Mr. Padval currently serves as an Operating Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. Prior to joining Bessemer in September 2007, Mr. Padval served as Executive Vice President, Consumer Products at LSI Logic Corporation. Prior to his promotion to Executive Vice President, Consumer Products, Mr. Padval was senior vice president and general manager for LSI Logic's Broadband Entertainment Division, a position he held since 2001. Mr. Padval served as Chief Executive Officer of C-Cube from 2000-2001, as President of C-Cube from 1998-2000 and a member of the C-Cube board of directors from 1998-2001. Previously, Mr. Padval was senior vice president and general manager of the Consumer Digital Entertainment Division at VLSI Technology, Inc. Mr. Padval also served as senior vice president and general manager for VLSI's Computing Division. Before joining VLSI in 1984, Mr. Padval held marketing and engineering positions at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Mr. Padval also serves as a member of the board of directors of Monolithic Power Systems and Integrated Device Technology. He received a bachelor's degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and an M.S. in engineering from Pennsylvania State University and Stanford University.
Tom Baruch founded CMEA Ventures to pursue a lifelong fascination with how investment discipline and strategy can nurture investment success in the application of exponential new technologies, such as Moore's Law and genomics, to building breakthrough companies that will transform markets. Tom honed his early-stage investment skills beginning at the Battelle Development Corporation in the late 1960's and then at Exxon Corporation in the 1970's and early '80's. At Exxon, he managed investments and created several early-stage technology companies applying materials science and semiconductor-industry technologies such as Supertex (SUPX). Tom formed CMEA Ventures with New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in 1989 after previously having founded and served as CEO of Microwave Technology, Inc., a supplier of GaAs integrated circuits and value-added sub-systems. Tom was one of the original investors in Aclara Biosciences (which merged with Monogram Biosciences - NASDAQ: MRGM), Flextronics (FLEX), Netro (NTRO), Silicon Spice (acquired by BRCM), and Symyx Technologies (SMMX). He currently serves on the boards of Alien Technology, Entropic Communications, Foveon, NewPath Ventures, Raven Biosciences, RF Magic and Symwave. Tom currently heads up the firm's energy & materials investments to include fuel cells, solar power generation and management, biofuels, and rechargeable batteries, among others. He continues to engage in his passion for early-stage investments by serving as Chairman of the Board of materials and energy companies including: Codexis, Inc., Intermolecular, Superprotonic and Wildcat Discovery Technologies. He currently also serves on the board of Solyndra. Mr. Baruch holds an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Juris Doctor degree from Capital University. He is a registered patent attorney and is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Board of Trustees of the Berkeley Institute for Synthetic Biology (BISB).
Mr. Bechard brings over 30 years of experience in cable television, information systems and communications technology to Entropic Communications. As owner of Pear Lake Consulting, Mr. Bechard currently serves as executive advisor to Canoe Ventures LLC, and previously served as executive advisor to PolyCipher, both of which are cable industry joint ventures owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and other major cable MSOs. He has acted as a consultant to cable related businesses, including Vidiom Systems, Adelphia Communications and Ceon. Bechard has served as a member of various technical advisory boards including Midstream Technologies and ManyStreams, Inc. Prior to starting his consulting firm, Mr. Bechard served as vice president of video product engineering for AT&T Broadband, responsible for deploying advanced digital set tops and launching systems to provide Interactive television services. Prior to AT&T Broadband, he held key positions at MediaOne Labs, developing strategies for video-on-demand, high-definition television and all digital networks. He has also held positions with U S WEST.
Mr. Bechard holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Colorado.
Patrick Henry
President and Chief Executive Officer, Entropic Communications, Inc.
