Judges

Young Song is the founder of Booga Ventures, an early stage investment, advisory and mentoring firm dedicated to helping start-up companies commercialize new ideas and technologies or expand into new geographic markets. Mr. Song is also Founder and CEO of ZeroDesktop, Inc., a developer of free cloud content management tools and Web apps that enable people to gain control of their documents, emails, photos, videos, music and social content that have become scattered across multiple devices and cloud services.

Young successfully founded and operated several startup ventures including eMachines (a pioneer in bringing affordable computing to consumers; IPO in 2000), DoubleSight Display (cost-effective dual display for business and consumers; acquired by a public company in 2004), and NComputing ($60M VC backed; worldwide leader in desktop virtualization). Young remains an active member of NComputing’s Board of Directors. Young began his career as marketing director for both TriGem America Corporation and TriGem Computer, Inc.

Young holds his B.S degree in Electronics Engineering from Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

Steven Kwak is a Director and CEO of STIC Investments USA. Steven is responsible for STIC’s investments in Access Bio, and TransLink Captial as well as supporting STIC’s portfolio companies with their customers and partners. Steven started his venture career at STIC Investments in 2005, where he specialized in gaming, mobile, semi-conductor and telecommunication companies.

Prior to STIC Investments, Steven was business development director at iPark Silicon Valley, a global IT and DC Korea promotion and SME support organizations operated by the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) of Republic of Korea, for seven years. Steven was responsible for identifying Korean companies that have the potential to become iParkSV portfolio companies and achieve investment, partnership and strategic alliances with US channel partners.

Steven holds his B.S. in Marketing from San Jose State University.

Jay Ryu focuses on investments across DFJ Athena’s technology portfolio, including SaaS, Cloud, Consumer and Mobile Internet, Energy Technology, and Advanced Materials. Prior to joining the firm, Jay was Director of Business Development at Precursor Energetics, a venture-backed startup that develops high value advanced materials for the electronics and energy markets. Jay was also VP of Business Development and Head of Sales at Relay2, a cloud-based OTT services platform backed by DFJ Athena. Earlier in his career, Jay was an architectural field engineer for the Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world.

Jay is a Fellow of the Network of Korean American Leaders (NetKAL). He also serves on the Young Leadership Board of the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and a Mentor-in-Residence at Draper University.

Jay earned his B.A. in Architecture from U.C. Berkeley, where he played Division 1 Water Polo and won a national championship as a competitor on the Taekwondo Team. Jay earned his M.S. in Clean Technology and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.

Jay Eum is co-founder and Managing Director of Translink Capital. Jay is responsible for Translink’s investments in Carbonite (NASDAQ: CARB), Chartboost, Enterprise DB, nWay, Peel, Quixey, SoundHound, Tango and YuMe (NYSE: YUME). He is also responsible for supporting Translink’s portfolio companies with their customers and partners primarily in Korea.

Most recently, Jay was the head of Samsung Ventures America where he led several successful investments including AnalogTech (NASDAQ: AATI), DivX (NASDAQ: DIVX), InPhi (NASDAQ: IPHI), Intellon (NASDAQ: ITLN), Pure Digital (acquired by Cisco), and Techwell (NASDAQ: TWLL). Prior to Samsung, Jay was an investment officer with the Silicon Valley office of Vertex Management, a global VC firm headquartered in Singapore. At Vertex, Jay focused on investments in communications, mobile, and Internet including GRIC Communications (NASDAQ: GRIC), Aicent (acquired by Syniverse), Mobile 365 (acquired by Sybase), and PayPal (acquired by eBay).

Jay received his MBA degree from Stanford University and an M.S. in Biochemistry and B.S. in Chemistry from Seoul National University.

Jonathan is a senior executive who brings a unique perspective to the world of startups. He has been both a venture capitalist as well as the founder and CEO of two venture backed companies, eBoomerang, an enterprise software company which was sold in 2006 and Artificial Muscle, Inc., a spinout from Stanford Research Institute (SRI). As a principal and founder of Threshold Ventures, Jon works with companies around the world, serving as an advisor/mentor, working on specific projects and when appropriate, taking on interim operating roles. He has worked with a wide range of software, telephony, hardware and services businesses.

Earlier in his career Jon was a General Partner at Oscco Ventures, a Sand Hill Road early-stage venture capital firm which was one of the pioneering firms in Silicon Valley. He has invested in a range of companies including Landec, Peerless Systems, and Coinstar.

Jonathan holds his B.A in Biology and a B.S in Engineering Science from Tufts University and as an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

Taeho Park is an interim director and professor in the School of Global Innovation & Leadership at San Jose State University. His research focused on operations/supply chain management, total quality management, enterprise risk management, and technology management. He has more than 20 years experiences on consulting, training, workshops, and seminars for various industries, such as electronics and logistics. Dr. Park is the author of research papers in many journals, including Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, Int. J. of Computer Applications in Technology, and so on.

Taeho holds his B.S and M.S in Industrial Engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison.