Home > 125 Events > The 2007 Wharton Economic Summit
The 2007 Wharton Economic Summit ::
Panels
| Wharton SBDC: Excellence in Action |
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Sponsor: Wharton Small Business Development Center, a program of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs
Moderator: Eric Bradlow, The K.P. Chao Professor; Professor of Marketing, Statistics, and Education; Academic Director, Wharton Small Business Development Center Panelists: Doug Alexander, Richard I. Goldstein, Samuel Schwartz |
| Thursday, April 12 - 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m :: Full Summit Schedule |
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At this panel, three high-growth potential clients of the SBDC — Due and Sprout, Dropps, and Smart Genetics, supported by their student consultants, Jennifer Q. Chen, W'08, Susana Medina, WG'08, Samuel Reeves, WG'05, and Tiffany Yeh, W'08 — will present to a panel of investors. The venture capitalists will then offer their professional advice to the entrepreneurial ventures, and the moderator will seek feedback from the audience. For 25 years, Wharton MBA and undergraduate students have helped accelerate business growth in the Philadelphia region. The SBDC, a component of Wharton Entrepreneurial Programs and the Sol C. Snider Entrepreneurial Research Center, applies theory to practice, helping entrepreneurs create, build and grow their ideas and ventures into veritable successes. |
| Panelists |
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:: Doug Alexander , W'83, BSE'83
Managing Director, OperationsInternet Capital Group Doug Alexander is managing director, Operations, Internet Capital Group. An original member of ICG's advisory board, he joined the company full-time in September 1997 as managing director. Mr. Alexander has had many roles at ICG including CEO of WiseWire Technologies, which was successfully sold to Lycos; chairman of Verticalnet through its IPO; CEO of ICG Europe; and CEO of Mobility Technologies. At ICG, he has focused primarily on sponsoring and overseeing investments in several partner companies that have included Blackboard (Nasdaq: BBBB), Verticalnet (Nasdaq:VERT), eMerge Interactive (Nasdaq: EMRG), Arbinet-thexchange (Nasdaq: ARBX), WiseWire (acquired by Lycos), LinkShare (acquired by Rakuten), CreditTrade, StarCite, Mobility Technologies, and Investor Force. Mr. Alexander currently serves on the boards of LinkShare, Investor Force, CreditTrade, StarCite, ICG Commerce and WhiteFence. Prior to joining ICG, he co-founded Reality Online in 1989. Reality Online was an early innovator in the development of award-winning financial planning tools and online services aimed at the individual investor. With the advent of the Internet, he transformed the company into a leading provider of Internet solutions to the retail brokerage industry, and then sold the company to Reuters in February 1994. Over the following three years, he became a key contributor to Reuters' many Internet initiatives and a frequent speaker on the Internet and its impact on the financial services industry. Prior to co-founding Reality Online, Mr. Alexander was a partner with Strategic Management Group, a corporate training firm and three-time Inc. 500 company. Mr. Alexander earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. |
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:: Richard I. Goldstein
Managing DirectorLiberty Associated Partners, LP Richard I. Goldstein is the executive vice president and a director of Current Communications Group, LLC ("Current"), a broadband over power line ("BPL") communications company providing next-generation "last mile" networks focused on supplying BPL services and developing BPL equipment through its subsidiaries. In addition to his role at Current, he is a managing director of Liberty Associated Partners, LP ("LAP"), an investment fund that makes private and public market investments in telecommunications, media, Internet, and related technology companies. Prior to LAP, Mr. Goldstein was vice president of The Associated Group, Inc. ("AGI"), a multi-billion dollar publicly traded owner and operator of communications-related business and assets. While at AGI, he assisted in establishing Teligent, Inc., of which he was a director, and was responsible for operating AGI's cellular telephone operations. Mr. Goldstein has counseled many early stage companies and is a member of the Board of Directors of Intellon Corporation. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and has received training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Management Information Systems. He and his wife, Vicki, have three children and reside in Villanova, Pennsylvania. |
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:: Samuel Schwartz , BSE'85, WG'90
President and Founding Managing PartnerComcast Interactive Capital (CIC) Samuel Schwartz is president and a founding managing partner of Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC), a $350 million venture capital fund affiliated with Comcast Corporation, a diversified global leader in cable television, broadband services, telecommunications, and programming. CIC's goals are to generate financial returns from venture investments in private technology companies and to seek strategic benefits for Comcast through those partnerships. Mr. Schwartz leads CIC and also focuses on broadband and interactive technologies. He is also executive vice president of Strategy & Development at Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a new division dedicated to developing and growing Comcast's emerging Internet businesses, including the comcast.net site. He also advises and participates at Comcast on strategic issues related to new products, technology and important trends. Prior to joining Comcast in March 1999, Mr. Schwartz spent time as an investor in communications and software companies. Prior to his work in venture capital, he was a manager at The Boston Consulting Group and a consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Mr. Schwartz began his career as a software engineer. He holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating as a Palmer Scholar, and received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering & Applied Science. |
