Haas Venture Fellows

Haas Venture Fellows for 2011-2012:

Full-Time MBA

Matt Acalin

Christian Dambolena

Carlos Façanha

Itamar Novick

Julianne Wu

Haas Venture Fellows for 2010-2011:

Full-Time MBA

Buzz Bonneau

Gabor Foldes

Siddhi Saraiya

Ian Schworer

Scott Shapiro

Jia Jia Ye

Executive and Evening/Weekend MBA

Christopher Fong

Rei Kasai

Jing Zhu

Bauback Safa

Previous Haas Venture Fellows

Haas Venture Fellows for 2009-2010
Haas Venture Fellows for 2008-2009

Past Haas Venture Fellows

Haas Venture Fellows Program Information

Haas Venture Fellows for 2011-2012

Full-Time MBA

Matt Acalin, FTMBA 2012. Prior to Haas, Matt was an Associate at Summit Partners, a growth equity and venture capital firm in Boston. At Summit, Matt focused on sourcing new investment opportunities, investment due diligence, and portfolio company initiatives. Before Summit, Matt was an analyst in GE Capital’s Financial Management Program where he worked in a variety of industries including Energy, Healthcare, and Real Estate. Matt received a B.S. in Finance and Information Systems from Boston College and is a CFA Charterholder.

Christian Dambolena, MBA2012. Prior to Haas, Christian was an associate with L.E.K. Consulting in their Boston and Bangkok offices. His client engagements were a mix of corporate strategy and private equity due diligence focusing on a variety of industries including air travel, energy, media & entertainment, and software. Christian was also a Fulbright Scholar in Buenos Aires and an analyst for Oxford Analytica. He holds an M.Phil in Economics from Oxford and a B.S. in Business, magna cum laude, from Babson College.

Carlos Façanha, MBA2012. Prior to Haas, Carlos was a Managing Consultant at Kaiser Associates in the Sao Paulo office. While at Kaiser, Carlos focused on strategic planning and competitive strategy engagements in different industries, such as energy, education, logistics and media & communications. Previously, he worked for Banco Real ABN AMRO and for Oracle in its market intelligence group. He has also started and run an online ticket sales business between 2001 and 2006. Carlos holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Universidade de São Paulo and an Entrepreneurship Certificate from Babson College.

Itamar Novick, MBA2012. Prior to attending Haas, Itamar worked as Senior Director of Product Management at Gigya, a leading social optimization platform for online business, where he helped grow Gigya’s worldwide user reach from 50 to 300 million monthly users. With over ten years of tech experience in startup and corporate settings, Itamar has previously worked as a software engineer, executive sales & Account manager, Project manager and product manager. Itamar co-founded two startup companies – the first sold billing software to the Israeli government, and more recently he launched a prominent Facebook social game. He received his B.sc in Computer Science from the Academic College of Tel-Aviv Yaffo.

Julianne Wu is a first year MBA candidate. Prior to attending Haas, Julianne spent a few years as an Associate with Horsley Bridge Partners, a private equity fund of funds based in San Francisco. While at Horsley Bridge she helped evaluate domestic and international investment opportunities and drive their cleantech efforts. Previously, Julianne was with ThinkEquity Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on the growth sectors of the economy, as part of the M&A and corporate finance teams. Julianne currently serves as Executive Director of Business Development and Operations at ecoVC, a startup nonprofit that works with venture firms to promote sustainable business practices in early-stage companies. She received her BA with high honors from the University of California at Berkeley.

[top of page]

Haas Venture Fellows for 2010-2011

Full-Time MBA

Buzz Bonneau, FTMBA 2011. Previously, he was a design engineer at Intuitive Surgical where he served as the lead design engineer on a number of production released robotic surgical tools in the gynecology, urology and cardiac markets. He has also worked in a variety of entrepreneurial roles in the consumer product, internet and healthcare spaces. He holds a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He has two filed medical device patents.

Gabor Foldes, FTMBA 2011. Prior to coming to Haas, he was an investment banker at Credit Suisse in New York covering retail and consumer products markets. In this role, he advised companies on raising capital, acquisitions and financial strategy. Previously, he worked at Capital One focusing on product marketing for online banking as well as balance sheet management. Gabor is passionate about entrepreneurship and venture capital, and is currently involved with BillFloat, a VC-backed consumer finance startup. Gabor received an M.Eng. in Computer Science and Financial Engineering and a B.A. in Computer Science and Economics from Cornell University.

Siddhi Saraiya, FTMBA 2011. Before attending Haas, Siddhi joined the founding engineers of Distributed World Power, an Idealab company that creates solar home systems for rural markets. Her role was to help commercialize the product through building sales, distribution, and product financing relationships. Previously, Siddhi worked at Deloitte Consulting as a management consultant, where she focused on corporate venture capital for technology and healthcare. Siddhi received a B.A. with high honors in Political Theory from UCLA.

