Doris Yee
General Partner

Doris has over 18 years experience in engineering and technology investment. She joined iGlobe Partners in February of 2000. Currently Doris serves on the boards of ForteMedia Inc. Since 2003 she serves on the Investment Committee of iGlobe Treasury Fund, a NZ$31 million fund supported by the New Zealand Government.

Before joining iGlobe Partners, Doris held senior management positions at the National Science and Technology Board (NSTB) of Singapore, a government agency promoting R&D and its commercialization. During her eight years (from 1991 to 1999) at NSTB, she led the organization’s efforts to promote R&D investments in the electronics and telecommunications industries. She spearheaded the Research Incentive Scheme for Companies that resulted in R&D commitments by major corporations exceeding US$1 billion from 1993 to 1999. Working closely with researchers and entrepreneurs, she also seeded new ventures and provided consultation on business planning, market strategy and government seed capital.

Prior to the NSTB, Doris spent seven years in research & development undertaking projects involving security and communication technologies at Chartered Electronics Industries (a member of the Singapore Technologies Group) and at Telerate, a U.S. financial data services company.

Doris earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering with Honors in 1985 and MBA in 1992 from the National University of Singapore.

Michel Birnbaum
General Partner

Mr. Michel Birnbaum has a background in Investment Banking, Venture Capital/Private Equity and industry. He brings to iGlobe over 25 years of operational and advisory experience to technology companies. He has managed close to 30 IPOs, follow-on debt/equity financings as well as M&A and Private Placement transactions.

Until recently, Michel was Managing Director of Investment Banking at Landsbanki Kepler (Paris) responsible for TMT & Renewable Energy Group. He led the first European buyout of a solar energy company, Azur Space Solar Power.

Between late 2003 to early 2006, he was associated with Keystone Financial Partners / Bryan Garnier (London / Paris) as their Senior Advisor of Investment Banking. From 2002 to 2003, he was founder/managing partner of Dakota Partners, a VC/advisory firm focused on applications of next generation materials. In July 2000, he was named CEO/Board director of e-capital investments plc, an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He was responsible for direct investments in semiconductor, advanced materials and processes. He led the strategic restructuring of the group and its subsequent merger with Avanti Capital in Aug 2001.

Mr. Birnbaum was Executive SVP of the European Capital Markets at Hambrecht & Quist from 1996-1997. He became the Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking and Exchange Relations. Mr. Birnbaum managed 23 technology IPOs as lead or Co-Manager on both the European markets and NASDAQ.

Between 1987 to 1996, Michel worked for Fleet/Nash Weiss in the United States initially as a Senior Technology Trader and later as Manager. He began his career in 1979 as a Project Engineer at Massachusetts-based GE Military Engine Group where he was responsible for the Apache/Blackhawk helicopters engine evaluation and qualification programs.

Mr. Birnbaum holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York and an MBA from London Business School (Merit Honours). He also attended General Electric’s Advanced Engineering program.

Frankie Tan
Venture Partner

Frankie is the Managing Director/ Founder of Innovation Ventures. In addition to his work as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the National University of Singapore, Engineering Department.

He currently serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in Exploit Technologies. Frankie is the board member of Commontown Pte Ltd and BLC Solutions Pte Ltd.

He was previously with Vertex Management as Senior Vice President in charge of their European operations. Prior to joining Vertex in 1996, Frankie worked eleven years with Singapore Technologies (Marine) where he held various positions in sales, marketing and business development.

He started his working career in 1978 with the Republic of Singapore Navy where he served for six and half years as a marine engineer. For his work performance in the Republic of Singapore Navy, he was awarded the Commendation Medal (Military) on 9th August 1981.

Frankie holds Master of Science degrees in Financial Management (with Distinction) from the University of London, United Kingdom and in Strategic Management (Dean’s Honours List) from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a graduate of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants in the United Kingdom, and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore.

