Anirudh Singh joined Canaan Partners’ India office in December 2009 as an Investment Analyst. He currently helps support the firm’s Indian investments across a diverse range of sectors, including digital media and advertising, financial services, e-commerce, outsourcing, healthcare, telecom and energy/infrastructure.

Prior to joining Canaan, Anirudh was an Assistant Manager at Deloitte in the corporate finance practice in Gurgaon, India. At Deloitte, Anirudh worked on M&A advisory assignments in the energy and infrastructure space. Previously, Anirudh interned with General Atlantic Partners in Mumbai, where he was involved in deal sourcing, sector mapping, and financial and strategic due diligence across sectors such as healthcare, IT, energy and infrastructure.

Anirudh received his Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad. While at IIMA, Anirudh managed an INR 10 million-fund for investment in early-stage companies in the cleantech area. Anirudh also co-founded the first Venture Capital and Private Equity club across all of the IIM campuses in India.  He earned a BE degree in electrical engineering from Thapar University, Punjab.

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s investments in, and served on the boards of, several global technology companies, including Arbor Networks, Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco in August 2006), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola in July 2006), CommunityConnect, Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom in October 2006), netForensics, ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire. Before joining the venture community, Warren gained deep operational experience, serving as an engineer and project manager at Solectron Corp., a corporate development manager at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and an investment banker in Alex Brown’s technology group.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of Associated Content, Motionbox, Peer39, Tremor Media and Vivox.

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Mark Mangiola joined Canaan in 2001 after over 20 years in operational leadership roles in the cable and broadband industry. Mark invests in communications companies that are transforming the delivery of digital media, as well as new consumer content companies that meld entertainment with interactivity. Mark has a visionary outlook about how consumers will watch and interact with content in the future, having participated first hand in the early emergence of both cable TV and the Internet. He also supports key clean tech opportunities. Mark actively participated in Canaan’s investment in Ellacoya (acquired by Arbor Networks), a rapidly-growing broadband service optimization company.

A super-connected industry veteran, Mark leverages his network to fill key executive positions at Canaan’s portfolio firms and helps them spearhead strategic relationships with industry-leading corporations. Prior to Canaan, Mark served as CEO of @Home Solutions, a division of Excite@Home. He was previously the President and CEO of Positive Communications and an Executive VP at KBLCOM/Time Warner.

When Mark is not thinking about how consumer-generated video will change the world, he is sprinting around a track. A passionate athlete, Mark coaches high-school and college track athletes and never misses a Meet of Champions track meet.

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With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan in March 2006 to lead the firm’s India operations. In India, Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services.

Prior to Canaan, Alok was an entrepreneur and private investor, and was a founding member of Indian Angel Network (formerly, Band of Angels India). Committed to working hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful Indian technology companies, Alok was instrumental in Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, the world’s largest consumer Internet site for matrimonial services, and iYogi, which leverages the power of the Internet to offer high-quality, low-cost tech support to global consumers, and Cellcast, Asia’s leading participation content company.

Previously, Alok led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners India, where he focused on investments in software services, BPO, the Internet and telecom. He was also co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a web-based recruitment business that was later acquired by Monster.com. Previously, he worked for Hughes Software Systems, the leading provider of telecom software and systems in India. He currently serves on the boards of Bharat Matrimony, Cellcast, iYogi, MotorExchange and UnitedLex.

Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.

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Seth Rudnick’s comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases. Since he joined the firm in 1998, Seth has led investments in Adlyfe, developer of innovative diagnostic that can detect fatal brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease in the blood before symptoms occur; Cylex, a diagnostics company that has transformed the ability of doctors measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients; and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Seth led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Seth was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Seth began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

Seth was a Yale Fellow in medical oncology where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar. He received his medical training at Washington University Barnes Hospital. He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia and holds a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Seth was named to the Midas List, a prominent venture capital ranking of the best dealmakers in technology and life science. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, teaching and advising faculty members on biotechnology issues.

He currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Chimerix, Cylex, ORTHOCON, Sopherion, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.

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Guy Russo has served as the CFO and Administrative General Partner at Canaan since 1997. He has over eighteen years of finance and administrative experience in venture capital. In his role at Canaan he has lead the development of several custom systems utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.  Prior to joining Canaan as Controller in 1988, Guy worked with investment firms and entrepreneurial companies for over four years as a Senior Accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young.  Guy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a CPA.

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As head of Canaan’s Israel operations since 2005, Izhar Shay focuses on building great companies in communications and mobility, software, clean technologies and digital media. He also seeks key investments in medical devices. Izhar led Canaan’s investments in LiveU, Efficient Finance, EnStorage, Prime Sense and N-trig. Izhar also oversees Canaan’s local involvement in other Israeli companies.

With more than 20 years of operational experience as a successful entrepreneur, Izhar was previously Chairman and CEO of V-Secure Technologies, which he grew to a leading position in the intrusion prevention market. The company was acquired by Radware (RDWR) in November 2005. Prior to V-Secure, Izhar was CEO and co-founder of Business Layers, a Canaan portfolio company. Izhar led Business Layers from startup to a dominant player position in the identity management market, until it was acquired by Netegrity (NETE) in December 2003. Izhar was previously VP of Business Development with international investment firm The BRM Group.

Izhar holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. He was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Izhar is involved in various volunteer activities related to the education of young students in Israel.  He serves on the board of directors of Snunit, a nonprofit organization, specializing in integrating technology and the Internet into Israel’s elementary schools. Izhar is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ort Israel, the country’s largest technology education organization. He writes a weekly column at Globes, and his book “As Beautiful As You” was recently published.  In his free time he dabbles in amateur video production.

Izhar serves on the board of directors of LiveU, Efficient Finance, N-trig and Prime Sense.

Read Izhar’s blog in English:  Israel 2.0
Read Izhar’s blog in Hebrew:  Israel 2.0
Izhar’s Book:  As Beautiful As You

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Hrach Simonian joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in January 2007 and is an Associate on the Technology team. He focuses on the firm’s digital media & communications and enterprise software & services investment efforts. 

Prior to joining Canaan, Hrach served as the digital media Research Associate at Rutberg & Company. The research groups coverage spanned product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, and services. Previously, Hrach held several positions at Northrop Grumman in the solid state laser research & development department conducting experiments in high power laser research and beam manipulation.

Hrach earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where his research focused on neuronal networks, linear systems analysis, and solid-state lasers. He also earned and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA specializing in biomedical engineering.

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Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha loves to work with some of the nation’s smartest entrepreneurs to build innovative companies from the ground up. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

At Canaan, Maha helped to negotiate and manage a partnership between Tacit Networks and Brocade, and established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec and MiNO Wireless.  Maha also led the firm’s investments in PicksPal and Watercooler, both leading community applications via social networking platforms.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Previous board seats include PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media), Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Mobilitec (acquired by Lucent). Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. In her limited free time, Maha likes to flyfish, play tennis and indulge in her passion for shoes. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons. 

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Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients.  Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Apieron Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc.  Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS) , BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an AB in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs. Beyond her community service involvements, Wende’s first love is a field biology hike or lecture. 

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Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers.

Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates.

At Canaan, Dan sits on the board of Lending Club, an innovative online lending community where people borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates; OpenSky, a community of shoppers, suppliers, & shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops; Paragon Lake, a web-based service that is revolutionizing the jewelry market by empowering consumers and independent jewelers to design fully personalized, high-quality jewelry; and Peer39, the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.  In addition to his work with Canaan, Dan is on the boards of three public companies: Primedia (PRM), one of the world’s leading targeted media companies; VistaPrint (VRPT), which supplies more than 10 million global customers with customized printed products online; and leading graphics software company Corel (CREL).

Dan earned an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from Yale University. Dan is committed to improving the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia. After serving in 1980 as Director of Educational Programs for the UN-funded Sakaeo Refugee Camp in Thailand – where he lived in a teak stilt house in the middle of a remote rice paddy – Dan has continued to support volunteer organizations in that part of the world.

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Having been an entrepreneur and practicing physician, Dr. Stephen Bloch knows first hand the challenges of building successful healthcare companies. He draws on his medical, academic and research experience, to make winning investments in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure.  Stephen led Canaan’s investment in Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral therapies for the management of genetic diseases such as Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s Disease.  Amicus achieved the largest pre-money IPO valuation for an early clinical biotech company since 2000.

Previous to joining Canaan in 2002, Stephen founded Radiology Management Sciences (RMS), a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services, where he was CEO for six years. After founding RMS, Stephen helped start and served as medical director of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, which is commercializing novel ultrasonic devices to treat vascular occlusive disease. He also co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company.

In addition to his operational experience, Stephen worked as a strategic consultant with global consultancy Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Stephen started his career as a practicing radiologist. In addition to his board role at Amicus Therapeutics, Stephen is a director of Advanced BioHealing, which develops and markets regenerative wound healing therapies; Cylex, a global life science company that has transformed the ability of doctors to measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients, infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity; Liquidia, a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for a variety of life and material science applications.  In life sciences, Liquidia has established development programs in vaccines and extensive industry collaborations in inhaled therapeutics, cancer and siRNA delivery; Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a leader in development of drugs to treat serious neurological disorders; and Viacor, a pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac valve repair.

Stephen received his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester, a MA in the history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. Stephen was honored as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in 2002, an educational program that develops future leaders of the global venture capital industry.

