Bruce Blomstrom is President of the Pasadena Bioscience Collaborative, an incubator for early stage life science companies. He has been involved in executive management at major healthcare organizations for 30 years. Early in his career, Mr. Blomstrom held numerous management positions with Abbott Laboratories including General Manager of subsidiaries in Japan, South Africa and Southeast Asia as well as Director of Corporate Planning. Subsequent positions included President and CEO of Divisions of Fresenius Medical Care, UniHealth, and Sunrise Medical. Mr. Blomstrom also served as Vice President of Corporate Planning for Whittaker Corp. and Senior Vice President of Alpha Therapeutics. He serves on the boards or as an advisor to the Pasadena Angels, Infinite Biomedical Technologies, Ikona Medical Corp., the Southern California Biomedical Council, Pacific Asia Museum, and the Pasadena Symphony. He is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy and the Economic Round Table. He is also active in several MIT organizations including the Alumni Board. Mr. Blomstrom has B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Paul Kessler is Co-Chair of Start Engine and is Principal and Founder of Bristol Capital Advisors, LLC. Mr. Kessler has extensive experience in all aspects of financing emerging growth public/private technology and bio technology companies. Mr. Kessler is recognized as a prolific investor, financier, venture capitalist and operator having completed over 500+ investments. Companies that he has directed investments in, founded, or provided early seed capital to include Allis Chalmers, Contango, Cheniere Energy, Derycz Scientific, The Los Angeles Film School, Genesis Biopharma, Miller Energy, Gamzee, and Filter Foundry.

Mark Lieberman is Manager, Regional Economic Development for the Community Development Commission of Los Angeles County. Dr. Lieberman responsibilities include the Business and Technology Incubator programs, loan programs and enterprise zones. This includes the world class Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County (BTC). Dr. Lieberman is a founder and co-chair of Los Angeles County Technology Week, a series of events held in October of each year that promote technology in Los Angeles County.

Prior to joining the BTC, Dr. Lieberman was employed by a strategy and organization change consulting company, an international investment bank and as an international banker.

Dr. Lieberman was an assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship at USC and is currently teaching entrepreneurship to mechanical engineering students at Cal State L.A.. He holds a Doctor of Organization Change from Pepperdine University and an MBA from the Presidential/Key Executive Program at Pepperdine University. He has published “Commercializing Medical Technology” in the journal, Cytotechnology and has a chapter in a recently published book, “The Development Of University Based Entrepreneurship Ecosystems.” Dr. Lieberman has consulted to a number of governments in entrepreneurship, incubation, entrepreneurship, angel and venture capital.

He is a member of the Pasadena Angels and the Tech Coast Angels. He is a group leader of the Pasadena II cohort in the large networking group, ProVisors. Dr. Lieberman is also a member of the Advisory Committee for the Center for Technology Commercialization at the University of Southern California, the Advisory Board for the School of Business of Woodbury University, and served on the Presidential Rank Review Committee for 2010.

Alex is a member of the New Venture Group at Idealab, headed by Allen Morgan. Alex previously helped lead the Proto Group at Idealab, working to determine the feasibility of new business ideas. Prior to Idealab, Alex led sales and marketing efforts for venture-backed startups focused on enterprise software and services. He holds a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a JD from Southwestern University, and has an unusually strong affinity for cheeseburgers.

Alex serves on the Board of Directors for Logsdon School, a non-profit school providing educational services to students with special needs.

Jeffrey Milanette is the Executive Director of PortTechLA (www.PortTechLA.org) a clean / green technology commercialization center and incubator sponsored by the Port of Los Angeles, the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, and the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. PortTechLA serves the technology needs of the Port’s customers and related businesses seeking to create employment and improve the quality of the environment in the San Pedro Bay region of Los Angeles.

Jeff has been involved in the incubation industry since 1986 when he formed Innovative Partners, Inc. (IPI). He founded the San Diego Incubator Corporation, the first incubation program in San Diego and served as Chairman of the Board (1986-89). In 1989, IPI was engaged by Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) to establish the Rutgers Business Innovation Center, a technology incubator program affiliated with the University which he directed for six years.

As President of IPI, Jeff has conducted numerous feasibility studies and evaluations of incubation programs in the US and overseas for public and private sector clients, including both the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. In addition to successfully commercializing technology himself as President of SpeakEZ, Inc., Jeff has been a founder or director of several technology start-ups, including Aereon, Inc., La Jolla Design Corp., and The Venture Information Network for Entrepreneurs. He served as President of the New Jersey Entrepreneurs Forum from 1995 to 2009, and was a co-founder of the annual Russian Venture Fair (now in its 11th year). Jeff is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and holds an MBA in finance from the George Washington University.

Erik Hovanec joined LeisureLink as President and CEO in March 2006 and brings an extensive background and proven track record in online advertising and ecommerce, financial services and the management of young, high-growth businesses. Erik has served as General Manager for the Green Dot Financial Network, a major player in the multi-billion dollar prepaid financial services industry, and spent five and a half years with Overture, a leader in online search advertising (acquired by Yahoo! in late 2003). At Overture, Erik served in several key management roles, overseeing both product management and corporate development. Erik began his career in management consulting working as a Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and an Associate Consultant for Marakon Associates. Erik earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Princeton University.

