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Silicon Prairie Partners’ highly acclaimed Special Advisors provide expertise in focus areas that include business productivity (enhancing the efficiency and productivity of companies and their employees through technology, training and education), energy and the environment.
Robert R. Ackerman, Jr.
* Managing Director & Co-Founder, Allegis Capital
* Venture Partner, AVI Capital
* The Ackerman Group — M&A, Corporate Partnering
* 15 Years Operating Executive experience
* 11 Years Venture Capital Experience
Prior to co-founding Allegis Capital with Mr. Weinman in 1995, Robert R. Ackerman, Jr. was the Chief Executive Officer of The Ackerman Group, a merger and acquisitions/corporate partnering firm serving the venture capital industry and multinational technology companies. The Ackerman Group focused on the development and implementation of business strategies. These strategies aimed at the domination of nascent markets through the application of emerging technologies. The firm placed a particular emphasis on new technology markets and initiated direct investments, acquisitions and strategic partnerships between major corporations and entrepreneurial companies. Mr. Ackerman worked extensively with Mr. Weinman in the fifteen years prior to Allegis Capital and is a Venture Partner of AVI. Prior to founding The Ackerman Group, Mr. Ackerman served as the President and CEO of UniSoft Corporation, a multinational UNIX system software company. He was also the founder and chairman of InfoGear Technology Corporation, a portfolio company of funds managed by AVI and Allegis and which was sold to Cisco for approximately $350M. Mr. Ackerman currently represents Allegis Capital on the Boards of IronPort Systems, LGC Wireless, StepUp Commerce, and AvaStream (a MTV-5 seed investment). He is a graduate of the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.
Tony Audino
Tony Audino serves as Managing Director for Conenza. Audino has over 25 years of executive and entrepreneurial experience in business software and services. He spent seven years at Microsoft Corporation and since leaving has founded five companies including the Microsoft Alumni Network in 1995, where he currently serves as Chairman. Audino also co-founded and served as Managing Director of Voyager Capital, a Pacific Northwest based venture capital firm with $365 million under management, where he sourced and sat on the boards of many companies including Captura Software, acquired by Concur Technologies (NASDAQ:CNQR), and Global Market Insite. In addition to Conenza, he currently sits on the board of Threshold Group. Audino's community involvement includes serving the board of Microsoft Alumni Network Giving Foundation and on the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees for the Fulcrum Foundation, created to ensure that Catholic schools remain excellent and accessible to all.
Jeffrey Balentin
Managing Partner, Insighte
Jeff is the senior executive responsible for all operations of Insighte. His area of expertise is CIO services including coaching and mentoring. Additionally, Jeff provides business strategy and business operation consulting to all size companies industry independent.
Partner, Arthur Andersen & Co. and Deloitte & Touche LLP
Most recently, Jeff was responsible globally for all consulting in the industries of Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT). His prior roles were US Leader of TMT, Region Leader of eBusiness services and Regional Leader of the Technology Consulting services. He has extensive experience in account, program, and project management. In addition, he has considerable experience in Strategic Information Systems Planning, System Development, Venture Investing and the CIO role for clients. Being trained and active in software development served his focus and work in the High-Tech Industry well over the last seventeen years.
Joseph Barletta
Mr. Barletta is a consultant and private attorney with offices in San Francisco and Napa Valley. He has been Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer of six different media companies such as TV Guide magazine and the San Francisco newspapers. He was a New York partner in the law firm of Seyfarth Shaw and was Of Counsel in their San Francisco office and also was an advisory counsel to the Office of Independent Counsel in Washington, D.C. He has served on the Public Utilities Commission of San Francisco and is a current or former board member of more than 20 commercial and not-for-profit corporations.
Karen Blasing
Karen Blasing has more than 20 years of experience creating and implementing corporate strategy, finance, accounting, and compliance and information systems. Prior to joining Force10, Blasing was senior vice president of finance at Salesforce.com, where she was responsible for worldwide accounting, finance, tax and treasury functions as well as real estate, facilities and procurement. As chief financial officer at Nuance Communications, she was instrumental in negotiating the 2005 merger with ScanSoft. Blasing also served as chief financial officer for Counterpane Internet Security and has held senior finance positions with Informix, Oracle and Syntex Corporation. She holds a B.A. from the University of Montana and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington. She is a member of the Financial Executives Institute and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.
