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Brad Lehrman
practices in Messerli & Kramer P.A.'s Corporate Securities & Entrepreneurial
Venture Group. He functions as an entrepreneurial venture attorney specializing
in business law and corporate finance services for emerging growth private and
public companies. Mr. Lehrman has an extensive background as an attorney,
business advisor, board member, and fund manager involved in venture capital
transactions. He is the founder and president of Portage Capital, Inc., a
business and venture capital consulting firm serving a select number of emerging
companies with business management and investor relation services. Mr. Lehrman
is also a founder and fund manager of Portage Equity Investments, two early
stage accredited venture funds. He has counselled and invested in companies
that include software, medical devices, biotech and health sciences,
telecommunications, publishing, semiconductor technology and Information
technology. He is a member of the Minnesota Bar Associations and Venture
Capital Association. Mr. Lehrman earned his Juris Doctorate from William
Mitchell College of Law and his undergraduate degree from Carleton College.
Harlan Jacobs, President,
Genesis Business Centers
is the founder and president of Genesis Business Centers, Ltd., a
diversified high tech, for-profit incubator program. Mr.
Jacobs
is a seasoned CFO with over 20 years experience.
In 1993 he founded one of the most
progressive high-tech business incubator programs in Minnesota, if not in
the U.S., by offering to barter rent and "Acting CFO" services for a
negotiated equity position in its incubatee companies.
Tom Von Kuster, Angel
Investor,
AMEX, Inc. was a
founding Director of Cymbet; a solid state battery firm
and NeuStream; a storage appliance company. In the past couple of years, companies for
which he has served as an early investor/advisor have been acquired
including NuSpeed (purchased by Cisco for $450 million), NT
International, and SurvivaLink.
Other investments include Infrared Solutions, KG Technologies, Cima
NanoTech, Apprise and Islet.
Rick Brimacomb, President,
Minnesota Venture Capital Association.
At Sherpa Partners, Mr. Brimacomb has helped early-stage
companies develop into “investment grade” opportunities and attain venture
funding. He is active in the business community and is assisting the University
of Minnesota incubate new technologies and bring them to the private sector.
Mr. Brimacomb has been an advisor to and an investor in early-stage information
technology companies since 1993. He was most recently Senior Director at Smaby
Group, Inc. where he led strategic and financial advisory practices serving
early-stage technology companies. He also was a founder of Cartia, Inc., a
venture capital-backed software startup, where he was Vice President of Finance.
His experience also includes venture capital, investment banking and investment
research at Norwest Venture Capital, Piper Jaffray and Needham & Co.,
respectively. At Norwest, Mr. Brimacomb focused on traditional venture investing
and management buyouts. At Piper he was active in public and private offerings,
mergers and acquisitions and venture capital. While at Needham, he was a
research analyst covering high technology companies. Mr. Brimacomb is an advisor
to, and board member of, several early stage companies. He earned both his BS
and his MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of
Minnesota. |
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by Matt Noah
