Chuck DeVita
Chuck DeVita is Founder & President of Growth Process Group, a strategic consulting and out-sourced sales services firm that is focused on acquiring customers, improving sales productivity and accelerating revenue growth for technology clients. GPG works with executive teams to refine value propositions, focus & positioning and then develop & execute go-to-market plans. For established companies, GPG performs its Sales Assessment and then develops and executes plans to improve revenue growth and sales productivity. The firm’s partners are also available to take interim positions as executives at client companies during transitions.

Chuck has over thirty years experience in managing technology companies. He has developed worldwide sales forces and has extensive international experience. He led the growth of two startups and the turn around of a public company. Chuck is a frequent speaker at industry and venture forums and teaches at Stanford University. He holds a B.S. in Engineering from Santa Clara University and an MBA from Stanford. For additional information, go to www.growthprocess.com

Mr. Koch became a Principal at NGEN Partners, LLC in late 2004 after being a Venture Partner for the Fund. He is a serial entrepreneur, having worked for nascent companies throughout his entire career. Since graduating from Vanderbilt University in 1984 with a degree in chemical engineering, Koch has founded, managed and become an active angel investor and board member for numerous start-up companies. Mr. Koch founded Impact Interasia Inc., a marketing and sales firm distributing U.S.-made facilities capital equipment into the Asian market, using a highly profitable, virtual business model during the initial build-out of the semiconductor industry in Asia during the late 80’s and 90’s. Subsequently Koch co-founded Supercritical Systems Inc., a semiconductor process equipment company that developed a novel wafer cleaning technology using supercritical CO2. As CEO, Koch supervised strategic planning, fund-raising, management, and the ultimate sale of the company to Tokyo Electron. Mr. Koch holds board seats at Solaria and psiloQuest and is a board observer at SolFocus.

 

Mr. Pearce has over 30 years of broad-based business, sales, operations and financial management experience in both private and public high-technology companies. He has been at the CEO level for the past 18 years. Mr. Pearce is a serial entrepreneur, having founded four venture-backed companies, including: OptCom, which manufactured precision thin-film optical filters, and SciVac which designed and manufactured thin-film vacuum-deposition equipment. As president and CEO of Domain Technology (another venture-backed company), Mr. Pearce helped pioneer the manufacture of sputtered thin-film disks. This system was subsequently acquired by Seagate Technology and went on to revolutionize the cost, throughput, and precision-coating capability of the industry. Prior experience includes serving as CFO/COO of MiniScribe (an early pioneer in small format hard-disk drives), and in financial management roles at Datapoint and Xerox Corporation. Mr. Pearce holds an MBA from the University of Texas, Austin, and a BS in Industrial Management from Georgia Tech.

 

Barry Cinnamon is CEO of Akeena Solar. Akeena is a public company and the nation's leading solar power installer.  Mr. Cinnamon is a long-time advocate of solar power and is a widely ecognized Solar Power expert. He started his career in solar energy in the late 1970s as a researcher into new flat plate and concentrating collector designs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he designed and installed active solar, passive solar and ground coupled heat pump systems. His work in solar power computer modeling led him into the software industry, where he served as CEO of Software Publishing Corporation, and founded Allegro New Media, a multimedia software publisher, which he led to an IPO in 1995. Mr. Cinnamon earned a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and an MBA degree in Marketing from Wharton. He is a NABCEP Certified Solar Installer, a licensed California C-46 Solar Contractor, an active member of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and President of the California Solar Energy Industry Association.

 

Date and time:

Wiegand Room in the Arts and Sciences Building,Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA. For directions, map and parking instructions, please go to http://www.scu.edu/map/index.cfm?i=80

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