Joe Zaelit
Venture Partner

Joe has over 35 years of financial experience in public and private technology companies. He joined iGlobe Partners as a Venture Partner in 2003 and is located in Silicon Valley. Currently he is on the board of Kilopass Technologies Inc. and Excelics Semiconductor.

Joe is a well-respected financial manager with a strong track record of success. Most recently Joe was the Executive Vice President / Chief Financial Officer of Celestry Design Technologies, an iGlobe portfolio company that was acquired by Cadence Design System inc. in January of 2003.

Prior to Celestry, Joe was the Chief Financial Officer of GRIC Communications (NASDAQ:GRIC), where he helped lead the company through its successful IPO process. Earlier, Joe served as the Senior Vice President / Chief Financial Officer of VeriFone for five years. He was a key member of the management team that led to VeriFone’s acquisition by Hewlett-Packard for US$1.3 billion in 1997. Before that, he spent twenty years in a number of senior financial positions at Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ).

Joe began his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. He earned his Bachelor Degree in accounting and MBA from the University of Utah, and is a certified public accountant in the State of California.

Jean-Philippe Sarraut
Venture Partner

Jean-Philippe has over 25 years of technology operational, financial and entrepreneurial experience with special focus in the media, entertainment and software industry. Based in Paris, France, Jean-Philippe has been with iGlobe Partners as a Venture Partner since inception.

Jean-Philippe is the Founder and Managing Partner of WorldBridge Partners, a Paris & New York based transatlantic Consulting and M&A services to small and medium size technology companies.

Presently, Jean-Philippe serves as Chairman / CEO of Sefas Innovation. Sefas is a leading global supplier of enterprise software for business process communications. Prior to joining Sefas, Jean-Philippe was founder, Chairman / CEO of Alaxis, the first commercial community of CD-Rom and software semi-professionals on the Internet in France from 1998 through 2002. Alaxis was acquired by Europ@web, the investment branch of Groupe Arnault, in 2002. From 1995 to 1997, he was COO then CEO of GC Tech, a software provider of secure payment systems over the Internet.

From 1988 to 1995, Jean-Philippe held several senior positions in the Media & Entertainment business, notably as CFO of La Cinq then Deputy CEO of Générale d’Images, the Media Holding of the Vivendi Group. Jean-Philippe began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co, where he spent 8 years, specializing in reorganizations and turn round.

Jean-Philippe graduated from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and holds two Masters’ Degree (one in Law and one in Literature).

Hu XiaoBao
Venture Partner

Mr. Hu has over 30 years of experience in technology management, operations, and venture capital investing. Based in Shanghai, China, he joined the iGlobe team as a Venture Partner in October 2004.

In 1992, Mr. Hu was tapped by the Shanghai Municipal Government to help establish the Shanghai Science and Technology Investment Corporation, which became the majority stakeholder in the Shanghai S&T Investment Co., Ltd. (“Shanghai S&T”) a year later. During his 8-year tenure as a Board member and Chief Officer of high technology investments of Shanghai S&T, he led to investments in over 30 companies with amount of $300 million and created several “First in China” companies with good economic returns. The Co-investors of those investments are from China’s most powerful financial institutions and influential corporations, including the Shanghai branches of the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Industry and Trade Bank, and the China Agriculture Bank; the China Communication Bank and its Shanghai branch; Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Corporation, Shanghai Jinshan Petrochemical Corporation, and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Corporation. Among the successful investments are China Unicom, the Shanghai Unicom GSM project, and JiangSu’s Nantong Unicom GSM project where he brought in not just foreign funds but also technology and experiences of large foreign telecommunications operators. Notably, Shanghai S&T partnered with IDG in forming Shanghai Pacific Technology Venture Co., Ltd., the first U.S.-China joint venture capital firm. Prior to Shanghai S&T, Mr. Hu spent over twenty years in various senior positions with the Shanghai Institute of Laser Technology where he was in charge of five of the key State and Shanghai municipal science and technology projects and received awards in recognition of his distinguished services.

