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Jury Members

Peter M Read – Angel investor and advisor

Peter loves working with talented entrepreneurs, as an angel investor and/or advisor in digital media and entertainment companies: 4Info, Adjust Your Set, Comedy.com, Digivate, Eyeclick, Fandango, Fizzback, InGrooves, JustGiving, Knitting Factory, LivePlanet, Metacafe, MindCandy, Mippin/Refresh Mobile, MoviePilot, Music Nation, MyHeritage, ReturnPath, Rightster, RjDj, RootMusic, Shopwiki, Slingshot, Songkick, Techlightenment, The Astrologer, uberVU, Umee, Weeworld, etc; and alongside top tier investors: Accel, AlleyCorp, Balderton, Benchmark, Greylock, Index, Seedcamp, SVAngel, TAG, UnionSquare, Venrock, Walden, White Bear Yard, etc

Peter was previously an advisor and/or director with Neven Vision (acquired by Google), Saynow (acquired by Google), Launch Music (acquired by Yahoo), LoveFilm (acquired by Amazon), Skype (acquired by eBay), Mobix Interactive (acquired by Seachange), Kindo (acquired by MyHeritage), Playahead (acquired by Modern Times Group), HSX (acquired by Cantor Fitzgerald), H2G2 (acquired by the BBC), iFilm (acquired by MTV), and Meevee (acquired by eUniverse)

Michael Jeon – Samsung Ventures Europe

Michael is the head of Samsung Ventures Europe, based in London, where he is looking for opportunities in consumer IT, mobile/wireless, digital media and certain areas in clean-tech and medical technologies. Prior to moving to London in March 2010, Michael was with Samsung Ventures America, where he was involved in the boards of Envivio, LiveMedia, Widevine (acquired by Google), Sibeam, PureDigital (acquired by Cisco), Impinj, ForteMedia, and Ubicom. His latest investment with SVE is Cambridge Broadband Networks.

Michael holds a BS EECS from University of California, Berkeley, an MS from Carnegie Mellon University, and an MBA from MIT Sloan

Samsung Ventures Europe is part of the venture capital arm of the Samsung Group. The investment corporation manages over US$700 million globally and closely tracks the strategic priorities of Samsung Electronics’ and other Group companies’ core operating divisions, and encompasses investments in wireless, mobile, digital media, semiconductors, displays, and consumer electronics.”

Dharmash Mistry – Balderton Capital

Dharmash Mistry is a Partner at Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Europe), one of the largest Venture capital Groups in Europe. Prior to joining Balderton Capital, Dharmash spent 15 years launching, developing and acquiring businesses globally in the media, retail and consumer goods sectors.
He spent eight years at Emap, where he held a range of executive roles, including Group Managing Director of Emap Consumer Media and Emap Performance.
Prior to Emap, Dharmash was at The Boston Consulting Group, where he advised clients across a range of industries in Europe, China, Japan and USA.
Currently he works with and serves on the boards of – Lovefilm (film rental and VOD); Habbo (social online gaming for teens) Mog (music subscription and blog network); Ewise (online payments); My-wardrobe (new season fashion ecommerce) Outside of Balderton, Dharmash is a non-executive director of Dixons Retail plc (DXNS.L)

Balderton Capital is one of the leading venture capital firms in Europe. Based in London, Balderton manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital, and has invested in over 100 companies, principally in Europe but also in the US and Asia.
Balderton focuses on the technology sector and notable investments include bebo (acquired by AOL for $850m), Betfair (floated on the LSE in October 2010), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service, acquired by Amazon), MySQL (acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion), ScanSafe (acquired by Cisco for $183m) and YOOX Group (the online retailer of leading fashion brands, listed in December 2009).

Karen Noel –Morgan Lewis

Karen Noël is a partner in Morgan Lewis’s Business and Finance Practice. Ms. Noël focuses her practice on emerging business and related transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, spin-offs and strategic alliances, and private and public securities law. The core of her practice entails private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law. She has advised clients in the life sciences and internet and digital media industries, as well as industrial groups of companies. She also represents US and European venture firms regarding their European investments.

Morgan Lewis’ Emerging Business and Technology Practice serves as an integral resource to hundreds of emerging growth companies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. We offer our clients a pragmatic, business-oriented approach to solving problems, a value-added network, and access to sources of capital. We offer emerging growth businesses localized, personalized, and effective long-term representation from startup to maturity. The practice is versed in all aspects of the emerging growth company life cycle—from company formations, financings, partnering, and collaborations to executive compensation, employment matters, intellectual property protection, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and international expansions.

Jean Bourcereau – Ventech

Jean is a Managing Partner with Ventech, driving investments in Communications Technologies and Applications. He currently serves as a board member for Arteris, Ateme, Crocus Technology, Ekinops, Muzicall and Withings. Past assignments with Ventech include Musiwave (acquired by Openwave), Altitude Telecom (acquired by Iliad/Free) or Wengo (acquired by Vivendi).

Jean began his career in the US (AT&T Bell Labs) and South America (Telecom Argentina) before coming back to France in 1997. He graduated as an engineer from Ecole Polytechnique and also holds a degree from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications.

Ventech has developed over the past 10 years a strong knowledge and focus on the evolution of digital entertainment and music in particular. Through different funds, Ventech backed innovative efforts such as Musiwave (full length music downloads for mobile phones – acquired by Openwave and then Microsoft), MxP4 (interactive and personalized music experience), Believe Digital (digital distributor and service provider for artists and labels) or Awdio.com (Live Music 24/7 !).

Since 1998, Ventech has been partnering with the best entrepreneurs in Information Technology and Life Sciences sectors. With more than €360m under management, Ventech selects and finances the most ambitious European projects and backs them to gain a global leadership position. Thanks to its initiative in China, Ventech is able to back investees in their development in Asia, and to invest locally through a dedicated fund.

Matthaus Krzykowski – Xyologic – VentureBeat

Matthaus is the CEO of Xyologic, an app store search and business intelligence company. The company indexes over 540,000 apps on iOS, Android and WP7 in 27 national markets and provides unique data and insights to clients.

Matthaus has been the Program Chair for VentureBeat’s MobileBeat conference and has run its startup competition. Prior to Xyologic, Matthaus was a business unit leader for lafraise.com/spreadshirt.com as well as a product manager with peperonity.com, Admob’s largest publisher at that time