Bios of GSB Group
Anh Can
<anhcan@redsquarevietnam.com>Dear all,
Please find below the list of bios of our group. Best, TA.
BEGIN
Alan Colner
Alan Colner has over 35 years of experience as a successful private equity investor and fund manager covering more than $4.0 billion of invested capital. As a Board member, company founder, senior executive and strategic advisor, he has helped management teams build numerous privately-held and publicly-traded businesses. He has worked across a range of industries, including consumer products and services, financial services, healthcare, industrial services, media and marketing services, real estate, and technology.
Alan is currently a Managing Director of TriArtisan Capital Advisors, LLC, a middle-market private equity firm as well as Managing Partner of Lowell Peak Capital, a family office investor. Previously, he established and led Moore Capital Management’s activities in growth capital, buyout and venture investments. Before joining Moore, he was a Managing Director at Corporate Partners, a private equity fund affiliated with Lazard Freres & Co.
Robin Colner
As the founder and CEO of DigiStar Media, an award-winning digital marketing agency, Robin is dedicated to helping businesses, and professionals drive traffic to their websites, improve their brand reputations, acquire and retain customers and attract leads using digital and social media marketing techniques. Robin is also the Founding Director of Fordham University’s Digital and Social Media Professional Certificate Program and adjunct faculty teaching in NYU’s Graduate Marketing and PR Departments.
An MBA graduate of The Wharton School of Business, Robin has more than 30 years of technology enabled product development, branding and direct and online marketing experience. She has held senior marketing positions at Fortune 100 financial services corporations, including Citigroup and American Express and leading advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson.
Robert Crane
Robert Crane is a venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur with more than four decades of experience building and scaling healthcare and medical technology companies. He holds an M.E. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Stanford Business School. Bob is a partner at Montgomery Ventures and has founded or helped build over 30 companies across diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics, and digital health, including notable successes in drug delivery systems, implantable devices, surgical robotics, and cancer and metabolic disease treatments.
In addition to his healthcare work, Bob serves as Executive Chairman of American Bicycle Group, a high-performance bicycle manufacturer. An avid endurance athlete, his personal interests include cycling, skiing, and triathlons, reflecting a lifelong commitment to performance, innovation, and health.
Chris Cramer
Chris Cramer is CEO and Co-Founder of Karl Strauss Brewing Company, San Diego’s first post-prohibition brewery to open its doors sparking the craft beer revolution that would redefine the city’s culture. Chris was related to Karl M. Strauss, the company’s original Master Brewer and along with his business partner, Matt Rattner, launched Karl Strauss Brewing Company in 1989. For the last 37 years Chris has held a variety of leadership roles in the company including serving as the company’s President from its founding in 1988 until 2004. He currently serves as CEO and is focused on defining long-term strategies for growth and identifying growth opportunities and resources for the company. In addition to his work with Karl Strauss, Chris currently serves on the Board of Directors for the California Craft Brewers Association and the California Restaurant Association and is a past Chair of both associations. He is also a past Chair of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation. Chris is a community activist, and he personally championed many business and legislative reforms that helped pave the way for San Diego to become the world’s capital for craft beer. Chris has a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University with distinction and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Kristen Cramer: No bio.
Mary Ann Eddy
Mary Ann Eddy is an American born and raised in the Midwest who has lived in New York City and its environs for the forty years since leaving Stanford. Her work experience include healthcare and finance/insurance and she is involved in the Sag Harbor Village government focusing on issues of water quality and the environment. She is a patriotic American who is aghast at the turn the US government has taken
Bill Glazier
Bill has degrees from Harvard and Stanford, and has also studied at The University of Hong
Kong and Trinity College/Dublin, Ireland. He began his career in the Asia Division at JP Morgan Chase on the West Coast. After Stanford, he spent 5 years in consulting at Bain. Then he moved to technology, being one of the early employees at Silicon Graphics for many years. Then he spent 15 years in a variety of successful internet start-ups in the collaboration, graphics, security, and data canter markets, which were eventually acquired by Microsoft, Google, AMD, OpenText, and Western Digital. He transitioned to a venture partner role at Redwood Ventures. About a decade ago, he turned an interest in the sport of lacrosse as a kid to the creation of a business that became of one of the largest youth travel teams on the West Coast – Team NorCal Lacrosse.
He has retired from that role, and sold the company. He hangs with his wife and offers completely untrained advice for her floral design business (she has led the floral design programs at Filoli and Gamble Garden Center) and our black lab Shasta, who would have a good shot at winning the Westminster Dog Show if we ever chose to enter her.
Donna Greenwall: No bio.