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John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi and Silicon Optix, mobile company Command Audio, and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

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Gina is a seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of experience advising executives from large international organizations to early-stage startups across a variety of industries. She joined Canaan in 2007 to manage the firm’s marketing, entrepreneur relations, corporate communications, branding and public relations. At Canaan, Gina has developed a unique Portfolio Support Program that delivers valuable insights, networking opportunities and market recognition to help build high-performance companies.  In this capacity, Gina and the Canaan team published the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, a hands-on guide on how to pitch to venture capitalists.  This workbook has received recognition on social networking sites, as well in worldwide publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week Online.

Prior to joining Canaan, Gina held Director-level marketing positions at Bitpass, a digital media payments startup; GlobalWare Solutions, an eBusiness supply chain leader; and Fatbrain.com, the leader in online B2B book sales, acquired by Barnes & Noble.com.  Gina’s trademark is her ability to combine solid traditional marketing expertise with a keen understanding of the e-Business marketplace. In this capacity, she has provided strategic branding and marketing services to some of the industry’s most respected brands, including “…For Dummies®” and Cliffs Notes® books; BlackBerry® Accessories; iUniverse, a leading print-on-demand platform; and Creative Labs, makers of Zen.

Gina received her BA from University of California, Santa Barbara.  She is a member of the American Marketing Association.

Brent Ahrens is passionate about investing in cutting edge medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutic treatments. Since joining Canaan in 1999, Brent has led successful investments in novel medical companies such as Cerexa (FRX), one of the largest private biotech M&As in history; DexCom (DXCM), the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (JNJ), acquired by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary; and Revivant (ZOLL), a cutting edge medical device company acquired by ZOLL.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent honed his operational and investing skills at a variety of top tier companies, including General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and IAP Research, a developer of technologies for defense and industrial applications. During his career, Brent diversified his healthcare experience, working in a variety of sales, marketing, business development and technical roles. His technical expertise as a professional engineer with several patents to his credit is also an invaluable asset to Canaan’s innovation-driven portfolio companies.

Brent currently sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, a revolutionary “soft tissue fixation technology” that enables surgeons to reliably place and shape soft tissue without sutures, pins, or screws during a variety of orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive procedures; CoAxia, a pioneering device company focused on acute stroke treatment; Data Sciences International, a pioneer and the global leader in implantable wireless sensors for medical research; Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs; Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the development of new aerosol therapies for the treatment of COPD; Novare Surgical Systems, maker of RealHand technology, which represents an entirely new category of High Dexterity (HD) instruments for minimally invasive surgery and is first full range of motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments; Pavad Medical, the first device company to develop system-based approach for the treatment of sleep apnea; and Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2007, Brent was included on the Forbes Midas List, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and life sciences. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program designed to identify, develop and network future leaders of the global venture capital industry. An avid runner, Brent can also be found tinkering on home carpentry projects when time permits.

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Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

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Deepak Kamra has a knack for identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software.  Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events.

He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and his recent IPO, SuccessFactors, is the leading company in human performance and talent management. He currently sits on the boards of technology-driven global companies such as e4e, providing next generation business process services; Groundwork OpenSource, the leader in performance monitoring; Zmanda, the leader in open source backup software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world.  He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com, Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications, Impulse! Buy Network, iPrint.com, Latitude Communications, PriorityCall Management, Recourse Technologies and SalesLogix.  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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NEW DELHI LOCAL TIME:

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s investments in, and served on the boards of, several global technology companies, including Arbor Networks, Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco in August 2006), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola in July 2006), CommunityConnect, Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom in October 2006), netForensics, ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire. Before joining the venture community, Warren gained deep operational experience, serving as an engineer and project manager at Solectron Corp., a corporate development manager at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and an investment banker in Alex Brown’s technology group.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of Associated Content, Motionbox, Peer39, Tremor Media and Vivox.

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Mark Mangiola joined Canaan in 2001 after over 20 years in operational leadership roles in the cable and broadband industry. Mark invests in communications companies that are transforming the delivery of digital media, as well as new consumer content companies that meld entertainment with interactivity. Mark has a visionary outlook about how consumers will watch and interact with content in the future, having participated first hand in the early emergence of both cable TV and the Internet. He also supports key clean tech opportunities. Mark actively participated in Canaan’s investment in Ellacoya (acquired by Arbor Networks), a rapidly-growing broadband service optimization company.

A super-connected industry veteran, Mark leverages his network to fill key executive positions at Canaan’s portfolio firms and helps them spearhead strategic relationships with industry-leading corporations. Prior to Canaan, Mark served as CEO of @Home Solutions, a division of Excite@Home. He was previously the President and CEO of Positive Communications and an Executive VP at KBLCOM/Time Warner.

When Mark is not thinking about how consumer-generated video will change the world, he is sprinting around a track. A passionate athlete, Mark coaches high-school and college track athletes and never misses a Meet of Champions track meet.

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With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan in March 2006 to lead the firm’s India operations. In India, Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services.

Prior to Canaan, Alok was an entrepreneur and private investor, and was a founding member of Indian Angel Network (formerly, Band of Angels India). Committed to working hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful Indian technology companies, Alok was instrumental in Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, the world’s largest consumer Internet site for matrimonial services, and iYogi, which leverages the power of the Internet to offer high-quality, low-cost tech support to global consumers, and Cellcast, Asia’s leading participation content company.

Previously, Alok led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners India, where he focused on investments in software services, BPO, the Internet and telecom. He was also co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a web-based recruitment business that was later acquired by Monster.com. Previously, he worked for Hughes Software Systems, the leading provider of telecom software and systems in India. He currently serves on the boards of Bharat Matrimony, Cellcast, iYogi, MotorExchange and UnitedLex.

Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.

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Seth Rudnick’s comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases. Since he joined the firm in 1998, Seth has led investments in Adlyfe, developer of innovative diagnostic that can detect fatal brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease in the blood before symptoms occur; Cylex, a diagnostics company that has transformed the ability of doctors measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients; and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Seth led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Seth was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Seth began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

Seth was a Yale Fellow in medical oncology where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar. He received his medical training at Washington University Barnes Hospital. He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia and holds a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Seth was named to the Midas List, a prominent venture capital ranking of the best dealmakers in technology and life science. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, teaching and advising faculty members on biotechnology issues.

He currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Chimerix, Cylex, ORTHOCON, Sopherion, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.

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Guy Russo has served as the CFO and Administrative General Partner at Canaan since 1997. He has over eighteen years of finance and administrative experience in venture capital. In his role at Canaan he has lead the development of several custom systems utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.  Prior to joining Canaan as Controller in 1988, Guy worked with investment firms and entrepreneurial companies for over four years as a Senior Accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young.  Guy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a CPA.

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As head of Canaan’s Israel operations since 2005, Izhar Shay focuses on building great companies in communications and mobility, software, clean technologies and digital media. He also seeks key investments in medical devices. Izhar led Canaan’s investments in LiveU, Efficient Finance, EnStorage, Prime Sense and N-trig. Izhar also oversees Canaan’s local involvement in other Israeli companies.

With more than 20 years of operational experience as a successful entrepreneur, Izhar was previously Chairman and CEO of V-Secure Technologies, which he grew to a leading position in the intrusion prevention market. The company was acquired by Radware (RDWR) in November 2005. Prior to V-Secure, Izhar was CEO and co-founder of Business Layers, a Canaan portfolio company. Izhar led Business Layers from startup to a dominant player position in the identity management market, until it was acquired by Netegrity (NETE) in December 2003. Izhar was previously VP of Business Development with international investment firm The BRM Group.

Izhar holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. He was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Izhar is involved in various volunteer activities related to the education of young students in Israel.  He serves on the board of directors of Snunit, a nonprofit organization, specializing in integrating technology and the Internet into Israel’s elementary schools. Izhar is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ort Israel, the country’s largest technology education organization. He writes a weekly column at Globes, and his book “As Beautiful As You” was recently published.  In his free time he dabbles in amateur video production.

Izhar serves on the board of directors of LiveU, Efficient Finance, N-trig and Prime Sense.

Read Izhar’s blog in English:  Israel 2.0
Read Izhar’s blog in Hebrew:  Israel 2.0
Izhar’s Book:  As Beautiful As You

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Hrach Simonian joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in January 2007 and is an Associate on the Technology team. He focuses on the firm’s digital media & communications and enterprise software & services investment efforts. 

Prior to joining Canaan, Hrach served as the digital media Research Associate at Rutberg & Company. The research groups coverage spanned product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, and services. Previously, Hrach held several positions at Northrop Grumman in the solid state laser research & development department conducting experiments in high power laser research and beam manipulation.

Hrach earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where his research focused on neuronal networks, linear systems analysis, and solid-state lasers. He also earned and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA specializing in biomedical engineering.

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Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha loves to work with some of the nation’s smartest entrepreneurs to build innovative companies from the ground up. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

At Canaan, Maha helped to negotiate and manage a partnership between Tacit Networks and Brocade, and established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec and MiNO Wireless.  Maha also led the firm’s investments in PicksPal and Watercooler, both leading community applications via social networking platforms.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Previous board seats include PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media), Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Mobilitec (acquired by Lucent). Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. In her limited free time, Maha likes to flyfish, play tennis and indulge in her passion for shoes. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons. 

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Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients.  Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Apieron Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc.  Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS) , BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an AB in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs. Beyond her community service involvements, Wende’s first love is a field biology hike or lecture. 

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Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers.

Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates.

