Bertrand Lortholary, Consul General of France & Stand Up For Passion are pleased to invite you to Stand Up For Passion: Special Tech CEOs & VCs on Wednesday, June 10th, 2015
at the French Consulate, 934 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10021.
RSVP mandatory on Eventbrite: $28.
DOORS OPEN AT 6:15 PM The Consulate is 15-minute walk from the subway so
please make sure to be on time. SHOW BEGINS AT 6:45PM SHARP
Our 7 speakers will each deliver their story for 7 minutes followed at the end by a 10-minutes Q&A session.
Show ends at 8:15PM and we will invite you to follow us to a nice bar nearby where you will be free to network, talk with new people and simply continue having a great time!
Hosted by
Arnaud Collery
Arnaud is a comedian, host, filmmaker, entrepreneur, innovator and executive storytelling coach to CEO. He is the Co founder of Stand up for Passion, Kikai Mining (the first happiness agency) and Happy Hacking Days (the first tech event creating happiness apps). Arnaud has worked in Hollywood as an actor, stand up comedian and director (Best comedy film director Monaco Film Festival 2012). He won numerous Hackathons in the tech world and has since coached a number of start ups in LA and France. He is the recipient of many fellowships including the METP in China or the Start up Leadership Program in NYC.
Speakers
John Frankel is the founding partner of ff Venture Capital, and has been an early-stage investor since late 1999. John has served as a director of over 35 companies and an investor in more than 76 companies, including Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD on NASDAQ), Indiegogo, Ionic Security, Klout, SkyCatch, Plated, 500px, Distil Networks, and Bottlenose. In capital markets, he worked closely with some of the world’s leading hedge funds, and developed a keen understanding of portfolio risk/return management. John is a frequent keynote speaker and author of dozens articles on venture capital and entrepreneurship. He has also appeared in leading publications such as The BBC, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, Business Insider, The San Francisco Chronicle, TechCrunch, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and on CNBC and Bloomberg TV.
Nihal Mehta is an entrepreneur, investor, professor and philanthropist. He was lucky to discover his passion over fifteen years ago - in mobile technology- which drove him to co-found five startups (philly2nite, urbangroove, ipsh!, buzzd, localresponse/qualia) and two investment funds (Eniac Ventures, India Internet Fund) with over 100 mobile
investments including Admob (sold to Google), AirBnB, HotelTonight, SwiftKey, Tapad, and Uber. Nihal co-founded the charity "Project Ahimsa" to provide music education to disadvantaged youth, is part of the brain trust of “Girls Who Code,“ working to close the gender gap in the technology and engineering sectors, and often lectures on mobile & entrepreneurship across the globe. Nihal graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Philosophy and a BSE in Computer Science.
Ryan Denehy is a 3x technology entrepreneur at the age of 28 with recent exits to USA TODAY and Groupon. Ryan is a regular on sales and entrepreneurship podcasts and writes about sales and personal development on his blog, DenehyXXL.com
Zachary Berk was originally trained as an optometrist and for the past 30 years has been a venture capitalist investing in a wide spectrum of healthcare companies. Over the 15 years he has focused more on founding companies and running them. He started an innovative medical insurance company and then cofounded a biotech company. He is currently building a company that will help transform the workplace to become a more nurturing heart-based work environment combining professional services and technologies. Zach has struggled through his life trying to find a real understanding of how his life comes together and finding true meaning and purpose. Over the last year some things have come together for him. More information about his happiness app on http://www.happco.com
Christina Wallace is the Founder of BridgeUp: STEM, a new innovation lab at the American Museum of Natural History with a mission to captivate, inspire, and propel girls and minorities into computer science. It is funded by a generous $7.5M 5-year grant from the Helen Gurley Brown Trust. Previously Christina was the Founding Director of Startup Institute New York, the Founder and CEO of venture-backed fashion company Quincy Apparel, a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, and an arts manager at the Metropolitan Opera. She holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and theater studies from Emory University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. An avid writer and public speaker, Christina also sings with classical choir Ensemble Companio, embarks on solo adventure travel, and is an amateur athlete, with 19 half marathons, 2 triathlons, and 2 marathons under her belt.
Serge Ganem created his first company at age 27. As one of the digital communication agencies in France, he had the opportunity to conceive and develop various innovative and disruptive concepts like in house social networks, web radios, video websites and a fascinating project called Uptogosoftware.com that could be described as a Drop Box for professionals. In 2009 he had the award recognition and the mentorship from the entrepreneur network called "Réseau Entreprendre" in France. He is currently the founder and CEO of Cercle & CO.
Chiyoko Osborne is the co-founder of mindfresh, a company that brings 30-minute sessions of office-friendly yoga and meditation into companies. They have worked with 50 of NYC's most dynamic companies and will launch in San Francisco by end of year. Previously, she spent a decade in the fashion industry building brands and developing business strategies. After 6 years at Calvin Klein she was recruited to launch the first marketing department at Alexander Wang. Previous to this, Chiyoko worked on advertising campaigns for brands such as Evian, Intel, Volvo, Pepsi and others. In 2010 Chiyoko's yoga and meditation practice shifted her perspective on life. It drove a desire to create a company and brand that fuses the benefits of yoga with the corporate world. Visit www.mindfresh.co
Now we hope to see on June 10th. We guarantee a great evening and who knows, maybe you will see the world differently!
With passion,
The French Consulate and the Stand Up For Passion team