Entrepreneurship Panel
Young dragons and elephants awaken: The Asian path towards entrepreneurship.
As China and India drive stronger economic growth in Asia, a new generation of entrepreneurs, both Asian and non-Asian, will take the lead in creating the next generation of start-ups in Asia. How will these start-ups be different from their Western counterparts? Is there a different path to being Asian entrepreneurs?
Yet, Asia has not been spared from the financial maelstrom that the world is facing. Even as the entrepreneurship puck is gradually moving towards Asia, how will this global economic crisis impact the Asian entrepreneur? What opportunities and challenges are installed for them?
Panelists
Liam Casey, Founder and CEO, PCH International
Liam Casey is the founder and Chief Executive of PCH International, a world class supply chain management company focused on the consumer electronics, personal computers, medical devices and telecommunications industries. With a background in the retail trade, Liam founded the business in Cork in 1996 having identified the huge potential and opportunities in China. Based in Shenzhen, the company has expected revenues of $130 million for 2008 and employs 700 people in Ireland, China, Singapore, USA, Brazil, UK and South Africa. PCH’s customers are mainly multinationals based in North America, including many leading companies from Silicon Valley. The company lists amongst its major clients three of the top five personal computer companies, three of the top five telecom and networking companies, and three of the top five consumer electronics companies in the world.
Liam, who named the company PCH in reference to Pacific Coast Highway and his time spent in California, was named Ernst & Young Irish Entrepreneur of the Year in 2007.
Saeed Amidi, CEO/President and Founder, Plug and Play Tech Center, Amidzad, American Liquid Packaging Systems
Saeed Amidi is the Founder, President and CEO of Plug and Play Tech
Center. Plug and Play is the premier technology startup accelerator
in the world with over 200 companies which collectively have raised
an excess of $ 750 million.
Amidzad, has been investing in technology companies for over 15 years
and it holds successful investments in over 70 technology companies
like: PayPal, Powerset, Danger, Bix, etc.
Saeed is a serial entrepreneur and a seasoned executive with over
28 years of experience in founding, operating, and growing successful
companies. He has successfully started and grown businesses both nationally
as well as internationally in countries like: Spain, Italy, France,
Austria etc.
Saeed’s recent passion is inspiring and helping entrepreneurs and
startups out of universities. In this respect, he is working closely
with MIT, Cornell, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara, Wharton,
Dartmouth to identify great entrepreneurs with a passion to execute
on their ideas.
Saeed is an active member of the technology community and a frequent
contributor to numerous charitable foundations. He is also an active
member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a world-class network
of Fortune 500 CEOs, accomplished serial entrepreneurs, and veteran
financial executives.
Umair Khan, CEO of SecretBuilders, Venture Partner, The Entrepreneur’s Fund
Umair Khan is Venture Partner with The Entrepreneurs’ Fund. Umair is also Founder and Chairman of SecretBuilders.com, a virtual world for children and young adults. Previously, Umair co-founded Clickmarks Inc., a Silicon Valley based enterprise software company. As CEO of Clickmarks Umair grew the company through $27 million in venture funding from investors such as Vodafone, DFJ, and Mitsubishi to its acquisition by Semotus Inc. Umair also founded Verisium, a Silicon Valley based software testing tools company Umair and Folio3, a Pakistan-based services company that focuses on providing offshore operations incubation to startups and other small companies. Prior to this, Umair was founder and chairman of Wordwalla Inc., a venture backed company providing multilingual software solutions. In 1997, Umair co-founded Chowk, a web 2.0 community focusing on South Asia. Umair started his career as part of the Itanium microprocessor group at Intel Corporation and has over 20 industry patents.
Umair received his BS in Mathematics (1992) and an MS in Computer Engineering (1995), both from MIT.
Yangbin Wang , Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Vobile, Inc.
Prior to founding Vobile, Yangbin was the CTO of Onewave Technologies following the acquisition of the IPTV business of YZTECH by Onewave in 2004. He was the founder and CEO of YZTECH, a leading IPTV technology provider in China famous for the landmark deployment of its IPTV platform by Hangzhou Netcom/WASU. It was the first and largest commercial IPTV service offering in China. Previously, Yangbin was the founder and CEO of EnjoyWeb, which pioneered the time-shift delivery of video contents via broadband Internet. In addition, Yangbin was director of software architecture at Oak Technology's Broadband Consumer Group. He also participated in several startups.
At the outset of his career, he was a research engineer at Compression Labs (CLI) and General Instrument (GI). Yangbin earned a BS degree from Zhejiang University in China and an MSEE degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Yumiko Yamaguchi, US Office Manager, MBA, Medical Create
Yumiko Yamaguchi worked at Bank of America, UBS in Tokyo, and McKinsey & Company in Tokyo and Duesseldorf offices. At McKinsey, she served clients in finance, healthcare, and other industries including the role of “Japan desk” to help formulate Japan entry strategies for foreign clients.
She graduated from Economics Dept., Keio Univ., and UCLA Business School
Moderator
John Liu, of Consul, Fenwick & West
John Liu is of counsel in the Corporate Group of Fenwick & West LLP, a law firm specializing in technology and life sciences. Fenwick & West is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Mr. Liu’s practice focuses on general corporate matters, intellectual property transactions and equity and debt financings.
Mr. Liu serves as U.S. corporate counsel to numerous U.S. and off-shore start-up and emerging growth companies. His intellectual property practice includes intellectual property protection and licensing, reseller and distribution agreements, joint development agreements, trademark filings and the transfer of trademarks, patents, copyrights and other intellectual property rights. He has represented clients on transactions involving foreign jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Liu has significant software engineering experience working for several Bay Area companies serving the technology and financial technology sectors.
Mr. Liu received his undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and English and a graduate degree in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University. He also received an honorary graduate degree from the Department of Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. He went on to complete his legal education at the University of California at Davis.
Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Mr. Liu was a corporate partner with Charter Law Group, a corporate boutique firm in Silicon Valley representing companies and investors in general corporate matters, business transactions, finance, intellectual property rights and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Liu is a member of the State Bar of California and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a patent attorney.