Advisory Board

Stewart Townsend

Advisor

Stewart has spent ten years in Pre-sales, Partner Relations, Marketing and Business Development in the IT industry. Having been at Oracle working on social media strategy for Enterprise 2.0 he has an understanding of the corporate account base, whilst for the previous nine years at Sun Microsystems, Stewart has worked with independent software vendors, channel partners and small businesses/startups. His most recent appointment as EMEA Manager for the Emerging Business Team at Sun Microsystems focused on developing and executing a EMEA strategy to support start-ups and early stage companies, working with the investor community, startup community, entrepreneurship groups, government and Academia.

The Sun Startup Essentials programme for EMEA was managed by Stewart from 2007/2010.

Stewart has negotiated alliances with key partners such as Bebo, MySpace and NTT Europe to help enable expansion and support of the programme on a global scale, outside of his EMEA remit.
He is a regular speaker and ambassador at key industry events in Europe on the subject of entrepreneurship, innovation, growing sales in/out of region and using social media as a sales enabler.

A keen advocate of supporting organisations, Stewart is a advisor/mentor to the difference engine, and gives time and advisory support to NACUE (National Consortium of University Entrepreneurs)
Outside corporate land, Stewart is a social entrepreneur and runs with The Alternative School an education provider focused on delivering education in a more holistic manner, is a mentor to The Next Women organisation, and on advisory boards for Media140 and WhiteBull.

Stewart received his MA Social Media from Salford University, and delivers lessons to young people on safeguarding, cyberbullying and social media.

Dr. Shameen Prashantham

Advisor

Dr Shameen Prashantham is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow Business School in Scotland. He is engaged in research on the internationalization of smaller, young knowledge-intensive firms within the Centre for Internationalization and Enterprise Research (CIER). He has a specific interest in how these firms interface with large multinational corporations – which he refers to as “dancing with gorillas”. In addition, he has a research interest in episodic strategy-making.

 

His work has been published in British Journal of Management, California Management Review, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, European Management Journal, International Business Review and Journal of Management Studies, among other journals. He also has produced a book, The Internationalization of Small Firms: A Strategic Entrepreneurship Perspective (London: Routledge, 2008). In addition to his academic writing and talks, Dr Prashantham has addressed practitioner forums under the auspices of the UK Advanced Institute of Management Research, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) India, and The British Council, among others.

 

Dr Prashantham earned a PhD from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland; his doctoral research won the Most Original Research Prize at the Academy of International Business (UK) and was a finalist for the Barry Richman Award at the Academy of Management (USA). He also holds an MSc with Distinction from Strathclyde and a BA with Distinction in Economics from Loyola College; in both instances he graduated at the top of his class. 

 

In the Fall Dr Prashantham will join the Nottingham University Business School China in Ningbo, China as Associate Professor in International Business and Strategy. 

Ray Skoglund 1st Corporate Technologies

Advisor / Speaker

Ray heads up the corporate finance efforts of 1st Corporate Technologies (“1CT”), a European and US based merchant banking, corporate finance advisory and investment firm focused on high-growth technology companies. Prior to joining 1CT, Ray was one of the original members of a US based international investment banking firm and was instrumental in growing this firm from its early entrepreneurial beginnings to an international reach. Ray draws on an extensive background in both investment banking and corporate law, and has a broad range of experience in the technology sector particularly in the software space. Areas of particular focus include enterprise software, including through a hosted or on-premise delivery model and involving SaaS based revenue models. Representative transactions in which Ray played a key role include the divestiture by Oracle of its On Target division to the TAS Group and the sales of Propero and Thinstall to VMWare, Adjoin to Computer Associates, Salesnet to RightNow Technologies, iPhrase to IBM, MarketSoft to Unica and Acumem AB to Rogue Wave Software, and the private placement funding of LogMeIn. Ray has a significant international investment banking experience with a focus on Europe and Scandinavia (in particular). Ray currently serves on the Investor Advisory and Organizing Committees of the annual Boston Cleantech Venture Day, the Board of Directors of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce of New England and as an Advisor to the White Bull Summits. Ray also speaks regularly at conferences and other events about cross-border M&A and fundraising.