At Canaan, Dan sits on the board of Lending Club, an innovative online lending community where people borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates; OpenSky, a community of shoppers, suppliers, & shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops; Paragon Lake, a web-based service that is revolutionizing the jewelry market by empowering consumers and independent jewelers to design fully personalized, high-quality jewelry; and Peer39, the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.  In addition to his work with Canaan, Dan is on the boards of three public companies: Primedia (PRM), one of the world’s leading targeted media companies; VistaPrint (VRPT), which supplies more than 10 million global customers with customized printed products online; and leading graphics software company Corel (CREL).

Dan earned an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from Yale University. Dan is committed to improving the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia. After serving in 1980 as Director of Educational Programs for the UN-funded Sakaeo Refugee Camp in Thailand – where he lived in a teak stilt house in the middle of a remote rice paddy – Dan has continued to support volunteer organizations in that part of the world.

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Having been an entrepreneur and practicing physician, Dr. Stephen Bloch knows first hand the challenges of building successful healthcare companies. He draws on his medical, academic and research experience, to make winning investments in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure.  Stephen led Canaan’s investment in Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral therapies for the management of genetic diseases such as Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s Disease.  Amicus achieved the largest pre-money IPO valuation for an early clinical biotech company since 2000.

Previous to joining Canaan in 2002, Stephen founded Radiology Management Sciences (RMS), a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services, where he was CEO for six years. After founding RMS, Stephen helped start and served as medical director of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, which is commercializing novel ultrasonic devices to treat vascular occlusive disease. He also co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company.

In addition to his operational experience, Stephen worked as a strategic consultant with global consultancy Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Stephen started his career as a practicing radiologist. In addition to his board role at Amicus Therapeutics, Stephen is a director of Advanced BioHealing, which develops and markets regenerative wound healing therapies; Cylex, a global life science company that has transformed the ability of doctors to measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients, infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity; Liquidia, a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for a variety of life and material science applications.  In life sciences, Liquidia has established development programs in vaccines and extensive industry collaborations in inhaled therapeutics, cancer and siRNA delivery; Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a leader in development of drugs to treat serious neurological disorders; and Viacor, a pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac valve repair.

Stephen received his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester, a MA in the history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. Stephen was honored as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in 2002, an educational program that develops future leaders of the global venture capital industry.

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John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi and Silicon Optix, mobile company Command Audio, and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

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Gina is a seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of experience advising executives from large international organizations to early-stage startups across a variety of industries. She joined Canaan in 2007 to manage the firm’s marketing, entrepreneur relations, corporate communications, branding and public relations. At Canaan, Gina has developed a unique Portfolio Support Program that delivers valuable insights, networking opportunities and market recognition to help build high-performance companies.  In this capacity, Gina and the Canaan team published the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, a hands-on guide on how to pitch to venture capitalists.  This workbook has received recognition on social networking sites, as well in worldwide publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week Online.

Prior to joining Canaan, Gina held Director-level marketing positions at Bitpass, a digital media payments startup; GlobalWare Solutions, an eBusiness supply chain leader; and Fatbrain.com, the leader in online B2B book sales, acquired by Barnes & Noble.com.  Gina’s trademark is her ability to combine solid traditional marketing expertise with a keen understanding of the e-Business marketplace. In this capacity, she has provided strategic branding and marketing services to some of the industry’s most respected brands, including “…For Dummies®” and Cliffs Notes® books; BlackBerry® Accessories; iUniverse, a leading print-on-demand platform; and Creative Labs, makers of Zen.

Gina received her BA from University of California, Santa Barbara.  She is a member of the American Marketing Association.

Brent Ahrens is passionate about investing in cutting edge medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutic treatments. Since joining Canaan in 1999, Brent has led successful investments in novel medical companies such as Cerexa (FRX), one of the largest private biotech M&As in history; DexCom (DXCM), the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (JNJ), acquired by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary; and Revivant (ZOLL), a cutting edge medical device company acquired by ZOLL.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent honed his operational and investing skills at a variety of top tier companies, including General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and IAP Research, a developer of technologies for defense and industrial applications. During his career, Brent diversified his healthcare experience, working in a variety of sales, marketing, business development and technical roles. His technical expertise as a professional engineer with several patents to his credit is also an invaluable asset to Canaan’s innovation-driven portfolio companies.

Brent currently sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, a revolutionary “soft tissue fixation technology” that enables surgeons to reliably place and shape soft tissue without sutures, pins, or screws during a variety of orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive procedures; CoAxia, a pioneering device company focused on acute stroke treatment; Data Sciences International, a pioneer and the global leader in implantable wireless sensors for medical research; Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs; Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the development of new aerosol therapies for the treatment of COPD; Novare Surgical Systems, maker of RealHand technology, which represents an entirely new category of High Dexterity (HD) instruments for minimally invasive surgery and is first full range of motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments; Pavad Medical, the first device company to develop system-based approach for the treatment of sleep apnea; and Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2007, Brent was included on the Forbes Midas List, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and life sciences. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program designed to identify, develop and network future leaders of the global venture capital industry. An avid runner, Brent can also be found tinkering on home carpentry projects when time permits.

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Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

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Deepak Kamra has a knack for identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software.  Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events.

He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and his recent IPO, SuccessFactors, is the leading company in human performance and talent management. He currently sits on the boards of technology-driven global companies such as e4e, providing next generation business process services; Groundwork OpenSource, the leader in performance monitoring; Zmanda, the leader in open source backup software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world.  He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com, Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications, Impulse! Buy Network, iPrint.com, Latitude Communications, PriorityCall Management, Recourse Technologies and SalesLogix.  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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CONNECTICUT LOCAL TIME:

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s investments in, and served on the boards of, several global technology companies, including Arbor Networks, Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco in August 2006), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola in July 2006), CommunityConnect, Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom in October 2006), netForensics, ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire. Before joining the venture community, Warren gained deep operational experience, serving as an engineer and project manager at Solectron Corp., a corporate development manager at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and an investment banker in Alex Brown’s technology group.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of Associated Content, Motionbox, Peer39, Tremor Media and Vivox.

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Mark Mangiola joined Canaan in 2001 after over 20 years in operational leadership roles in the cable and broadband industry. Mark invests in communications companies that are transforming the delivery of digital media, as well as new consumer content companies that meld entertainment with interactivity. Mark has a visionary outlook about how consumers will watch and interact with content in the future, having participated first hand in the early emergence of both cable TV and the Internet. He also supports key clean tech opportunities. Mark actively participated in Canaan’s investment in Ellacoya (acquired by Arbor Networks), a rapidly-growing broadband service optimization company.

A super-connected industry veteran, Mark leverages his network to fill key executive positions at Canaan’s portfolio firms and helps them spearhead strategic relationships with industry-leading corporations. Prior to Canaan, Mark served as CEO of @Home Solutions, a division of Excite@Home. He was previously the President and CEO of Positive Communications and an Executive VP at KBLCOM/Time Warner.

When Mark is not thinking about how consumer-generated video will change the world, he is sprinting around a track. A passionate athlete, Mark coaches high-school and college track athletes and never misses a Meet of Champions track meet.

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With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan in March 2006 to lead the firm’s India operations. In India, Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services.

Prior to Canaan, Alok was an entrepreneur and private investor, and was a founding member of Indian Angel Network (formerly, Band of Angels India). Committed to working hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful Indian technology companies, Alok was instrumental in Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, the world’s largest consumer Internet site for matrimonial services, and iYogi, which leverages the power of the Internet to offer high-quality, low-cost tech support to global consumers, and Cellcast, Asia’s leading participation content company.

Previously, Alok led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners India, where he focused on investments in software services, BPO, the Internet and telecom. He was also co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a web-based recruitment business that was later acquired by Monster.com. Previously, he worked for Hughes Software Systems, the leading provider of telecom software and systems in India. He currently serves on the boards of Bharat Matrimony, Cellcast, iYogi, MotorExchange and UnitedLex.

Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.

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Seth Rudnick’s comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases. Since he joined the firm in 1998, Seth has led investments in Adlyfe, developer of innovative diagnostic that can detect fatal brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease in the blood before symptoms occur; Cylex, a diagnostics company that has transformed the ability of doctors measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients; and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Seth led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Seth was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Seth began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

Seth was a Yale Fellow in medical oncology where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar. He received his medical training at Washington University Barnes Hospital. He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia and holds a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Seth was named to the Midas List, a prominent venture capital ranking of the best dealmakers in technology and life science. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, teaching and advising faculty members on biotechnology issues.

He currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Chimerix, Cylex, ORTHOCON, Sopherion, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.

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Guy Russo has served as the CFO and Administrative General Partner at Canaan since 1997. He has over eighteen years of finance and administrative experience in venture capital. In his role at Canaan he has lead the development of several custom systems utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.  Prior to joining Canaan as Controller in 1988, Guy worked with investment firms and entrepreneurial companies for over four years as a Senior Accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young.  Guy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a CPA.

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As head of Canaan’s Israel operations since 2005, Izhar Shay focuses on building great companies in communications and mobility, software, clean technologies and digital media. He also seeks key investments in medical devices. Izhar led Canaan’s investments in LiveU, Efficient Finance, EnStorage, Prime Sense and N-trig. Izhar also oversees Canaan’s local involvement in other Israeli companies.

With more than 20 years of operational experience as a successful entrepreneur, Izhar was previously Chairman and CEO of V-Secure Technologies, which he grew to a leading position in the intrusion prevention market. The company was acquired by Radware (RDWR) in November 2005. Prior to V-Secure, Izhar was CEO and co-founder of Business Layers, a Canaan portfolio company. Izhar led Business Layers from startup to a dominant player position in the identity management market, until it was acquired by Netegrity (NETE) in December 2003. Izhar was previously VP of Business Development with international investment firm The BRM Group.

