LESA Event

The Law and Entrepreneurship Student Association (LESA) is proud to present this year's Venture Capitalist Forum

Find out what a venture capitalist is looking for and hear from entrepreneurs about the benefits and difficulties of working with venture capital.

March 19, 2009
7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Lewis Lounge
Hors d'oeuvres and refreshments will be served.

RSVP to Adam Gottlieb - requested, but not mandatory

Venture capital investing has grown from a small investment pool in the 1960s and early 1970s to a mainstream asset class that is a viable and significant part of the institutional and corporate investment portfolio.

Confirmed speakers are:

• Diane Fraiman, Venture Partner, Voyager Capital

  Diane serves as a Venture Partner with Voyager and focuses on software and digital media investments in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon. With over 30 years of technology company experience in leading marketing, strategy and business development, Diane works with startups in the enterprise software, Internet/Web 2.0, and security software industries throughout the West Coast and Texas

• Wayne Embree, Founder & Managing Partner, Reference Capital

  Wayne has been a seed-stage investor since 1986, co-founding six funds with investments in nearly 100 companies. He has been the lead investor in numerous startups in the energy, environmental, life science and information technology sectors. He was a founder of Cascadia Partners and has played a major role in creating over 20 spin out companies from research universities and corporate labs. His prior experience includes policy work for the Oregon Legislative Assembly and former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt. He also served as a tactical operations officer in the U.S. Air Force from 1975 through 1980, directing real-time command, control and communications systems where he was consistently given responsibilities reserved for higher ranks.

  Wayne holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural Sciences from Western Oregon University and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. He is a board member of several companies, the Western Sustainability Institute and an advisor to TechLink, the principal technology transfer manager for the U.S. Department of Defense. He is a frequent speaker on technology commercialization and venture creation. Wayne is an active private pilot, flying classic and antique aircraft.

• Bob Wiggins, Managing Partner, Mount Hood Equity Partners

  Bob Wiggins is a well-known entrepreneur, lawyer and investor in early-stage companies in Oregon. Over the course of 20 years, Mr.Wiggins has developed a good reputation in the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial community for honesty, intelligence and hard work. As the Managing Member of Mount Hood Equity Management, LLC, which manages the Fund, Mr. Wiggins devotes his full-time efforts to Fund business, and serves on the Boards of Directors of Routeware, Site9, Remote Technologies, and Marketsync, the Fund's four portfolio companies.

  LESA organizers for the Venture Capitalist Forum are Josh Brown, Bill Sedlak, or Adam Gottlieb.

LESA sponsors events such as Law of Beer, Intellectual Property, Law of Wine, and In-House Counsel forums in addition to offering business cards and local wine.