Julie Schoenfeld is a serial entrepreneur and a founding member and CEO of three successful venture-backed start-ups. Schoenfeld has raised over $100M in capital for her companies and had an exit of more than $300M for Net Effect, Inc.

Julie is currently the CEO of Perfect Market, Inc., a company whose mission is to help traditional publishers compete in the digital world. Perfect Market is a recognized leader in distributing and monetizing content. Her company has pioneered techniques using Social Media to drive traffic, generate interest and messaging which have helped customers improve performance over 200%. Her customer list includes the LA Times, The New York Times, CNN, The Orlando Sentinel, Boston.com to name just a few. She has raised more than $28M for Perfect Market from tier one venture capitalists as well as strategic partners, Comcast and the Tribune companies.

Schoenfeld is a veteran entrepreneur with a passion for identifying talent and assembling effective teams. Prior to Idealab spin-out Perfect Market, Julie was a founding member and CEO of two other successful venture-backed startups. Julie was president-CEO of OEwaves Inc. from its creation in 2000 to February 2007 and she remains active on OEwaves’ board of directors.

Previously, Julie was president-CEO of Net Effect Systems Inc. In her 18-month tenure at Net Effect, she raised two rounds of financing from Greylock Management, Trinity Ventures and TL Ventures, built a world-class management team, launched the company and product and sold the company to Ask Jeeves Inc. for more than $288 million. Before Net Effect, she was VP of worldwide sales for Stream International, where she grew sales from $30 million to more than $200 million in three years.

A recognized industry spokesperson, she serves on the board of the Young Presidents Organization of Los Angeles (YPOLA). She also is the president of the Rose Bowl Aquatic Booster Club which provides support to over 400 swimmers including Olympic Athletes in the Southern California area.

Julie holds a B.S. in engineering from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

For the past eight years, Stan has been a partner of ACODA Technology & Investments, LLC, a firm specializing in strategic assistance, business consulting, investments and mergers and acquisitions, for technology and services companies.

Stan’s experience in the technology and software industries spans over 25 years. Prior to ACODA, Stan held executive and management positions with Candle Corp., MVS Software, Inc., Goal Systems International, Inc., Arkhon Technologies, Inc. and Sentryl Software, Inc. He co-founded MVS Software, Inc. and helped make the company the leader in automated operation products. After its acquisition by CA, he was founder and CEO of Arkhon Technologies, Inc. which developed cutting edge software products for the automated network and systems management market. He was later recruited by the venture firm Wies, Peck and Greer to join Sentryl Software as Executive Vice-President, where he was instrumental in bringing the company’s products to profitability and in its acquisition by Fujitsu Corp.

Stan is a Pasadena Angel and serves as a member of the board of directors and advisors for several technology and software companies, is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, and is an active member in the Technology Council of Southern California, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Entretech.

For the past eight years, Stan has been a partner of ACODA Technology & Investments, LLC, a firm specializing in strategic assistance, business consulting, investments and mergers and acquisitions, for technology and services companies.

Stan’s experience in the technology and software industries spans over 25 years. Prior to ACODA, Stan held executive and management positions with Candle Corp., MVS Software, Inc., Goal Systems International, Inc., Arkhon Technologies, Inc. and Sentryl Software, Inc. He co-founded MVS Software, Inc. and helped make the company the leader in automated operation products. After its acquisition by CA, he was founder and CEO of Arkhon Technologies, Inc. which developed cutting edge software products for the automated network and systems management market. He was later recruited by the venture firm Wies, Peck and Greer to join Sentryl Software as Executive Vice-President, where he was instrumental in bringing the company’s products to profitability and in its acquisition by Fujitsu Corp.

Stan is a Pasadena Angel and serves as a member of the board of directors and advisors for several technology and software companies, is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, and is an active member in the Technology Council of Southern California, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and Entretech.

Michael Krieger has practiced high technology business and intellectual property law for more than 20 years. A member of the Los Angeles firm Willenken Wilson Loh & Lieb, his practice focuses on strategic counseling, litigation and preventive methods to both secure and exploit clients' trademarks, patents and other key IP assets. Assisting clients ranging from start-ups to industry leaders in contract, trademark and dispute resolution matters, he also has provided counsel in the university tech transfer arena as well as to the United Nations and other international technology initiatives.

With degrees in mathematics (B.S., Caltech; Ph.D., UCLA) and law (UCLA), Michael was on the MIT Mathematics and UCLA Computer Science faculties and also a Fulbright Scholar prior to practicing law. This technical background led to early contributions to issues of encryption, domain name/trademark disputes, and open source licensing. Likewise his technical, law and academic experience frequently leads to serving as an expert in computer system and related litigation to investigate and "teach" lawyers and courts about the underlying technology.