Izhar holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. He was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Izhar is involved in various volunteer activities related to the education of young students in Israel.  He serves on the board of directors of Snunit, a nonprofit organization, specializing in integrating technology and the Internet into Israel’s elementary schools. Izhar is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ort Israel, the country’s largest technology education organization. He writes a weekly column at Globes, and his book “As Beautiful As You” was recently published.  In his free time he dabbles in amateur video production.

Izhar serves on the board of directors of LiveU, Efficient Finance, N-trig and Prime Sense.

Read Izhar’s blog in English:  Israel 2.0
Read Izhar’s blog in Hebrew:  Israel 2.0
Izhar’s Book:  As Beautiful As You

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Hrach Simonian joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in January 2007 and is an Associate on the Technology team. He focuses on the firm’s digital media & communications and enterprise software & services investment efforts. 

Prior to joining Canaan, Hrach served as the digital media Research Associate at Rutberg & Company. The research groups coverage spanned product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, and services. Previously, Hrach held several positions at Northrop Grumman in the solid state laser research & development department conducting experiments in high power laser research and beam manipulation.

Hrach earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where his research focused on neuronal networks, linear systems analysis, and solid-state lasers. He also earned and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA specializing in biomedical engineering.

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Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha loves to work with some of the nation’s smartest entrepreneurs to build innovative companies from the ground up. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

At Canaan, Maha helped to negotiate and manage a partnership between Tacit Networks and Brocade, and established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec and MiNO Wireless.  Maha also led the firm’s investments in PicksPal and Watercooler, both leading community applications via social networking platforms.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Previous board seats include PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media), Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Mobilitec (acquired by Lucent). Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. In her limited free time, Maha likes to flyfish, play tennis and indulge in her passion for shoes. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons. 

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Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients.  Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Apieron Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc.  Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS) , BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an AB in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs. Beyond her community service involvements, Wende’s first love is a field biology hike or lecture. 

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Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers.

Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates.

At Canaan, Dan sits on the board of Lending Club, an innovative online lending community where people borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates; OpenSky, a community of shoppers, suppliers, & shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops; Paragon Lake, a web-based service that is revolutionizing the jewelry market by empowering consumers and independent jewelers to design fully personalized, high-quality jewelry; and Peer39, the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.  In addition to his work with Canaan, Dan is on the boards of three public companies: Primedia (PRM), one of the world’s leading targeted media companies; VistaPrint (VRPT), which supplies more than 10 million global customers with customized printed products online; and leading graphics software company Corel (CREL).

Dan earned an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from Yale University. Dan is committed to improving the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia. After serving in 1980 as Director of Educational Programs for the UN-funded Sakaeo Refugee Camp in Thailand – where he lived in a teak stilt house in the middle of a remote rice paddy – Dan has continued to support volunteer organizations in that part of the world.

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Having been an entrepreneur and practicing physician, Dr. Stephen Bloch knows first hand the challenges of building successful healthcare companies. He draws on his medical, academic and research experience, to make winning investments in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure.  Stephen led Canaan’s investment in Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral therapies for the management of genetic diseases such as Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s Disease.  Amicus achieved the largest pre-money IPO valuation for an early clinical biotech company since 2000.

Previous to joining Canaan in 2002, Stephen founded Radiology Management Sciences (RMS), a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services, where he was CEO for six years. After founding RMS, Stephen helped start and served as medical director of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, which is commercializing novel ultrasonic devices to treat vascular occlusive disease. He also co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company.

In addition to his operational experience, Stephen worked as a strategic consultant with global consultancy Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Stephen started his career as a practicing radiologist. In addition to his board role at Amicus Therapeutics, Stephen is a director of Advanced BioHealing, which develops and markets regenerative wound healing therapies; Cylex, a global life science company that has transformed the ability of doctors to measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients, infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity; Liquidia, a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for a variety of life and material science applications.  In life sciences, Liquidia has established development programs in vaccines and extensive industry collaborations in inhaled therapeutics, cancer and siRNA delivery; Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a leader in development of drugs to treat serious neurological disorders; and Viacor, a pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac valve repair.

Stephen received his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester, a MA in the history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. Stephen was honored as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in 2002, an educational program that develops future leaders of the global venture capital industry.

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John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi and Silicon Optix, mobile company Command Audio, and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

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Gina is a seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of experience advising executives from large international organizations to early-stage startups across a variety of industries. She joined Canaan in 2007 to manage the firm’s marketing, entrepreneur relations, corporate communications, branding and public relations. At Canaan, Gina has developed a unique Portfolio Support Program that delivers valuable insights, networking opportunities and market recognition to help build high-performance companies.  In this capacity, Gina and the Canaan team published the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, a hands-on guide on how to pitch to venture capitalists.  This workbook has received recognition on social networking sites, as well in worldwide publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week Online.

Prior to joining Canaan, Gina held Director-level marketing positions at Bitpass, a digital media payments startup; GlobalWare Solutions, an eBusiness supply chain leader; and Fatbrain.com, the leader in online B2B book sales, acquired by Barnes & Noble.com.  Gina’s trademark is her ability to combine solid traditional marketing expertise with a keen understanding of the e-Business marketplace. In this capacity, she has provided strategic branding and marketing services to some of the industry’s most respected brands, including “…For Dummies®” and Cliffs Notes® books; BlackBerry® Accessories; iUniverse, a leading print-on-demand platform; and Creative Labs, makers of Zen.

Gina received her BA from University of California, Santa Barbara.  She is a member of the American Marketing Association.

Brent Ahrens is passionate about investing in cutting edge medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutic treatments. Since joining Canaan in 1999, Brent has led successful investments in novel medical companies such as Cerexa (FRX), one of the largest private biotech M&As in history; DexCom (DXCM), the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (JNJ), acquired by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary; and Revivant (ZOLL), a cutting edge medical device company acquired by ZOLL.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent honed his operational and investing skills at a variety of top tier companies, including General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and IAP Research, a developer of technologies for defense and industrial applications. During his career, Brent diversified his healthcare experience, working in a variety of sales, marketing, business development and technical roles. His technical expertise as a professional engineer with several patents to his credit is also an invaluable asset to Canaan’s innovation-driven portfolio companies.

Brent currently sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, a revolutionary “soft tissue fixation technology” that enables surgeons to reliably place and shape soft tissue without sutures, pins, or screws during a variety of orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive procedures; CoAxia, a pioneering device company focused on acute stroke treatment; Data Sciences International, a pioneer and the global leader in implantable wireless sensors for medical research; Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs; Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the development of new aerosol therapies for the treatment of COPD; Novare Surgical Systems, maker of RealHand technology, which represents an entirely new category of High Dexterity (HD) instruments for minimally invasive surgery and is first full range of motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments; Pavad Medical, the first device company to develop system-based approach for the treatment of sleep apnea; and Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2007, Brent was included on the Forbes Midas List, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and life sciences. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program designed to identify, develop and network future leaders of the global venture capital industry. An avid runner, Brent can also be found tinkering on home carpentry projects when time permits.

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Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

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Deepak Kamra has a knack for identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software.  Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events.

He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and his recent IPO, SuccessFactors, is the leading company in human performance and talent management. He currently sits on the boards of technology-driven global companies such as e4e, providing next generation business process services; Groundwork OpenSource, the leader in performance monitoring; Zmanda, the leader in open source backup software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world.  He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com, Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications, Impulse! Buy Network, iPrint.com, Latitude Communications, PriorityCall Management, Recourse Technologies and SalesLogix.  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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HERTZLIYA PITUACH LOCAL TIME:

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s investments in, and served on the boards of, several global technology companies, including Arbor Networks, Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco in August 2006), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola in July 2006), CommunityConnect, Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom in October 2006), netForensics, ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire. Before joining the venture community, Warren gained deep operational experience, serving as an engineer and project manager at Solectron Corp., a corporate development manager at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and an investment banker in Alex Brown’s technology group.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of Associated Content, Motionbox, Peer39, Tremor Media and Vivox.

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Mark Mangiola joined Canaan in 2001 after over 20 years in operational leadership roles in the cable and broadband industry. Mark invests in communications companies that are transforming the delivery of digital media, as well as new consumer content companies that meld entertainment with interactivity. Mark has a visionary outlook about how consumers will watch and interact with content in the future, having participated first hand in the early emergence of both cable TV and the Internet. He also supports key clean tech opportunities. Mark actively participated in Canaan’s investment in Ellacoya (acquired by Arbor Networks), a rapidly-growing broadband service optimization company.

A super-connected industry veteran, Mark leverages his network to fill key executive positions at Canaan’s portfolio firms and helps them spearhead strategic relationships with industry-leading corporations. Prior to Canaan, Mark served as CEO of @Home Solutions, a division of Excite@Home. He was previously the President and CEO of Positive Communications and an Executive VP at KBLCOM/Time Warner.

When Mark is not thinking about how consumer-generated video will change the world, he is sprinting around a track. A passionate athlete, Mark coaches high-school and college track athletes and never misses a Meet of Champions track meet.

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With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan in March 2006 to lead the firm’s India operations. In India, Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services.

Prior to Canaan, Alok was an entrepreneur and private investor, and was a founding member of Indian Angel Network (formerly, Band of Angels India). Committed to working hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful Indian technology companies, Alok was instrumental in Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, the world’s largest consumer Internet site for matrimonial services, and iYogi, which leverages the power of the Internet to offer high-quality, low-cost tech support to global consumers, and Cellcast, Asia’s leading participation content company.

