Speakers

Marshall Phelps
Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Intellectual Property
Microsoft Corp.

As Microsoft Corp.'s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel for intellectual property, Marshall Phelps supervises Microsoft's intellectual property groups, including those responsible for trademarks, trade secrets, patents, licensing, standards and copyrights. He oversees the company's management of its intellectual property portfolio, which comprises some 3,000 U.S.-issued patents, their foreign counterparts and more than 11,000 trademark registrations worldwide. In addition, Phelps helps lead Microsoft's ongoing work with other companies in the technology industry to broaden awareness of intellectual property issues.

Phelps joined Microsoft in June 2003 after a 28-year career at IBM Corp., where he served as vice president for intellectual property and licensing. Phelps was instrumental in IBM's standards, telecommunications policy, industry relations, patent licensing program and intellectual property portfolio development. Also, Phelps helped establish IBM's Asia Pacific headquarters in Tokyo and served as the company's director of government relations in Washington, D.C. Upon retiring from IBM in 2000, he spent two years as chairman and chief executive officer of Spencer Trask Intellectual Capital Company LLC, which specialized in spinoffs from major corporations such as Motorola Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and IBM. Phelps holds a bachelor of arts degree from Muskingum College, a master of science degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a doctorate from Cornell Law School.

Kush Parikh
Vice President of Business Development
INRIX

Kush Parikh will join Marshall Phelps during his featured comments on April 25th at Venture 2007.

As vice president of business development for INRIX, Kush Parikh cultivates and manages strategic partnerships including those involving international expansion, intellectual property and emerging market opportunities.

Parikh has over 12 years experience, concentrated within the high tech sector, and most recently includes management of IP and data sourcing initiatives for INRIX. A core responsibility for Parikh comprises the company’s intellectual property portfolio that includes INRIX’s founding IP, originally licensed through Microsoft’s IP Ventures program.

Parikh joined INRIX after a noteworthy career with Texas Instruments, most recently managing the mobile digital television business. Parikh also evaluated the viability of start-up companies for both direct investment and indirect investment as a limited partner through Granite Ventures.

Parikh holds a bachelor of science degree from Penn State University and a masters of business administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Jeffrey E. Sohl, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Venture Research
University of New Hampshire

Jeffrey E. Sohl, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Venture Research at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. He will deliver featured remarks during CED’s Angel Investor Retreat on the morning of April 24. Sohl is widely viewed as one of the nation’s leading authorities on angel investing trends. He has presented his angel research in academic and practitioner forums in the United States, Europe and Asia, and in briefings for several government agencies and scholars from the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, Asia and Africa. Sohl has appeared on CNBC, MSNBC, National Public Radio, NHPTV’s NH Outlook, and is widely quoted in the U.S. and international press. He also serves on the New Hampshire Governor’s Advisory Committee on Capital Formation and is on the Board of Directors for NetworkNH.

Media Panel – Where is Venture Capital Headed?

Janet Babin
Innovations Desk Reporter
Marketplace

Janet Babin is the Innovations Desk reporter for Marketplace, based at the studios of North Carolina Public Radio-UNC in Chapel Hill and Durham. Babin figured out she could be a journalist while studying French civilization, language and culture at the Sorbonne after college. She was rereading Janet Flanner’s Paris Journal, 1944-1965. A few years later she started stringing for a suburban Philadelphia newspaper, The Times Herald.

Then it was on to radio and television, and finally home to public radio. Babin spent several years as a reporter and show host at member stations in rural Indiana and Cleveland. She's contributed to NPR shows and filled in as a staff reporter in Washington and for NPR West. Her toughest interview was with the Dalai Lama, for a Voice of America story broadcast in Tibet.

Her work has won awards from Associated Press, the Radio Television News Directors Association, and the Federation for Community Broadcasters. She was also a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism from the UCLA Anderson School of Business. Babin studied dance and business at Long Island University. She has a bachelor of science degree from LIU's School of Business Administration.

Michael V. Copeland
Senior Writer
Business 2.0

Michael V. Copeland joined Business 2.0 in April 2003 and now covers the venture capital community, new technology, and startups. Along with Andrew Tilin, his story “The New Instant Companies” was recognized by the World Leadership Forum as the best business story in a magazine in the 2006 Business Journalist of the Year competition. Copeland was most recently a senior writer for Red Herring and authored features on venture capital, emerging technology, and management issues. Before that, Copeland served as a senior editor at the Venture Capital Journal. He has worked on the national desk at the Washington Post and been a reporter for the Oakland Tribune, Orange County Register and Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as freelancing for San Francisco Bay Area and national publications. Copeland has also developed environmental stories for television and radio. Copeland makes frequent media appearances for the magazine and speaks at industry events throughout Silicon Valley and nationwide.

Ken Schachter
Senior Writer
Red Herring, Inc.

Ken Schachter is a senior writer for Red Herring, covering finance. He has worked as a journalist for The Miami Herald, Newsday and The Jerusalem Post. Several of his profiles of Sept. 11 victims were included in the book, "American Lives." He teaches journalism part-time at Hofstra University and lives in Port Washington, N.Y., with his wife and two children. Schachter will be speaking on the National Media Panel in place of Red Herring’s Joel Dreyfuss, who could not attend Venture 2007 because of a scheduling conflict.

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Featured speakers at past CED Venture conferences include Ray Kurzweil, renowned inventor, futurist and author; Robert Johnson, founder and CEO, Black Entertainment Television (BET) and owner, NBA Charlotte Bobcats; Bob Dole, former Presidential candidate; and Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University Men’s Basketball Coach…just to name a few.

Find out more about past Venture conferences and their line-up of speakers and presenting companies:

• Venture 2006
• Venture 2005
• Venture 2004
• Venture 2003