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Brad McManus, Director of Investments
Brad manages the Panasonic Venture Group. With over twenty years of combined experience investing in high growth companies and building startups, he brings significant venture investment and business expertise. Prior to joining the venture group, Brad led the syndicate funding of several startups, raising over $30 million for venture stage companies and served as CFO and VP Operations for Startups.com, an accelerator services company for fast track startup companies (funded by Redleaf and Garage Technology Ventures). Before transitioning in 1994 to the venture industry, as an institutional investment manager, Brad directed $100 million in high growth public equity portfolios at Harris Trust in Chicago and $180 million at Guild Investment Management in Los Angeles (which he co-owned). Brad earned a BS in finance and economics and an MBA from Northern Illinois University.
Shogo Hamasaki, Deputy Director, Investments
Shogo has over fifteen years experience in R&D at Panasonic. He has mainly been working in multimedia, user interface and imaging areas of technology. Prior to joining PVG, he was an engineer in the Audio Video Core Technology Development Center in Osaka, Japan. At PVG, his goal is to create win-win relationships with companies possessing not only the promise of great technology, but holding strong intellectual property. Shogo earned his Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Kyushu University in Japan.
Dilip Sampath, Venture Partner
Dilip joined Panasonic Venture Group in 2004. He is
a technology industry veteran with more than 15 years
of experience in engineering, investment, marketing
and business development. Most recently, he drove the
broadband and wireless investments for the Digital Home
Ecosystem at Intel Capital. Dilip’s achievements include
co-founding 2 startup companies and receiving 9 patent
awards in the areas of high-speed inter/intra chip communication
and system protocol. Dilip focuses on identifying and
evaluating investment and partnership opportunities
for PVG. Dilip holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering
from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s
degree in Electrical Engineering from Annamalai University
in India.
Patrick Suel, Venture Partner
Patrick joined the venture group in 2006. He brings 18 years of experience in software technologies, venture investment, international marketing and business development. He previously worked as a venture partner for SKG Ventures and was a software executive with various venture-backed Silicon Valley startups in artificial intelligence, financial services, enterprise software and software tools where his contributions resulted in two IPOs and two M&A exits. As an entrepreneur, he founded three startup companies in software and life sciences. Patrick holds a Masters of Science in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Marseilles III and a Masters of Science in Advanced Physics from the University of Marseilles II.
Ira Nydick, Senior Technology Analyst
Ira has contributed to Panasonic’s research and development for over five years, working both in Japan and the US. He has broad contacts and deep knowledge of the technology roadmaps inside of Panasonic which are essential for developing corporate alliances between venture backed companies and Panasonic. Ira earned his Ph.D and Master’s degrees at the University of California Los Angeles and his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic University.
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