Keiretsu Forum
3466 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
Suite C-205
Lafayette, CA 94549
© 2004 Keiretsu Forum.
All rights reserved. |
|
|
Harnessing Midwest Investment Opportunities
After close to six months of investigative work and building community, Michael Gruber, President of Keiretsu Forum Chicago/Midwest and Randy Williams, Founder of Keiretsu Forum launched the new Chapter located in Chicago in February 2004. With a primary focus on investment, and with a collaborative atmosphere between successful entrepreneurs and executives both locally and with other chapters, Keiretsu Forum Chicago/Midwest is creating wonderful waves within the community that comprises the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri.
Meetings
Keiretsu Forum Chicago/Midwest meets on a bi-monthly basis in downtown Chicago at the offices of Seyfarth Shaw, the international law firm headquartered in Chicago. Seyfarth Shaw has become a Chapter Platinum Sponsor. To date, the Chicago/Midwest chapter has held two Forum meetings, one in February and another in April 2004. The presenting companies were from a wide range of industry sectors including software, biotech, consumer electronics, drug discovery, and food manufacturing & distribution.
The next Chicago Forum is on June 30, 2004. For more information about the Forum as well as other Chapter activities, please contact Michael Gruber, President. Telephone: (312) 505-5659.
About Chicago and Greater Midwest Area
Chicago is the third largest city in population in the US and home to many world leading companies such as: Motorola; Abbot Laboratories; Baxter International; Allstate Insurance; Kraft Foods, and many others. Locally, we have some of the nation’s most prestigious universities which include: Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Washington University, Purdue University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and many more. In addition, Chicago is central to our nation’s business economy for many reasons, including being the host for:
- many of the nation’s largest real estate investment and management companies
- one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the largest futures exchange in the United States and the second largest exchange in the world for the trading of futures and options on futures
- Chicago Board Options Exchange, world’s largest options exchange based on total volume
- Transportation hub for trucking, railroad, and of course air transportation with O’Hare International Airport
In 2001, the most recent year for which data are available, Illinois alone achieved the following metrics:
Technology Economy: Illinois is home to over 21,000 technology firms,
employing over 491,000, making Illinois the fifth largest technology economy in the nation.
Financing: Illinois firms raised over $3.6 billion in financing from IPOs, ranking the state 4th in the nation.
Talent: Illinois universities produced over 24,000 science and engineering graduate students ranking the state 4th in the nation.
Upcoming Events
The Chicago/Midwest Chapter is organizing a golf outing at the Dubsdread course at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, the site of the Western Open which Tiger Woods won in 2003. This event will be on Wednesday May 12 with the first tee time at 8am and is open to the first 12 participants so please RSVP as soon as possible to Rana Singh at rana@opson.com.
Members of the Chicago community will join Michael Gruber in visiting the Northern California Chapter for the July 29th Forum and participate in the Sports Day for Charity that includes both tennis, golf, and a dinner at the Blackhawk Country Club. To learn more about joining our Midwest trip out West, please contact Sheela at sheela.chandrasekhara@northridgegroup.com for more information.
Team
Michael Gruber
President, Keiretsu Forum Chicago/Midwest
As a senior member and entrepreneur of several technology companies as well as a private equity investor, Michael brings a balanced perspective to the early stage funding process. Through an extensive network in the community, Michael brings leadership to the Chicago business community.
Michael Gruber first became active with Keiretsu Forum in Northern California in the winter of 2000 while a Director of Taproot Ventures, a $30 million seed stage venture capital firm focused on commercializing technology from research institutions. Michael has been a dedicated company builder on both sides of early stage ventures, both as an entrepreneur, operator as well as an investor. Michael has built up marketing, sales, and business development groups from scratch in addition to working with more established organizations like Motorola, Intuit, and US West. Michael founded Future Solutions, a strategic advisory firm, in 1994 and has since worked with executive management on projects across the following sectors: software, hardware, security, food & beverage, life sciences, biotech, telecommunications, and financial services. Michael spent 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area before recently moving to Chicago at the end of 2002.
Michael is an active member of Chicago area entrepreneur and investor associations and firms, including acting on the leadership team for the Private Equity and Alterative Assets affinity group for the worldwide alumni community of Kellogg School of Management, Technology Committee for the Kellogg Alumni Club of Chicago, as well as the Technology Sourcing group for the Big Idea Forum, an entrepreneur support group. Michael Gruber’s education includes an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Michael received a special certificate from Nanzan University in Japan for intensive Japanese studies.
Rana Singh, Entrepreneur Manager
Rana Singh is an accomplished entrepreneur and top executive in high-technology services businesses. He has founded/ co-founded several companies and has domain expertise in Information Technology, Healthcare Business Systems, Business Process Outsourcing and International Trade. Rana leads the interaction between entrepreneurs and the Chicago Chapter of the Keiretsu Forum. He holds a BE in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangalore University, India and is pursuing Executive MBA from the J. L. Kellogg School of Management.
Sheela Chandrasekhara, Investment Manager
Sheela brings nearly eight years of equity research and consulting services to the Keiretsu Forum. During her tenure in equity research, Ms. Chandrasekhara followed the enterprise software sector, analyzing companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and Computer Associates. As a consultant, Ms. Chandrasekhara has worked across several industries, from financial services to energy, advising clients on issues such as growth strategy to analyzing complex financial issues related to litigation. Sheela is passionate about helping promising fledging companies obtain the requisite capital to grow their businesses and is leading the Chicago/Midwest Chapter’s interaction with our members and relationship with the investor community. Ms. Chandrasekhara received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
| | |