Ian Schworer, FTMBA 2011, has a focus on entrepreneurship and finance. Most recently, he was a management and technology consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton focusing on the finance, transportation, and defense markets. Also, Ian has held positions at Lockheed Martin as a systems engineer for various US Navy helicopter platforms and at Intel, where he designed cutting edge semiconductor chipsets. Ian continues to support entrepreneurial ventures in his free time and is currently consulting for a VC-backed VoIP solution provider. Ian received his M.S in Electrical Engineering and his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech, where he was a Bradley Fellow.

Scott Shapiro, FTMBA 2011. Prior to Haas, Scott was a Senior Associate at Momentum Venture Managament, an early stage venture capital firm in Los Angeles. At Momentum, Scott assisted in the sourcing and execution of internet and software investments. He also held interim operating roles in product, marketing and operations in several of Momentum’s portfolio companies. Prior to Momentum, Scott was an Associate at Charles River Associates where he performed analyses related to securities class action and intellectual property litigation. Scott received a B.S. in Computer Science from UC San Diego and has completed the first two levels of the CFA program.

Jia Jia Ye, MBA/MPH 2011. Prior to attending Haas, Jia Jia was an associate at Galen Partners, a healthcare venture capital firm based in Stamford, CT where she was primarily focused on new deal sourcing, investment due diligence, financial analyses and deal structuring. Before Galen, Jia Jia worked in Deutsche Bank’s healthcare corporate finance investment banking group. She started her career at UBS Finance Services in the municipal healthcare group, providing structured debt and derivative instruments for non-profit hospitals. Jia Jia holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University.

[top of page]

Haas Venture Fellows for 2010-2011

Executive & Evening/Weekend MBA

Christopher Fong is a 2011 Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA candidate. He currently works at Google in their Advertising division, he was asked to lead the development of the Education Industry when he joined 4 years ago, it is now a multi-million dollar vertical for the company. He has also spent time in Tanzania with Google.org serving as a business plan evaluator and mentor to entrepreneurs. Previously, he was in business development and marketing roles in Expedia. He started an internet company in Australia and advises startups from Cornell University where he studied for 1.5 years. He holds a B.A. and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney, Australia.

Rei Kasai is a 2011 Evening & Weekend MBA candidate. He currently advises internet and mobile start-ups on strategy and served as a Summer Associate at growth-stage venture capital firm Newbury Ventures. Prior to Newbury, Rei held management positions in sales and product marketing at enterprise mobile software company Dexterra until
its sale to Antenna Software in 2009. At Dexterra, Rei built the team that was responsible for growing revenue from $0 to $30M in the first three years. He has also held a customer development role at network security company Net6, which sold to Citrix for $50M in 2004 and served in consulting at CRM software company Octane Software, which sold to E.piphany for $3.2B in 2000. He started his career in technology as a bio-informatics analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy's Human Genome Project. Rei received a B.A. in Molecular and
Cell Biology from U.C. Berkeley.

Jing Zhu is a 2011 Evening & Weekend MBA candidate. She is a product manager at Aurora Biofuels. She interned in McKesson's corporate strategy division in the summer of 2009. Previously she was a Senior Scientist and Project Manager at Intel and involved in the company's new Digital Health Business unit strategic planning and technology licensing. Prior to that Jing spent 3 years at Ciphergen in sales and marketing capacities. Jing received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Cornell University and B.S. in Chemistry from Beijing University.

Bauback Safa

Bauback Safa is a 2011 Evening & Weekend MBA candidate. He is a board-certified reconstructive microvascular, plastic, and hand surgeon at the Buncke Clinic. Bauback serves on the clinical faculty in the Departments of Plastic Surgery at Stanford University and U.C. San Francisco. In addition to his clinical practice, Bauback is Chief Medical Officer of Zipline Medical, Inc. He serves as a surgical consultant to Axogen, Spiracur, Articulinx, VasoStitch, Cryocyte, Oxyjet, and ePatients. Bauback leads three active clinical trials at the California Pacific Medical Center and serves on numerous scientific advisory boards in the medical device industry. He holds in a B.A. in Music/Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Virginia and an M.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He completed his fellowship in reconstructive microvascular and hand surgery at the Buncke Clinic.

[top of page]

Haas Venture Fellows for 2009-2010

Ahsan Malik
Ian Lee
Hansoo Lee
Elise Singer
Feng Yuan Xu

Ahsan Malik

Ahsan is a first year MBA candidate. Most recently, Ahsan was a consultant to the executive team of YouSendIt, a leader in digital content delivery. Prior to joining YouSendIt, he was an Associate at Alloy Ventures, where he worked with the IT investment team on new investments and supporting existing portfolio companies. Previously, he was an Analyst with Credit Suisse’s Technology investment Banking Group, where his responsibilities included analyzing and executing a variety of financing alternatives and M&A transactions for public and private companies across all technology sectors. Ahsan received a B.A. in Economics from Stanford University.