Mr. Henry brings more than 20 years of high technology experience to Entropic. Mr. Henry has served in executive management roles in companies ranging from small, innovative startups to large multinationals. Just prior to Entropic, he served as president and CEO of Pictos Technologies, developers of digital imaging products, and exited after completing a multimillion-dollar sale of the company to ESS Technology. Before that, Mr. Henry was CEO of LinCom Wireless, a chip company focused on 802.11 wireless LAN products. Mr. Henry also served as a vice president and general manager at LSI Logic, and was a senior vice president at C-Cube Microsystems, a pioneer in the development of digital video ICs. Mr. Henry has also held sales and marketing management positions at Hyundai Electronics America (now Hynix) and AMD. Mr. Henry has his MBA from the University of Southern California, and holds a Bachelor in Engineering Science and Mechanics, with high honors, from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Amir Mashkoori
Chief Executive Officer, Kovio Inc.
Mr. Mashkoori applies nearly 30 years of semiconductor industry experience to his leadership role at Kovio, Inc. His background includes an in-depth understanding of how to create new businesses and drive demand for emerging products and technologies. Mr. Mashkoori came to Kovio from Spansion, the largest company exclusively focused on Flash memory. He played an instrumental role in the formation of Spansion in 2003, and managed the company's Wireless Business Unit. As executive vice president, Mr. Mashkoori oversaw the marketing, engineering, operations and business functions of the division. Under Mr. Mashkoori's leadership, the wireless division made significant market share gains into the world's largest handset providers by transitioning from a commodity player to a systems solutions provider. During his tenure, the division experienced more than double market share growth in the wireless handset market as the market itself expanded to close to one Billion units in 2006. Mr. Mashkoori began his professional career at AMD in 1978, serving in various senior level operational roles for a period of 17 years. His AMD roles included vice president and director of operations for the Memory Group. Mr. Mashkoori's lengthy career with AMD endowed him with a working knowledge of several industry and company sectors. Aside from his work at Spansion and AMD, Mr. Mashkoori occupied the role of vice president of operations and later senior vice president of operations and business development at Trident Microsystems for a brief three year period between 1996 and 1998. He rejoined AMD in 1999 and held various executive positions including vice president of operations, vice president of the Embedded Business Unit and vice president of the Wireless Business Unit. Mr. Mashkoori holds bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from San Jose State University.
Professor of Accountancy, University of Southern California
Dr. Merchant holds the Deloitte & Touche LLP Chair of Accountancy at the University of Southern California (USC), and currently teaches in USC's M.B.A., Executive M.B.A. and undergraduate accounting programs. He has also served as Senior Associate Dean-Corporate Programs in USC's Marshall School of Business and as Dean of USC's Leventhal School of Accounting. Dr. Merchant is also a part-time research professor at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. Before joining USC, he taught at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Merchant started his professional career at Texas Instruments, Inc., and Ernst & Young. He has also worked as a freelance consultant/teacher for many organizations including Amgen, Arco, AT&T, British Airways, Campbell Soup, Digital Equipment, IBM, McGraw-Hill, Novellus Systems, Philip Morris International, Tektronix, Toyota U.S.A. and World Bank. He has served or is currently serving as a director of Diagnostic Products Corporation (DP), Universal Guardian Holdings, Inc. (UGHO) and John Laing Homes. Dr. Merchant has a doctorate in accounting from the University of California, Berkeley, a M.B.A. in operations research and production from Columbia University, New York, and a bachelor's degree in industrial economics from Union College, New York.
Mr. Walecka is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures. Prior to founding Redpoint, Mr. Walecka was a general partner with Brentwood Venture Capital, a firm he joined in 1984. Mr. Walecka currently focuses on software infrastructure and security products in the enterprise as well as enabling products for the cable, consumer and broadband markets. Mr. Walecka is responsible for the firm's investments in Fortinet, Trapeze Networks, Polaris Networks, Syndeo Corporation, Internet Machines, and Entropic Communications. Mr. Walecka served as director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC) and is currently a director of the Stanford Business School Venture Capital Trust and the Menlo Park Atherton Education Foundation. Prior to joining Brentwood, Mr. Walecka worked at Hewlett Packard and the Stanford University Smart Product Design Laboratory. Mr. Walecka received a B.S. and an M.S. in engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
