Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood Wednesday, May 7th 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM Track III: Venture Funding, Investment & Mergers - Leadership in the Entertainment & Technology Space: Broadband, Social Networks, Mobile and Games The VC and strategic investment community has always led the way in recognizing the newest opportunities in the technology and entertainment space. In this era of economic flux, boom and bust, there are as many interpretations of value, opportunity and investment as there are investors and analysts in the industry. In this session, we bring together a number of the formative players in the Media, Entertainment, Technology finance world who have played a part in the investments, mergers, acquisitions and takeovers over the past few years. At the moment there is more money chasing fewer ready resources, but as the market predictably shakes out, how the relationship between the traditional and new media companies settles will create a fascinating foundation for the next step in growth for our industry. Are we building toward another bubble or are we laying the groundwork for a period of hypergrowth in the convergence space? Media companies are making nine and ten figure bets in this new arms race and what the future holds is anyone’s guess. Curt J. Nichols, Vice President, Intel Capital, Managing Director, Digital Home Sector, INTEL CORPORATION Derek Norton, founder and Managing Partner, Watertower Group Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures David O. Higley, founder, Higley & Company LLC Amy Jurries, Executive-in-Residence, Advent Venture Partners Dana Settle, Partner, Greycroft Partners Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S. Inc., Moderator For Further Speaker Infomation - Click on highlighed Names to see their LinkedIn Profile Sebastian Blum, Director, T-Venture of America, Deutsche Telekom: Sebastian Blum joined T-Venture in 1999, 2 years after the inception. T-Venture is the corporate venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom group, that manages several VC funds on behalf of the strategic business units of Deutsche Telekom, which also includes T-Mobile. Since 2006, Sebastian is at T-Venture's U.S. subsidiary. As the Managing Director of T-Venture of America, he is responsible for U.S. portfolio companies, new deal flow and projects, the relationships with U.S. venture capital companies, and for managing T-Venture's partnership with TeleSoft Partners. Sebastian has been actively involved with investments in Silicon Media Group, The Fantastic Corporation (IPO) and Lastminute.com (IPO). In his 4-year tenure as a investment professional with the T-Mobile Venture Fund he has made the investments and been responsible for Flash Networks, MindMatics, UCP Morgen (sold to Qpass, sold to Amdocs), and Apertio. Since his move to the California in 2006 he has done the investments in Ruckus Wireless, Jajah, Litescape Technologies and Axentra. Before joining T-Venture, Sebastian did his postgraduate MBA degree with NIMBAS, Utrecht (Netherlands). Prior to that, he worked in sales and marketing with Unilever Germany. Sebastian is a member of the VC-Angel Roundtable, and a member of the German-American Business Association of California. Curt J. Nichols, Vice President, Intel Capital, Managing Director, Digital Home Sector, INTEL CORPORATION: Curt J. Nichols is vice president of Intel Capital and managing director of the Digital Home Sector. Nichols is responsible for Intel Capital’s $200 million Digital Home Fund, announced in January 2004. This fund invests in companies developing new digital home applications and services, along with hardware, software, and supporting technologies that drive the convergence of personal computer and consumer electronic devices on a home network. In his previous position as vice president in the Wireless Communications and Computing Group, Nichols was co–general manager of Intel’s $2 billion Flash Products Group. Nichols has held various marketing and sales roles at Intel, including director of marketing for the original Pentium Processor during its successful 1993-1994 product launch. Nichols joined Intel in 1980 as a product marketing engineer. Nichols earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Utah in 1980. Derek Norton, founder and Managing Partner, Watertower Group: Derek Norton is an accomplished entrepreneur and venture capitalist with over 18 years of business building and executive management experience in the technology, internet and media industries. Derek is the founder and Managing Partner of Watertower Group. He was most recently a partner at Entertainment Media Ventures (EMV), a Michael Milken backed seed and early stage venture capital fund located in Los Angeles, California. Prior to EMV Derek founded two southern California based technology companies. Derek was a founding member and partner of Entertainment Media Ventures, a $120 million dollar seed and early stage venture capital fund focused on investment in broadband infrastructure, consumer internet and digital media sectors. Having lead investments in Kassena, Matchcraft and Relegence amongst others, Derek helped guide and support EMV portfolio companies with their growth, strategic initiatives and capitalization strategies. Prior to EMV, Derek spent the first ten years of his career as a technology entrepreneur. Having founded both Jeffries Technologies and Digital Boardwalk, were he developed a diversified background in technology, media, business building and executive management. From 1991 until 1998, Derek helped build Jeffries into one of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest growing privately held U.S. companies providing network enterprise architecture and systems integration to Global 2000 businesses. In 1995, he founded Digital