Speaker & Moderator Biographies
 Brad Feld lives in Boulder, Colorado and Homer, Alaska with his wife and is on a quest to run a marathon in every state in the US.Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur since 1987. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars. In addition to his investing efforts, Brad has been active with several non-profit organizations and currently is chair of the National Center for Women & Information Technology, co-chair of Startup Colorado, and on the board of UP Global. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes the widely read blogs Feld Thoughts, Startup Revolution, and Ask the VC. Bradholds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed 23 marathons as part of his mission to finish a marathon in each of the 50 states. |
 Matt MacInnis is Inkling’s Chief Executive Officer. He founded Inkling in 2009 on a mission to rethink the way people learn using technology, a journey that began with the textbook, but has led to much more. Today, Inkling is defining a new medium for publishers and consumers alike.Before founding Inkling, Matt spent eight years at Apple, beginning in marketing, moving into product, and then running Apple’s education market development team in Asia for over two years, based in Beijing. After helping to grow Apple’s business in the region, Matt was called back to Apple’s California headquarters to coordinate Apple’s growth in education globally. A native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Matt earned a degree in Electrical Engineering with a Citation in Mandarin Chinese from Harvard University. Both Matt and Inkling are based in San Francisco. |
 David Kirby is Vice President of Arbor Advisors, located in the heart of Silicon Valley.Prior to joining Arbor, David worked at Goldman Sachs for three years in New York. He also spent four years working in sales & business development at IQPC North America in the Toronto and New York offices. A native of Halifax, David holds a BSc from the University of King's College and an MBA from Dalhousie University. |
 Ben Yoskovitz is VP Product at GoInstant, a venture-backed startup focused on changing how we share and experience the web with co-browsing technology. GoInstant was recently acquired by Salesforce.com. He's also a Founding Partner at Year One Labs, which is an early stage accelerator in Montreal. They invested in five startups: Localmind, Massive Damage, HighScore House, qidiq and Happy Stuff. Three of those companies have gone on to raise follow on capital.Prior to that, Ben was the CEO and co-founder of Standout Jobs, which he sold in 2010 and has been an entrepreneur in the web space for 15+ years. He's also involved in a number of different projects as an advisor, consultant and mentor. His main interests include: Web/mobile startups, game startups, product management, entrepreneurship, customer service and social media. He obsesses over things like analytics, customer acquisition, viral loops, product/market fit and building great stuff. |
 Brian Lowe is co-founder and director of the First Angel Network Association, Atlantic Canada’s largest association for private investors and is a shareholder and director of several operating companies throughout Atlantic Canada. As an accomplished entrepreneur and business leader with over 30 years experience, he has been involved in a number of start-up companies throughout his career. Mr. Lowe raised millions of dollars for these companies. As a co-founder of ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc., Mr. Lowe brought invaluable expertise having been responsible for the incorporation and raising the necessary start-up funding totaling $10 million. Immunovaccine Inc. (TSX-V: IMV) on October 5th, 2009 became a publicly traded company. Past experience includes serving as the President/CEO/Founder of three environmental companies based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Mr. Lowe successfully negotiated the sale of these companies to Laidlaw Environmental Services Ltd. of South Carolina. He is past chairperson of BioNova, Nova Scotia Life Sciences Association, a director of the National Angel Capital Association and a director of Springboard Atlantic, a network with a mandate to support the commercialization of research through universities in Atlantic Canada. Mr. Lowe is Entrepreneur in Residence at the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship under the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University. Mr. Lowe is a member of the advisory board for the National Research Council (NRC). |
