EVENT DETAILS

Matt Ridenour
Managing Director
Momentum Venture Management

Prior to founding Momentum Venture Management, Matt spent more than 10 years working in private equity, venture capital and as a CEO in successful early-stage companies. He has been a principal in more than 25 private market transactions with an aggregate value of more than $200 million. Prior to founding Momentum Venture Management, Matt served as CEO of UNX, the world's largest independent institutional equity trading platform, where he secured $20 million in venture funding. He also founded Gazelle TechVentures, a $60 million VC firm where he continues to serve on the executive committee. Previously he was a principal in Blue Capital, a private equity firm spun out of McKinsey & Company, and also spent two years focusing on private equity advisory at Bain & Company. Matt holds a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and graduated with High Honors as a Baker Scholar (top 5% in his MBA class) from Harvard Business School.
Matt currently serves on the Board of Directors of nQueue (Chairman), Sendio (Chairman), TherMark, GaimTheory, Gazelle TechVentures and iModules.

About Momentum Venture Management

Los Angeles-based Momentum Venture Management specializes in helping early-stage companies overcome their unique challenges by bringing experienced interim management skills, critical bridge capital, and a large network of relevant resources to achieve business traction and secure the next stage of investment.

Dave Travers
Rustic Canyon

David Travers brings technology, media, and national security experience to Rustic Canyon. Prior to joining Rustic Canyon in 2005, David worked at eBay, where he focused on the growth of their sports, toys, collectibles, and media marketplaces. Previously, David worked at The Walt Disney Company, where his duties included evaluating technology and new media venture investment opportunities for Disney as well as helping lead the launch of Disney's credit card business. David also worked at the White House as the Executive Assistant to the National Security Advisor, where he was awarded the Secretary of Defense's Award for Outstanding Public Service. David currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of LA's BEST Friends. David received his B.A. from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School

Jon Bonanno
CEO
Principle Power

Jon Bonanno co-founded Principle Power in October 2007, to bring new renewable energy technologies into the commercial space through his entrepreneurial, team-building, and finance experience. In 1995, Mr. Bonanno founded Interbill, a global online business-to-consumer micro-billing foundation for digital consumables. . After exiting from GIB, Mr. Bonanno founded Solid Streaming, a venture backed by J.P. Morgan, CIBC and Telesystems, which developed a BREW audio/video streaming foundation for CDMA 1x. In October of 2006, Mr. Bonanno sold his position in ViaMoviles to the original partnership in order to dedicate 100% of his time to Cleantech investing. In a short time, he became an early angel investor in Earth Class Mail and Sierra Nevada Solar and the first investor in Cool Earth Solar, at which he has served on the Board of Directors and as a Commercial Advisor.

Richard Palmer 
President & Chief Executive Officer
Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc.

Richard Palmer is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors of Global Clean Energy Holding, Inc. (OTC Symbol: GCEH) a California based, biofuels feedstock company with non-food based energy farms in Latin America.

Mr. Palmer has 25 years of hands-on experience in the alternate energy field and has been active in the biofuels industry for over 5 years.  He has held senior level management positions with Mobius Risk Group, Enron Energy Services, Bentley Engineering and Southland Industries. 

Mr. Palmer is the co-founder of Mobius Risk Group, a Houston based energy risk advisory firm.  He was a principal and Executive Vice President of Mobius from January, 2002 until September 2007.  From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Palmer was a Senior Manager Enron Energy Services responsible for Technical Services and Deal Structuring for comprehensive energy transactions between $250 million and $3.2 Billion.  Mr. Palmer received his designation as a Certified Energy Manager in 1999, holds two Business Management Certificates from University of Southern California’s Business School, and is an active member of both the American Society of Plant Biologists and the International Tropical Farmers Association.

Andy Funk
Chairman and CEO
Funk Ventures

Andy J. Funk, an experienced entrepreneur turned venture capitalist, expertly combines his passion for investing with an altruistic vision to make positive and impactful differences in the world. As the underlying driver of the Funk Ventures philosophy, Andy believes that businesses can make significant and positive contributions to people, society and the environment.

Before founding Funk Ventures, Andy was:

* Founder and CEO of Micordyme (acquired by iBoost)
* Founder and CEO of Helping.org (acquired by America Online)
* Co-founder of Daily F1 (acquired by Total F1)

As CEO and Chairman of Funk Ventures, Andy has been actively involved in the funding, development and sale of more than a dozen companies. Most recently, Andy authored the chapter "Investing Today for a Better Tomorrow" in the book “VC: Best Practices”. A frequent panelist and presenter, he has spoken before the MIT Enterprise Forum, PWC MoneyTree Survey and various other industry forums and conferences. Andy has been featured on Forbes Radio, the Wall Street Journal, Financier Worldwide, The Los Angeles Business Journal and other notable publications. A philanthropist since founding Helping.org, Andy continues to support various organizations that are closely aligned with his philosophy through his personal family foundation.

Robert Peterman
Senior Manager, Global Clean Technology
Toronto Stock Exchange

Robert Peterman is Senior Manager, Global Clean Technology for Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange, divisions of TMX Group.  He is responsible for leading global efforts to attract new listings in the clean technology sector, and for strategic initiatives that expand the market support for Clean Technology issuers trading on the Exchange.  Prior to his current role Mr. Peterman worked for several years in the Corporate Finance Department of the TSX Venture Exchange handling due diligence for the Exchange in relation to each listed company, their financial statements, board of directors and ensuring that they had the proper business processes in place to become a public company.  Robert completed his MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business in London, Canada, and is a member of the Ivey Entrepreneurship Council.

Brett Conrad
Managing Partner
Longboard Capital Advisors, LLC

General Partner of Longboard Capital Management, Blue Earth Fund, LP. Blue Earth Fund is an aggressive clean energy/clean tech fund.

Longboard Capital Advisors’ worthy cause is to accelerate the commercialization of clean energy technologies around the globe thereby creating energy independence and reducing greenhouse gases.
Brett Conrad received his BS from the Colorado School of Mines in Petroleum Engineering and an MBA from the University of Colorado, Boulder.