Irwin Federman, US Venture Partners (USVP)
Irwin Federman, who joined USVP as a General Partner in April 1990, was President and CEO of Monolithic Memories, Inc. (MMI) from 1978-1987.  Under Irwin’s leadership, MMI grew from virtual bankruptcy to $250 million in revenues during his nine-year tenure as CEO, culminating in a merger with AMD where Irwin became Vice Chairman.  Irwin was two-term Chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association, has served on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association, and served two terms on the Dean’s Advisory Board of Santa Clara University.  As CEO at Monolithic Memories, Irwin initiated MMI investments in such highly successful venture capital start-ups as Cypress Semiconductor, Xilinx and Altera.  As a professional venture capitalist, Irwin was a founding lead investor in Crescendo Communications, Power Integrations, SanDisk, TelCom Semiconductor, Resumix, CheckPoint Software, MMC Networks, Centillium Communications, Netro, Nuance Communications and QuickLogic.  He is presently Vice Chairman of SanDisk and serves on the Boards of CheckPoint Software, Mellanox and several privately-held companies.  Irwin received a B.S. in Economics from Brooklyn College and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering Science from Santa Clara University.  He is a recipient of the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, and the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Community and Justice, and has been installed in Junior Achievement’s Silicon Valley Hall of Fame.

Eric Copeland, Venrock
Eric Copeland joined Venrock Associates' Menlo Park office in 1998. Eric's prior experience was as an electrical engineer in digital communications systems development and program management at Hewlett-Packard, E•ON, Orbital Sciences Corporation, and Aloha Networks.

At Venrock, Eric focuses on opportunities in information technology with an emphasis on network and enterprise infrastructure. Current additional board assignments include 2Wire, General Bandwidth, SteelEye Technology, Arcwave Networks, MaXXan Systems, Kineto Wireless, Hellosoft, Kenet, Keyotee, and Anchor Bay Technologies. He previously served on the boards of Kendin Communications, acquired by Micrel (Nasdaq:MCRL); Cadant, acquired by Arris (Nasdaq:ARRS); and TalkingNets. He co-led Venrock's investments in AccessLine Communications, AcceLight Networks, Polaris Networks, and ZettaCom.

Eric graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and he received an M.B.A from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.


Vijay Parikh, Global Catalyst Partners
Vijay C. Parikh (Managing Principal) was Vice President and General Manager within the Public Carrier IP Group (PCIPG) at Cisco. During his tenure he was responsible for developing and introducing the 10G solution on the 12416 GSR platform, which resulted in the sales growth from $400 million in FY 1998 to several billion dollars FY in 2001.

Vijay was President and CEO of StratumOne Communications, a leading developer of framers and layer 2/3 engines for 10G solutions in high-end routing/switching applications. StratumOne was funded by Sequoia Capital, Brentwood Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, and Redwood Ventures. Cisco Systems acquired StratumOne on September 20, 1999 representing its most expensive private acquisition at that time.

Prior to StratumOne, Vijay was VP/GM of the Wireless Communications Division (WCD) at Conexant where he grew it from a non-revenue position to a $180 million business at the time of his departure. WCD had programs in all of the key wireless technologies including GSM, CDMA, TDMA, Spread Spectrum, PHS, DECT and PDC. Prior to that he held several VP/GM positions at Conexant including those for the Personal Computing Division (PCD) which involved programs in software modems, PC audio and xDSL and the Global Positioning System (GPS) division which had programs focused on the integration of multi-channel GPS with wireless data systems including those for ARDIS, CDPD and Mobitex. He also held several management positions at Conexant in its Japanese Operations facility.

Vijay earned a BSEE from the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences in India and an M.B.A from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.


John Cioffi, Stanford University
John M. Cioffi has been on the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University since 1986 and was appointed to the Hitachi America Professorship in 2002. John was the recipient of the 2006 Marconi Award recognizing his seminal contributions to communication technology.

John’s research interests focus on high-performance digital transmission; specifically modem design, signal processing, and coding. His contributions have received many honors and awards including membership of the National Academy of Engineering (2001), IEEE Kobayashi Medal (2001), IEEE Millennium Medal (2000), IEEE Fellow (1996), IEE JJ Tomson Medal (2000), 1999 University of Illinois Outstanding Alumnus, 1991 IEEE Communications Magazine best paper, 1995 ANSI T1 Outstanding Achievement Award, and NSF Presidential Investigator (1987-1992).