Mr. Hu is currently the President of Softricity (Shanghai) Inc., and serves as the Chief Advisor of Televigation, Inc., an iGlobe portfolio company. Mr. Hu graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1964.

Ms. Gigi Wang
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Gigi has an international background in marketing, sales and strategy for mobile, Web services and telecom companies and provides industry and start-up expertise as an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at iGlobe Partners. She is currently the Chair of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, a high-tech entrepreneurial forum in Silicon Valley and is also advising several start-ups in areas including Internet marketing, mobile advertising/marketing, payments, networking hardware, and clean tech. As the CEO/Co-founder of AsiaQuest, she led a team providing market entry services for US companies entering Asian markets in the early 2000’s. Prior to AsiaQuest, she started the International Carrier Marketing group for Ascend Communications (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent). As an Internet pioneer, in the mid-90’s, she launched the TRUSTe privacy program, the top online consumer privacy brand in 1996 for CommerceNet and also started Pacific Internet in Singapore (IPO on NASDAQ in 1999), along with holding sales and business development positions at Pacific Bell (acquired by SBC/AT&T). She has held the position of Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) and served on the Steering Committee for the NUS Venture Fund.

Gigi holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University where she was President of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, and a Masters in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Ms. Soo Hoon, Hauw
Entrepreneur-in-Residence

A qualified actuary by profession, Soo Hoon is a specialist in the insurance business. She has close to 30 years of largely corporate experience and regulatory experience at the local and international level. Soo Hoon specializes in strategic, operational and change management issues, with special interest on talent development and capacity building.

Soo Hoon's business experience started as a trainee actuary with Commercial Union London office in 1975 and worked with American International Assurance (AIA) in Singapore in the early 1980's where she was in charge of Individual Life marketing. As the Group Insurance Administration Manager (South-East Asia), she successfully re-organized the latter's operations in Singapore and Indonesia, instituted systems improvement and achieved operational excellence.

In 1986, Soo Hoon was headhunted to start the life insurance business at Keppel Insurance. She built the management team and grew the business from ground zero to its sale to HSBC in 2000. Keppel Insurance was known for its business innovation strategies, including being the first in Singapore to launch Islamic Insurance and Global linked funds.

Between 2000-2005 when the insurance industry was liberalized, Soo Hoon was the Executive Director of the Insurance Supervision Department at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). She had also played an active role as a former member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS).

Prior to joining iGlobe in April 2008, she was the Senior Managing Director at Great Eastern Life Assurance, responsible for the business strategies of the established markets of Singapore and Malaysia.

In October 2007, she was appointed as a Distinguished Fellow of the IAIS. She is a former panel member of the Singapore Central Provident Fund Board's International Advisory Panel (CAP).

Soo Hoon graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1975 with a First Class Honors specializing in Statistics. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (United Kingdom) and a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (United Sates).

Celine Ong
Director of Operations

Celine has over 24 years experience in banking, technology investments and Venture Capital. She joined iGlobe since its inception in 1999. Between 1994 and 1999, Celine worked as Assistant Vice President / Operations Manager of Vertex Management.

Celine began her career in May 1980 as an Executive Officer for the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). From May 1981 to July 1984, she was a commercial loan officer with the Tat Lee Bank (now part of OCBC bank) in Singapore. During her tenure with the bank she was responsible for soliciting and evaluating commercial loans and there she also championed the Small Industries Financing Scheme which was a joint effort between the EDB and local participating banks by providing low interest rates for working capital and investment loans to small and medium size manufacturing companies.

Celine graduated from the Nanyang University of Singapore with Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980

Mr Tan Kok Beng
Finance Manager

Kok Beng joined iGlobe Partners in February of 2009. He is in charge of the Finance Division at iGlobe Partners. Mr. Tan brings extensive financial experience to iGlobe Partners from AZ Electronics Material (Japan) KK, Singapore Branch where he was responsible for Finance and Operations. He previously worked in the Finance Department at Kato Spring, Microcircuit Technologies (2002), Carrier Refrigeration and Toshiba. He also spent several years in China with Volex Asia.

