May 16th, 2012 - Investor & Entrepreneur Opening Dinner

Location: Statler City, Buffalo, NY
Time: 6:00-9:00PM

This invitation-only event includes networking with a select group of investors (local, out-of-state, international), early-stage entrepreneurs presenting at the Forum, and sponsors.

The Opening Dinner will be highlighted by a special remarks from Zachary Shulman, Managing Partner for Cayuga Venture Fund, and Gregory Galvin, Ph.D., President and CEO of Kionix, Inc. The two speakers will discuss the successful exit of Kionix, Inc., a global leader in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) founded by Dr. Galvin in Ithaca, NY. Mr. Shulman and Dr. Galvin will describe their successful history with Kionix and provide advice to entrepreneurs and investors looking to follow their example.

Feature Speakers:

Zachary Shulman - Managing Partner, Cayuga Venture Fund

Zachary Shulman has been a Managing Partner at Cayuga Venture Fund, a venture capital fund based in Ithaca, NY since 2004. He currently serves on the boards of Primet Precision Materials, Advion BioSciences, e2e Materials, Instinctiv and CherryPharm.

Zach has also been since 2002 a Senior Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at The Johnson School at Cornell University where he teaches courses on startups and venture capital financing. Zach also head up programmatic activities at the new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute at The Johnson School. Shulman served as General Counsel and Chief Investor Relations Officer of Spike Broadband Systems from 1999-2002. While at Spike, Shulman negotiate and closed over $80 million in venture capital financing. Prior to joining Spike, Shulman was an associate at the law firms of Harris Beach and at Ropes & Gray.

Gregory Galvin, Ph.D. - President and CEO, Kionix, Inc.

Dr. Galvin is President and CEO of Kionix, Inc., one of the world’s top three suppliers of MEMS inertial sensors and a wholly owned subsidiary of ROHM Co., Ltd.  A leading authority on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) product innovation, Dr. Galvin founded Kionix in 1993 to commercialize a novel silicon-micromachining technology pioneered by researchers at Cornell University.  Dr. Galvin also serves as Chairman and CEO of Rheonix, Inc., a corporate entity established in December 2008 to commercialize a unique polymer chip microfluidic technology developed by Kionix scientists.  Prior to these positions, he served Cornell for nine years, first as Deputy Director of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facility in which micromechanical research was conducted, and later as Director of Corporate Research Relations, focusing on technology transfer.  Dr. Galvin has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and an M.B.A. from Cornell University.  His graduate research was in the areas of thermodynamics of silicon under ultrafast melting, ion beam analysis, and thin film technologies.  He is a member of several scientific societies, has published over 20 technical papers, and holds more than 58 patents.  Dr. Galvin was elected to the Cornell University Board of Trustees in 2011.  He also serves on the Advisory Council of the Cornell College of Engineering and is a Director of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, BinOptics, the Kensa Group, Tompkins County Area Development, Inc., the El Portal de Belén Foundation, and the Sciencenter of Ithaca, New York.