Marc Kramer, who is the executive director of the Private Investors Forum, founded the first formally organized investor Angel network, the Pennsylvania Private Investors Group in 1990 and runs the Angel Venture Fair, bringing together the largest gathering of Angel Investors and entrepreneurs in the Mid-Atlantic region. As Executive Director of the Private Investor’s Forum, Marc has worked with almost over 2000 companies from all over the world making introductions to Angel investors all over the US. He is also host of the podcast, The Best Business Minds, which is listened to in 68 plus countries and has won five awards.
Marc was on the cover of Profit magazine along being featured in Inc, Entrepreneur Magazine and other publications for starting the country’s formally organized investor angel’s network, the Pennsylvania Private Group. The Wall Street Journal selected Marc to be one of their main speakers on early stage investing at their national conference in Atlanta in 1994.
Marc has been writing on angel investing and entrepreneurship for over 30 years as a national columnist for the Business Journal chain, regional columnist for Philadelphia Magazine and SmartCEO magazine and has written for Forbes.com and TheStreet.com.
Marc also provides a one-minute entrepreneurial commentary for KYW News in Philadelphia.
Marc has received such awards as the Inc. Magazine Entrepreneur of the Year, American Electronics Association Spirit of America Award and was three years in a row named one of the Top Five Business Leaders Under Age 40 in Philadelphia region by the Philadelphia Jaycees and won the Small Business Journalist of the Year by the Center City Proprietors Association of Philadelphia in 2006.
Marc is a former trustee of Cheyney University, the oldest African American University in the U.S. and was on the board of the Entrepreneurs Forum of Philadelphia and the Technology Resource Alliance. Marc has a Master’s in Management from Penn State University and a BS in journalism from West Virginia University.
Sharon Ross has had a long career in technology transfer and commercialization. Most recently, Sharon managed the QED Proof-of-Concept Program at the University City Science Center (UCSC) in Philadelphia. The QED Program (from the Latin Quod Erat Demonstrandum, or, “that which is demonstrated”) worked with faculty researchers– from key academic research organizations in PA, NJ, and DE — to reduce the business risk and increase the attractiveness of their promising R&D projects to follow-on investment.
Prior to joining the UCSC, Sharon was a Licensing Officer in Tech Ventures, the Technology Transfer Office of Columbia University, New York, where she managed a portfolio of over 35 marketable inventions from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In addition to negotiating license agreements, Sharon cultivated corporate and government support to further validate commercial applications of innovations. A previous position includes Technology Licensing at BTG plc (now part of Boston Scientific), a London-based company focused on harnessing innovation and executing commercial strategies in the life science, and engineering markets. Sharon gained extensive experience in intellectual property agreements, and fundraising for public and private companies. She was also a consultant on a US DOE project, based at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, cultivating technology development focused on increased energy-efficiency in commercial buildings.
Sharon holds a BA from The Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from Temple University.
sross212@gmail.com
www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-l-ross
Ariel Kramer is president of Klover Communications. Her practice works with e-commerce, professional service and technology companies providing outsource director of marketing services by getting clients print, online, radio and television media opportunities, speaking engagements and develops and manages all aspects of social media. Ariel is a blogger for the Huffington Post. She has a BS degree from St. Johns University in New York.