Register for the January 24 2002 5-8:30 pm presentation
at the UTD Conference Center
$35 at the door, $10 for Students RSVP 972-377-4554 or mitforum@juno.com
Reception with Light Buffet 5:00 pm
Program 5:45 pm
NEW VENTURES AND VENTURE CAPITAL:
DEALING WITH THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
Dallas-Fort Worth Moderator:
Cambridge Moderator:
Panelists:
-
Rock Gnatovich, President and COO of Spotfire, Inc.
-
Antoinette Schoar, Assistant Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of
Management
-
Alan Spoon, Managing Partner, Polaris Ventures
Program:
The presentation topic for the
Thursday, January 24, 2002 MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast will be New
Ventures and Venture Capital: Dealing with the Current Environment.
The panel will include successful entrepreneurs, educators and
venture capitalists.
To be broadcast from MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to a number of sites,
including UTD, the agenda will include an opening overview by the
moderator, brief introductory comments by each panelist, and interactive
discussion with attendees and satellite-downlinked participants from across
North America.
According to MIT Enterprise Forum CEO Edmund M. Dunn, “Even before the
events of September 11th, the rules for entrepreneurs were changing.
Today’s economic and political realities pose a new set of problems for
entrepreneurs.”
The program moderator is Ken Morse, Managing Director of the MIT
Entrepreneurship Center. The
members of the panel include Rock Gnatovich, President and COO of Spotfire,
Inc.; Antoinette Schoar, Assistant Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of
Management; and Alan Spoon, Managing Partner, Polaris Ventures.
Program
Moderator Bio
As Managing Director of
the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Ken Morse
leads the MIT effort to train leaders to bring innovative concepts and
technologies to market and build successful high-tech startup businesses. Based at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the
Entrepreneurship Center has the mandate to teach entrepreneurship and to foster
research and collaboration, Institute-wide.
The student-run $50K Entrepreneurship Competition, as well as enrollment
in the New Enterprises and Entrepreneurship Laboratory Courses, are open to
students from Engineering, Science, and Management, encouraging
multidisciplinary teamwork. Morse
joined MIT in 1996 after 25 years as an entrepreneur helping launch six
high-tech ventures.
Between 1982 and 1996, Morse held a number of strategic positions in a
venture-backed startup, Aspen Technology, Inc., which commercialized
process-modeling software originally developed at MIT.
He initially crafted the company’s global strategy and secured early
customers in Europe and Asia. As a
member of AspenTech’s Board of Directors from 1986 until 1995, he focused on
AspenTech’s entry into new global markets, including high-value applications
of their enterprise software. From
1992 to 1996, he resided in Brussels as AspenTech’s Managing Director for
Europe, Middle East and Africa where he opened and managed new offices in
France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and South Africa, as well as integrating the
European businesses acquired by AspenTech.
Morse’s interest in international high-tech ventures began at MIT,
where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 1968.
Following graduation, as President of AIESEC-US and an International
Advisory Committee officer for this global business student exchange program, he
traveled widely on behalf of AIESEC before entering Harvard Business School.
Morse received his MBA with honors in 1972 and joined Schroders, the
U.K.-based merchant bank, where he worked directly for Jim Wolfensohn, now
President of the World Bank.
In 1975, Morse formed a trading company under the aegis of Chase
Manhattan Bank to assist U.S. technology-based companies to enter emerging Asian
markets. He lived in Beijing for
five years during the latter half of the Cultural Revolution.
As President of Chase Pacific Trade Advisors, he assisted IBM, General
Motors, Hughes Aircraft, Waters Associates, Measurex, and Mine Safety Appliances
to enter China and other developing markets.
In 1980, Morse relocated to Silicon Valley as a founding member of 3Com
Corporation, and, as employee #8, helped raise initial funding and served as the
first head of sales, marketing, and planning.
After a successful launch, he returned to the Boston area where he has
been a founder of several other MIT-related startup ventures.
Ken Morse is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the World
Affairs Council, the Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique & Literaire (Brussels),
and the Quissett Yacht Club. He is
a member of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Inc. Advisory Board of Directors.
Mass High Tech named Morse “High Tech All-Star” for his
contribution to entrepreneurship education.
The
Panelist Bios
Rock
Gnatovich is President and COO of Spotfire, Inc.