John Bowmer John Bowmer is the former chairman of Adecco SA, the international staffing and recruitment company where he was chief executive officer from 1996 to 2002 and chief executive officer of its predecessor, Adia, from 1992. Prior to this time he served in a variety of executive positions at Adia in the UK, Asia, Australia and the US from 1989. Between 1987 and 1989 he was chief executive officer of Jonathan Wren. Previously, Mr. Bowmer held a range of management positions in marketing and finance at companies including MAI plc, a financial services and media organization and Polaroid (UK) Ltd. He was a director of CP Ships from its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001 until its disposal to TUI AG at the end of 2005.
Trevor Bowen
Trevor Bowen is a Partner in Principle Management and holds a number of other non-executive positions including Chairman of the international consultancy group DCI. He is also a director of Ardmore Studios Ltd, The Point Exhibition Company Ltd and Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd. Mr. Brown is a chartered accountant.
Patrick J. Connolly
Mr. Connolly is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for San Francisco's Williams-Sonoma, Inc., and oversees the marketing efforts across all five brands and three distribution channels. He joined Wiliams-Sonoma in 1979 as Vice President of Mail Order, and since that time catalog revenues have grown from $2 million to $400 million. He directed the company's e-commerce division, which launched the online wedding registry and the Williams-Sonoma website in 1999, and the Pottery Barn website in 2000. Mr. Connolly oversees the company's publishing efforts including development of a series of signature cookbooks that have sold over 12 million copies.
Jim Ellison
As Chief Banking Officer, Jim is responsible for managing Square 1 Investments and Treasury Management. Prior to joining Square 1, he was a Founder and General Partner of Escalate Capital Partners, a private structured finance firm focused on providing senior and subordinated debt to expansion and late-stage companies in information technology and life science industry segments. Before founding Escalate, Jim worked for Comerica Bank and its predecessor Imperial Bank. At Imperial, he was charged with establishing their Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Seattle. After the Comerica acquisition in January 2001, Jim assumed the position of Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Comerica’s Technology and Life Sciences Division where he co-chaired the Division’s credit committee and maintained P&L responsibilities for the Pacific Northwest Region. He also managed Comerica’s Venture Capital Group, oversaw the Bank’s Fund-to-Fund private equity portfolio, and managed marketing and public relations for the Division. Prior to joining Imperial Bank, Jim spent five years with Silicon Valley Bank where he served as a founder and Senior Vice President of Silicon Valley Bank’s National Accounts Division, and established the Bank’s office in Seattle. Jim holds a B.S. in Finance from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is a competitive cyclist and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with his wife and three children.
Robert Fox
Mr. Fox’s professional experience spans over 40 years domestically and internationally in both public and private companies.He is the recently-retired president and CEO of Foster Farms, was CEO and president at Revlon International, chairman of Clarke Hooper America, president of Continental Can, vice chairman of Nabisco, chairman and CEO of Del Monte, president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco International and president of Canada Dry International.He holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a BA with high honors from Colgate. Mr. Fox is a director of Crompton Corporation, a NYSE Chemical Company, American Balanced Fund, Fundamental Investors, New World Fund, New Perspectives Fund, Growth Fund of America, Income Fund of America and a trustee of Europacific Growth Fund (mutual funds managed by Capital Research of Los Angeles) and is Executive-in-Residence at UC Davis Graduate School of Management. He is currently a nationally ranked masters swimmer.
Carl Lee
Mr. Lee is currently CEO of Lee Consulting, Inc., founded in 2000 to provide high value consulting services to Front Range companies. Previously, he was the Chief Financial Officer for Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.(symbol:BRCD). Mr. Lee was responsible for venture capital financing, the IPO, accounting and finance, human resources and information technology. Prior to Brocade he was a Senior Management Consulting Partner at Ernst &Young, LLP in San Jose, California, where he built a consulting practice serving the business and information technology needs of emerging and midsize companies. He was the national Director of this practice for five years. Carl also spent ten years with Arthur Anderson LLP in their accounting and auditing practice in Denver and Salt Lake City.
Peter Robinson
Mr. Robinson is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institute where he is editor of the quarterly magazine, the Hoover Digest, and host of the PBS television program "Uncommon Knowledge," which is syndicated to over 90 PBS stations nationwide.Peter graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, then earned an MA from Oxford University. At the age of 25, he became Chief Speechwriter on the White House staff of Vice President Bush. He later became a speechwriter to President Reagan for nearly five years, rising to become a Special Assistant to the President.Included among the more than 200 speeches written by Mr.Robinson for President Reagan is the famous Berlin Wall Address. Mr. Robinson has served at Fox television as producer and assistant to Rupert Murdoch and at the Securities and Exchange Commission as the Director of the Office of Public Affairs and Policy Evaluation. After leaving the White House he attended Stanford Business School. Mr. Robinson’s book about business school, Snapshots from Hell: The Making of an MBA, became a business best seller.