Ephraim Greenwall
Ephraim Greenwall is President of Talcott Holdings, Inc., a privately held investment company with offices in Miami Beach, FL, and Boise, ID. THI purchases and manages office buildings, retail locations, and industrial space in California, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and the Southeast. Recent acquisitions include refrigerated food processing and food storage facilities in Boise, Idaho, Harmony, Pennsylvania, and Raleigh, North Carolina. It participates as a limited partner in several larger industrial and multifamily properties in Texas and Pennsylvania. The private equity division buys existing non-technology companies and provides seed capital for new firms. We have exposure across many private equity managers. Our portfolio of original capital investments include Van Doren Rubber Company (Van’s shoes), Design Within Reach, and five other companies which have gone public.
He has served on the Board of many California-based nonprofits. In Miami Beach, he is a Board member of Temple Menorah. As Chair of the Real Assets subcommittee, For 14 years, Ephraim was one of seven members of the Swarthmore College Endowment which invested a $3.1 billion portfolio on behalf of this private liberal arts college. He sits on the Advisory Boards of the MOMA (New York) and the Museum of Natural History (New York). A committed Zionist, he is active across the American political spectrum on first amendment and foreign policy issues. Ephraim received a BA from Swarthmore College in Philosophy and Economics and an MBA from Stanford. He lives with his wife Donna in Miami Beach. They have three married children. And, one grandchild.
Bret Hewitt
Retired executive with experience in endowment investments and nonprofit health care and higher education public finance. BA and MA in Public Service from UC Davis. Over 35 years of various advisory board and committee experience for that institution. Board and leadership service for a nonprofit theater company, community foundation and planning commission for a nationally acclaimed innovative municipality. Before MBA work, statewide association management and lobbying experience. Widower having raised an adopted daughter from China.
Atsuko Jenks
In 1988, Atsuko returned to Silicon Valley after working for Bain & Co. in Tokyo, and became an independent business strategy consultant. Atsuko has advised Japanese corporations, Japanese government agencies under METI, Silicon Valley startups, German startups and Japanese startups for the past 20 years. In addition, Atsuko provides new business development and leadership training programs for Japanese corporations in Silicon Valley and Tokyo. To date, she has trained more than 400 young Japanese business leaders of corporations such as SoftBank, Sumitomo Life and Takenaka. Atsuko is an active member of US Japan Council which promotes people to people connections between the two countries in politics, business, education, culture and art. She is also a frequent lecturer at Japanese universities, including the University of Tokyo and Sophia University.
Tim Jenks
Tim came to Stanford GSB after serving as a seagoing officer in the U.S. Navy. Subsequently, he spent his career in technology, initially in materials science (electrical interconnects, optics, and then batteries) and later, for more than 20 years, in fiber-optic telecommunications. He was CEO of NeoPhotonics Corp., a company specializing in advanced optoelectronic products for high-speed communications, which he led from startup in the last century to IPO (2011) and ultimately to a public-company merger (2022). The company’s operations were heavily Asia-centric, with customers and factories in China and Japan. Today, Tim leads a company using high-power lasers to deliver electrical power to uncrewed aircraft (drones) in flight.
Ken Kelley
Ken has been a biotech entrepreneur and venture capitalist in Silicon Valley for over 35 years. He was a White House Presidential Executive Fellow from 2016-2017 as well as an Advanced Leadership Initiative (ALI) Fellow at Harvard University from 2015-2016. Mr. Kelley earned an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.
Lisa Kelley
Lisa spent her career in investment banking, commercial banking, business development as well as philanthropic efforts in the arts and higher education. She is currently focused on helping to elect women to run for political office across the US and is an Executive Producer on the film, Lilly, currently on Netflix. She has a BA in Economics and an MBA from Stanford.
Alison Krausz: No bio.
Steve Krausz
Steven Krausz has worked for 4 decades in Silicon Valley's venture capital industry. He is a General Partner at U.S. Venture Partners (USVP). Current areas of investment include cybersecurity and SaaS software. Steve has served on 58 boards, of which 15 have become public companies. Steve has led or co-led investments in numerous high-profile companies, many of which achieved successful IPOs or acquisitions. These include Box, Check Point Software, Guidewire Software, Imperva, Trusteer, and Xylan. On Board Memberships: He currently serves on seven private boards, including Cato Networks, Human Interest, Quantifind, and Zefr. On Industry Leadership: He is a former member of the Executive Board and an Officer of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). On Early Career: Prior to his long tenure at USVP, Steve held operating roles at NASA Ames, BTI Computers, and Daisy Systems.