Previously, Alok led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners India, where he focused on investments in software services, BPO, the Internet and telecom. He was also co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a web-based recruitment business that was later acquired by Monster.com. Previously, he worked for Hughes Software Systems, the leading provider of telecom software and systems in India. He currently serves on the boards of Bharat Matrimony, Cellcast, iYogi, MotorExchange and UnitedLex.

Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.

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Seth Rudnick’s comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases. Since he joined the firm in 1998, Seth has led investments in Adlyfe, developer of innovative diagnostic that can detect fatal brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease in the blood before symptoms occur; Cylex, a diagnostics company that has transformed the ability of doctors measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients; and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Seth led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Seth was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Seth began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

Seth was a Yale Fellow in medical oncology where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar. He received his medical training at Washington University Barnes Hospital. He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia and holds a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Seth was named to the Midas List, a prominent venture capital ranking of the best dealmakers in technology and life science. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, teaching and advising faculty members on biotechnology issues.

He currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Chimerix, Cylex, ORTHOCON, Sopherion, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.

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Guy Russo has served as the CFO and Administrative General Partner at Canaan since 1997. He has over eighteen years of finance and administrative experience in venture capital. In his role at Canaan he has lead the development of several custom systems utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.  Prior to joining Canaan as Controller in 1988, Guy worked with investment firms and entrepreneurial companies for over four years as a Senior Accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young.  Guy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a CPA.

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As head of Canaan’s Israel operations since 2005, Izhar Shay focuses on building great companies in communications and mobility, software, clean technologies and digital media. He also seeks key investments in medical devices. Izhar led Canaan’s investments in LiveU, Efficient Finance, EnStorage, Prime Sense and N-trig. Izhar also oversees Canaan’s local involvement in other Israeli companies.

With more than 20 years of operational experience as a successful entrepreneur, Izhar was previously Chairman and CEO of V-Secure Technologies, which he grew to a leading position in the intrusion prevention market. The company was acquired by Radware (RDWR) in November 2005. Prior to V-Secure, Izhar was CEO and co-founder of Business Layers, a Canaan portfolio company. Izhar led Business Layers from startup to a dominant player position in the identity management market, until it was acquired by Netegrity (NETE) in December 2003. Izhar was previously VP of Business Development with international investment firm The BRM Group.

Izhar holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. He was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Izhar is involved in various volunteer activities related to the education of young students in Israel.  He serves on the board of directors of Snunit, a nonprofit organization, specializing in integrating technology and the Internet into Israel’s elementary schools. Izhar is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ort Israel, the country’s largest technology education organization. He writes a weekly column at Globes, and his book “As Beautiful As You” was recently published.  In his free time he dabbles in amateur video production.

Izhar serves on the board of directors of LiveU, Efficient Finance, N-trig and Prime Sense.

Read Izhar’s blog in English:  Israel 2.0
Read Izhar’s blog in Hebrew:  Israel 2.0
Izhar’s Book:  As Beautiful As You

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Hrach Simonian joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in January 2007 and is an Associate on the Technology team. He focuses on the firm’s digital media & communications and enterprise software & services investment efforts. 

Prior to joining Canaan, Hrach served as the digital media Research Associate at Rutberg & Company. The research groups coverage spanned product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, and services. Previously, Hrach held several positions at Northrop Grumman in the solid state laser research & development department conducting experiments in high power laser research and beam manipulation.

Hrach earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where his research focused on neuronal networks, linear systems analysis, and solid-state lasers. He also earned and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA specializing in biomedical engineering.

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Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha loves to work with some of the nation’s smartest entrepreneurs to build innovative companies from the ground up. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

At Canaan, Maha helped to negotiate and manage a partnership between Tacit Networks and Brocade, and established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec and MiNO Wireless.  Maha also led the firm’s investments in PicksPal and Watercooler, both leading community applications via social networking platforms.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Previous board seats include PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media), Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Mobilitec (acquired by Lucent). Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. In her limited free time, Maha likes to flyfish, play tennis and indulge in her passion for shoes. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons. 

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Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients.  Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Apieron Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc.  Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS) , BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an AB in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs. Beyond her community service involvements, Wende’s first love is a field biology hike or lecture. 

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Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers.

Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates.

At Canaan, Dan sits on the board of Lending Club, an innovative online lending community where people borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates; OpenSky, a community of shoppers, suppliers, & shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops; Paragon Lake, a web-based service that is revolutionizing the jewelry market by empowering consumers and independent jewelers to design fully personalized, high-quality jewelry; and Peer39, the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.  In addition to his work with Canaan, Dan is on the boards of three public companies: Primedia (PRM), one of the world’s leading targeted media companies; VistaPrint (VRPT), which supplies more than 10 million global customers with customized printed products online; and leading graphics software company Corel (CREL).

Dan earned an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from Yale University. Dan is committed to improving the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia. After serving in 1980 as Director of Educational Programs for the UN-funded Sakaeo Refugee Camp in Thailand – where he lived in a teak stilt house in the middle of a remote rice paddy – Dan has continued to support volunteer organizations in that part of the world.

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Having been an entrepreneur and practicing physician, Dr. Stephen Bloch knows first hand the challenges of building successful healthcare companies. He draws on his medical, academic and research experience, to make winning investments in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure.  Stephen led Canaan’s investment in Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral therapies for the management of genetic diseases such as Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s Disease.  Amicus achieved the largest pre-money IPO valuation for an early clinical biotech company since 2000.

Previous to joining Canaan in 2002, Stephen founded Radiology Management Sciences (RMS), a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services, where he was CEO for six years. After founding RMS, Stephen helped start and served as medical director of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, which is commercializing novel ultrasonic devices to treat vascular occlusive disease. He also co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company.

In addition to his operational experience, Stephen worked as a strategic consultant with global consultancy Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Stephen started his career as a practicing radiologist. In addition to his board role at Amicus Therapeutics, Stephen is a director of Advanced BioHealing, which develops and markets regenerative wound healing therapies; Cylex, a global life science company that has transformed the ability of doctors to measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients, infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity; Liquidia, a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for a variety of life and material science applications.  In life sciences, Liquidia has established development programs in vaccines and extensive industry collaborations in inhaled therapeutics, cancer and siRNA delivery; Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a leader in development of drugs to treat serious neurological disorders; and Viacor, a pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac valve repair.

Stephen received his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester, a MA in the history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. Stephen was honored as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in 2002, an educational program that develops future leaders of the global venture capital industry.

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John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi and Silicon Optix, mobile company Command Audio, and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

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Gina is a seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of experience advising executives from large international organizations to early-stage startups across a variety of industries. She joined Canaan in 2007 to manage the firm’s marketing, entrepreneur relations, corporate communications, branding and public relations. At Canaan, Gina has developed a unique Portfolio Support Program that delivers valuable insights, networking opportunities and market recognition to help build high-performance companies.  In this capacity, Gina and the Canaan team published the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, a hands-on guide on how to pitch to venture capitalists.  This workbook has received recognition on social networking sites, as well in worldwide publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week Online.

Prior to joining Canaan, Gina held Director-level marketing positions at Bitpass, a digital media payments startup; GlobalWare Solutions, an eBusiness supply chain leader; and Fatbrain.com, the leader in online B2B book sales, acquired by Barnes & Noble.com.  Gina’s trademark is her ability to combine solid traditional marketing expertise with a keen understanding of the e-Business marketplace. In this capacity, she has provided strategic branding and marketing services to some of the industry’s most respected brands, including “…For Dummies®” and Cliffs Notes® books; BlackBerry® Accessories; iUniverse, a leading print-on-demand platform; and Creative Labs, makers of Zen.

Gina received her BA from University of California, Santa Barbara.  She is a member of the American Marketing Association.

Brent Ahrens is passionate about investing in cutting edge medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutic treatments. Since joining Canaan in 1999, Brent has led successful investments in novel medical companies such as Cerexa (FRX), one of the largest private biotech M&As in history; DexCom (DXCM), the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (JNJ), acquired by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary; and Revivant (ZOLL), a cutting edge medical device company acquired by ZOLL.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent honed his operational and investing skills at a variety of top tier companies, including General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and IAP Research, a developer of technologies for defense and industrial applications. During his career, Brent diversified his healthcare experience, working in a variety of sales, marketing, business development and technical roles. His technical expertise as a professional engineer with several patents to his credit is also an invaluable asset to Canaan’s innovation-driven portfolio companies.

Brent currently sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, a revolutionary “soft tissue fixation technology” that enables surgeons to reliably place and shape soft tissue without sutures, pins, or screws during a variety of orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive procedures; CoAxia, a pioneering device company focused on acute stroke treatment; Data Sciences International, a pioneer and the global leader in implantable wireless sensors for medical research; Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs; Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the development of new aerosol therapies for the treatment of COPD; Novare Surgical Systems, maker of RealHand technology, which represents an entirely new category of High Dexterity (HD) instruments for minimally invasive surgery and is first full range of motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments; Pavad Medical, the first device company to develop system-based approach for the treatment of sleep apnea; and Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2007, Brent was included on the Forbes Midas List, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and life sciences. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program designed to identify, develop and network future leaders of the global venture capital industry. An avid runner, Brent can also be found tinkering on home carpentry projects when time permits.

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Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

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Deepak Kamra has a knack for identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software.  Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events.

