2007 - 2008 BRV Managers
Fund Advisors
The fund has a board of advisors, comprised of Investors, Venture Capitalists, and Faculty.
David J. BenDaniel
david.bendaniel@brv.cornell.edu
Don and Margi Berens Professor of Entrepreneurship
PhD, MIT
Professor BenDaniel holds degrees in physics and engineering. He has
been a visiting fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Business Administration.
At Cornell, he serves as a Senior Fellow of the Entrepreneurship and
Personal Enterprise Program. In addition to his teaching and research,
he has been active in investing venture capital. He held a senior
vice presidency in Textron Corporation's American research
and development division, was group vice president of Exxon Enterprises,
supervising the energy-development and technology-components groups,
and started General Electric's technical-ventures operation.
He has been featured in Fortune, Business
Week, Success Magazine, and Physics
Today, among other publications. Recently, he co-edited
a new book, International M&A, Joint Ventures and Beyond
- Doing the Deal.
Rich Marin
Rich Marin was chairman of Deutsche Asset Management
when he left the company in March 2000 to co-found B2B-Hive,
an early-stage venture capital business. He was vice chairman of BT
Alex Brown and a member of the management committee of Bankers
Trust. He is a director of six private technology companies, a
trustee of CARE, and a director of the Blue Heron Arts Center
in New York City. He is a member of the Cornell University Council,
the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise Program's advisory council,
and the College of Arts and Sciences advisory council and is president
of the class of 1975. He was also recently inducted into the Johnson
School's Hall of Honor.
Rob Ryan
Rob Ryan is a pioneer of the high-tech industry. In
1989 he founded Ascend Communications with 2.5 million in venture
capital financing. At the beginning of 1999, Ascend was sold
to Lucent for $25 billion. Shortly after taking the company
public, Ryan retired from Ascend and started his book Entrepreneur
America from his 1,000-acre ranch in Montana. He has helped launch
a string of successful companies including LookSmart, Virtmed,
RightNow, Silicon Spice, Virtual Ink,
Vellis, and NetCracker.
Zach Shulman
zjs2@cornell.edu
General Counsel
Zach Shulman teaches courses on the initial public offering process, deal structures
in the merger and acquisition arena, and law for high growth businesses. He also serves as General Counsel and
faculty advisor to BR Ventures, which includes the Big Red Venture Fund and Big Red Incubator, both student
run-organizations that provide business consulting serves and investment funds.
Prior to being appointed a senior lecturer at the Johnson School in January 2002, Shulman served, commencing in
January 1999, as General Counsel and Chief Investor Relations Officer of Spike Broadband Systems where he was
responsible for general oversight of Spike's legal function, including: negotiating and closing strategic and
business relationships; strategizing, negotiating and closing fund-raising efforts; investor relations; and
various human resource matters. Shulman brought to Spike in-depth legal and negotiating experience representing
public and private companies across a wide array of industries. While at Spike, Shulman negotiated and closed over
$80 million in venture capital financing.
Prior to joining Spike, Shulman was an associate at the law firm of Harris Beach in Ithaca, New York. At Harris
Beach, Shulman focused his practice on representing private and public corporations in a wide range of capacities,
including equity financing via private placements and venture capital, bank financing, mergers and acquisitions,
and the establishment of corporate governance policies, including advising boards of directors and executive
management. While at Harris Beach, he represented, among others, Tompkins Trust Company, CBORD, Jump.com
(sold to Microsoft for $35 million) and Bill Cooke Imports.
Before Harris Beach, Shulman was an associate at Ropes & Gray in Boston, Massachusetts, where he represented
predominantly public companies in equity and debt offerings, commercial lending, Securities and Exchange Commission
compliance, mergers and acquisitions, and executive compensation matters. While at Ropes, he represented, among
others, American Express, Allmerica Financial, Cabot Corporation, TJMaxx, PictureTel, Cabletron, AFC Cable,
BEAvionics, Applied Extrusion Technologies, Kronos Incorporated and Morgan Stanley.
Currently, Shulman consults for Reebok International and also participates in the university-wide Entrepreneurship
and Personal Enterprise (EPE) initiative.
Shulman earned a Bachelor of Science from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and
graduated from Cornell University Law School, magna cum laude.
Yael V. Hochberg
yvh3@cornell.edu
Professor Hochberg's research and teaching interests are in the area of corporate finance as it pertains to young, entrepreneurial firms and the financial intermediaries who fund them. Her research focuses on venture capital, corporate governance, earnings management and compensation policies. In addition to her doctorate in finance, she holds an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering and management and a masters degree in economics. She received the State Farm Doctoral Dissertation Award in Business in 2001-2002, and the best PhD paper award from the Financial Management Association International in 2003.
Ramesh S. Akella
Ramesh S. Akella founded and is Managing Partner of Phoenix
Capital Partners, an investment and merchant banking firm. Prior to
Phoenix, Mr. Akella was Managing Director of Dover Finance Group Ltd., a
corporate finance boutique specializing in structured finance for the media
and entertainment companies. Preceding Dover, Mr. Akella founded and served
as Head of Mergers & Acquisitions for Worldwide Media Holdings Ltd., a
principal investing firm for media & entertainment and related technology
companies. Prior to Worldwide, he headed private direct investments for a
family office and oversaw corporate development for all portfolio
investments.
Fred Beste
Fred Beste has spent his entire career in the venture capital industry, beginning in 1968 with Greater Washington Investors, Inc., a publicly held venture capital firm, where he was Vice-President and Treasurer. In 1975 he joined Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, a private venture capital development firm, where he was Vice-President and, ultimately, President and Chief Executive Officer. He joined MAVF in 1984 as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of its first general partner. MAVF is comprised of four venture capital limited partnerships totaling approximately $200 million in capital. The funds focus on seed and start-up stage investments, primarily in technology-based companies located in the mid-Atlantic.
During the course of his career, Fred has served on the boards of directors of countless operating companies and has advised and worked with thousands of entrepreneurs. He has been widely published on the subjects of venture capital and entrepreneurship, and has done extensive public speaking on both subjects as well. He was the Chairman of the 1994 Mid-Atlantic Venture Fair, the largest such event in the industry, and the recipient of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group's 1995 Blair Thompson Memorial Award for career achievement in venture capital, and Early Stage East's inaugural (2001) Sal Buccieri Memorial Venture Impact Award for early stage venture capital investment achievement. He received his B.A. in Economics from Stetson University, and for the past few years has served as a courtesy professor in the MBA program at Cornell University, where he teaches its Entrepreneurial Case Studies course.