Kok Beng graduated from the University of Louisiana with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting and Management. He also holds an MBA from Preston University.

Melanie Koh
Administration Executive

Ms. Koh has a variety of administrative experience, particularly with investment firms including Barclays De Zoete Wedd and Credit Suisse First Boston Securities. Her last position held at CSFB Securities was Head of share registration.

Joyce Ng
Investment Manager

She joined iGlobe in March 2006.

Prior to joining iGlobe, Joyce was a Training Executive / Team Leader at ACE Insurance. She was responsible for all the training needs of Account Development Executives as well as providing external training for Sponsors & Telemarketers. She also led a team of ten (10) Account Development Executives and was responsible for driving and achieving sales targets for insurance sales.

She worked 8 years (1995 to 2003) with Vertex Management Pte Ltd. For the first 4 years, Joyce worked as an Analyst under the European Investment team and the last 4 years, she was the Assistant Manager, in charge of the Global Fund of Fund portfolio.

Joyce started her career as a Bank Executive in the Credit Admin Department.of Bank Indo Suez.

Joyce earned a Bachelor of Science (Economics) in Management Studies from the University of London in 1996.

Dr. Paul Huang
Advisor

Technical Founder of ECAD (now part of Cadence Design Systems)

Dr. Huang is a successful serial entrepreneur. He was the Technical Founder of ECAD, which is now part of Cadence Design Systems. He also founded Pie Design Systems, which merged with Quickturn Design Systems, and co-founded Novas Software. He is now Chairman and CEO of Forte'Media in the noise cancellation industry.

Mark Leslie
Advisor

Former Chairman and CEO, Veritas Software Corporation

Mr. Leslie served as Chairman and CEO of Veritas Software Corporation for over a decade. Before Veritas, he was the founder and principal of Leslie Consulting, a management-consulting firm, and served as President and CEO of Rugged Digital Systems, Inc., a computer manufacturer. Mr. Leslie is currently a Board member of Veritas, PostX, Zaplet, Avaya, Kenamea, Model N, Brocade, Keynote and VMware. He has a degree in Physics and Mathematics from New York University and completed Harvard Business School's program for management development.

Cyrus Y. Tsui
Advisor

Mr. Tsui has held technical and managerial positions in the semiconductor industry for over 25 years, and has worked in the programmable logic industry since its inception. He was Chairman and CEO of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation. Before Lattice, Mr. Tsui was Corporate VP and GM of the Programmable Logic Division of AMD, and VP and GM of the Commercial Products Division of Monolithic Memories Inc.

Xia Zhong Rui
Advisor

Mr. Xia is the Vice President of Hua Hong Group and also President of Hua Hong International, a corporate venture fund, investing in semiconductor companies.

He has made a number of successful investments, which include OminVision Technology, Inc., Spreadtrum Communications, Amlogic, Inc and Newave Semiconductor Co.

Mr. Xia has more than 30 years experience with Chinese government policy in the areas of information technology and liaison with the private sector.

He started his career with the Shanghai government in 1984 with responsibility for building the Shanghai government’s computer system and promoting information technologies to Shanghai’s industries. In 1995, as Director of the Information Office of the Shanghai municipal government, Mr. Xia took charge of the planning of the Shanghai Information Port, designing policies and implementing the construction of information application projects. He was also Director of the Shanghai 909 Project Office, and was closely associated with the Hua Hong NEC project (China’s first 8-inch semiconductor processing line).

In 1998, Mr. Xia was appointed as President of Shanghai Hua Hong Micro-Electronics Corporation. He started Hua Hong Design Corporation and acquired Beiling Semiconductor and Jitong Intelligent-Card Company. In 2000, Mr Xia set up XinHong Investment Management Company, a mainland Chinese venture Capital firm.