James B. Rutter
Mr. Rutter is a Managing Director with KBRO’s West Coast Investment Banking group in downtown San Francisco where he focuses on private placements, buy- and sell-side mergers and acquisitions, “take privates”, and initial and secondary public offerings for technology-related companies. Before joining Kaufman Bros., Mr. Rutter served as Executive Vice President and Co-Founder of Square 1 Bank, a de novo commercial bank formed in 2005 to serve venture capital-backed emerging growth technology companies. Prior to Square 1, he worked in venture capital and fund-of-funds investment management serving as President of Comerica Ventures and Comerica Capital Advisors and as President of Imperial Ventures and Imperial Creditcorp. Mr. Rutter also co-founded and served as Senior Vice President of the Special Markets Group/Emerging Growth Division at Imperial Bank in Silicon Valley, a venture-banking practice providing secured credit facilities, bridge loans, and acquisition financing to venture capital-backed technology companies. Mr. Rutter was also active in financing technology startups while working as an Assistant Vice President in the Technology Group at Silicon Valley Bank. Mr. Rutter received his A.B. in International Relations from Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA and an M.S.F.S. in Foreign Service (International Trade & Finance) from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
James Strock
Mr. Strock is a frequent commentator and speaker on leadership and personal development. He is a contributor (Winston Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Theodore Roosevelt) to the Encyclopedia of Leadership, edited by James MacGregor Burns, Georgia Sorenson and George R. Goethals (Berkshire Press/Sage Publishing, 2004). His book, Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership, is published by Prima Forum (Random House). His first book, Reagan on Leadership, was also published by Prima Forum. Both books are in wide use by businesses, educational institutions and the military.
Mr. Strock was educated at public and private schools in Austin, Texas, and New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Harvard College (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and from Harvard Law School. He worked in law school as a teaching fellow for Professor Richard Neustadt. He studied literature at New College, Oxford, on a Rotary Scholarship. Later he served to captain in the USAR-JAGC. His current volunteer work includes photography, speaking and voice performance for non-profit organizations. His love of nature and the outdoors has taken him to hikes as far away as Mt. Kiliminjaro.
James G. Shanahan
Dr. James G. Shanahan is Chief Scientist at Turn Inc., where his primary focus is on developing and exploiting advanced techniques from machine learning and information science to create the leading third-generation online advertising network. He has 17 years of experience developing and researching cutting-edge information management systems that harness information retrieval, linguistics, and machine learning. Previously, James was Principal Research Scientist at Clairvoyance Corporation where he led the Knowledge Discovery from Text Group. Prior to joining Clairvoyance, he was a Research Scientist at Xerox Research Center Europe (XRCE), where, as a member of the Co-ordination Technologies Group, he developed Document Souls, a patented document-centric approach to information access. In the early 90s he has worked in the AI Team within the Mitsubishi Group in Tokyo.
He has published five books in the area of machine learning and information processing including a book on knowledge discovery -" Soft Computing for Knowledge Discovery”, and two books on affect and opinion mining. In addition, he has authored over 50 research publications and is an inventor on numerous patents, five of which have been granted. He has given tutorials at international conferences such as the Search Engines Conference and CIKM Conference (ACM). He has been a member of the organizing and program committees in numerous international conferences (e-g, ACM SIGIR, ACM CIKM, HLT, FUZZIEEE) and workshops and is an active journal reviewer. He was co-organizer of the AAAI Spring Symposium, EAAT, on Affect and Opinion Modeling (Stanford, 2004). He was tutorial chair for CIKM2005 and co-organizer of a SIGIR 2005 workshop on "Style in Text".
He received his Ph. D. in Engineering Mathematics from the University of Bristol, U. K and holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Limerick Ireland He is a Marie Curie fellow and member of IEEE and ACM.
Steve L. Zelinger
Mr. Zelinger is General Counsel and a member of the senior management team of MediZone, a healthcare services and products enterprise featuring health and wellness programs and products. He is responsible for legal, structural and regulatory matters. He previously served as General Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Solidus Networks, Inc. d/b/a Pay By Touch and iPAY, biometric payment and payment processing companies, and the Pay By Touch Foundation. He also served as SVP and global director of litigation and regulatory affairs of Visa International and, prior to moving to the Bay area, was a partner in the Washington, DC office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a Senior Trial Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, and worked for a variety of law firms in the U.S. and abroad. He holds J.D. and Masters degrees with highest distinction from Georgetown, where he was Lead Articles Editor of Law & Policy in Int'l Business, and received his Bachelors degree magna cum laude from Harvard. He currently serves on the boards of a number of charitable and community organizations.
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