John received his BSEE (1978) from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. E.E. (1984) from Stanford University. He worked for Bell Laboratories from 1978 to 1984; IBM Research from 1984 to 1986. John founded Amati Communications Corporation in 1991 (purchased by Texas Instrument in 1997) and was an officer/director from 1991 to 1997. He is presently on the boards of directors of Marvell, Teknovus, Teranetics, ASSIA Inc. and ClariPhy. He is also on the advisory boards of Ikanos, Charter Ventures, and Portview Ventures.

John has published more than 200 papers and holds more than 40 patents, most of which are widely licensed, including basic patents on DMT, VDSL, and vectored transmission. John is currently a member of the USA National Research Council Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) and was on the committee that produced Broadband: Bringing Home the Bits.


Hemant Kanakia, Columbia Capital
Hemant joined Columbia Capital as General partner in 2004 and  invests in  semiconductors and communications  and internet areas. He was previously founder and CEO of Torrent Networking Technology (acquired by Ericsson), a Columbia Capital portfolio company. Hemant also co-founded and inv ested in  Photuris, Inc , an optical switching company.   Hemant is currently  on boards of Enpirion,  InfiniteZ, Tilera  and WiNetworks, and is actively involved with  Imagine Communications  and Broadsoft. Prior to joining Columbia, Hemant served on the Board of Directors of Photuris, Viagate, Price Hawk, Gemplex (acquired by VSNL in 2003), and Torrent Networking Technology. He has  been a member of several public boards   inculding the International Red Cross Washington DC, the Board of Advisors for University of Maryland’s School of Engineering, the Board of Visitors,  Board of Visitors of Virginia Tech and  Board of Trustees for TiE Global. Prior to starting his first company, Hemant worked in AT&T Bell Laboratories (1990-1996) and Tata Consultancy Services, India (1975-1977). Hemant received a B.S. in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, an M.S. from Case Western Reserve University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Yi Pin Ng, Granite Global Ventures
Yi Pin Ng focuses on investments in the broad IT sectors – both hardware and software. Prior to joining GGV, Yi Pin served most recently in the venture group at GIC Special Investments. At GIC SI, he was responsible for investments in Placeware (acquired by Microsoft, MSFT), Arbortext (acquired by Parametric Technology Corp, PTC), G-Log (acquired by Oracle, ORCL), and Wayport etc.

Before joining GIC SI in 2000, Yi Pin held operations planning and operational management positions at Sun Microsystems covering the Asia Pacific region. He is also a commissioned officer in the Republic of Singapore Navy.

Yi Pin is responsible for Granite Global Ventures' investments in Ageia, Patchlink, Lamina Ceramics, Teranetics and Xfire (acquired by Viacom).

Yi Pin holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering & Math from University of San Francisco, an M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Nanyang Business School, Singapore. Yi Pin is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).


Sanjay Kasturia, Teranetics
Sanjay Kasturia has more than 20 years of experience in the communications industry. Sanjay was editor-in-chief of the 10GBASE-T standard. Before starting Teranetics, Sanjay co-founded Airgo Networks, now part of Qualcomm, which developed wireless LAN ICs that significantly increased the range and reliability of networks using multi-antenna signal processing technology. Prior to Airgo Networks, Sanjay was the Vice President of Engineering at Iospan Wireless developing technology for non-line-of-sight broadband access.

Sanjay has previously served as Vice President Advanced Technology at Raychem's Telecommunications, Energy and Industrial Division, focusing on telecommunications and access network electronics. Before Raychem, Sanjay was at Lucent Technologies as R&D Director for its Global Wireless Products Group and earlier as head of Wireless Technology Research for Bell Laboratories. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.


Matt Rhodes, Teranetics
Matt Rhodes brings a proven track record of leading business and product development teams through the process of developing advanced communication ICs through to market winning positions. Prior to joining Teranetics, Matt was the President of Conexant Systems where he was responsible for the marketing, engineering and operations of a communication IC business of nearly $1 billion annually. During his tenure at Conexant, the teams he led held or developed significant IC product positions in a variety of communications technologies including dial-up modems, xDSL, Wireless LAN and Digital Broadcast Satellite.

Previous to Conexant, Matt served as director of VLSI technology at Pacific Communication Sciences, Inc, a wireless system development company that pioneered communication IC products for PHS handheld phones, Secure Digital Radio and Cellular Packet Data. He received an M.B.A. from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University and a B.S. in Physics from Pennsylvania State University.