Ian Lee

Ian is a first year MBA candidate. Prior to Haas, Ian was a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting, where he focused on market entry, growth, and commercialization projects for technology and defense companies. Previously, Ian was an investment banker in San Francisco, where he advised tech clients on M&A, equity and debt financing. Ian has also worked for three internet-based startups and co-founded two companies. Ian received dual Bachelor degrees Magna Cum Laude in Design Technology and Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Hansoo Lee

Hansoo is a first-year MBA student. Most recently, Hansoo was a Senior Manager at Wal-Mart, where he founded, grew, and led the ecommerce logistics strategy and planning team. At Wal-Mart he managed a team of nine and had P&L responsibility of over $12MM. Prior to Wal-Mart, he was an Associate at Pulse, a technology start-up based in San Francisco. Hansoo has also interned at Lazard Freres. Hansoo currently serves on the Board of Directors of World Savvy, a national non-profit organization. Hansoo received his BA in Fine Arts and Economics from Amherst College.

Elise Singer

Elise is a first-year MBA student. Elise is a board certified geriatrician and family physician. Most recently, Elise was the Director of Ambulatory Informatics at Cooper University Health System in Camden, NJ. She practiced medicine part time while managing the ambulatory arm of Cooper’s $30M system-wide electronic health record implementation. Elise sat on the board of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians from 2006-2008. She is a co-founder of Hyoumanity, a web-based healthcare start-up. Elise holds a BA, magna cum laude, in Political Science from Middlebury College, an MD from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and a CAQ in Geriatrics from Jefferson Medical College.

Feng Yuan Xu

Feng Yuan Xu is a first year MBA candidate. Most recently, she was a Product Marketing Manager for Google, where she sourced and managed strategic marketing partnerships for Google AdWords. In addition, she developed campaigns and programs aimed at increasing advertisers’ retention and spend. She started her career at Jefferies Broadview as an M&A analyst focusing on sell-side deals in the enterprise software space. Feng also has economic consulting experience valuating damages in antitrust lawsuits. She holds a B.A. of Economics from Harvard College.

[top of page]

Haas Venture Fellows for 2008-2009

Alex De Winter
Kaan Ersun
Ty Henson
Craig Klemp
John Ryu

    Alex De Winter, Ph.D

Alex is a second year MBA candidate. Before attending Haas, Alex was a senior scientist at Pacific Biosciences, a biotechnology start-up backed by Kleiner Perkins, Alloy Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures. At Pacific Biosciences, he worked on the biochemistry behind the company’s single-molecule DNA sequencing instrument. He began his career as a scientist at 454 Life Sciences (acquired by Roche), where he helped to develop the GS20, 454’s next generation DNA sequencer. Alex received a B.A. magna cum laude in Chemistry from Amherst College, as well as a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University.

   Kaan Ersun

Kaan is a second year MBA candidate. He has a background in high-tech entrepreneurship and management consulting. Most recently, he worked on marketing and business development at AdMob, a mobile advertising startup in Silicon Valley. Prior to Haas, he worked as a management consultant in the Risk and Finance group of BearingPoint, where he advised large financial institutions on strategy and risk management. Kaan started his career as an analog design engineer at Decicon, a semiconductor startup in San Jose, CA. At Decicon, he designed analog ICs and worked on product definition as well as technical marketing. Kaan graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Electrical Engineering, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds dual MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

   Ty Henson

Ty is a second year MBA candidate. He has a background in portfolio management and investment research within the venture capital industry. Before attending the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, Ty was an Associate at Saints Venture Capital, a leading direct secondary investment firm, where he focused on investment due diligence, valuation and fundraising activities. At Haas, Ty is concentrating on entrepreneurship and the management of technology. He holds a B.A. from Western Washington University.

   Craig Klemp

Craig is a second year MBA candidate. Most recently, he was a Summer Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting. Before attending Haas, Craig was an Investment Analyst at Paladin Capital Group, a multi-stage venture capital fund that invests in companies with products and services that address homeland security issues and needs. Prior to joining Paladin, Craig was a Financial Analyst with Lockheed Martin Transportation & Security Solutions, where he provided financial management for Homeland Security programs and Federal Aviation Administration programs to modernize air traffic management systems. Craig received his B.S. degree in Commerce from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce with a concentration in Finance.

   John Ryu

John is a second year MBA candidate. Most recently, he was an Associate at Prism VentureWorks, an early stage venture capital firm where he focused on digital media and online advertising. As a Venture Fellow, he worked with Morgenthaler Ventures to explore opportunities in mobile media. Before coming to Haas, he was the Director of Product Management at AdECN, an online advertising exchange that was acquired by Microsoft. Prior to that, John led the paid search products group at WhenU, a behavioral advertising startup founded by partners at BCG. John began his career as a management consultant at Cap Gemini and holds a BA in economics from Yale University.

Past Haas Venture Fellows

Rohit Dube
Nader Ghafari
Alex Ortiz
Michael Berolzheimer
Brett Wilson
SeongGwang Choi
Nathan Dintenfass
James Vuong
Carolyn Wales

Keith Eadie

Kenneth Wallace

Rebecca Lynn

Kevin Kopczynski

[top of page]