Erik Anderson

President, WestRiver Capital, LLC
Erik Anderson is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of AF4C. He is also President of WestRiver Capital, a private investment company; Chairman of Tachyon Networks, Inc., an advanced satellite-based internet solutions company; vice-Chairman of Montgomery & Co., LLC, an investment bank serving growth companies in technology, media and healthcare; Chairman of Zula, LLC, a science education company; and a Board member of GEI, a leisure business based on golf entertainment.

From 1998 to 2002, Anderson was chief executive officer of Matthew G. Norton, Co., a private investment company. Prior to 1998, he was chief executive officer of Trillium Corporation. In addition, his experience includes tenures as both a partner at the private equity firm of Frazier & Company, LP and as a vice president of Goldman, Sachs & Co. Anderson serves on the board of Avista Corporation and the advisory boards for Northwest Venture Partners and Northwest Capital Partners II.

He holds a master's and bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree (Cum Laude) in Management Engineering from Claremont McKenna College.

Gary P. Brinson

The Brinson Foundation
Gary P. Brinson is the retired Chairman and Founder of Brinson Partners, Inc., a leading global investment management firm. He is a nationally recognized investment authority, lectures and contributes to educational and professional investment forums, is the co-author of two books on global investing and has authored numerous articles on an array of investment topics. Gary is a former Executive Committee member and past Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts. He currently is a Trustee of the Research Foundation of the Institute of Charted Financial Analysts and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. In 1991, he was named the Outstanding Financial Executive by the Financial Management Association, and in 1999 he received the Award for Professional Excellence from the Association for Investment Management Research.

Arnab Gupta

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Opera Solutions, LLC
Arnab Gupta is CEO and Founder of Opera Solutions, which uses advanced analytic approaches and machine learning techniques to drive front-line productivity gains for industry and government. The company combines its scientific expertise with deep industry knowledge in creating its Signal Hub™ technologies, which continually extract and refine predictive and insight-laden information from Big Data flows.  The company also creates a range of applications that run on its Signal Hubs.

Prior to establishing Opera in 2004, Arnab founded and sold a number of other companies, including Mitchell Madison Group and Zeborg.  He began his career at McKinsey & Co., where he rose to partner.

Since 2004, he has worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on its India HIV-AIDS initiative.  There, he has focused on stopping the spread of this disease by using innovative private-sector approaches.

Arnab earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School.  He speaks frequently at industry events, including recent appearances at SXSW Interactive, Strata, and GigaOm’s Structure: Data.

Alan Heuberger

Portfolio Manager, BGI/Cascade Investments, Inc.
Alan Heuberger is a Portfolio Manager at BGI / Cascade Investments, a private investment organization where he oversees fixed income portfolios, including portfolios dedicated to inflation linked and international fixed income securities. Mr. Heuberger joined the organization in 1996. Mr. Heuberger serves on the Board of Directors for Gabelli Asset Management, and also serves on investment committees for the YMCA of Greater Seattle, the Washington Education Foundation, the UNCF, and The Overlake School. He also serves on the Board of Trustees for The Overlake School. Mr. Heuberger received a B.A. degree in economics and mathematics from Claremont McKenna College. He has also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

John Meisenbach

President, MCM Financial
John Meisenbach is the President of MCM A Meisenbach Company, providing employee benefits and consulting services to individuals and businesses throughout the world. Mr. Meisenbach has been in the financial services industry since 1961. He currently serves on the boards of Costco, Expeditors International, M Financial Group, Seattle University and McCormick Capital Management. Mr. Meisenbach is active in numerous industry and civic organizations including the United Way of King County, Northwest Medical Teams, Zion Preparatory Academy and Children’s Hospital

Scott Oki

Founder, Oki Developments, Co-Founder, Oki Foundation
Scott is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oki Developments, Inc., an investment company with diverse interests in real estate, golf course development and management, restaurants, a professional soccer team, and early to development stage information technology companies. He is also the Chief Volunteer of the Oki Foundation. He serves on dozens of advisory boards and boards of directors for both for-profit and not-for-profit companies. He has founded or co-founded over a dozen non-profit organizations. He is the Co-Chair of the United Way of King County Campaign Board and Co-Chair of the Million Dollar Roundtable, Founder and Chairman of the Japanese American Chamber of Commerce, Founder and Co-President of the Chief Seattle Council Boy Scout Foundation, Co-Founder of Sounders For Kids, Co-Founder of America's Foundation for Chess, and Co-Founder of Social Venture Partners. He is a past-President of the Board of Regents for the University of Washington and the immediate past Chair of the Children's Hospital Foundation. Scott also serves on the national boards for United Way of America, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Japanese American National Museum, and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation.