He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and his recent IPO, SuccessFactors, is the leading company in human performance and talent management. He currently sits on the boards of technology-driven global companies such as e4e, providing next generation business process services; Groundwork OpenSource, the leader in performance monitoring; Zmanda, the leader in open source backup software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world.  He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com, Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications, Impulse! Buy Network, iPrint.com, Latitude Communications, PriorityCall Management, Recourse Technologies and SalesLogix.  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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CALIFORNIA LOCAL TIME:

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s investments in, and served on the boards of, several global technology companies, including Arbor Networks, Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco in August 2006), Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola in July 2006), CommunityConnect, Counterpane Internet Security (acquired by British Telecom in October 2006), netForensics, ReefEdge (acquired by Symantec), and Tripwire. Before joining the venture community, Warren gained deep operational experience, serving as an engineer and project manager at Solectron Corp., a corporate development manager at Sun Microsystems, a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and an investment banker in Alex Brown’s technology group.

Warren holds a BS in computer science and BA in economics with honors from Stanford University and an MBA from The Wharton School. He currently sits on the boards of Associated Content, Motionbox, Peer39, Tremor Media and Vivox.

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Mark Mangiola joined Canaan in 2001 after over 20 years in operational leadership roles in the cable and broadband industry. Mark invests in communications companies that are transforming the delivery of digital media, as well as new consumer content companies that meld entertainment with interactivity. Mark has a visionary outlook about how consumers will watch and interact with content in the future, having participated first hand in the early emergence of both cable TV and the Internet. He also supports key clean tech opportunities. Mark actively participated in Canaan’s investment in Ellacoya (acquired by Arbor Networks), a rapidly-growing broadband service optimization company.

A super-connected industry veteran, Mark leverages his network to fill key executive positions at Canaan’s portfolio firms and helps them spearhead strategic relationships with industry-leading corporations. Prior to Canaan, Mark served as CEO of @Home Solutions, a division of Excite@Home. He was previously the President and CEO of Positive Communications and an Executive VP at KBLCOM/Time Warner.

When Mark is not thinking about how consumer-generated video will change the world, he is sprinting around a track. A passionate athlete, Mark coaches high-school and college track athletes and never misses a Meet of Champions track meet.

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With a broad range of hands-on experience founding, funding and supporting early-stage technology companies, Alok Mittal joined Canaan in March 2006 to lead the firm’s India operations. In India, Alok focuses on investments in digital media and mobile companies, as well as innovators in managed software services.

Prior to Canaan, Alok was an entrepreneur and private investor, and was a founding member of Indian Angel Network (formerly, Band of Angels India). Committed to working hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs to build the next generation of successful Indian technology companies, Alok was instrumental in Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, the world’s largest consumer Internet site for matrimonial services, and iYogi, which leverages the power of the Internet to offer high-quality, low-cost tech support to global consumers, and Cellcast, Asia’s leading participation content company.

Previously, Alok led the technology practice at Baring Private Equity Partners India, where he focused on investments in software services, BPO, the Internet and telecom. He was also co-founder of JobsAhead.com, a web-based recruitment business that was later acquired by Monster.com. Previously, he worked for Hughes Software Systems, the leading provider of telecom software and systems in India. He currently serves on the boards of Bharat Matrimony, Cellcast, iYogi, MotorExchange and UnitedLex.

Alok earned a BE in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a MS in computer science from UC Berkeley.

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Seth Rudnick’s comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases. Since he joined the firm in 1998, Seth has led investments in Adlyfe, developer of innovative diagnostic that can detect fatal brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Disease in the blood before symptoms occur; Cylex, a diagnostics company that has transformed the ability of doctors measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients; and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Seth led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Seth was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Seth began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

Seth was a Yale Fellow in medical oncology where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar. He received his medical training at Washington University Barnes Hospital. He earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia and holds a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2006, Seth was named to the Midas List, a prominent venture capital ranking of the best dealmakers in technology and life science. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, teaching and advising faculty members on biotechnology issues.

He currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Chimerix, Cylex, ORTHOCON, Sopherion, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.

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Guy Russo has served as the CFO and Administrative General Partner at Canaan since 1997. He has over eighteen years of finance and administrative experience in venture capital. In his role at Canaan he has lead the development of several custom systems utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.  Prior to joining Canaan as Controller in 1988, Guy worked with investment firms and entrepreneurial companies for over four years as a Senior Accountant in the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young.  Guy holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Connecticut and an MBA from the University of Connecticut. He is also a CPA.

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As head of Canaan’s Israel operations since 2005, Izhar Shay focuses on building great companies in communications and mobility, software, clean technologies and digital media. He also seeks key investments in medical devices. Izhar led Canaan’s investments in LiveU, Efficient Finance, EnStorage, Prime Sense and N-trig. Izhar also oversees Canaan’s local involvement in other Israeli companies.

With more than 20 years of operational experience as a successful entrepreneur, Izhar was previously Chairman and CEO of V-Secure Technologies, which he grew to a leading position in the intrusion prevention market. The company was acquired by Radware (RDWR) in November 2005. Prior to V-Secure, Izhar was CEO and co-founder of Business Layers, a Canaan portfolio company. Izhar led Business Layers from startup to a dominant player position in the identity management market, until it was acquired by Netegrity (NETE) in December 2003. Izhar was previously VP of Business Development with international investment firm The BRM Group.

Izhar holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. He was a paratrooper in the Israeli army. Izhar is involved in various volunteer activities related to the education of young students in Israel.  He serves on the board of directors of Snunit, a nonprofit organization, specializing in integrating technology and the Internet into Israel’s elementary schools. Izhar is also a member of the Board of Directors of Ort Israel, the country’s largest technology education organization. He writes a weekly column at Globes, and his book “As Beautiful As You” was recently published.  In his free time he dabbles in amateur video production.

Izhar serves on the board of directors of LiveU, Efficient Finance, N-trig and Prime Sense.

Read Izhar’s blog in English:  Israel 2.0
Read Izhar’s blog in Hebrew:  Israel 2.0
Izhar’s Book:  As Beautiful As You

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Hrach Simonian joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in January 2007 and is an Associate on the Technology team. He focuses on the firm’s digital media & communications and enterprise software & services investment efforts. 

Prior to joining Canaan, Hrach served as the digital media Research Associate at Rutberg & Company. The research groups coverage spanned product and technology categories, including semiconductors, devices, infrastructure, and services. Previously, Hrach held several positions at Northrop Grumman in the solid state laser research & development department conducting experiments in high power laser research and beam manipulation.

Hrach earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor where his research focused on neuronal networks, linear systems analysis, and solid-state lasers. He also earned and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA specializing in biomedical engineering.

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Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha loves to work with some of the nation’s smartest entrepreneurs to build innovative companies from the ground up. A thought leader with deep insight into which business models will disrupt the status quo and propel companies to market dominance, Maha has won numerous industry awards, including The Silicon Valley Business Journal 40 Under 40 award, and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. She has served as a judge for startup competitions at Web 2.0 Expo, Digital Living Room and Under the Radar.

At Canaan, Maha helped to negotiate and manage a partnership between Tacit Networks and Brocade, and established Canaan as a lead investor in Mobilitec and MiNO Wireless.  Maha also led the firm’s investments in PicksPal and Watercooler, both leading community applications via social networking platforms.

Prior to joining Canaan, Maha held numerous executive-level roles at Qwest Communications, including Vice President of Business Development and Vice President of eBusiness and Internet Operations. While at Qwest, her keen networking skills helped the company forge relationships with Netscape and Microsoft. Earlier in her career, Maha was a management consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Price Waterhouse.

Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Previous board seats include PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media), Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Mobilitec (acquired by Lucent). Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (VLAB), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth and success of high-tech entrepreneurial ventures by connecting ideas, technology and people. In her limited free time, Maha likes to flyfish, play tennis and indulge in her passion for shoes. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two young sons. 

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Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients.  Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Apieron Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc.  Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS) , BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an AB in human biology from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs. Beyond her community service involvements, Wende’s first love is a field biology hike or lecture. 

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Dan Ciporin is committed to building innovative businesses that make the Internet a more engaging place for consumers. Dan joined Canaan’s Connecticut office in 2007 to invest in emerging leaders in online advertising and digital media in the New York corridor, as well as in communications infrastructure companies that deliver interactive content to connected consumers.

Dan brings two decades of executive-level operational experience to Canaan. He was the former Chairman and CEO of Shopping.com, the pioneer in online comparison shopping, where he oversaw growth from zero to over $100 million in revenues in just five years, culminating in the company’s IPO in October 2004 and later acquisition by eBay in 2005. Previously, Dan served as chairman of the Internet Lab, a US-Israeli incubator for early-stage consumer Internet startups, as Senior VP of MasterCard International, where he was responsible for the marketing and product management of all online global debit products, and as a strategy consultant for both Mars and Co. and Corporate Value Associates.

At Canaan, Dan sits on the board of Lending Club, an innovative online lending community where people borrow and lend money, bypass the banks, and get better rates; OpenSky, a community of shoppers, suppliers, & shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops; Paragon Lake, a web-based service that is revolutionizing the jewelry market by empowering consumers and independent jewelers to design fully personalized, high-quality jewelry; and Peer39, the global leader in semantic advertising solutions.  In addition to his work with Canaan, Dan is on the boards of three public companies: Primedia (PRM), one of the world’s leading targeted media companies; VistaPrint (VRPT), which supplies more than 10 million global customers with customized printed products online; and leading graphics software company Corel (CREL).