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Mark Veverka Barrons

Advisor

Mark Veverka is West Coast Editor and a columnist at Barron's, where he writes the weekly "Plugged In" column on technology. He joined the Dow Jones financial magazine in June 1999. He occasionally appears on CNBC and is based in San Francisco.

Before joining Barron's, Mark was a financial markets columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Prior to joining the Chronicle, he was a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier in his career, Veverka served as an associate editor at Crain's Chicago Business and was a business reporter for the Orange Country Register in Southern California. He also was a regular contributor to WBEZ-FM and WMAQ-TV while in Chicago.

Mark holds a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a masters degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. In 1992, he was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow, reporting from Europe on German unification and international economics.

Falk Müller-Veerse Cartagena Capital

Advisor / Speaker

Falk is the founder and Managing Partner of Cartagena Capital. He is an experienced M&A and fundraising professional with over 15 years experience in the technology industry. He is the former leader of Durlacher’s mobile industry research and investment practice (Bonn/London) and Managing Director of its German office. At Durlacher, which is today merged into Panmure Gordon, a division of Lazard, Falk was involved in making several wireless related investments and M&A transactions.

He is one of the industry’s foremost experts on mobile internet and is very well connected throughout the European wireless and venture capital industries at executive level. Falk has earlier been a board member of a leading mobile internet company, Wapit Ltd. of Finland, and a co-founder and board member of UK-based Wanova, a mobile games technology provider. He has also been an advisory board member of Frontiers Capital, the wireless-focussed VC backed by Carphone Warehouse. He is a frequent speaker and chairman of conferences globally regarding the mobile industry.

Falk has earlier held various positions in management, consulting, marketing, business development and research for companies including Nokia, GartnerGroup and Logica Consulting. Over the years, he has advised, amongst others, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Belgacom, BT, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, MobilCom, Nokia, Ericsson and a large number of smaller players. He has also been an Area Sales Manager for mobile M2M-solutions in Europe, including Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and UK.

Falk has received a bachelor’s degree in technology management (mechanical engineering) from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and an MBA from CSUSB in the US. He has also studied International Business Management at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. He is fluent in German, English and Spanish.

Manish Madhvani GP Bullhound

Advisor / Speaker

Manish Madhvani co-founded GP Bullhound after a career with Barclays Capital’s Technology & Media Private Equity Team, where he was based both in Asia and Europe. At the age of 28 Mr. Madhvani was elected “Young Business Person of the Year 2003” at the KPMG/The Evening Standard Awards.

GP Bullhound has quickly become Europe’s leading Investment Bank in Technology and Digital Media. Mr. Madhvani has an outstanding track record in successfully completing M&A and capital raising transactions involving high profile technology and digital media companies: BSkyB, Sony, The Telegraph, Hearst Corporation, Handbag, Concentrix, Flirtomatic, Greetz, eCommera, Aura Sports, Fjord and many others. His firm has successfully completed over 90 transactions in recent years.

Manish is specialized in Digital Media and E-commerce and also possesses extensive knowledge of all the various business models for online advertising. He is a frequently requested commentator at the BBC, CNN and Digital Hollywood as well as a solicited speaker at industry events. Furthermore Mr. Madhvani is the Chairman of Investor Allstars (www.investorallstars.co.uk), the “Oscars” for Europe’s venture capital community, and Media Momentum (www.mediamomentum.co.uk), Europe’s leading community for its fastest growing digital media companies. He is a Board Member of GP Bullhound and Paris based Private Outlet, a private members club, selling luxury fashion brands online in 5 countries.

Manish holds a LLB in Law and MA in Marketing from Southampton University.

François Mazoudier LD&A

Advisor / Speaker

Francois Mazoudier is the UK Partner for LD&A (http://www.ldaglobal.com), a pan-European investment bank focused on high growth TMT, CleanTech and Renewable Energy.

LD&A was ranked the No1 M&A firm for small cap (under €100m transactions) in France in 2009 by Capital Finance magazine. The firm was established in 2004, employs 16 staff members and a network of venture partners. It has offices in Paris, London and Brussels, and is operational across Europe, Scandinavia and the West Coast of the US via a partner.