He has a BSEE from Stanford University and studied with Sidney Drell and Wolfgang Panofsky on the Stanford Arms Control Program. Steve received his MBA from Stanford. Steve has been served on the Board of several non-profits, including the Commonwealth Club/World Affairs and The B612 Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting planet Earth from asteroid impacts. Most importantly, Steve has two great children, Ben and Lily. One wonderful wife, Alison, and a fantastic Portuguese Water Dog, Stella.
Claudia Lewis
Claudia Lewis is a retired attorney who has devoted the last 20 years to leading nonprofits, schools and neighborhood organizations, often serving as board chair or president. She practiced securities litigation and white collar criminal defense at Debevoise & Plimpton in NYC and as a partner at Farella, Braun & Martel in San Francisco. Claudia attended Yale College ‘83 and Yale Law School ‘88.
Hugh Mackworth
Hugh Mackworth has worked for 45 years with rapid-growth, high-tech startups. Most recently, for the last 15 years, he has been an active investor working with the Oregon Venture Fund, which celebrated him as their first “Archangel.” He has been an active mentor, investor, and/or board member/chair to dozens of great companies, such as The Wild (VR for architecture) and Perfect Company(next generation kitchen OS for restaurants.) He started a seed fund/accelerator, SmartForest Ventures with Debi Coleman of Apple Computer to help create great new companies in the Pacific Northwest. As the founding CEO, he launched Digimarc, (NASDAQ: DMRC), the watermarking leader for identifying and protecting digital assets. On the non-profit side, he has been a board member or chair of Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, Entrepreneur Foundation of the Northwest, the Technology Association of Oregon, Saturday Academy, and founded the Portland Angel Network and Angel Oregon conference.
Before relocating from Silicon Valley to Portland, Hugh ran marketing and/or sales with GammaLink in computer fax, was a marketing executive at 3Com Corporation, and worked in engineering, marketing, and finance for Apple Computer in the early ‘80s as well as a research associate at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 70s. His academic background includes a BA in computer studies and an MBA, both from Stanford University.
Ann Moses McCarthy: No bio.
Mark Panella
Graduated Dartmouth College in 1978 and started a career in community banking. He worked for a couple of software companies that serve banks, but then spent most of his career as CFO of one public bank then one private, community bank that eventually went public. He retired in 2011 and spent nine seasons coaching high school boys ice hockey.
Sue Panella
After graduating GSB, Sue worked for Bain & Company in management consulting for three years before working independently as a management consultant for most of her career. She retired around 15 years ago and volunteered with non-profit organizations. After a few years, Sue went back to work teaching leadership courses to corporate managers for Harvard Business Publishing’s Corporate Learning Group. She retired again four years ago and started a non-profit to restore and protect a mangrove and seagrass ecosystem in Florida. This is her passion project.
Kien Pham
Kien Pham is an American investor and philanthropist dedicated to education and international development. He serves as President of the Vietnam Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit advancing education in Vietnam, and as Senior Advisor to TPG Capital, a global private equity firm with $250 billion under management. His career spans business, consulting, public policy, and foreign affairs, including roles at Procter & Gamble, Tenneco, the White House, the Pentagon, and the U.S. Senate. In 1985, at the age of 27, he was awarded a White House Fellowship by President Reagan. Born in Saigon, Kien fled Vietnam as a boat refugee in 1977, settled in Colorado, worked in a factory while studying English at night, and earned scholarships to college. He holds a B.S. in Marketing and International Business from the University of Colorado Boulder, and graduate degrees from Stanford University with an MBA and an M.A. in International Economics, plus an honorary doctorate from Pfeiffer University. Kien has founded and supported nonprofits aiding students, orphans, and war victims in Vietnam. Honored among Stanford’s exemplary alumni of its first century, he has received numerous distinctions, including the “Glory of Vietnam” Award, the “Never Fear, Never Quit” Award, and the government's special recognition for strengthening U.S.–Vietnam relations.
Woody Scal
My career journey has been an interesting arc across consumer product companies, mostly in health, fitness, and sports. After a few years in product management at General Mills in Minneapolis, I moved back to the Bay Area and into the world of private equity investing and management of early stage companies. On the investment side, I led investments in CamelBak (hydration products) and Yakima (sports racks). I’ve had leadership roles at CamelBak (EVP--marketing, sales, and R&D) and Fitbit (Chief Business Officer) from their early days through incredible periods of growth, and in Fitbit’s case, an IPO. More recently, I’ve served as an independent board member at venture-backed startups like Tonal (connected fitness) and Proclaim (oral health). Now I’m tiptoeing happily into retirement. During a sabbatical, I helped start and chaired the board of Outward Bound California, a nonprofit that brings challenging, transformative outdoor experiences to a thousands of students, including underserved teens and veterans. I’ve just joined the board of another nonprofit, River Partners, the largest organization in the western U.S. working to restore river ecosystems to benefit the environment, the general public, and the agricultural community.