Boardwalk, a provider of web based service solutions to traditional businesses and new media business ventures. As Netscape’s second commercial partner, Digital Boardwalk was a pioneer in the provisioning of internet technologies, e-commerce development, and marketing solutions to a wide range of companies and industries. Clients included CBS SporstLine, eToys, Office Max, Hughes Global Services, News Corp, and Hewlett Packard. Derek holds a BA in Communications from the University of Southern California. He serves on several corporate boards, and is the founder of Connex. He supports charities focused on improving the lives and education of at-risk youths, is a member of the board of directors of The Fulfillment Fund, a Los Angeles based organization providing educational mentoring and support, and was previously Vice President of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Contemporaries. Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures: Harshul Sanghi manages the Silicon Valley office of Motorola Ventures, based in Sunnyvale, California. Harshul’s role includes identifying, executing, and managing strategic investments in startup companies that will drive the realization of Motorola’s vision of Seamless Mobility. He is also responsible for managing the Venture group’s investment activities in India. Prior to Motorola, Harshul was at Ucentric Systems, a leading provider of Whole Home Media solutions, where he was responsible for worldwide sales and market development of the consumer electronics sector. Harshul has extensive experience in the digital media, consumer electronics, and semiconductor industries. In his previous role, Harshul served as General Manager of the satellite and terrestrial business team of Philips Electronic’s North America Set-Top Box Division. Harshul’s early career was spent in various technical and sales management positions in Silicon Valley, Singapore, and Western Europe. Harshul holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Oregon. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and Financial Management from the University of Bombay, India. Harshul is an active member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Organization and a board member of the Strategic Venture Association in Silicon Valley. He is an observer on the Boards of Avvenu, Mobile Complete, and Ruckus Wireless. Harshul, himself an entrepreneur, enjoys working with entrepreneurs to drive the adoption of disruptive market technologies. Amy Jurries, Executive-in-Residence, Advent Venture Partners: Prior to joining Advent, Amy had accumulated 11 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. She began her career at Ericsson, working within various wireless product units across North America and Europe. After Ericsson, she spent two years at a VC-backed wireless software company based in London, where she established strategic partnerships with blue-chip service providers and infrastructure companies. Before moving into venture capital, Amy was at Motorola, managing the handset product operations group for EMEA and SE Asia. Amy has an MSc in Systems Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from London Business School. Amy is currently based in San Francisco. Dana Settle is a Partner with Greycroft Partners. She is based out of Los Angeles and oversees the fund's West Coast investments. Prior to joining Greycroft, Dana spent several years as a venture capitalist and advisor to startup companies, first as a Venture Partner with Mayfield, where she focused on early stage companies in the mobile communications and consumer Internet markets, and later as a Partner with VSP Capital. As a venture capitalist, Dana invested in and advised several portfolio companies, including MobileStar (sold to TMobile), Revenue Science, Trigo (sold to IBM), Truveo (sold to AOL) and Doppelganger. Dana's additional experience includes investment banking at Lehman Brothers in the media and communications group and international business development at McCaw Cellular Communications. Dana holds a BA in Finance and International Studies from the University of Washington and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Joey Tamer, President, S.O.S., Inc.: Joey Tamer is a widely-acclaimed strategic consultant to technology and media CEOs, U.S. and worldwide. Her work helps create wealth for founders and investors of entrepreneurial ventures, and a high return on investment for Fortune 1000 in-house ventures. Her capital strategies drive up her clients’ valuations and profitability. She consults to Fortune 1000 and mid-sized companies, capitalized start-ups, and investment funds. Her clients have included J.P. Morgan Capital, Sony, IBM, Apple, Hearst, Blockbuster, Technicolor, Harper Collins, Discovery Channel, and Time-Warner. Her clients say she is "a brilliant strategist and a practical, down-to-earth, get-it-done person," "invaluable in understanding the competitive landscape and alternative strategies" and that she "cuts right through the noise, giving a clear vision of the future," "protecting us from liability and cutting our costs." Through the emergence of the PC, new media, and the Internet, her clients have been in the business, enterprise and consumer sectors, with companies in technology, hardware and software, media and entertainment, publishing and advertising, distribution, and investment and venture funding. She has worked in the U.S., Europe and China. A strategist, policymaker, dealmaker, and negotiator, her work includes strategies on entry, exit, capitalization, return on investment, growth, positioning, pricing, distribution, risk-assessment, new market and international expansion, due diligence, and intellectual property. She speaks and publishes widely. Her website is www.joeytamer.com and she can be reached at joey @ joeytamer.com, or 310 245 5310.