Before joining Spotfire in April of 1998, Gnatovich spent 18 years in the
software industry, the last 10 of which focused on enterprise applications.
Most recently, he was President and CEO of Windchill Technology, an
Internet
start-up that was acquired by Parametric Technology (Nasdaq: PMTC) to serve as
the basis for their distributed information management applications.
Prior to Windchill, Gnatovich served in various positions at Structural
Dynamics Research Corporation (SDRC), including Vice President, Worldwide
Marketing and Vice President, Product Data Management Operations.
Gnatovich was responsible for establishing the Metaphase Technology joint
venture between SDRC and Control Data that went on to become the industry leader
in the product data management (PDM) market.
Gnatovich served as SDRC's representative to the Metaphase board.
Spotfire,
Inc. is a leading provider of eAnalytic applications and services that enable
organizations to improve the efficiency, the speed and the accuracy of their
decision-making processes by advancing both individual and networked analysis.
More than 350 customers and over 16,000 users work with Spotfire products
worldwide.
Gnatovich
has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, and completed graduate work
at Vanderbilt University and Florida State University as an Earhart Fellow.
Antoinette
Schoar is an Assistant Professor of Finance at MIT’s Sloan School of
Management. Her areas of expertise
include corporate and entrepreneurial
finance, venture capital, corporate diversification, and economics of
organizations. Her
current research examines capital flows in the venture capital industry, the
effect of the stock market on the private equity market and capital budgeting
decisions in firms.
Schoar’s work has been
featured in the New York Times and The Industry Standard.
Schoar
has received numerous fellowships and honors, including the Fellowship of the
George Stigler Center, '97-'99, and the ERP Doctoral Scholarship of the German
Ministry of Trade, '95-'97. She
received her undergraduate degree from Cologne University in Germany, and her
Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Alan Spoon
is a Managing General Partner in the Boston office of Polaris Ventures bringing
over 20 years of operating executive and investment experience.
Spoon joined Polaris in the spring of 2000, and has been an early advisor
and initial investor since 1995. Prior
to Polaris, Spoon spent 18 years at The Washington Post Company, where he served
as President, Chief Operating Officer, Director, Chief Financial Officer,
President of Newsweek, and supervising executive for the company’s
broadcasting and education businesses. He
also held top marketing and finance positions at The Washington Post/Newspaper.
Prior to this, Spoon was a partner of The Boston Consulting Group, an
international management consulting firm specializing in corporate strategy.
Spoon represents
Polaris Ventures as a Director on the boards of American Management Systems,
Inc., Danaher Corporation, Human Genome Sciences, Inc., and Ticketmaster, Inc.
His philanthropic involvement includes serving on the Smithsonian
Institution Board of Regents.
With $2 billion
under management, Polaris Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital
firm with investments across information and medical technology.
The Polaris team is committed to helping entrepreneurs grow strong
businesses by offering early-stage operational and investment expertise.
The firm supports more than 65 Polaris-backed companies, including Akamai
Technologies, Inc., Allaire Corporation, Aspect Medical Systems, deCODE
Genetics, and Paradigm Genetics.
Spoon earned a
bachelor’s at MIT, a master’s at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and a
JD, with honors, from Harvard Law School.
Satellite
Broadcast Series: The MIT Enterprise Forum Satellite Broadcast Series
includes three programs each year for entrepreneurs and investors. Earlier
broadcast topics include: Virtually Live with Timothy Berners-Lee, Internet
Futures with Robert Metcalfe, High Tech Enterprises with Edward
Roberts, Breakthrough Technology with Robert Langer, Entrepreneurship
with Alex d’Arbeloff, What To Do with Michael Dertouzos, The Soft
Side of New Enterprise with Ray Stata, What Private Equity Investors Are
Looking For moderated by John Dean, Structuring Venture Capital Deals moderated
by Joe Hadzima, Building Value Through Entrepreneurship moderated by
Howard Anderson, Becoming a $Billion Software Company and Managing Its Future
with Kenan Sahin, Valuation: What’s My Company Really Worth? moderated
by Joe Hadzima, and Managing a Startup in Turbulent Times moderated by
Ken Morse.
Registration
$30 at the door, $10 students. For
reservations and details of this special program, call Mary Langford at 972-377-4554, or email to mitforum@juno.com
