Leveraging the Downturn to Find Opportunity

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Leveraging the Downturn to Find Opportunity

Business builders, leaders and buyers share counter-cyclical wisdom and entrepreneurial success stories Co-hosted by MITEF and WTIA

It takes a special kind of leader to find opportunity when everyone else only sees doom and gloom. Counter-cyclical businesses have unique characteristics, and can result in some of the biggest wins. But today, silver linings are not enough - the question is how to leverage success in the midst of current economic realities.

On May 20^th, join MITEF's last Dinner Forum of the season moderated by Mark Britton, CEO of AVVO, as our panel of savvy business leaders share strategies for how they turn any economic situation into long-term advantage:

David Bluhm, a key contributor in multiple start-ups, including Zero260, Medio Systems, NextMedium, GoTV and HandsOn Mobile
Marc Brown, Managing Director, Corporate Development, Microsoft Corporation
Thomas S. Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures
Linden Rhoads, Vice Provost, University of Washington TechTransfer

Our stellar line-up of economic veterans will share their experience with hundreds of deals resulting from disasters to public offerings in a myriad of economic cycles, as well as stories about how they survived previous downturns, including what worked and what didn't. Their valuable insights will spark ideas to help you survive the current crisis, strive and position your business for future success.

Explored topics include:

The types of companies, products and services that thrive in a challenging economy
Creative solutions for the current problems entrepreneurs are facing
Industries, geographies and technologies that provide increased opportunities now
What to do when you don't know what to do

Biographies

Moderator

Mark Britton, founder and CEO, AVVO

Mark is the founder and CEO of Avvo (www.avvo.com). Prior to founding Avvo, Mark was the executive vice president of Worldwide Corporate Affairs of InterActiveCorp Travel and Expedia, Inc. In this position, Mark oversaw all finance, strategy, corporate development, legal, human resources and government relations functions for the InterActiveCorp travel companies.

Before Expedia's acquisition by InterActiveCorp, Mark was Expedia's senior vice president, general counsel and secretary and in this role built Expedia's legal and government relations teams from scratch. Prior to joining Expedia, Mark was an attorney and equity partner-elect at Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP. Mark received his law degree from George Washington University.

In 2007, Mark was named one of Seattle's "Top 25 Innovators" by Seattle Business Monthly Magazine. Mark is also a frequent commentator on financial, legal and other business issues, regularly appearing on programs such as ABC's Good Morning America, Fox Business' "America's Nightly Scoreboard" and CNN Money.

Panelists

Marc Brown, Senior Managing Director, Corporate Development Group, Microsoft Corp.

Marc Brown is a senior managing director in the Corporate Development Group at Microsoft Corp., where he has been employed since January 2000. From May 1998 to December 1999, he was an associate in the Private Equity and Emerging Companies Group of the law firm Goodwin, Procter & Hoar LLP. Before that, he was an associate in the Mergers and Acquisition and Merchant Banking groups at the Union Bank of Switzerland, from 1987 to 1991.

Brown holds a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Georgetown University Law Center, an MBA in finance from New York University and a bachelor of arts in economics from Colgate University.

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Thomas S. Huseby, Managing Partner, SeaPoint Ventures

In 1997 Tom formed SeaPoint Ventures. Prior to forming SeaPoint Ventures, Tom co-founded and was the first CEO of Metawave Communications Corporation, a manufacturer of cellular infrastructure equipment. Before Metawave, he was the first president and CEO of Innova Corporation, a manufacturer of digital millimeter wave radios. Tom spent the first seventeen years of his career at Raychem Corporation where he held a variety of executive positions in Europe, South America and the U.S. His last position at Raychem was Group Vice President of the Industrial Products Group.

Tom is currently Chairman of the Board of Ontela and Zumobi Inc. and a board member of Airspan, Hubspan, Kineto Wireless, Modiv Media, Mojix, and SinglePoint. He is past chairman of Qpass, SNAPin Software, Telecom Transport Management and past board member of Tegic. In addition to his duties at SeaPoint Ventures, Tom serves as a venture partner at Oak Investment Partners, and Hunt Ventures and is a strategic advisor to Voyager Capital.

Tom has a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a BSIE from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Linden Rhoads, Vice Provost, UW TechTransfer

Linden Rhoads is the Vice Provost of UW TechTransfer, the university unit that facilitates the intellectual property protection and commercialization of UW research. Prior to joining UW TechTransfer, Ms. Rhoads was a veteran executive in the Seattle high tech community. She co-founded or served as a director or interim CEO of a number of successful Seattle-based startups, including ChiliSoft, Singingfish.com, AdRelevance, and Nimble Technology.

A graduate of Smith College, Ms. Rhoads majored in Geophysics. While working full time, she attended the UW School of Law, where she focused on intellectual property. Ms. Rhoads has been an active member of the UW community, serving on the board of the Washington Technology Center, the Dean's Advisory Board at the UW Law School, the steering committee for the UW Law School Capital Campaign and the campaign committee for the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering.

If you would like to volunteer for this dinner event please contact Lorry Ruml lorryruml@earthlink.net