Dan earned an AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and an MBA from Yale University. Dan is committed to improving the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia. After serving in 1980 as Director of Educational Programs for the UN-funded Sakaeo Refugee Camp in Thailand – where he lived in a teak stilt house in the middle of a remote rice paddy – Dan has continued to support volunteer organizations in that part of the world.

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Having been an entrepreneur and practicing physician, Dr. Stephen Bloch knows first hand the challenges of building successful healthcare companies. He draws on his medical, academic and research experience, to make winning investments in biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics and healthcare infrastructure.  Stephen led Canaan’s investment in Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation oral therapies for the management of genetic diseases such as Gaucher’s and Parkinson’s Disease.  Amicus achieved the largest pre-money IPO valuation for an early clinical biotech company since 2000.

Previous to joining Canaan in 2002, Stephen founded Radiology Management Sciences (RMS), a risk manager of diagnostic imaging services, where he was CEO for six years. After founding RMS, Stephen helped start and served as medical director of OmniSonics Medical Technologies, which is commercializing novel ultrasonic devices to treat vascular occlusive disease. He also co-founded TeleRad, a teleradiology services company.

In addition to his operational experience, Stephen worked as a strategic consultant with global consultancy Arthur D. Little focused on pharmaceuticals and medical devices.  Stephen started his career as a practicing radiologist. In addition to his board role at Amicus Therapeutics, Stephen is a director of Advanced BioHealing, which develops and markets regenerative wound healing therapies; Cylex, a global life science company that has transformed the ability of doctors to measure immune system functioning, specifically in transplant recipients, infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity; Liquidia, a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for a variety of life and material science applications.  In life sciences, Liquidia has established development programs in vaccines and extensive industry collaborations in inhaled therapeutics, cancer and siRNA delivery; Marinus Pharmaceuticals, a leader in development of drugs to treat serious neurological disorders; and Viacor, a pioneer of minimally invasive cardiac valve repair.

Stephen received his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Lenox Hill Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester, a MA in the history of science and public policy from Harvard University and an AB degree from Dartmouth College. Stephen was honored as a Ewing Marion Kauffman Fellow in 2002, an educational program that develops future leaders of the global venture capital industry.

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John Balen understands entrepreneurs. Since joining Canaan in 1995, John has worked with some of the smartest people in the technology industry to build high-performance companies such as Commerce One, which brought B2B ecommerce to the masses, eStamp, the pioneer of Internet postage, Intraware the leading provider of electronic license delivery and management, and Rightpoint, a real-time customer analytics software provider, acquired by Epiphany.

At Canaan, John focuses on investments in communications & mobility, and next-generation enterprise technology companies that are disrupting the balance of traditional markets. His portfolio includes ID Analytics, which offers the nation’s only real-time fraud prevention system for enterprises. He also invests in digital media companies that empower the consumer through web-based services, such as Blurb.com, a revolutionary company changing the face of publishing by letting anyone easily create and sell bookstore-quality books.

Before joining Canaan Partners, John held a variety of operational and financial roles, where he learned both how to build companies from the ground up and how to fund them. He served as a Managing Director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a multi-billion dollar private equity firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure at Horsley Bridge, John was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in technology companies, as well as many venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, John was a sales applications engineer at fiber communications startup Codenoll Technology Corp. and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corp.

John currently serves on the boards of innovative digital media firms Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi and Silicon Optix, mobile company Command Audio, and enterprise technology firms Echopass, ezRez, ID Analytics and SOASTA.

John received a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA from Cornell University. A firm believer in the value of education, John is the Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a board member serves on the Executive Committee of his children’s school.  John frequently donates time and money to educational causes.

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Gina is a seasoned marketing executive with 15 years of experience advising executives from large international organizations to early-stage startups across a variety of industries. She joined Canaan in 2007 to manage the firm’s marketing, entrepreneur relations, corporate communications, branding and public relations. At Canaan, Gina has developed a unique Portfolio Support Program that delivers valuable insights, networking opportunities and market recognition to help build high-performance companies.  In this capacity, Gina and the Canaan team published the Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook, a hands-on guide on how to pitch to venture capitalists.  This workbook has received recognition on social networking sites, as well in worldwide publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week Online.

Prior to joining Canaan, Gina held Director-level marketing positions at Bitpass, a digital media payments startup; GlobalWare Solutions, an eBusiness supply chain leader; and Fatbrain.com, the leader in online B2B book sales, acquired by Barnes & Noble.com.  Gina’s trademark is her ability to combine solid traditional marketing expertise with a keen understanding of the e-Business marketplace. In this capacity, she has provided strategic branding and marketing services to some of the industry’s most respected brands, including “…For Dummies®” and Cliffs Notes® books; BlackBerry® Accessories; iUniverse, a leading print-on-demand platform; and Creative Labs, makers of Zen.

Gina received her BA from University of California, Santa Barbara.  She is a member of the American Marketing Association.

Brent Ahrens is passionate about investing in cutting edge medical technologies, diagnostics and therapeutic treatments. Since joining Canaan in 1999, Brent has led successful investments in novel medical companies such as Cerexa (FRX), one of the largest private biotech M&As in history; DexCom (DXCM), the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (JNJ), acquired by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary; and Revivant (ZOLL), a cutting edge medical device company acquired by ZOLL.

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent honed his operational and investing skills at a variety of top tier companies, including General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and IAP Research, a developer of technologies for defense and industrial applications. During his career, Brent diversified his healthcare experience, working in a variety of sales, marketing, business development and technical roles. His technical expertise as a professional engineer with several patents to his credit is also an invaluable asset to Canaan’s innovation-driven portfolio companies.

Brent currently sits on the boards of Coapt Systems, a revolutionary “soft tissue fixation technology” that enables surgeons to reliably place and shape soft tissue without sutures, pins, or screws during a variety of orthopedic, plastic and reconstructive procedures; CoAxia, a pioneering device company focused on acute stroke treatment; Data Sciences International, a pioneer and the global leader in implantable wireless sensors for medical research; Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs; Elevation Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on the development of new aerosol therapies for the treatment of COPD; Novare Surgical Systems, maker of RealHand technology, which represents an entirely new category of High Dexterity (HD) instruments for minimally invasive surgery and is first full range of motion hand-held laparoscopic instruments; Pavad Medical, the first device company to develop system-based approach for the treatment of sleep apnea; and Relievant Medsystems, maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain.

Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton. In 2007, Brent was included on the Forbes Midas List, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and life sciences. He is also an alumnus of the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Program, an educational program designed to identify, develop and network future leaders of the global venture capital industry. An avid runner, Brent can also be found tinkering on home carpentry projects when time permits.

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Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990’s DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena’s current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric leads Canaan’s investments in cleantech and also pursues key opportunities in network infrastructure. Passionate about changing the balance in the energy industry to support a more sustainable future, Eric has been investing in cleantech since the early 1990s, when he backed early disruptors Transphase Systems, maker of large-scale energy storage systems; and Capstone Turbine, now the world’s leading producer of low-emission microturbine systems and the first to market with commercially viable microturbine energy products. As an active Board member for 13 years, Eric helped transform Capstone Turbine from an engineering project into publicly-held leader in the distributed power generation industry. Elsewhere, Eric has contributed as an active director at Enpirion, whose technology represents the first major innovation in integrated power technology in over a decade.

Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses.

Eric currently sits on the boards of Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of intelligent communication solutions; Ebates, the pioneer and leader of online Cash Back Shopping; Enpirion, maker of the industry’s smallest power management system on a chip; EnStorage, developer of a low-cost Regenerative Fuel Cell energy-storage-system for multiple energy applications; Lancope, the global market leader in Network Behavior Analysis (NBA) and Response technology; and Xirrus, the leader in High Performance Wi-Fi.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. Eric recently served for five years as Silicon Valley’s VC-industry representative on Nasdaq’s Listing and Hearing Review Council, He is also member of Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Stanford, Cornell and UC Berkeley on the transformative power of entrepreneurship. An engineer at heart, Eric is happiest when figuring out “how things work” – but he also dabbles in fly fishing, golf and the outdoors in general.

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Deepak Kamra has a knack for identifying innovative companies that disrupt the status quo to become leaders in their fields. After an 11-year career growing technology startups into successful global leaders, Deepak joined Canaan in 1991 and is focused on investments in digital media and software.  Deepak led Canaan’s early investment in DoubleClick, the Internet’s first and leading online advertising solution; Match.com, the most popular dating site worldwide; and ON24, the leader in webcasting and virtual events.

He also invested in voice-over-IP infrastructure company Acme Packet, which became one of the top-ten performing IPOs of 2006, and his recent IPO, SuccessFactors, is the leading company in human performance and talent management. He currently sits on the boards of technology-driven global companies such as e4e, providing next generation business process services; Groundwork OpenSource, the leader in performance monitoring; Zmanda, the leader in open source backup software; and Zoosk, the largest social dating network in the world.  He also directed Canaan’s investments in AllBusiness.com, Bharat Matrimony, Concord Communications, Impulse! Buy Network, iPrint.com, Latitude Communications, PriorityCall Management, Recourse Technologies and SalesLogix.  Recognizing early the global nature of venture capital, Deepak initiated Canaan’s investments in the India market starting in 2001.

Before joining Canaan, Deepak was a key member of the startup team at Aspect Communications, helping lead the pioneer in call center technologies to a successful IPO in 1990. He has also held leadership roles at telecommunications companies like ROLM Corp. and TRW Datacomm International.

Deepak received a BA from Carleton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, he is involved in several microfinance initiatives to spur economic growth in developing nations and currently serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee at Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium. He was included on the Forbes Midas List in 2008 and 2009, a prominent list ranking the best dealmakers in technology and the 2009 AlwaysOn Venture Capital 100 which highlights the one hundred individuals who have backed the most profitable winners in the last four years. He currently serves on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association.

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CONNECTICUT LOCAL TIME:

Tim Shannon has extensive biopharmaceutical operational experience leading product and business development for more than 15 years, and was a practicing physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine. Tim joined Canaan in 2009 and brings strategic business sense as well as a hands-on medical and patient care perspective to Canaan’s investments in biopharmaceuticals.

Tim was previously president and chief executive officer of CuraGen, a biopharmaceutical company focused on oncology. At CuraGen, he previously served as executive vice president of R&D and chief medical officer. Prior to CuraGen, he held positions of increasing responsibility for Bayer’s Pharmaceutical Business Group including senior vice president of global medical development. He is a director at Celldex Therapeutics, which acquired CuraGen in October 2009, and is a member of the Quality Assurance, Compliance and Safety Committee for The Yale Cancer Center.

In addition to his operational experience, he was assistant professor of the pulmonary and critical care division at Yale University School of Medicine and an attending physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the West Haven V.A. Medical Center. Tim received his post graduate medical training at the Beth Israel Hospital of Harvard Medical School and at Boston University, earned his medical degree from the University of Connecticut, and has a B.A. in chemistry from Amherst College.

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Eli Novershtern joined Canaan’s Israel office in 2008 as an Investment Analyst and focuses on the firm’s Israeli investments.

Prior to joining Canaan Eli was a strategy consultant and team leader at Shaldor, where he created and helped implement business strategies for leading companies in IT, healthcare, and the consumer goods industries. His understanding of technology is rooted in the prestigious “Haman Talpiot” project, within which he served for six years as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces.

Eli holds an MPA degree from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Fischman Scholar, as well as an MSc in Management from the London School of Economics, where he was a Chevening Scholar. Eli got his BA in Political Science, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he also graduated from the “Amirim” honors program. 

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Bryan Chao joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in September 2008 and is an Analyst on the Technology team. He focuses on supporting Canaan’s investments in enterprise software & services and digital media & communications.

Before joining Canaan, Bryan served as Senior Analyst at Revolution Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on raising private capital and executing M&A transactions for growth technology companies in the digital media, IT services, and enterprise software & infrastructure sectors. At Revolution, Bryan advised several technology transactions including the sale of Plaxo to Comcast, Stratify’s acquisition by Iron Mountain, and Webify’s acquisition by IBM. Previously, Bryan worked on internal enterprise applications as a Product Manager in Google’s technical operations group, and as an Analyst at Sagent Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank in New York.

Bryan earned a B.S. in Finance and Management and a B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering from the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Peter Farina, Ph.D., is passionate about research and development in the fields of chemistry and biology. Peter joined Canaan in 2008 to identify and evaluate strategic investment opportunities by applying his background in research and drug development.

Previous to joining Canaan, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for the North American development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of immunology/inflammation, virology and cardiovascular disease. Peter also served as vice president of research, director of inflammatory diseases and director of biochemistry during his 28 year career with the company. Prior to his work with Boehringer Ingelheim, Peter served in the research and development of immunodiagnostics for Corporate Research Laboratories and Medical Products Division of Union Carbide Corporation.

Some of Peter’s most notable accomplishments include the successful development and registration of transcriptase inhibitor, Viramune® (nevirapine), HIV protease inhibitor, Aptivus®, and Atrovent HFA® for COPD and emphysema. He has also authored more than fifty publications and patents.

Peter currently serves as the co-chair and board member of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE); the advisory board of the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy; senior fellow for the Center for Biological Innovation at MIT, and founder and CEO of Developing World Cures, a nonprofit company working on neglected diseases.  He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and conducted postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.

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Santhosh Vadivelu joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in 2008 with the firm’s healthcare team.  He primarily focuses on the firm’s healthcare investment efforts and in identifying strategic opportunities within the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industries.  Being an entrepreneur at heart and a scientist by training, Santhosh is passionate about identifying scientific opportunities and innovation-driven healthcare companies that improve patient care. 

Santhosh joined Canaan from Heller Ehrman, LLP where he was a scientific advisor and a registered patent agent admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Prior to moving to bay area, Santhosh spent time at Forest Laboratories, Inc. NY and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, conducting experiments in human genome DNA replication and microarrays.

Santhosh holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pathologie GmbH (IMP), Vienna, Austria, where his research focused on genetic engineering, stem cells and cancer pathways.  He also earned an M.Sc in Life sciences from Bharathidasan University, India, specializing in Biotechnology.

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Steve joined Canaan in November 1991 as a General Partner, bringing a broad background in financing companies involved in manufacturing; retailing; radio, television, and cable broadcasting; and financial services.

Steve began his career with GE in 1973 and held a variety of financial positions. From 1983 to 1991, he was with GE Venture Capital and GE Capital’s Corporate Finance Group, providing debt and equity financing for start-up companies and leveraged buyouts. Steve is a graduate of Amherst College.

He serves on the Boards of Directors of BiddingForGood, Dean Foods, The Active Network, and Verance. 

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Harish Gandhi is an Executive Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital company focusing on early stage investments in the technology, telecom and services sector in India. 

Harish is a recognized thought leader in the international telecommunications sector and has over 15 years of industry and operating experience in both India and the U.S. Prior to joining Canaan, Harish spent 12 years in the U.S. in various engineering, product marketing and business development roles – and has spent the past few years guiding the strategic development of next-generation services at some the world’s largest mobile companies..

Most recently, Harish headed the Value Added Services Business and the New Product Development team at Bharti Airtel – India’s largest mobile operator. He grew the VAS business over 50% annually, contributing more than $500 million dollars to Bharti’s topline. In his product development role, Harish was responsible for innovation. He oversaw strategic partnerships with value-added product, service and content companies, as well as system integrators, to bring several new products to market for Bharti Airtel. Harish also served as Vice President of Business Strategy and Planning at Airtel and was responsible for leading the company’s 3G effort and driving several high-impact initiatives for the Mobility business. Prior to Bharti Airtel, Harish was Director of Marketing and Technology at Nokia, where he led the technical sales team responsible for selling network infrastructure and services to mobile operators in India.

Before relocating to India in 2004, Harish worked as Director of Business Development at Dilithium Networks, where he built the company’s business in the U.S. and Japan and also led product marketing. Harish has also worked at Bain & Company as a management consultant, focusing on technology and semiconductor companies as well as in the private equity practice; and also at LCC International as a radio systems engineer responsible for designing, deploying and optimizing mobile networks for U.S. operators.

Harish has BA in technology from IIT Bombay, a MS from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School.

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Bartek Ringwelski joined Canaan’s Westport office in November 2007 as an Investment Analyst on the IT team. He currently focuses on the firm’s digital media & internet advertising, financial technology, and e-commerce investment efforts. He is a board observer of Lending Club, Paragon Lake, eBillMe, Peer39, and Motionbox.

Prior to joining Canaan, Bartek was an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank in the technology group where he focused on digital media, hardware and IT services mergers and acquisitions.  While at UBS, he completed numerous M&A advisory assignments, including CSC’s acquisition of Covansys for $1.4 billion and Hearst’s acquisition of RealAge.

Bartek received his B.A. from Columbia University where he studied Economics. While at Columbia, Bartek co-founded an online job interview preparation company, which became the largest online source of real interview questions.  Bartek resides in New York City, where he is an active member in several technology and entrepreneurial groups.  He is also fluent in Polish and conversant in German.

Bartek spends his free time blogging and working on SkillSlate, which helps people find service professionals like movers, tutors, and dog walkers in NYC.

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John Lambrech joined Canaan in 1995 and has held a number of positions during his tenure with the firm. As Director of Finance, John is responsible for a full spectrum of the Canaan’s finance, accounting and investor relations initiatives. In addition, John has co-led the development of several custom IT system solutions utilized for Limited Partner reporting and communications, investment benchmarking and financial and operational administration.

Prior to this position, John served as an Operations Associate from 2000 to 2004 and as an Investment Analyst from 1995 to 1999. Prior to joining Canaan, John worked as a CPA for Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services Group.

John holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship from NYU’s Stern School of Business and a BS in Accounting and Economics from SUNY Oneonta.

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Gregory joined the Canaan organization as a General Partner in 1990. Previously, he was a Vice President at JP Morgan with principal responsibilities for private debt and equity financings. While at JP Morgan, Gregory played an important role in the formation of the Canaan organization.  Earlier in his career, Gregory was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell specializing in complex financing transactions.

Gregory holds an MBA and law degree from Columbia University and an MS degree in engineering from Kharkov Polytechnik Institute in the Ukraine.

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Warren brings significant operational experience and proven investment talent to Canaan Partners, with expertise in communications, digital media, and software. He joined the firm’s Connecticut office in 2005 to focus on digital media investments, specifically in the New York corridor. Convinced online advertising as we know it is only in its nascent stages, Warren is always on the lookout for the next great leap in digital media – and was responsible for Canaan’s early investments in Tremor Media, a rising star in the online video advertising space; Motionbox, a leading user-generated video site; Associated Content, “The People’s Media Company”; and Vivox, a provider of voice communication services to online communities.

Previously, Warren worked at Comcast Interactive Capital, where he led the media firm’s