Advisory Board
Tim Chang, Managing Director, Mayfield Ventures
Tim is a proven venture investor and experienced global executive. He was named on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Top 100 Dealmakers, was featured by The Deal as one of five emerging VCs to watch and by the AlwaysON Hollywood IT List recognizing technology leaders in the digital entertainment industry. Tim invests in the mobile, gaming, digital media and enterprise applications sectors and co-leads Mayfield Fund’s investment practice in China.
Some of Tim’s notable investments in the U.S. include ngmoco (acquired by DeNA), Playdom (acquired by Disney), leaders in mobile and social gaming, and Iridigm Display Corporation (acquired by Qualcomm). His other U.S. investments include Badgeville (gamification as a SaaS platform), Basis (mobile health monitoring), BranchOut (career networking on Facebook), and Lumos Labs (brain wellness games). Some of Tim’s notable investments in China include AdChina (leading ad-network), Lashou (leading deals site), and PCH International (leading supply-chain management company). His other China investments include All Reach Media and Brite Semiconductor. Tim was also involved with investments in Placeware (acquired by Microsoft), NextG Networks (acquired by a private equity syndicate), Borqs, deCarta and Socialvibe.
Prior to joining Mayfield Fund, Tim spent five years as a Partner at Norwest Venture Partners. While at Norwest, he invested in the mobile, gaming and digital media sectors and established their investment practice in China and Asia Pacific. Prior to Norwest, Tim worked for Gabriel Venture Partners where he led their wireless and Asia Pacific practice. Tim began his career in venture capital in 1999 during his time at Stanford Business School as part of the founding team of CTR Ventures, a venture accelerator in Tokyo focused on seed and early-stage mobile consumer applications for the Japanese market.
Tim’s operational experience includes working in Japan for five years as a Product Manager for Gateway Inc., where he launched and held P&L responsibility for enterprise products and as a trilingual Engineer for General Motors, where he led project teams in China, Korea and Japan.
Currently, Tim serves on the advisory boards of the Verizon 4G Venture Forum, Gamestop Corporation, Yoshimoto Kogyo, the Silicon Valley Telecom Council, MIT/Stanford VLAB, CasualConnect, and GamesBeat/MobileBeat.
Tim holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar, and an MS in Electrical Engineering/System Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Brian Fontes, CEO, National Emergency Number Association
Brian Fontes currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the National Emergency Number Association, a position he has held since June 2008. As CEO, he is responsible for all aspects of the Association. His primary objectives are to ensure that Americans have access to reliable 9-1-1 service, 9-1-1 centers have state-of-the-art technologies and well-trained professionals, and sufficient funding is available so that the 9-1-1 system can best serve those who call upon it as their first voice of hope. Prior to joining the Association, Fontes was Vice President, Federal Relations for Cingular Wireless and served in that capacity after its acquisition by AT&T. Prior to that, Fontes was Senior Vice President for Policy and Administration at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). Before joining CTIA, Fontes served as the Senior Advisor to Commissioner James H. Quello, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and as the FCC's Chief of Staff. Fontes started his professional career as a Professor of Communications at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
In the Fall of 1995, President Clinton appointed Fontes as head of the United States Delegation to the International Telecommunication Union's World Radio Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, and gave him the rank of Ambassador. Fontes also served as Chairman of the Council of the Communication Regulatory Agency in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Fontes has served on numerous U.S. delegations.
He is currently on the Board of Directors of the 9-1-1 Institute and the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management, Policy and Law. He serves as Co-Chair of the Commerce Department's Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and he was recently reappointed to the FCC's Communications, Security and Reliability and Interoperability Council. He serves as an advisor to Mobile Future.
Fontes received a Ph.D. in Mass Media/Telecommunications from Michigan State University's Department of Telecommunications and a M.S./B.S. from Brigham Young University.
Andrew Isaacs, Director, New Management of Technology Programs, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Adjunct Professor, Haas School of Business, College of Engineering
Founder and Co-Director, Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation
Andrew M. Isaacs is a successful scientist, technology company executive, entrepreneur, and educator. He is passionate about mentoring the next generation of technology business leaders and has a strong track record of helping young entrepreneurs launch their careers. Isaacs has worked at the crossroads of advanced technology and business innovation for 25 years, ten of those years at UC Berkeley, helping start-ups and established technology companies create and execute successful growth strategies.
Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation
In early 2007, Isaacs and Professor Catherine Wolfram founded the Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation (CEEI) with a mandate from Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to serve as UC Berkeley's campus-wide center focused on commercialization opportunities for new energy technology. CEEI operates as a hub for Berkeley's many cleantech and renewable energy initiatives.
Technology in the Developing World
Isaacs is founder and director of UC Berkeley's Bridging the Divide Program, a joint program of UC Berkeley and UNIDO, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. Bridging the Divide is focused on technology-based solutions for poverty reduction in developing countries. The three Bridging the Divide Conferences thus far have brought nearly 1,500 practitioners to the Berkeley campus to discuss development issues. Since the program's founding in 2002, Isaacs has directed 90 UNIDO fellowships, funding Berkeley graduate students to work overseas on technology-based solutions for poverty in 16 developing countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Graduate Instruction
Isaacs teaches five popular graduate-level courses at UC Berkeley, three business-focused and two technology-focused. Students enrolling in his courses come both from the MBA program at the Haas School and from technical MS and PhD programs, primarily in engineering, chemistry and the life sciences.