MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MAVA today announced three Game Changer CEOs who will speak at its Capital Connection 2013 conference, highlighting the pace of change in these fields, as well as challenges and opportunities for the tech sector. Capital Connection 2013 takes place June 5-6 at the Mead Center for American Theater, Home to Arena Stage, in Washington, DC, and showcases technologies at all stages of development. This year’s focus on education, mobility and health IT, seeks to highlight sectors which are growing exponentially globally.
Chip Paucek, co-founder and CEO of 2U, Inc, is engaged in the race to find a technological solution to our nation’s education challenges; Gary Parsons, CEO of NexNAV, has been involved in the evolution of mobility infrastructure and Steve McHale, CEO of Explorys, is involved in the important work being done to utilize big data technology to fix the US healthcare system.
“While education technology, mobile and health IT are hot sectors everywhere right now, there is a depth of expertise in these industries on the East Coast and particularly the greater Mid-Atlantic region,” said Julia Spicer, Executive Director of MAVA (Mid-Atlantic Venture Association). “Our region’s approach to these opportunities is groundbreaking, and our knowledge base is truly industry-leading.”
“Our Game Changer CEOs Chip Paucek, Gary Parsons and Steve McHale are breaking the code in the race for online education, hyper-local targeting and tackling healthcare IT through big data,” Spicer added. “Each Game Changer is forcing us to think differently about these growing industries.”
Chip Paucek, co-founder and CEO of 2U, will kick-off the Game Changer series at Capital Connection on Wednesday, June 5. Groundbreaking education technology company 2U is partnering with top-tier universities to leverage technology to deliver online the rigor, quality and learning opportunity that students experience on-campus.
With deep experience in education, Paucek is a serial entrepreneur who founded and served as CEO of several education companies, including Hooked on Phonics and Cerebellum Corporation, the company behind the award-winning Standard Deviants TV program. His innovative work at 2U earned him the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year 2012 Award and in 2012 he was invited to be on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Education & Skills.
The second Game Changer, Explorys CEO Steve McHale, will kick off Day 2 (June 6th). McHale will discuss his company’s aim to use healthcare data in new ways, aggregating and leveraging “high velocity data” from the health care industry.
McHale’s 25-year career has been built around founding, investing in and building technology companies. He is recognized for his focus on business intelligence, most recently serving as the Chairman and CEO of Everstream, the largest census level media measurement, data warehousing and analytic platform in the world, which he sold in 2005 to Concurrent [NASDAQ: CCUR].
Sunnyvale-based NexNAV CEO Gary Parsons will speak after lunch on Thursday, June 6. Parsons, one of the founders of XM Satellite, will talk about the latest in hyperlocal mobility and NexNAV’s revolutionary positioning of technology that has the potential to reshape retail purchasing, consumer advertising, as well as E911 and emergency response.
Gary Parsons has spent 40 years in the telecom industry and is noted for the founding or early stage development of a number of companies, including XM Satellite Radio, SkyTerra, TerreStar Networks, Telecom*USA and MCImetro, each of which attained billion dollar plus enterprise values. He served as the founding CEO and subsequently Executive Chairman of XM Satellite Radio from 1997 through its merger with Sirius in July 2008, and stepped down as Chairman of the combined Sirius XM Radio, Inc, in November of 2009.
Capital Connection™ is open to the public and will feature a wide range of technology sectors, reflecting the variety of deep expertise and sector diversity in the greater Mid-Atlantic region. The agenda for the 1 ½ day conference for high growth companies includes presentations from more than a dozen growth and later stage companies on the Main Stage, as well as TechBUZZ start-up presentations and networking opportunities throughout the program.
The Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA) represents the complete spectrum of private capital investing in high growth enterprises and the company builders and entrepreneurs doing business in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. For more than 25 years, MAVA has served the full community of innovators, companies, private capital, suppliers, and key advisors needed to build successful businesses from start-up to exit. From venture to private equity, angel to growth equity, and family office to corporate strategic, MAVA brings together the full spectrum of capital and key resources necessary to accelerate the growth of companies across industry sectors and stages of development. MAVA provides a wide range of programs designed to stimulate revenue and company growth, facilitate quality deal flow, encourage collaboration and foster relationships among entrepreneurs, investors, strategic partners and customers.
