Mei-Mei Tuan ('94) Director
Mei-Mei is a Partner and Co-Founder of Notch Partners, LLC, an executive recruiting firm serving private equity firms exclusively. Prior to founding Notch Partners in 2002, Ms. Tuan founded and ran a thriving independent consulting practice for private equity firms, their portfolio companies, and large corporations. Formerly she was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, BankAmerica and BankAustria, and served as CFO and COO at the Sierra Club Foundation and the San Francisco Food Bank. She holds an MBA from HBS and a BA from Wellesley College.
Perry Wu ('88) Director
Perry Wu is a Managing Partner with ComVentures and has extensive experience building early-stage communications and information technology companies. Perry focuses his investments on companies with innovative system, software, component and network architectures that enable next-generation services, computing platforms, and applications. His recent investments and board seats include CloudShield, Enkata, ServGate, and WireCACHE.
Prior to joining ComVentures, Perry was a Venture Partner at Bedrock Capital Partners, where he invested in communications and information technology companies. At Accel Partners, he focused on software and communications investments.
Earlier in his career, at Xilinx, Perry helped spur the adoption of field programmable gate arrays. He was a pioneer in network services and the Internet, playing an instrumental role in launching Apple Computer's online, Internet, and EDI Services businesses. At Mpath, Perry led the development of the first Internet VoIP service from inception to IPO. Previously, he held technical positions with IBM's Almaden Research Center and Andersen Consulting.
Perry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Ken Hakuta ('77)- Director, HBS4A
Entrepreneur Ken Hakuta '76 introduced the Wacky WallWalker, which became one of the best-selling fad toys of all time and was recently chosen to be in the Pop Culture Collection at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Over a period of 6 years, Mr. Hakuta earned $20 million while selling 250 million of this toy. His Emmy-nominated "Dr. Fad Show" showcasing kids' inventions, was syndicated nationally from 1987-1993. He is a graduate of HBS, the author of How to Create Your Own Fad and Make a Million Dollars and the owner of the Mt. Lebanon Shaker Furniture Collection. Mr. Hakuta sits on the board of the HBS California Research Center in Silicon Valley and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is a frequent media guest and has appeared on such shows as The Today Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Oprah, and 60 Minutes.
William A. Chen ('95) - Director, HBS4A
Will has been involved in a variety of technology companies and startups in the last 12 years. He is most recently Founder and CEO of Accelergy Corporation, a materials development company that formulates advanced materials for the energy and chemical industries. Prior to Accelergy, Will was Founder and CEO of OnePage, Inc. an enterprise software company that developed a suite of portal products and management tools for the corporate market. OnePage was acquired by Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY) in 2002 and its technology infrastructure serves as the platform for the Sybase Enterprise Portal. Before starting OnePage, Will was one of the Founders of Billpoint, Inc., which pioneered the concept of online person to person payments. Billpoint was acquired by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) in 1999 as a payment solution for their online auction marketplace.
Will has also been in management positions for Excite, Classifieds2000 (online classifieds marketplace acquired by Excite in 1998), Andersen Consulting Strategic Services (Accenture), and IBM. Mr. Chen has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Business Administration (High Honors) from the University of Florida. Mr. Chen was recently honored as the 2003 Clark Butler Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Florida. Mr. Chen also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida College of Business, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA), Silicon Valley's leading technology business network for the Pacific economy focused on promoting the success of U.S. and Asian technology enterprises.
Charlie Kim ('96) - Director, HBS4A
Charlie Kim has been with the firm since 1990, having also worked in the Boston and Dallas offices. Throughout his career at Bain, Charlie has led both strategy and operations engagements in a wide array of industries, including technology and telecommunications products and services, consumer products and services, financial services and healthcare, among others. Recently, Charlie has taken a leading role in the technology and telecommunications practice area. Within the technology area, Charlie has worked with leading companies across the full spectrum of technologies, including packaged and enterprise software, semiconductors, telecommunications services, computers and networking equipment and IT services.
His technology practice engagements typically include the development of corporate and growth strategies, M&A strategies and merger integration, new product campaigns, marketing strategies and turnarounds.Charlie has also served as a leading member of Bain's private equity group, leading both transaction due diligence and portfolio company strategy engagements in concert with some of the most successful LBO and VC funds in the industry today.
Leveraging his technology background, Charlie has led numerous engagements focusing almost wholly on both existing and emerging technology spaces.Charlie received a B.A. in Economics cum laude from Harvard University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was also designated a Baker Scholar. In addition to Bain, Charlie has also worked as a Product Manager at Silicon Graphics (SGI) in Mountain View.
Board of Advisors
Norman Liu ('82)
Norman C. T. Liu is Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations for GE Capital Aviation Services, serving in this role since 1996. Liu earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in engineering and economics from Yale University.
Miki Tsusaka ('88)
Miki Tsusaka '88 is a SVP and Director for Consumer Practice at the Boston Consulting Group. She has consulted many companies on consumer, brand, channel management and operations issues. She also leads BCG's Global PMI practice, where she spearheads the company's efforts across several global mergers and restructurings. Ms. Tsusaka co-leads BCG's initiative on CRM and is a co-author of a study for the International Foodservice Manufacturer's Associate on the Economics and Evolution of the Foodservice Industry.
Prior to BCG, Ms. Tsusaka worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions area of Goldman Sachs, and at International Consulting of Japan in Tokyo. She is a graduate of Harvard College, magna cum laude, and of HBS.
Girish Nadkarni ('88)
Girish Nadkarni '88 is Global Head of Strategy and Marketing for the Automation Technologies Division of ABB, Inc. Mr. Nadkarni joined ABB from Administrative Holdings, Inc., where he was Chairman and CEO of the company. Before that, he was the founder, President and CEO of vSimplify, Inc., a venture backed company providing enterprise portals and online HR and benefits administration for businesses. Prior to vSimplify, Mr. Nadkarni was the COO of Uniprise, a $2 billion subsidiary of United Healthcare. Mr. Nadkarni holds a law degree from the University of Bombay, where he was a gold medalist, and a master of law degree from the University of Virginia, which he attended as a DuPont Fellow. He holds an MBA from HBS, from which he graduated as a Baker Scholar.
Deborah M. Soon ('82)
As Vice President of Executive Leadership Initiatives of Catalyst, Deborah M. Soon is responsible for Catalyst services targeted for the most senior women executives in corporations, including Corporate Board Services. Catalyst has been retained by CEOs, board chairmen, and board nominating committees since 1977 to help place women on the boards of Fortune 500 corporations. Prior to Catalyst, Ms. Soon was a consultant with Spencer Stuart, one of the leading global executive search firms. Her search engagements focused on the areas of technology, education, and healthcare, with specific functional emphasis on CEO, other senior executive, and board placements. Prior to Spencer Stuart, Ms. Soon was the CEO of Larscom, a public telecommunications company she took public in 1996. Ms. Soon holds a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She also completed special studies in Mathematics at Cambridge University, England.
