FountainBlue

FountainBlue is fortunate to partner with speakers, sponsors, volunteers, co-marketing partners, and others as we work together to support clean energy entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and beyond. Below is a list of oppourtunities to work with us.

Become involved:

• Attend one of our events and/or join the community. You will meet people who may be able to help you, and may have experienced exactly the kinds of challenges you're undergoing. Plus you'll have opportunities to assist other quality people in the network. Visit our community section for more information.

Become part of the program:

• If you are an investor or an successful serial entrepreneur or intrapreneur, participate on one of our upcoming entrepreneurs' forums as a speaker. Share your wisdom. Build your network. Send us an e-mail volunteering to participate in one of our upcoming events.

Get Support:

• If you are undergoing challenging business obstacles, bring your challenges to an upcoming event and connect with people who are going through similar challenges, and others who can advise you on how to overcome the obstacles, or connect you with those who can help you. It's likely that someone would be willing to lend an ear, lend a hand, or share some advice.

Spread the Word:

• If you have attended an event and felt your time was well spent, spread the word to quality people in your network and be an ambassador. Together we are stronger.
• If you found value in the content from our previous programs, forward the notes to others in your network who would also benefit from the information, with proper acknowledgment to FountainBlue and the respective speakers. Knowledge is power! 

Partner with Us:

• If you are involved with another organization in the valley serving entrepreneurs and executives, we welcome you to become a cross-marketing partner. See below for a current list of partners and directions on how to become a cross-marketing partner. 
• After you have been a cross-marketing partner, let us know if you would like to partner more closely with us to jointly produce events, or to have us participate in an advisory board, steering committee or SIG. See below for a list of organizations with whom we closely partner.

Sponsor Our Activities:

• Find out more about sponsorship opportunities by e-mailing us.

Report on Trends:

• If you are interested in reporting on trends, you are welcome to request a press pass to one of our upcoming events.

We welcome other ideas for partnerships.

The richness and relevance of our programs in a broad range of topics is largely due to the volunteers who have designed programs, recruited panelists, provided outreach, and so much more, for past and upcoming events. As program advisory board members, they:

• Assist in developing the topics and themes for our programs, and nominate and recruit speakers;
• Serve as ambassadors for FountainBlue and the series and/or program before the event by spreading the word, during the event in connecting people with each other, and following the event to solicit feedback and help make program and process improvements for the next event;
• Work with partner organizations in support of their programs and events;
• Stimulate thinking and conversation between events;
• Make connections between people between events; and
• Generally assist in advancing the sub-industry within and outside FountainBlue and the Silicon Valley.
  

We would like to recognize and acknowledge members of our life science program advisory board and thank them for their contributions to the community. To find our more about becoming a life science program adviser yourself, become a member, attend a FountainBlue event, become a member, and request a meeting to discuss how you would like to help. For also welcome your inquiries about becoming a program advisers for the high tech or clean energy areas. Please follow the same process to inquire about participating in these areas.

Susan L. Brown, Founder and CMO, Brown & Associates and Consultant to Beckman Coulter

Susan L. Brown, is Founder and CMO of Brown & Associates, Partner in Real Women on Health, Women's Health Conversation Network, and consultant to Beckman Coulter. She has over 15 years experience in creating and implementing strategies to drive market share, branding, strategic alliances and customer relationships for numerous companies and organizations, with a depth of domain experience in healthcare and IT. She is expert in strategy and execution to leverage social media ROI for B2B and B2C firms, including building secure, branded customer and patient communities for engagement and retention.

A leading Silicon Valley marketing consultant and executive, her career includes assignments for Beckman Coulter, Intel, Schott Solar, Safeway.com, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, as well as developing and executing a transformational Branding and Marketing Communications Plan for a $350M division of Cisco Systems.

Susan is also on the Board of Directors of Expanding Your Horizons, a non-profit that won the National Science Board's 2010 Public Service Award for promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

Aileen DeSoto is Vice President of Strategic Services at MyMedFax, an early stage Healthcare IT provider. She has over fifteen years experience in consulting, project management, marketing, business development, and team building and has worked at both large and start-up organizations including IBM, Visa, Children's Hospital Oakland, and start-ups OneDemocracy, Linkify, Neurofluidics and Pelesend.

Aileen holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and a Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering, Product Development Program and Management of Technology certificate, from UC Berkeley. Away from work, she is Board Secretary for Expanding Your Horizons Network, a non-profit organization promoting math and science to girls, and enjoys hiking, skiing, traveling, and spending time with her two sons.

Audrey S. Erbes, PhD, Principal, Erbes & Associates, Adjunct Instructor, Intensive Life Science Business & Marketing Courses, UCSC Extension in Santa Clara

Audrey Erbes, PhD, is a global life-science business development and marketing consultant, industry educator, blogger at AudreysNetwork.com, professional organization leader, and public speaker. Audrey originated several bioscience business development and marketing courses at the UCB and UCSC Extensions, specifically, for working industry professionals. She has 25 years of corporate managerial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including Executive Vice President and Cofounder of Kowa Research Institute, a licensing and investment subsidiary of Kowa Company Ltd., Japan. Previously, she held both U.S. and global management responsibilities at Syntex Corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA in market research, product management, strategic marketing, and business development, with a special emphasis on Europe and Asia/Pacific/Canada, serving as Regional Marketing Director out of the Hong Kong office. She holds an MA and PhD in political science from the University of Florida and BA in government from Valparaiso University.

