaron holds an MSEE from Princeton University and a BS in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical engineering from Duke University.

• Web site

David Friedberg currently serves as the CEO of WeatherBill, having founded the company in 2006. Prior to founding WeatherBill, David was with Google, where he joined as one of the founding members of the company’s Corprate Development team. David managed a number of strategic projects for Google, including identifying and leading several of Google’s largest acquisitions. David also served as a Business Product Manager for AdWords – Google’s primary revenue source. Prior to Google, David spent several years working in private equity and investment banking. He has invested in and advised dozens of companies in the technology industry. Earlier, David worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he led several projects as a mathematical programmer. David received his BA in Astrophysics from UC Berkeley.

• Web site

Chris Larsen is CEO and Co-Founder of Prosper, America’s largest people-to-people lending marketplace with over 670,000 members and $135 million in funded loans. Prosper is a continuation of Larsen’s commitment to leveraging the Internet to make consumer lending more efficient, transparent, and trustworthy. Prior to Prosper, Larsen co-founded and served as Chairman and CEO of E-LOAN. Under his leadership, E-LOAN became the first company to provide consumers with access to their credit scores, and played a critical role in the passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation. Mr. Larsen holds an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University and a B.S. degree from San Francisco State University, where he was named the 2004 Alumnus of the Year.

• Web site