Richard Crawford, Managing Director and Co Founder, Virginia Active Angel Network.  Richard Crawford is Chairman of the Board of Virginia Investment Capital Group, Inc. and Managing Partner of Virginia Active Angel Network, LLC.  Established in 2005, the Virginia Active Angel Network is a network of individual and institutional investors that provide equity financing to seed and early stage companies throughout Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region. During his career, Richard has been an executive in large financial service organizations, a consultant to the financial services industry, an entrepreneur, and an academic.

As an entrepreneur in the mid- to-the late 1990s he developed an Internet-based matching service for small businesses seeking equity capital called EDIE-Online that was an early version of Angelsoft which is currently in use by 450 angel groups around the world. As an academic, Richard holds two faculty appointments at the University of Virginia. He is a Visiting Professor at the Law School and a Visiting Executive at the Darden Graduate Business School.  Richard is the author or co-author of five books on the financial services industry, economics and the financing of small business. His most recent book Smart Financial Management: The Essential Reference for the Successful Small Business was co-authored with William Sihler of the Darden School. Richard holds three degrees from U.VA (B.A. in Economics-1967, M.B.A.-1975 and J.D-1975).

Letitia Green,

Managing Director and Co Founder, Virginia Active Angel Network.  Ms. Green is CEO of ECorp Management Associates, Inc., a retail representation and commercial real estate development company and is also co-founder and Managing Partner of the Virginia Active Angel Network, LLC (VAAN), a Virginia-based angel investing group with chapters in Blacksburg/Roanoke, Charlottesville and Richmond, VA. Her institutional experience includes Oppenheimer & Co, the Blackstone Group, Mocatta & Goldsmid and Roxbury Capital Management. Her entrepreneurial experience includes founding Ruth, Green & Associates and merging it with ECorp Management Associates, Inc.

Ms. Green has a B.A. from the University of Virginia, an MBA in Finance from Pepperdine University, obtained her Series 7 license in New York, earned her Certificate in Negotiation from the Harvard/MIT Program on Negotiation for Senior Executives in Cambridge, and holds real estate licenses in California and Virginia. Ms. Green was previously a member of the Los Angeles Women’s Foundation, an ambassador for the Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Week 2007 and 2008 on the board of Junior Achievement of Charlottesville. In addition to her VAAN, ECorp and family responsibilities, she holds a board or board observer positions for ESP Systems LLC and Talkshoe LLC, and is on CVG’s Annual Business Forum committee.

Rob Masri, Founder, Cardigan Networks  Rob C. Masri is the founder and CEO of Cardagin Networks, Inc., a mobile marketing company that builds mobile loyalty programs for businesses interested in identifying, retaining and better serving their long-term customers. Mr. Masri has extensive legal and business experience, having most recently served as the Chief Development Officer for the University of Virginia Law School Foundation during the Law School’s $150 million capital campaign. Prior to joining the Law School Foundation, Mr. Masri was executive vice president of corporate development and general counsel of Multicity, Inc., a global provider of online communication solutions that secured more than $16 million in venture capital financing. During his tenure at Multicity, Mr. Masri was responsible for all legal, regulatory, and business development affairs of the company, including sales and marketing, corporate compliance and governance, strategic alliances, intellectual property, M&A, employment law and human resources, procurement and litigation matters.

Before joining Multicity, Mr. Masri was an attorney in the business department of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP and the corporate and securities department of Hunton & Williams LLP. His practice at Cooley and Hunton focused on venture capital, public and private offerings, mergers and acquisitions and the general corporate representation of technology and emerging growth companies. Mr. Masri received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and currently resides in Charlottesville with his wife and three children. 

Robert Capon, Co-founder and former CEO Adenosine Therapeutics  , As CEO at Adenosine, one of the world’s leaders in adenosine drug discovery and development,  Capon negotiated collaborations with Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, the University of Virginia, the University of Massachusetts and NIH. Adenosine Therapeutics was acquired in August 2008 by Clinical Data, Inc., where Capon was a senior vice president of business development and where he was the architect of transactions with CombinatoRx, and Santen Pharmaceuticals.

Capon is a seasoned entrepreneur and CEO, having been at the helm of four companies. He was a co-founder of ViroLogic, a pioneer in antiviral drug resistance testing that went public as a NASDAQ firm in May 2000. He also cofounded HJC Software, the makers of Virex, the first commercial antivirus software for the Macintosh personal computer, which was sold to Microcom, Inc. in 1990. He joined Charlottesville company MJ Systems in a turnaround effort in 1996 that led to a successful sale to Mobile Communications Corporation. In addition to his M&A consulting work, Capon is an adjunct faculty member at the Darden Business School, and teaches “Transactions and Deal-Making in the Life Sciences” to second year MBA’s. Capon served on Virginia Governor Mark Warner's Biotechnology Commission and the Virginia Research and Technology Advisory Commission. He currently chairs the University of Virginia’s McCormick Observatory Advisory Board and is the immediate past president of the University of Virginia Hillel Foundation. He also serves on the boards of the Virginia Biotech Association and the Piedmont Virginia Community College Educational Foundation. Capon received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in mechanical engineering with highest distinction from the University of Virginia.

