THE DETAILS

Focus: Venture Capital in 2011

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FEATURED EXECUTIVE - Frank Foster

Frank H. Foster is a Managing Director of DFJ Frontier, a Draper Fisher Jurvetson affiliated venture capital fund with $80M under management focused on seed and early stage technology companies on the west coast.  Frank also manages the Gideon Hixon Fund, the venture capital investment vehicle for the Hixon Family. The group's venture capital investments include Apple Computer and Dell as well as more recent successes including CORSolutions (acquired by Matria), Sensitech (acquired by Carrier), Medior (acquired by AOL), Security Dynamics (acquired by RSA), WebCal (acquired by Yahoo) and Xiotech (acquired by Seagate). Prior to that, he was a General Partner of Allen & Buckeridge PTY LTD, a leading Australian venture capital firm with approximately A$250 million under management. At Allen & Buckeridge he led investment efforts into Hitwise (acquired by Experian), eKit (acquired by Jersey Telecom), Wishlist and Next Generation Entertainment.

Frank also has extensive operational experience through his roles at Virtual Music Entertainment (acquired by NAMCO), Contexture Systems and Prophecy Development Corporation. More recently, he acted as the CEO and Executive Chairman of Prolacta Bioscience, leading the company through its successful turn around and funding.  Previously, he acted as an independent director and consultant to YellowPages.com where he helped guide the company through its successful sale to SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC) and Bell South (NYSE: BLS) in November 2004. He was also a director of Cogent Data technologies through its successful sale to Adaptec Inc (NASDAQ: ADPT) in June 1996.

Frank is currently a director of Prolacta Bioscience, eKit.com (Chairman), Chimeros, HydraDx (Chairman), DX Biosciences, Marval Biosciences, Iconix Video, Buyology and Zadspace (Chairman).   He is also serves as a venture partner for Southern Cross Venture Partners a $150M international venture capital fund focused on bringing Australia/NZ technology to the US.

Frank received his MBA from The Harvard Business School and a BA cum laude from Harvard University. 

WHAT TO EXPECT

A year in a half after closing a $55 million venture capital fund Mr. Foster is forging greater opportunities for early stage South Coast businesses.  What is his venture capital in search of?  Where are they finding opportunity in our area?  What are our competitive advantages.  Discover these answers while further establishing your conviction in UCSB’s engine of innovation.  Mr. Foster is most excited about the life sciences sector.  Learn from experience.  Connect with others starting up companies.  Challenge the status quo.  Venture your way into capital.