The annual Alumni Leadership Forum: Seeds of Growth was held last week and featured a panel discussion on Boise’s growing start up scene and tips on how to receive venture capital investments. Roy Glen, an emeritus faculty at Boise State and a member of the Boise Angel Alliance, was the moderator for the event, while Kevin Learned, Partner at Sage Growth Capital, and John Williamson, Director of the COBE Funding Accelerator were the panelists. Thank you to all those who were able to attend the event!
Roy Glen- Facilitator
Dr. Roy Glen is an Emeritus Faculty at Boise State University. A native of England, he began his career working in organizational development for Rolls Royce in Derby and Unilever in Cheshire. He has served on the faculty at the University of Illinois, Willamette University’s Graduate School of Management, and Boise State University. Roy is also actively involved in helping Boise develop the next generation of fast growth companies. As a member of the Boise Angel Alliance, Roy has been helping start-up teams clarify and develop their business models. He serves as Chairman of the Board of American Pharma Technologies, a rapidly growing medical company.
Kevin Learned
Kevin is an entrepreneur who co-founded Idaho’s first scaled commercial software company. He has a long history of working with early stage companies as an angel investor, a mentor, and an advisor. He is a partner in the new Boise-based micro venture capital fund, Sage Growth Capital. He is a member of the Board of Directors and Vice-Chair of the Angel Capital Association, the national trade association for angel investors. He was the founding Director of Venture College at Boise State University. He was also the founding instructor in the Boise State-Harvard HBX Certificate of Readiness Program. He is a former president of the (Albertson) College of Idaho. He served on the Boise State faculty as a professor in entrepreneurship and strategy. He holds degrees from Yale (BA economics), Wharton (MBA accounting) and Texas Tech University Ph.D. (strategy and economics).
John Williamson
John Williamson is the director of Boise State COBE Funding Accelerator and the director of Idaho operations with VentureCapital.org, a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit venture accelerator. The dual role gives him a base in Boise where he can identify and train promising Idaho entrepreneurs.