In 2009 LD&A successfully closed 12 transactions (3 acquisitions, 5 divestitures including 2 leverage buy-outs and 4 private equity placements), serving clients from France, the UK, the Nordics, Benelux and Germany and sold companies to Swiss, Scandinavian, French, American and one Japanese firm.  Its sector expertise spans the Mobility, Software, Internet (ecommerce) and Internet Media sectors.

Prior to joining LD&A, Francois spent 20 years in Executive management roles, building several high growth TMT companies to several successful exits. Companies include Central Point Software (sold to Symantec NASDAQ: SYMC), PictureTel, Inc (acquired by Polycom, NASDAQ: PLCM), Firefox, The Cloud Networks (WiFi) and RealNetworks (from startup to IPO, NASDAQ: RNWK).

Francois was also the co-founder of Speed Ventures AB, the early stage VC firm backed by Soros Partners and Permira.

Francois graduated in Marketing from the University of Paris, France. He lives in London with his wife and child.

Bernard Gander Logitech

Advisor / Speaker / Sponsor

Bernard joined Logitech in 1992, and has been in charge of Corporate Business Development at the company since 1997. Among his activities, Bernard is involved in the pursuit of new business opportunities, including M&A, Corporate Venturing and Technology Licensing. Bernard also serves as board member and/or advisor for numerous high-tech startups across Europe. Bernard holds a BA in Engineering and an MBA in Finance and International Management from the University of San Francisco Business School.

“I am convinced that White Bull is the ideal forum to bring together large companies, rising talent, and new opportunities. Here we'll exchange ideas and engage in lively discussion.” - Bernard Gander

Yann Mauchamp Mutual Benefits

Advisor

Yann Mauchamp is the founding CEO of Mutual Benefits, business advisory network focused on business development of internet companies and leadership.

Current or recent clients include amiando, blacksocks, dilelui, DxO, FON, iTaste, Kampyle, Pay.on, ProjectPlace, SecondMarket, tweegg, Wengo, Wasabi and XING.
Mutual Benefits developed a business practice dedicated to private investors and VCs offering them deal sourcing, portfolio management, due-dilligence and exit strategies.

Mutual Benefits developed strategic partnerships with a few selected events in Europe, including Berlin-based ecosummit.net, the smart green economy network, NEXT11 (nextconf.eu) a major digital economy event in Europe (Berlin) and Whitebull, the exit strategy summit (Barcelona). Yann Mauchamp was the Executive Director of the web & communities TechTour organized in Montreux late 2007 and is a frequent speaker and moderator about innovation and leadership.

Prior to that, Yann advised or managed operations of companies such as NEU.de (sold to Meetic in 2008), Club-Internet (ISP sold to T-Online in 2000), Studio Grolier (web agency) and NewsAlert/Inlumen (CMS sold to Dow Jones in 2004). He lived and worked in New York, London, Beijing, Taipei and Singapore, now based in Paris. Yann holds a Master of International Affairs Management  (CESCI, Paris, France), a Master of Multimedia (Paris 8) and practices Yoga.

Nagraj Kashyap Qualcomm Ventures

Advisor / Speaker

Nagraj is currently Vice President of Qualcomm Ventures (QCV) and heads up worldwide activities for the team. Nagraj also leads all business development activities for new projects in Qualcomm’s R&D group and manages the QIN (Qualcomm Innovation Network) program which is designed to solicit new ideas from Qualcomm’s employee base. Mr. Kashyap has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Prior to his current role, Nagraj worked in various engineering and management capacities at Nortel, 3COM, Motorola, PRTM and Qualcomm.
QCV was formed in 2000, with a $500-million fund commitment to make strategic investments in early-stage high-technology ventures. Since joining Qualcomm Ventures in 2003, Nagraj has expanded QCV presence and programs in China, India, Europe, Israel and Korea and has more than doubled the team size. Currently, Nagraj actively manages and serves as a board member or observer for QCV investments in Zeebo, Obopay, locationlabs, Sotera Wireless and Avaak. Kashyap also led QCV investments in Airvana (IPO), Bitfone (acquired by HP in 2007) and Novarra (acquired by Nokia in 2010).
Nagraj holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Mysore, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Texas and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.