Due to an overwhelming response, registration is now closed for the 2013 I2V, we hope to see you next year! Thank you.

2013 I2V Keynote Speaker 

Rich Tarrant Jr., Founder & CEO, MyWebGrocer

Rich founded MyWebGrocer in 1999. Rich was an early believer in the viability of the online grocery business and developed the company’s first generation eCommerce Platform. He has an impressive record as an entrepreneur in the retail, real estate and health care industries. Rich is a graduate of the University of Vermont and holds a Business degree.

1:30-      John Evans- At podium on stage w/ microphone-  Welcome: Thank you for joining us for the 8^th Annual  Invention2Venture Conference.

1:50-      John introduces Rich Tarrant, MWG: 20 minute talk, 10 min. Q&A

2:30-      Session #1 Roundtable

3:00-      networking/food

3:15-      Session #2 Roundtable

3:45-      networking/food

4:00-      Session #3 Roundtable

4:30-      Roundtable ends – move into reception/bar, appetizers

Roundtable discussions

 I.P Protection

Kathryn Doyle, Partner, Riverside Law

 

Kathryn has extensive experience in the Life Sciences industry as an academic scientist, a patent agent and a lawyer. Kathryn began her career as a virologist and cell and molecular biologist, and made the switch to patent law over 20 years ago. She worked her way through evening law school as a patent agent and very quickly developed a loyal client following in both the university and small and large biotech company sectors. Prior to forming Riverside Law, Kathryn was head of the Life Sciences Team and co-chair of the women’s committee at Drinker Biddle & Reath.

Kathryn is well versed in all aspects of life sciences patent law, including all biotechnology-related areas in medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, genomics, devices and tools. Her clients include biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies as well as venture capitalists and universities. She is experienced in patent procurement, post-grant procedures, due diligence, infringement and invalidity opinions, licensing, as well as strategic counseling and patent portfolio management. She also provides assistance in patent litigation. Kathryn has been an invited speaker at many national and international conferences and is a core faculty member of the BIO Boot Camp since its inception in 2005. The BIO Boot Camp is a forum devoted to helping entrepreneurs acquire the expertise to launch biotech companies.

Fda regulated: go to market issues

Bethany Hills, Partner, Hodgson Russ Attorneys

Professional Experience: Ms. Hills focuses her practice on reimbursement, regulatory and compliance guidance for the health care industry. She focuses on the complex laws that govern provider billing and referral relationships that often involve intense regulatory scrutiny and enforcement. Specifically, Ms. Hills assists clients with compliance issues to prevent federal or state False Claims Act prosecution in both the health care and life sciences industries. She represents providers in Medicare and Medicaid audits and rate appeals, including PRRB appeals, and assists clients with third party payor reimbursement issues. Ms. Hills represents clients in investigations by various government entities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Investigator General, New York Office of Medicaid Inspector General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, New York State Department of Health, and Office of Professional Misconduct and Physician Discipline.

Ms. Hills assists clients with development of compliance programs, including drafting corporate policies, codes of conduct, training programs, and dealing with reporting and disclosure of noncompliance.

Finding the Money: Financial Resources in Vermont

Janice St. Onge, Deputy Dir., VT Sustainable Jobs Fund, President, VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, L3C

Janice St. Onge is Deputy Director of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and President of the VSJF Flexible Capital Fund, L3C. Janice brings economic and business development as well as financial expertise to the organization, having served in the technology and financial services industries, as well as higher education and state government sectors during her 25-year career. Ms. St. Onge has 10 years of experience at Peoples United Bank in Connecticut serving in retail management, commercial real estate lending (managing a $21 million portfolio) and organizational development roles during her tenure there.

Jo Bradley, Chief Executive Officer, VT Economic Development Authority

Ms. Bradley became Chief Executive Officer of the Vermont Economic Development Authority in February, 1997. Her previous professional experience includes the positions of Deputy Secretary at the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, Commercial Loan Officer at the Vermont Economic Development Authority, and Vice President at Solomon Brothers, Inc. in Boston. Jo graduated with Honors from Johnson State College, earning a B.A., and from the Boston University School of Management with an M.B.A. in Finance. She also completed the Program for Senior Executives in state and local government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Jo served as the State Government representative on the 2007 National Advisory Committee of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), and she serves on numerous state and local boards. 

Andrew Stickney, Vice President, the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies

Andrew Stickney is currently the Vice President of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, a business incubator and seed venture fund in Burlington & Middlebury, VT.  At VCET he has co-founded UVM Start, a crowdfunding platform for students, Tech@Vermont – a networking series designed help entrepreneurs meet investors and other resources statewide, and is the board observer for Vtrim Healthy Weight Management, Aprexis Inc., and Electrocell Technologies.   Andrew assists portfolio and incubator companies with marketing and outreach, client services, and managing the Burlington and Middlebury Vermont facilities.  He most recently served as a Director of Client Programs to assist incubator clients with marketing analysis, market segmentation, promotional material and strategic decision making. Andrew has experience working on independent startups; both web based and retail as well as sales and marketing for a Fortune 500 CPG firm.  He graduated from the University of Vermont with an MBA and a B.S. in Business Administration and Marketing.

Lessons Learned from a CEO

Jack Glaser, President and co-founder, MBF Bioscience

Jack Glaser is the co-founder and has been President and owner of MBF Bioscience for over 20 years. Jack led the company from startup though steady organic growth to a worldwide provider of cutting edge tools for scientific researchers. His proven strengths lie in implementing technology to solve complex biological analysis problems and in establishing productive, creative, and fulfilling business organizations. Jack has been the principle investigator at MBF in more than 10 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant awards from the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation. In 2007, he received the United States Small Business Administration’s Vermont Small Business Person of the Year award for outstanding leadership related to the company’s staying power, growth, sales, innovation, and community contributions. MBF Bioscience develops computer-microscope systems for biological research with a particular emphasis on the field of Neuroscience. MBF software is used in over 1000 laboratories worldwide to understand the workings of the brain and research cures for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, MS, depression, Autism, suicide, as well as to study memory, learning, development, and aging.  With approximately 40 employees in offices in the US, Europe, Japan and China, and a dealer network including India, Korea, Turkey, South America, and Australia the company has annual revenues of approximately 10 million dollars.

SBIR/STTR/EPSCoR Phase 0

Robert Davis, MS, L.Ac., CEO and co-founder, Stromatec, Inc.

Robert is the CEO and co-founder of Stromatec, Inc., a Burlington based medical device R&D company. Stromatec specializes in clinical tools that diagnose and monitor musculoskeletal connective tissue pathology associated with common costly and debilitating problems such as musculoskeletal pain and stiffness. Stromatec is a tech transfer spinoff originating from the innovative work of Dr. Helene Langevin at the UVM College of Medicine. Robert has been the Principle Investigator of six NIH SBIR grants totaling over $3M.

Patrick Clemins, Vermont EPSCoR

Patrick is the Cyber Specialist for the Vermont EPSCoR program. In this role, he provides support to students and researchers across the state of Vermont using high performance computing (HPC) resources and promotes the proliferation of Internet2 access for Vermont’s schools, museums, libraries, and other research and educational institutions. He is also responsible for Vermont EPSCoR’s commercial sector outreach programs.

Industry Collaboration: Private SEctor Success

Lennart Lundblad, Research Assistant Professor, Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, UVM

Education: Ph.D. Dept. of Clinical Physiology, Malmö, Lund University, Sweden B.Sc. Zoophysiology, University of Lund, Sweden Pre-clinical Project Manager, AstraZeneca AB 1999 – 2000 Research Scientist, Astra AB 1993 – 2000 Research Associate, Draco AB 1987 – 1993 Research Associate and lecturer, Dep. Animal physiology, Lund University 1985 – 2000 Research Associate (2001-present); Dept. of Medicine, University of Vermont. Research Interests: My main research interests focus on lung mechanics in human as well as in laboratory animals. Asthma COPD Thoracic gas volume Airway pharmacology.

How to Build a Business Team

Steve Arms, Principle, Swarms Ventures, LLC

Mr. Arms received his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Vermont in 1983.  Mr. Arms is founder and President of MicroStrain, Inc., a Vermont based manufacturer of micro-displacement sensors, miniaturized inertial sensors, and wireless sensing systems for tracking and reporting structural component loads and strains.   He has been awarded 58 US patents, published over 25 journal articles, and contributed to over 50 abstracts in areas of advanced instrumentation, wireless sensing, and energy harvesting.   Mr. Arms resigned in October of 2012 as Director of Sensing Systems for the Lord Corporation, which acquired MicroStrain in a successful asset transaction in September of 2012.  In January 2013 Arms founded Swarms Ventures, LLC to invest in young, dynamic companies with great ideas.

The Pitch: Getting to Yes

Lars Hasselblad Torres, Director, Office of the Creative Economy, Agency of Commerce and Community Development

Lars Hasselblad Torres is a web developer, artist, and educator and the founder/manager at Local 64. His creative journey started as a teenager when he had a passion for surfboard design (he lived in Senegal at the time). When that didn’t pan out, in university he became deeply interested in the role the arts – especially informal “making” – can play in community development. To date, this journey has led to many creative people and opportunities, including producer of MIT’s Global Challenge,founder of the Global Peace Tiles Project.  His last full-time position was as an innovation advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is currently focused on building Local 64 as a platform for creative community engagement in Vermont.

Corporate Structure

Rocki Lee DeWitt,  Professor, School of  Business Administration, UVM

Rocki-Lee DeWitt is a Professor of Management in the School of Business at the University of Vermont. She earned her Ph.D. at Columbia University in strategic management, her M.S. at The Ohio State University in agricultural economics and her B.S. in marketing and management at New York University. Dr. DeWitt worked for International Harvester and Case-IH in a variety of sales management roles, assisting the companies’ efforts to enhance the marketing and inventory management practices of their agricultural dealer network. Dr. DeWitt is committed to teaching innovation and student and alumni engagement in case research. She has received numerous teaching awards and presented her teaching innovations at multiple national conferences. Her research on downsizing and restructuring has been published in top tier journals.

Jeff McMahan, Partner, Dinse Knapp McAndrew Attorneys

Mr. McMahan is a corporate and intellectual property lawyer, advising businesses on issues related to formation, mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, technology licensing, trademarks and copyrights. Mr. McMahan’s clients range from entrepreneurial start-ups to publicly-held companies. He has particular experience representing software vendors and purchasers in the negotiation of computer system implementation, license and support agreements. Mr. McMahan also advises clients on the selection of trademarks and assists with the registration of their trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. McMahan’s practice also focuses on securities matters. He has assisted both privately-held and publicly traded companies with the private placement of stock and works extensively with higher education and healthcare clients in connection with their borrowing the proceeds of tax-exempt bonds.

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