For more than 30 years Dave Vucina has had extensive business experience in sales, marketing, business development, operations, engineering, mergers and acquisitions, financial management, product development, international business and a variety of money-raising activities in the public and private markets. He has served in executive capacities with Harris-Lanier, a multi-billion dollar, publicly traded technology company, ProNet, a publicly traded communications company where he was the President and COO, and most recently as the CEO of Wayport Inc., a privately held venture-backed wireless company, recently acquired by AT&T. In 2002 he was named by Business Week Online as one of the 25 most influential executives in e-business, and in 2004 he was a finalist for Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Austin, Texas.
A digital technology visionary and proven business builder, Steve is known for creating and managing products and companies for high growth and market success. He has secured funding for and matured technology startups; steered mergers and acquisitions; conceived, launched and directed a multi-billion-dollar internet advertising platform, and driven companies to success by forging rewarding partnerships, acquiring top talent and building winning teams. Prior to SmartDrive, Steve was CEO of Veoh, the Internet television company now part of Qlipso, and before that he served as Senior Vice President of Yahoo!’s advertising products, platforms, and services. Steve holds a degree in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.
Jason Palmer brings over 16 years of experience in leadership bringing award-winning products to market for fast-growing technology companies such as WebTrends, 800.com, Qualcomm, Now Software, Clientele Software, and Tut Systems. Prior to joining SmartDrive, Jason was the Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at WebTrends, Inc, where he was responsible for defining the market-leading product development and go-to-market strategies for WebTrends award-winning Marketing Lab suite of digital marketing solutions and services. He was a founding member of 800.com’s management team that grew the company to $50M annual revenue within four years. He is a graduate of Oregon State University with degrees in Marketing and Economics.
Dr. Brenneke was appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in February 2018 after combining the responsibilities he has held since October 2015 as Vice President, Engineering, with those of CTO to lead WABCO’s technology innovation and advanced product development. Prior to holding this position, Dr. Brenneke was leading the Advanced Braking Systems business unit from September 2013, and took on the role of Vice President, Vehicle Dynamics and Controls, from April 2014. Prior to this, Dr. Brenneke held various management roles, including Global Project Management Leader and Team Leader for Software Development, since joining WABCO in 2008. Prior to joining WABCO, Dr. Brenneke spent several years in research, development and program management for driver assistance systems and autonomous driving at Volkswagen Group in Germany. Dr. Brenneke holds a graduate degree in electrical engineering specialising in mechatronics and a doctorate degree in engineering both from Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany. In addition, he earned an M.B.A. degree in general management from the University for Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany.
Bandel L. Carano, Managing Partner, Oak Investment Partners
Bandel L. Carano joined Oak Investment Partners in 1985 and became a General Partner in 1987. Bandel’s investment focus is on Information Technology and Clean Energy. Bandel is currently on the Boards of Airspan Networks, Centric Software, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, MobiTV, Mojix, NeoPhotonics, NextNav, nLight, SmartDrive, and Solarflare Communications. Bandel has also led investments in and/or served on the Boards of 2Wire, Avici, CoreTek, Endwave, Fiber Tower, Good Technology, Netopia, Phononic Devices, Picture Tel, Polycom, Presidio, Protean Electric, Qtera, Sentient Networks, Tegic, Trapeze Networks, Wellfleet, Entropic, Illustra/Informix, Sybase, Tele Atlas, Actel, Airgo Networks, CommQuest, Kenet, Level 5, NanoH2O, NemeriX, Newport Media, Resonext, SMIC, Synaptics, Virata, Interconnectix, Parametric, Synopsys, Tensilica, Wavestream, and Zayo. Prior to Oak, Bandel joined Morgan Stanley’s Venture Capital Group in 1983. He was responsible for advising Morgan Stanley on high-tech new business development, as well as sponsoring venture investments. Bandel received BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He currently serves on the Investment Advisory Board of the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund.
Dick has more than 35 years of venture capital investment experience. Dick focuses on a broad range of technically oriented companies. He was fortunate to have been the first person to have invested in the Ethernet with Bob Metcalfe, an early investor in balloon angioplasty with John Simpson and also backed the company that originated PowerPoint presentations. Present board memberships include Financial Engines, Force10 Networks, Foveon, Informative, MaxiScale, Nexthop Technologies, Tabula, Visual Edge Technology, Xoom Corporation and Zhone Technologies (NASDAQ: ZHNE). Previous board memberships include among others, 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS), Ascend Communications (acquired by Lucent Technologies), Dallas Semiconductor (acquired by Maxim Integrated Products), Healtheon/WedMD (NASDAQ: HLTH), Immunex (acquired by Amgen), InfoGear (acquired by Cisco Systems), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR) acquired by Adobe, NetSolve (NASDAQ: NTSL) acquired by Cisco Systems, Decru (acquired by Network Appliance), Silicon Graphics, and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) (NYSE: SMI). He was recently Chairman and President of the National Venture Capital Association. Prior to joining NEA, Dick was a General Partner of Arthur Rock & Associates and Executive Vice President of Gardner & Preston Moss. He received an MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in History from Northwestern University.
Robert Siegel is a General Partner at XSeed Capital and lecturer at Stanford University, bringing leadership in strategy definition, operational execution, and international sales and marketing for companies large and small. Prior to joining XSeed, Robert was General Manager of the Video and Software Solutions division for GE Security, with annual revenues of $350 million. Robert was also Executive Vice President of Pixim, Inc., a fabless semiconductor firm specialising in image sensors and processors (acquired by Sony). Before Pixim, Robert was Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Weave Innovations Inc. (acquired by Kodak), a network services developer that invented the world’s first digital picture frame, and delivered photos and other digital media to PCs and internet / mobile devices. Robert served in various management roles at Intel Corporation, including an executive position in their Corporate Business Development division, in which he invested capital in start-ups that were strategically aligned with Intel’s vision. Previous to Intel, Robert was promoted to a series of senior sales and marketing positions at GeoWorks, which went public in 1993. Robert has also worked for Quantum Corporation and consulted with many companies including TTTech, Sun Microsystems, Silicon Image and Bain & Company. Robert holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University. Robert has co-invented three patents, co-authored several articles for California Management Review, and served as lead researcher for Andy Grove’s book Only the Paranoid Survive.