Jim Lansing, Chairman, Sammy Snacks  An active angel investor in and advisor to start-up companies, Jim has been involved in numerous acquisitions, software licensing, and executive management positions. Currently, Jim is Executive Chairman of Sammy Snacks, Inc, a Charlottesville-based manufacturer of super-premium dog food, cat food and treats. The title of Executive Chairman means doing whatever is necessary to create successful growth – marketing, taking out the trash, packaging, investing, etc. Jim’s other passion is the Boy Scouts were he serves the Stonewall Jackson Area Council as Vice President/Executive Board for Membership.

Previously, Jim served as Senior Vice President of Sales for Computer Associates. Jim's most recent assignment at CA was President and Representative Director of Computer Associates Japan. During the Japan assignment, Jim was also responsible for establishing CA-Japan Global Accounts. During his 20 years at CA, Jim served as Vice President of Computer Operations Worldwide building the foundation infrastructure for CA's present world-wide network. Jim also served as Senior Vice President of Research and Development and CIO, responsible for development and support of all graphics and PC software and CA's I.T. systems, and Senior Vice President of International Marketing launching worldwide marketing programs in Europe, South America and Asia.

Tobias A. Dengel, CEO Willow Tree Apps.  Tobias Dengel is the CEO of WillowTree Apps, Inc., co-owner of the Charlottesville Learning Rx franchise, and owner of Rentalspot.com Previously, Tobias co-founded Leads.com. As President of the company, he managed its rapid expansion as an early pioneer in packaging online search products, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, together for sale to small businesses. After growing the company to over 60 employees in 2 years, Leads.com was sold to Web.com where Tobias continued to work in an executive role until 2009. Prior to starting Leads.com, he was General Manager of the AOL Yellow Pages. He previously held a variety of roles in the AOL Business Affairs department, including VP, International. Tobias began his career as an Analyst at the management consulting firm AT Kearney. He holds a BSE in Finance (Wharton) and a BSE in Systems Engineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania.

Neal G. Koller, President and CEO Plurogen Therapeutics.  Mr. Koller’ s extensive startup responsibilities included: CEO of Sound Diagnostics, Inc., a spinout company of Siemens AG, where he negotiated the first $5.6 million to launch the company and Dovetail Technologies, Inc., where, as CEO and President, he raised the capital necessary to move its second molecule into Phase I/II clinical trials. Mr. Koller comes to PluroGen™ after completing a successful turnaround of the prestigious Bio/Pharmaceutical industry organization, the Parental Drug Association, where he reversed revenue and profit decline in all four business units and developed closer ties to US FDA, Europe’s EMEA and a number of national health authorities around the world.

Mr. Koller started his career with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals where served as General Manager for two different start-up divisions growing one to $ 50M annualized revenues within 11 months of regulatory approvals and the other to a 25% share in the US and launch in Europe within 18 months of regulatory approvals and VP of a $ 120M Operating Room and Critical Care Division where he doubled earnings within 3 years through 3 acquisitions, 1 divestiture and introduction of a large portfolio of new products. Following Wyeth, Mr. Koller joined as President WelCare Industries Spa, a European medical device start-up company where he guided the company past its first $1M in revenues within its first 2 years. He continues to serve the company as a member of its board of directors.

Rick White, Tax Principal – Keiter, Stephens, Hurst, Gary & Shreaves Rick's practice consists of some of the most successful high potential, early stage companies in the central Virginia area.  As an adviser to entrepreneurs and their privately owned companies, Rick deals in both tax issues (choice of entity, reorganizations, equity incentive compensation, capitalization, early stage financing, nexus, multi-state tax filings, and partnership tax law) as well as accounting and management information systems (accounting software setup, payroll systems, sales tax, merchant processing).  Over his twenty years in public practice he has been intimately familiar with thousands of business and their entrepreneurial owners.

Rick is a frequent guest lecturer at The Darden School of Business, participating in both class room lectures (entrepreneurship, accounting, finance) as well as organizations (Batten incubator, Darden business plan competition).  He was one of the original four organizers in 1998 of the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council, now called Charlottesville Business Innovation Council (CBIC) and a founding member of CVG.  For three years he was the chairman of the CVG Business Plan Review Committee which supported entrepreneurs from Tidewater to Blacksburg.

Steven Keeler, Partner, McGuire Woods.