Dan Scherlis
Dan Scherlis spent most of his career in emerging entertainment technologies, from the early days of HBO to online publishing (Ziff-Davis/ATT) to computer & mobile games. As CEO of Turbine Games Dan produced one of the first virtual-world (or “massively multiplayer”) games in partnership with Microsoft. More recently, Dan consulted in information security to financial planners, including his wife, Kate Elliott Scherlis. Dan holds AB, AM ( Linguistics), and MBA degrees from Harvard, a fact that Kien’s classmates accept with gracious tolerance.
Kate Scherlis
Kate Elliott Scherlis spent the last 15 years working in the financial planning field, including investment management (as a CFP®) and taxes (as an Enrolled Agent). Previously she worked in consumer packaged goods, eating lots of Jell-O gelatin and Pebbles cereal and managing Contadina tomato products (Nestle) and Del Monte canned fruit. Kate has also been an active volunteer in school, scouting, church, and community non-profit groups for decades. Kate graduated with an AB from Harvard (history, magna cum laude) and an MBA from Stanford. She sold her financial planning practice and retired as of 1/1/2026.
Anna Spevak
Nurse for 40 years working with the underserved.
Walt Spevak
Upon graduating from the Stanford GSB, Walt (Spevak) worked for 18 years at Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ: ADSK), developers of AutoCAD, serving in various product management and corporate roles. He later worked at Interim CFO consulting firm, Burkland Associates, hired as employee #1 when the company had 5 clients. When he left 13 years later, the company had 100+ employees and 800+ clients.
Since October, 2023 Walt has served as the CSO (Chief Sailing Officer) at fictional, Retired Inc. He is a lifelong sailor competing primarily in Lasers, a one-person boat, at national and international regattas.
Anne Standley
Anne Standley is an educator, researcher, and development professional with a career spanning higher education, public media, and academic policy. She holds a BA in History from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in Administration and Policy Analysis from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and a PhD in American History from Yale University. Her professional experience includes college admissions roles at Wesleyan University, Occidental College, and Webster University in Geneva, as well as academic research appointments at Case Western Reserve University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Brandeis University.
In addition to her academic work, Anne has led fundraising and development efforts for major public media organizations, including WHYY in Philadelphia and GBH in Boston. She enjoys cycling, hiking, following the news, and reading novels.
Janice Stanton
Janice Stanton is a founding partner of Contrarian Capital Management, L.L.C., a registered investment adviser based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Founded in 1995, Contrarian specializes in special situations and opportunistic credit, with investments across developed markets, real estate, and emerging markets. Prior to co-founding Contrarian, Ms. Stanton founded and led the Bank Debt and Trade Claims Desk at Oppenheimer & Co. from 1986 to 1995, where she was responsible for bank debt and trade claims investments for the Oppenheimer Horizon partnerships and external clients. Earlier in her career, she was an associate in the Corporate Finance Department at Lehman Brothers (1985–1986) and an analyst at Booz Allen & Hamilton.
Ms. Stanton earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Solve ME/CFS Initiative, a nonprofit organization advancing research into diagnostics, treatments, and cures for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Long COVID, and other infection-associated chronic conditions.
Signe Watson
Signe began her career in book publishing working as an editor for Houghton Mifflin in New York. Following that, she spent 9 years starting and running a book program for Sotheby’s. Then she worked for over a decade in curation and research at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
Winthrop Watson
My career journey has been an interesting arc across consumer product companies, mostly in health, fitness, and sports. After a few years in product management at General Mills in Minneapolis, I moved back to the Bay Area and into the world of private equity investing and management of early stage companies. On the investment side, I led investments in CamelBak (hydration products) and Yakima (sports racks). I’ve had leadership roles at CamelBak (EVP--marketing, sales, and R&D) and Fitbit (Chief Business Officer) from their early days through incredible periods of growth, and in Fitbit’s case, an IPO. More recently, I’ve served as an independent board member at venture-backed startups like Tonal (connected fitness) and Proclaim (oral health). Now I’m tiptoeing happily into retirement. During a sabbatical, I helped start and chaired the board of Outward Bound California, a nonprofit that brings challenging, transformative outdoor experiences to a thousands of students, including underserved teens and veterans. I’ve just joined the board of another nonprofit, River Partners, the largest organization in the western U.S. working to restore river ecosystems to benefit the environment, the general public, and the agricultural community.
END.
Anh Can (Ms)
Executive Assistant
151 Ton Dat Tien, SB02 Garden Court 1,Tan Hung Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam