11:30 – 12:30 - Emerging Opportunities: Strategies in Deploying Capital


Jason Cipriani

Principal

Bank of America

Jason Cipriani is a Principal in the Strategic Investments Group at Bank of America. The Strategic Investments Group, a division of Global Principal Investments, originates, structures, and executes direct equity investments and investments in private equity funds and hedge funds that are a strategic priority for the company. As Head of Strategic Fund Investments, Cipriani is responsible for the company’s proprietary investments in private equity funds and hedge funds.


Prior to assuming his current role in 2007, Cipriani was Chief Operating Officer of the Strategic Investments Group.  From 2001 to 2004, Cipriani held various roles within Bank of America’s Global Corporate and Investment Bank.  Prior to joining Bank of America, Cipriani held corporate finance and accounting positions at Paramount/VIACOM, Time Warner Cable and PL Industries.


A native of Southern California, Cipriani earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and bachelors degrees in Finance and Management from Virginia Tech. He is a Certified Public Accountant.  Cipriani is a member on numerous limited partnership advisory boards across several sectors including domestic and international private equity, hedge funds and real estate. Active within the Charlotte community, he is co-chair of the United Way Young Leaders Council. In 2008, he was recognized as one of Charlotte’s Top 40 Business Leaders under the age of 40.


 

Laine Kenan

Executive Director

Arcapita

Laine runs the real estate business in the US.  Prior to joining Arcapita, Laine spent 13 years at the investment banking firm The Robinson-Humphrey Company, Inc., where he focused on equity capital raising and mergers & acquisitions in the real estate and technology sectors. Laine is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. Laine is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Laine is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE).


   

Mitch Mumma

Founding Partner

Intersouth Partners

Mitch Mumma is a general partner with Intersouth Partners, one of the nation’s oldest early-stage venture capital firms, managing $780 million in seven venture capital partnerships. The firm was founded in 1985 and is based in Durham, North Carolina.  Intersouth generally invests in companies throughout the Southeast from Baltimore through Florida, with an emphasis on companies located in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina.  One of the largest early-stage venture funds, it has invested in almost 100 companies, and focuses on the life sciences and technology sectors.


At Intersouth, Mitch Mumma holds primary responsibility for the firm’s technology portfolio, which includes investments in enterprise infrastructure (including software, tools and databases); processing power (including semiconductor materials and chips) and communications (such as network software and components).  He has served on the boards of more than 20 private companies for Intersouth over the last 18 years, and currently serves on the boards of five Intersouth portfolio companies: Bright Hub, Infoglide Software, TapRoot Systems, Trinity Convergence and Ziptronix. 


Prior to joining Intersouth in 1989, he served in management roles at three Intersouth portfolio companies.  Previously, he worked as a manager in the high growth business practice at Touche Ross & Co. (now Deloitte & Touche).


Mitch is a Director and former Chairman of the Board of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the United States.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA).   He is an investor and Advisory Board member of The Entrepreneur’s Philanthropic Venture Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation and serves on the Advisory Board for N.C. State University’s Engineering Entrepreneurs Program.  He has served as a mentor to the Kauffman Foundation’s Kauffman Venture Fellows Program.


Mitch is a frequent speaker on the topic of venture capital.  He is an adjunct professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he teaches and advises on the entrepreneurship curriculum. 


He received an A.B. in management science from Duke University.


 

Bill Starling

Chief Executive Officer

Synecor, LLC

William N. Starling is General Partner of Synergy Life Science Partners, LP (www.synergylsp.com) and Chief Executive Officer of Synecor, LLC, (Synecor) a business generator of new Life Science companies based in Research Triangle Park (RTP), North Carolina, Santa Rosa, California, and Portola Valley, California. Synecor (www.synecor.com) has significant academic, scientific, physician, venture capital, corporate, and investment banking partnerships and is focusing its efforts on the identification and development of proprietary, disruptive technologies with extraordinary market potential in the life sciences field.


As CEO of Synecor, Mr. Starling is a co-founder of BaroSense, Inc., Bioerodible Vascular Solutions, Inc., (acquired by Guidant/Abbott in April 2004), InnerPulse, Inc. (formerly Interventional Rhythm Management, Inc.), TransEnterix, Inc., and Interventional Autonomics Corporation, the initial five companies founded and incubated by Synecor. Mr. Starling currently serves as Chairman of the Board of InnerPulse Inc., a RTP, NC - based cardiac rhythm management company, Chairman of the Board of Interventional Autonomics Corporation, and as a board member of TransEnterix, Inc., a RTP, NC - based less invasive GI Surgery company.


William N. Starling received his BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his MBA degree from the University of Southern California. He began his 30 year career in the medical technology device industry at American Edwards Laboratories (Edwards LifeSciences - NYSE:EW). He was subsequently part of the founding management team and Director of Marketing for Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Inc. (acquired by Guidant/Abbott), and was a cofounder, Vice President and Board member of Ventritex, Inc. (acquired by St. Jude Medical). In 1992, Mr. Starling was a cofounder and Chairman of the Board of Directors and President/CEO of Cardiac Pathways Corporation (acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation), and was responsible for raising significant capital from the early venture capital period through an initial public offering in 1996.


Mr. Starling has been primarily responsible for raising over $300 million in private and public capital for the companies that he has co-founded and the combined revenues of these companies exceeds $2.75 billion annually. In addition to the companies that he has co-founded, Mr. Starling has made private investments in the initial equity financings of over 40 startup companies and has served/is a Board member in over 20 early stage life science companies.  


Mr. Starling serves on the Board of Visitors of the Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the External Advisory Board of the Stanford Stroke Center at the Stanford University Medical Center.


Moderated By:

Ryan Naftulin

Partner

Cooley Godward Kronish, LLP

Ryan Naftulin is a partner in the Cooley Godward Business department. He joined the Firm in 1998 in the firm’s Silicon Valley offices, and moved to the firm's metro-DC offices in 2002.  Mr. Naftulin's practice focuses on the representation of issuers and investors in the formation and financing of emerging technology and life sciences companies, as well as counseling emerging companies with respect to mergers and acquisitions, strategic relationships, recapitalizations, public offerings and general corporate matters.  He has taught seminars on venture capital transactions at the University of Michigan Business School and University of Michigan Law School, and for the University of Virginia Darden School of Business's "Venture Boot Camp."  Mr. Naftulin serves on the National Venture Capital Association committee for model venture capital financing documents and has also moderated a webcast for that group regarding venture capital deal structures.  Mr. Naftulin has served on a panel entitled "Beyond the Series A Financing Issues to Consider on Subsequent Financings" at the American Bar Association's Section of Business Law annual spring meeting. In October of 2007, Mr. Naftulin was selected for the 2008 edition of The Best Lawyers of America. He was also selected for the 2009 edition of Washington DC's Best Lawyers.


Mr. Naftulin received his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1998. He received his M.B.A from the University of Michigan Business School and his B.A in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.  Mr. Naftulin is a member of the State Bar of California, the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar.