THE INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS, INC. 
COMMUNICATIONS & VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY
 - Dallas Chapter - 
-and-
 THE MIT ENTERPRISE FORUM OF DALLAS - FORT WORTH 
-and-
 STARTECH FOUNDATION
-Jointly Present-
A TWO PART ENTREPRENEUR SERIES

DATE: Tuesday, 20 May 2003

TIME: Luncheon starts at 11:00 am; Main Presentation is from 11:30-1:00pm

PLACE: Holiday Inn Select, 1655 N. Central, Richardson Please call 972 238 1900 for directions

TOPIC: Part 1 "Jumpstarting Your Startup" Panel Session

MODERATORS: 
Sejal Desai, Founder & CEO, STARTech Foundation Founder, STARTech Early Ventures, www.startech.org 
Matthew Blanton, Founder, CEO & Managing Partner, STARTech Early Ventures, www.startech.org

PANELISTS: 
George Brody, Co-Founder, Vice-Chair, Chief Strategy Officer, GlobeRanger, www.globeranger.com 
Randy Waters, Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer, VoiceRamp Technologies, www.voiceramp.com 
Stephen Von Rump, CEO, Metreos, www.metreos.com

THIS IS A FREE PROGRAM FOR IEEE, STARTECH, MIT FORUM AND THE PUBLIC

No reservations - LUNCH IS LIMITED TO THE FIRST 150 PERSONS 
Lunch for IEEE/STARTECH/MIT FORUM Members - $5.00 
Lunch for Non - IEEE/STARTECH/MIT FORUM Members - $10.00 
Lunch for Full Time Students - No charge

Please catch our web site at www.cvt-dallas.org, 
or STARTECH's web page at www.startech.org, 
or MIT FORUM's at www.mitforum.com

For further information contact: Bob Shapiro, IEEE Dallas CVT General Chair, at 972.599.1165 or rcshapiro@att.net

ABSTRACT:

Entrepreneurs have great ideas and talent however often times they do not know what it takes to start up and nurture a successful company that may grow into a multi-million or multi-billion dollar company. The whole process from idea to funding may not be well understood by many entrepreneurs especially those with a technical background. Most entrepreneurs do not realize what resources are needed or where to go look for them. This program is structured to provide a brief overview of the Startup Process as well.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Sejal Desai joined STARTech in January 1999. As a Founder & Principal, she managed STARTech's internal business processes, developed relationships with potential partners and program companies, and evaluated business applicants for admission into STARTech and works with entrepreneurs to take their startup companies through first-round funding. She is now the Chief Executive Officer of the STARTech Foundation and is responsible for the Foundation's overall strategy related to empowering entrepreneurs with the necessary tools to be successful in this high-tech competitive environment. She also coordinates the PR and marketing efforts within STARTech. Prior to STARTech, Desai served as a manager in the corporate advisory services division for Ernst & Young, Bombay for three years. She conducted business valuations and due diligence studies for multinational companies and assisted international firms interested in investing in India. She also managed the business development aspects of that division. She began her career at D.J. Shukla & Co., where she handled personal taxes and conducted audits for domestic corporations for four years. Desai holds a master of business administration from the University of Texas at Dallas and a bachelor of commerce and accounting degree from Bombay University. She is also certified as a chartered accountant in India.

Matthew Blanton has over 25 years of experience as a business executive in the computer and telecommunications industries. As chief executive officer of STARTech, he is responsible for managing the accelerator's overall corporate strategy. Prior to joining STARTech in 1997, Blanton directed research and development as a lab manager for Hewlett Packard, and served as vice president of engineering at Convex Computer Corporation. He was also president of Vadis, Inc., a venture capital-backed telecommunications start-up company. Additionally, Blanton has held various positions in product management; marketing and engineering at Siemens, IBM, Rolm, Data General and the NASA manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Blanton holds a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University.

George Brody brings more than 26 years of high technology experience to GlobeRanger. Prior to co-founding GlobeRanger, he was vice president and general manager of Nortel's Wireless Network Solutions. He has extensive experience in the management of digital technology for mobile communications systems. Brody was Chief Executive Officer and President of GlobeRanger from its inception until he assumed his current position in January 2002.

Randy Waters co-founded VoiceRamp as a consulting company and served as Chairman and CEO until November 2002. He negotiated several consulting contracts to fund operations until securing funding for the company in mid 2002. Previously, Randy directed the software development and product delivery for the OCX, a next-generation Class 5 switch at Taqua Systems. Prior to Taqua, he served as Director of Engineering at DSC/Alcatel where he led the architecture and launched the development of the Call Server softswitch and the next-generation Signaling Server STP. He also directed the development of the International Megahup STP product. Prior to DSC/Alcatel, Randy directed the development of the Nexus SCP, Telestar Tandem Switch, and the DaVinci Service Node at IEX Corporation. Randy started his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he developed hardware and software and tested the 5ESS Class 5/4 switch. He also managed the development and operational support of a nationwide packet data service offered by AT&T. Randy holds both a Masters and Bachelors of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Stephen Von Rump, CEO.  Stephen was the previous CEO of VTEL Corporation (now Forgent Networks) an IP-based visual communications network management and services business. While at VTEL he co-founded Onscreen24, a startup that provided SIP-based Java video streaming applications over the Internet. He was also a founder of internetMCI, one of the industry’s first commercial Internet services, which was sold to Cable &Wireless in 1998 in conjunction with the MCI-WorldCom merger.