Mr. Xia is a graduate of Fudan University, Economic Department.


 

Mr. Tong-Dow Ngiam
Advisor

Mr. Ngiam is the Chairman of HDB Corporation Pte Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Housing Development Board of Singapore. He has a long and distinguished career in public service in Singapore and has been awarded many public service awards from the Government of Singapore, including the Distinguished Service Order (1999) and Long Service Medal (1995).

Mr. Ngiam has held appointed posts in both the public and private sectors, including the Chairman of various statutory boards and companies, notably the Singapore Economic Development Board (1975-1981), Singapore Technologies Holdings Pte Ltd (1981 to 1991), Development Bank of Singapore Ltd (1990 to 1998) and the Central Provident Fund Board (1998 to 2001). He has also held the post of Permanent Secretary in several key government ministries, including the Ministry of Finance (1986 to 1999), the Prime Minister’s Office (1979 to 1994) and the Ministry of National Development (1987 to 1989). In addition, he has served on the boards of public and private companies, including Overseas Union Bank Ltd (2000 to 2002), Temasek Holdings Limited (1990 to 2000), Health Corporation of Singapore Pte Ltd (1990 to 1996) and Singapore Airlines (1972 to 1976). Mr. Ngiam is currently serving on the Boards of United Overseas Bank, Singapore Press Holdings and Yeo Hiap Seng Ltd.

Mr. Ngiam holds a BA (First Class Honors) in Economics from the University of Malaya in Singapore and an MPA (Harvard) from the Graduate School of Public Administration (GSPA), now known as the Kennedy School of Government.

 

Siaou - Sze Lien
Advisor

Ms. Lien is one of Singapore’s most widely recognized business leaders, having been listed five times in Fortune Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women Outside the U.S.”

Ms. Lien is a member of the Board of Trustees of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, serves as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Governors of Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, and is a board member of Luvata, a Finland-headquartered conglomerate. Ms. Lien worked for over 28 years at Hewlett-Packard. Starting as a systems engineer in Singapore, Ms. Lien’s career evolved through a series of management positions in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and Asia-Pacific. She became the first woman in the Asia Pacific region to attain the title of Vice President, and later was the first to be named Senior Vice President. She served as Managing Director of HP Asia-Pacific prior to the acquisition of Compaq, led HP’s Technology Solutions Group, and most recently led HP Services for Asia-Pacific and Japan with a staff of more than 8,000 people.

Ms. Lien holds a Bachelor degree in Physics from Nanyang University and a Master’s in Computer Science from Imperial College Science & Technology, University of London.

Robert Schneider
Advisor

Robert was the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of SCM Microsystems. SCM pioneered many advancements in PC Card technology, and was an industry leader of standards-based, plug-and-play security solutions based on Smart Cards and Smart Card readers. Robert successfully lead SCM all the way from a small start up in Germany to an international company with major operations in Germany, US, India, and Singapore, and to a very successful IPO with simultaneous initial offerings on the U.S. NASDAQ exchange and the German technology company exchange (now known as the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Exchange). Before founding SCM, he worked at Intel Corporation Europe for over ten years, where he held a variety of sales and marketing positions. He holds a degree in engineering from HTBL Salzburg. He lives in Salzburg, Austria.

William Smith
Advisor

General Partner, Mentor Group,
and Former SVP, Premisys Communications, Inc.

Mr. Smith has over 25 years experience in developing successful sales and marketing organizations for emerging telecommunications companies. He served as VP Sales of FlowWise Networks, Inc.; SVP Sales and Marketing of Premisys Communications, Inc. and Newbridge Networks; and VP Sales of TimePlex and General DataComm Ind. Mr. Smith is currently General Partner of The Mentor Group, a consultancy he founded that specializes in assisting early stage technology companies in their initial marketing and sales strategies. He also serves on several industry advisory boards and the Board of Visual Networks, Inc.