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EntrepreneurshipGaelen Entrepreneurship Speaker Series bringsworld-class entrepreneurs to Penn StateThe Norbert and Audrey Gaelen Entrepreneurship SpeakerSeries was established in fall 2008 through a generousendowment from Norbert and Audrey Gaelen. The speakerseries features three speakers each semester. The first twospeakers are sponsored by the Engineering EntrepreneurshipMinor and the third speaker is sponsored by another college,such as the Smeal College of Business or the College ofAgricultural Sciences.Norbert Gaelen, a 1947 industrial engineering graduate, isone of the College of Engineering’s most generous donors.His previous gifts include student funding for the Norbert P.Gaelen Industrial and Mechanical Engineering Scholarshipas well as the foundational endowment for the EngineeringEntrepreneurship Minor in 2000, the Gaelen Endowment forEngineering Entrepreneurship and Leadership.Fall 2009Speaker:Igor JablokovCEO, Yap, Inc.Presentation: “The origins of Yap, Inc.: How do youstart a company in an industry filled withloud mouths?”Sep. 24, 2009Founded in 2006, Yap pioneered the world’s first automatedspeech-to-text platform. It reached wide acclaim for its workin curbing texting while driving when Yap was selected as afinalist in Silicon Valley’s first ever TechCrunch event, oftenreferred as the “American Idol” of the technology industry,followed by being named North Carolina’s Early StageCompany of the Year in 2007.Yap has assembled a world-class research and developmentteam focused on audio semiconductors and speechrecognition. Their staff members helped create market leadingproducts such as Apple’s iPod, IBM’s ViaVoice, and Nuance’sDragon. The company’s technologies provide the foundationfor innovative analytics, messaging, search, translation,and voicemail services for commercial or governmentapplications. Sample customer applications include IM+ forBlackBerry and iPhone, which uses Yap’s platform to convertyour speech into instant messages, and YouMail, whichconverts your incoming voicemails into text for you to read.The company is headquartered in Charlotte, NC, and isventure financed by SunBridge Partners and Harbert VenturePartners. For more information, visit www.yapme.com.Igor Jablokov has served as Yap’sCEO since its inception. He isconsidered a speech technologypioneer, especially focused onhuman–computer user interfaces onmobile devices. Prior to co-foundingYap, Jablokov served as programdirector of IBM’s multimodal andvoice portal groups and was anIgor JablokovExtreme Blue mentor. During histenure there, he led his team tocreate the world’s first ever speech-enabled Web browser.Jablokov has more than a dozen patents issued or pending inhis field and was named an industry luminary by the editorsof Speech Technology Magazine. He holds an undergraduatedegree in computer engineering from Penn State and anMBA from the University of North Carolina.Speaker: Paul HowesPresident and CEO, Inotek PharmaceuticalsPresentation: “Innovating in health care with no revenue!(From big pharma to the world of venturefundedbiotech)”Oct. 12, 2009Paul HowesPaul Howes joined InotekPharmaceuticals in September2008 as the company’s presidentand CEO and as a director. InotekPharmaceuticals is a Boston-areabiotechnology company thathas developed new drugs for thetreatment of glaucoma and elevatedintra-ocular pressure, retinal diseases,and irritable bowel disease in the preclinicaland clinical phases of testing.Howes has more than twenty years of commercial strategy,product development, and sales and marketing experience inpharmaceuticals and medical devices, with a recent focus inthe field of ophthalmology. Prior to joining Inotek, Howeswas president of the Americas region for Bausch & Lomb,with leadership responsibility for the United States, Canada,Latin America, and South America across Bausch & Lomb’svision care, surgical, and pharmaceuticals business segments.Prior to joining Bausch & Lomb in 2003, Howes spent theprevious sixteen years in various senior management roles atMerck & Co., Inc. This experience included roles as executivedirector of hospital marketing, vice president of sales andmarketing for specialty products, president and CEO of theDuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, and presidentof Merck Frosst Canada, Inc. Prior to Merck, Howes spenteleven years at Price Waterhouse Canada.Howes is a graduate of Harvard College and earned his MBAfrom York University in Toronto, Canada. He is a memberof the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants andcurrently serves on the board of Prevent Blindness America.Speaker: Rick GrazziniExecutive Director, GardenGenetics, LLCPresentation: “Entrepreneurship in the agriculturalsciences: small business opportunities inplant breeding and genetics"Nov. 11, 2009Rick Grazzini’s career path hasbeen a journey from being a highschool biology teacher followinghis graduation in 1975 from PennState (B.S. Biology), to startinghis own seed company followinggraduation in 1980 from PurdueUniversity (M.S. Plant Breeding),and culminating as co-founder andRick Grazziniexecutive director of GardenGeneticsin 2007.Upon receiving his Ph.D. in Genetics from Penn State in1993, Grazzini initially served as director of marketingand as quality assurance manager for Centre AnalyticalLaboratories in State College, PA. The company focused onproviding analytical services to the crop protection industry.In 1997, he ascended to vice president, and, in 1998, hebecame president of Centre Analytical. In 2001, he acquiredownership interest and renamed the company ExygenResearch to better reflect the transitioning of the company. In2006, Exygen was acquired by MPI Research, and Grazziniserved as executive director during the integration of Exygeninto the MPI corporate structure.In 2007, Grazzini returned to his plant breeding andfloriculture roots. He co-founded GardenGeneticsin Bellefonte, PA, serving as its executive director.GardenGenetics focuses on commercial plant breeding,developing new varieties of ornamental, edible, andmedicinal plants. The company also extends expertise tovarious segments of the plant industries as a contract researchorganization.Spring 2009Speaker: John GannonGeneral Partner, SunBridge PartnersPresentation: “Career evolution and success factorsfor startups”Feb. 24, 2009John Gannon is a founder andgeneral partner of SunBridgePartners (www.sunbridgepartners.com) with an investment focusin aerospace and power. He cofoundedSunBridge Partners andits predecessor, Equitek Capital,and has played a key role inboth firms’ development andJohn Gannoninvestments, including EclipseAviation, Embedded Planet, AlienTechnology, Flarion, the New Media Group, and ThinBattery Technologies.Gannon began his career as an engineer with General ElectricAstro-Space Division, working as a propulsion and orbitspecialist on the Defense Satellite Communication Systemsatellite program. Working in the design, construction,launch, and on-orbit operation of an advanced constellationof defense communications satellites, Gannon experiencedthe challenges of working on high-technology projects tomeet the most rigorous, long-term requirements.Following work at General Electric, Gannon earned hisMBA from the University of Chicago and began a seven-yearperiod of work in the field of currency derivative trading.He worked for Merrill Lynch, NationsBank, and then asa director in the currency trading group of Barclays Bankin London. At Barclays, Gannon managed the Global AsiaPortfolio of currency derivative products. This expertise hasdirectly enabled him to design models to carry out valuationsof SunBridge Partners portfolio companies.Gannon received a B.S. in aerospace engineering from PennState in 1989 and an MBA from the University of Chicagoin 1993.38 | SEDTAPP News | Spring 2010 Spring 2010 | SEDTAPP News | 39