About Us
Steven
K. Baker, a former Citibank executive with 20 years of professional
experience in Asia, has ongoing interests in banking and capital markets,
telecoms / technology, and education. Having identified and pursued a tax
and corporate registry related opportunity in the Japanese market for three
years, he co-founded and became the President of Micronesia
Registration Advisors, inc. in 2005
He was a founder in 1996, the largest individual investor, and until September 2005 the Chairman of Lanka Bell (Private) Limited (www.lankabell.net), a fixed-wireless telephone company in Colombo, Sri Lanka, with a 25-year nationwide license. In this context, he raised US$175 million in debt and equity funding over the years, and helped arrange the sale of the company to Stasen Group, the largest business group in Sri Lanka. Read more about Steven K. Baker.
Robert
J. Robinson is the founder
of Hawaii's angel investor network, the Hawai`i Angels and Kolohala
Ventures. He is the co-author of Angel Investing: Matching
Startup Funds with Startup Companies,
published in 2000, and was a charter member of the Angel Capital Association.
Dr. Robinson is an award-winning author on business negotiation and conflict
management, and has over 20 years of experience in coaching companies in
valuation and other negotiations. Dr. Robinson earned a B.Commerce in 1983,
a BA in 1984, and an MA in 1987 in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
from the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and a Ph.D. from Stanford
University in 1991. Dr. Robinson spent ten years on the faculty of Harvard
Business School, and was recruited in 2002 to the University of Hawai`i,
where he serves as the Barry and Virginia Weinman Distinguished Professor
of Entrepreneurship and E-Business as well as the executive director of
the Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business (PACE2).
Michael
T. Pfeffer has over 10
years of experience in venture and private equity investing and entrepreneurship
and is a co-founder of Kolohala
Ventures. From 2001 through 2005, he
served as President and CEO of Persis Corporation, a Hawai`i-based private
equity firm with venture, media, and real estate holdings throughout the
western US. In addition, in 1997 he co-founded Pinpoint Venture Group,
LLC, a Seattle-based venture firm. In addition to his corporate duties,
Mr. Pfeffer has also served the Hawai`i community as a trustee for The
Nature Conservancy Hawai`i, Boys and Girls Club of Hawai`i, Honolulu Symphony,
and Chaminade University, among others. Mr. Pfeffer holds three degrees
in Anthropology: a BA in from the University of California at Santa Barbara
in 1991, an MA from the University of Hawai`i in 1995, and an M.A. from
the University of Washington in 1997.
Chenoa
Farnsworth has over
10 years of experience in strategy development and planning for start-up
companies and small businesses in Hawai`i through her independent consulting
company, Farnsworth Consulting and is a co-founder of Kolohala
Ventures.
Ms. Farnsworth has reviewed hundreds of business plans and helped her start-up
clients raise over $30 million in financing. Prior to forming her consulting
practice, Ms. Farnsworth spent five years in health and legislative affairs
for the Hawai`i state Senate and the American Nurses Association. She has
also served the Hawai`i community as a director of the Hawai`i Women’s
Business Center and as a volunteer coach and judge for the Wayne Brown
Institute and University of Hawaii business plan competition. Ms. Farnsworth
earned a BA in political science from the University of California at Santa
Cruz in 1992 and an Executive MBA from the University of Hawaii in 2000.
Joelle Simonpietri spent two years at Waste Management Inc.’s $250 million corporate venture fund, where she developed the company’s biofuel investment strategy and led the due diligence team for its pilot biodiesel plant. In addition, she has 10 years of operations and general management experience in the Asia-Pacific region as a US Naval intelligence officer and also as a project manager with two startup companies. Ms. Simonpietri received a BS in Neurobiology from Duke University in 1994 and an MBA in private equity and renewable energy from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in 2005.