Dr. Geetha Rao, PhD, CEO, MyMedFax and Springborne Life Sciences, VP Strategy and Risk Management, Triple Ring Technology

Dr. Geetha Rao has over 20 years of experience in high-risk technologies includes being an entrepreneur, executive and strategic advisor to numerous early-stage life sciences ventures. She is the founding CEO of Springborne Life Sciences, providing advisory services and interim management to medical device, biotechnology and other life-sciences enterprises with a focus on emerging business challenges and operational excellence that meets best-in-class, international standards. She serves as Vice President of Strategy and Risk Management at Triple Ring Technologies, a medical device incubator and contract development firm. She is an internationally recognized expert in risk management and liability and has served on several international policy making bodies, and as an invited expert to regulatory agencies, including the FDA.

Geetha chairs the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab's Emerging Business Track for Life Sciences, serves on the Life Sciences Committee for Astia, the leading organization supporting women-founded and women-led start-ups, serves on FountainBlue's life science program advisory board, and has been a guest faculty on Stanford University's Biodesign Innovation Program. She is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, holds a doctorate from MIT and a masters degree from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where she was a Sloan Fellow.

William Wright, VP Operations/ Business Development - Bay Area, at California MedTech LLC

William Wright is currently VP Operations/Business Development - Bay Area at California MedTech, LLC, the West Coast's leading resource for turnkey development and manufacturing of complex life science products (also known as OEM and ODM services). Bill is skilled in general management, product development, business development, manufacturing operations and business scale-up serving the Medical Device, Clinical Diagnostic and Consumer Goods markets and was formerly with Baxter as VP reporting to division CEO/GM, with Honeywell, with Advanced (Abbott) Medical Optics as a VP, with IntraLase as a VP reporting to CEO, and with Caliper Life Sciences as a VP reporting to CEO and Corp. Officer. Bill earned a BS in Industrial Technology from California State University-Long Beach.

Cross Marketing Partners

At FountainBlue, we believe that reciprocal promotion between quality partners serving a common audience will benefit everyone. We therefore are happy to promote face-to-face, Silicon Valley based events from our cross marketing partners, and also invite their members to pay discounted partner rates to attend our own events.

To submit your event to our community, you may e-mail us the complete and final event details in text format (no attachments) to events@FountainBlue.biz with the information format below by noon on Thursdays, at least one week before your event, or complete the form at http://fountainblue.biz/resources/svevents.html:

Event Topic:
Sponsoring Group:
Date and Time:
Location:
Cost:
Discount Code for FountainBlue Members:
Registration:

Please note that some weeks in the summer or during the holidays, we will not be sending event recommendations to our membership. Note also that we are requesting cross-marketing partners to actively distribute FountainBlue life science event information, offering the partner rates, available at http://www.svlifescience.com for our monthly life science events. In addition, we are happy to provide one complementary pass for each cross-marketing partner for our event, commit to active promotion of our cross-marketing partners' events, and respectfully request the same. To inquire about becoming a cross-marketing partner, please e-mail us at events@FountainBlue.biz.

AmBAR is a non-profit business association of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, engineers, lawyers and other professionals with headquarters in Silicon Valley. Started as an organization of expatriates from Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries that are involved in technology businesses in the United States, AmBAR has grown into a large network in which innovators and entrepreneurs of all origins can exchange ideas and business contacts. The association was launched in 2002 by a group of business professionals and entrepreneurs, representing leading Silicon Valley companies: Sun Microsystems, Intel Capital, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The AmBAR membership base today includes more than 2000 business professionals. 

The Association of Women in Science, AWIS, is a national advocacy organization championing the interests of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics across all disciplines and employment sectors. By breaking down barriers and creating opportunities, AWIS strives to ensure that women in these fields can achieve their full potential.

The Bio2Device Group (B2DG) is a premier organization dedicated to all professionals in the Life Sciences industry within the San Francisco Bay Area. Membership is free and open to anyone in the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Medical Devices, Diagnostics, Healthcare, life science tools, and laboratory service industries.

The BioE2E mission is to foster and encourage life science entrepreneurs to start and grow companies. We organize events that present speakers' unvarnished case studies of lessons learned, strategies for success, and in-depth analysis of current business challenges.  All our events leave time for networking.  

The University of California, Berkeley is the preeminent public research and teaching institution in the nation. From classic literature to emerging technologies, the curricula of our 130 academic departments span the wide world of thought and knowledge. Supported by the people of California, the university has embraced public service as an essential part of its mission since 1868. The content on this page—drawn from campus seminars, courses and events—is just one part of UC Berkeley's commitment to the broadest possible dissemination of knowledge for the benefit of our state, the nation and the world.

UCSC Extension is an extension of the world-renowned University of California. Our standards are high and our reputation is stellar. We're respected for our quality of instruction and our ability to mirror the times.

University of California, San Francisco is a leading university dedicated to defining health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

• An E-mail to be sent out promoting the event jointly with FountainBlue while wo do the same
• On-site support at the event, to help with registration
• Joint welcome of the audience
• Either separate registration for the event or having FountainBlue manage the registration with event earnings going directly to partner organization
• Support in program development, as needed
• And other tasks, as agreed

In turn, FountainBlue would:

• Work with partner to develop the program
• Compile all registrations and send out registration confirmations and follow-up notes
• Coordinate panelist communications and provide thank you gifts to panelists
• And other tasks, as agreed