James Roberts

M.D., Ph.D, Howard Hughes Investigator, Fred Hutchinson CRC.
Jim is a member in the Division of the Basic Sciences at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and is an Affliate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Washington. He has also been appointed Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Jim is Founder and Board Member of Targeted Growth Inc. and Otogene AG. He is also on the board of Mitoxix Inc. Additionally, Jim serves on the Editorial Board of CELL, Cell Growth and Differentiation, and Molecular and Cellular Biology. He has published over 50 articles in leading scientific journals and has been issued 10 international patents in biochemistry.

Salome Thomas-EL

(Shaun Alexander Fellow) Author; Principal, Stoddart Fleischer Middle School
Salome Thomas-EL was born and raised in the inner city of Philadelphia and has been a teacher in the Philadelphia School District since 1987. He received national acclaim as a teacher and chess coach at Vaux Middle School, where his students have gone on to win world recognition as Eight-Time National Chess Champions. Armed with only a chess board and a profound belief in their potential, Thomas-EL’s faith and commitment has motivated hundreds of children in Philadelphia to attend magnet high schools, major colleges and universities. 

Salome Thomas-EL, a graduate of East Stroudsburg University and a doctoral student, has studied in Cambridge and London, England. He currently holds an Honorary Doctorate from Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. Salome received the Marcus A. Foster Award as the outstanding School District Administrator in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania’s distinguished, Martin Luther King Award. Mr. Thomas-EL frequently appears on the FoxNews cable show, The O’Reilly Factor, C-SPAN, The Tavis Smiley Show, CNN and NPR Radio. Salome was recently featured in Reader’s Digest and Black Enterprise Magazine.

Salome Thomas-EL is married and lives in Philadelphia with his wife and two baby daughters. Currently, he is the Principal at John F. Reynolds Elementary School in North Philadelphia and the author of the best-selling book, I Choose to Stay, released in hardcover in March 2003 by Kensington Publishing. The Walt Disney Company recently purchased the movie rights to I Choose to Stay. 

Thilo von Selchow

President and CEO, ZMD AG Dresden
For the last 6 years, Thilo von Selchow has been the CEO and President of ZMD AG Dresden. He has transformed the company into a global Analog Mixed Signal Design- and Manufacturing Group. ZMD is located in "Silicon Saxony" and has 7 Design and Sales offices in Europe, Asia and the USA. ZMD has 750 employees including 250 development engineers. In 2000, he co-founded "Silicon Saxony e.V.", and has been President ever since. This leading microelectronic cluster association in Europe has more than 180 members and 18 sponsors. It supports the SME's in East Germany and is spearheading the efforts to strengthen microelectronics in Europe. Until 1999 he has been working in several management positions within the Heitkamp & Thumann Group and was CEO of the Product Group Battery Components with 550 employees and 170 millions in sales revenue for several years. From 1990 to 1991 he was Investment Manager at the BfM AG Munich, a German private equity firm investing in SME's. From 1983 to 1989 he studied mechanical engineering and business economics at the University of Munich. He holds a degree in Economics of the University of Munich, and has completed a summer course at Harvard University in 1991. Thilo von Selchow is also Chairman of the Dresden Chess Olympics 2008 Association and has helped build the ZMD Open which is Europe's largest Chess Festival Event for more than 10 years.

Senior Advisors

Mark Dalton

President, Tudor Investment Corporation
Mark is the President and a member of the Board of Directors of Tudor Investment Corporation and its affiliates since 1988. His firm manages more than $5.3 billion in client funds in the global market securities, currencies and commodities markets. It also invests substantial proprietary capital in those markets. Previously, Mark spent nine years with Kidder, Peabody & Co., where his positions included Associate General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director of the Equity Group. Prior to joining Kidder, he was an attorney with the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York City. Mark has a J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law ('75) and a B.A. from Denison University in 1972. He is a director of Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ) and Cathay Investment Fund (Dublin) and a trustee of Denison University.

Ron Elgin

President and CEO, DDB Worldwide Communications
Ron is President/CEO of DDB Worldwide Communications of Seattle. In 1981 he co-founded what would become one of the fastest-growing public relations agency in the history of the market with initial clients such as Holland America, McDonald's and Nordstrom. In 1989, the company was sold to DDB Worldwide which has 206 offices in 99 countries. At $200 million, his office is now the state's second-largest public relations agency and employs 190. Ron serves on the boards of Hart Crowser, Global Photo Tours and Elgin Syferd/Drake. His other passion is community service where he currently serves on the boards of nine organizations, including PONCHO, Ronald McDonald House Charities and the Swedish Medical Center Foundation.