Andre will speak about the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), a US government program assisting small businesses by  providing competitive opportunities and stimulating innovation. Andre was a research staff member at IBM T.J. Watson in Hawthorne, N.Y for five years, and subsequenty held a number of industry positions in Silicon Valley, notably at Multigen-Paradigm and Sportvision. (Return)

Anne-Marie Roussel is Senior Director of Strategic and Emerging Business for Microsoft. She manages Microsoft’s Digital Media portfolio, evaluating startups for acquisition/partnership with Xbox, Surface, Zune and Mobile Entertainment groups. She also manages relationships with VCs investing in these areas.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Anne-Marie was Vice President, Research at Gartner Group in Paris. During her 10-year career at Gartner, Anne Marie was responsible for advising private and corporate funds on strategic investment trends and individual opportunities in emerging IT companies in the US and Europe. She also launched and managed “Gartner Invest” – Gartner’s service targeted at the investment community. She managed Gartner’s “Cool Vendors” report - recognizing the best and brightest startups in the industry – and the yearly Predictions report. (Return)

Fabien is the founder and CEO of PeerPong, a company building technology and applications focused on social search. He came in the Silicon Valley 2 years ago, established the company, raised funds with Angel investors and recently closed a VC round with Partech International. Fabien graduated from Ecole Centrale IG2I and ESC Management School. (Return)

Creator of the Entrepreneur Commons, Marc is an entrepreneur with more than 15 years management experience, including experience in starting and managing businesses in various fields (High Tech, Software, SaaS). He is currently a managing partner at Melcion Chassagne & Cie providing business coaching and advisory services to small businesses and entrepreneurs, helping them through the various phases of their lifecycle. Marc will be presenting the Entrepreneur Commons program. (Return)

Stephen represents a broad range of companies from privately held start-up companies to publicly traded corporations. He has extensive experience in all aspects of corporate transactions and assists clients with the negotiation and consummation of mergers, stock sales, asset acquisitions and other reorganizations. Mr. Clinton regularly assists with cross-border transactions.

He assists clients in equity financings, convertible debt offerings, and venture capital transactions. His practice also consists of representing emerging growth companies in all aspects of business and corporate transactions, including entity formation, entity governance and business planning issues. (Return)