Anna is a Founder and CEO of Entana Corp., an entrepreneurship and venture advisory firm that focuses on providing business strategy, planning, fundraising, and positioning services to the early-stage technology start-ups, as well as angel financing. Anna serves on the Advisory Boards and the Board of Directors of several technology startup companies. She is the author of many articles on entrepreneurship, angel and venture financing.

Anna is the President of AmBAR, a non-profit business association of Russian-speaking professionals in the Silicon Valley with over 2,000 members. She is also a founder and the Chair of the SVOD Technology Investment Conference, a premier industry gathering which facilitates networking between Russian-speaking technology entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, angel investors and other technology experts.

Previously, Anna was a Co-Founder and the VP of Business Development at BKP Security, a government IT security company. Prior to that, she was a Foreign Advisor at the international law firm of Coudert Brothers. Anna has her J.D. from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and her Master of Laws degree from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley.

Stas Khirman is serial entrepreneur, telecommunication expert and technological leader.

Stas Khirman has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry as an architect, manager, visionary and inventor. Prior to "Khirman&Son" , Stas co-found Skyrider - revolutionary company developing technologies to organize and monetize peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Prior to founding Skyrider, Stas co-founded Narus, a global leader in software and technology for the telecom industry and government agencies, where he designed the world’s most scalable network transaction analysis system. Khirman had previously served as the networking group leader at VDOnet, a pioneer in internet video. Khirman was behind the development of a number of standards organizations and participated in the early definition of the VoIP H.323 protocol.

Khirman holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Kiev.

Julia Bobrovich,
VP/Relationship Manager, Silicon Valley Bank

Julia is a VP/Relationship Manager at SVB Financial Group managing a portfolio of growth software companies based in Silicon Valley. SVB Financial Group and its subsidiaries, including Silicon Valley Bank, have been dedicated to helping entrepreneurs succeed in the technology, life science, venture capital, private equity and premium wine industries for over the past 25 years. Prior to working with growth technology companies, Julia spent 2 years in SVB’s asset based lending group focusing on Accounts Receivable financing for later stage companies. Julia holds B.S. in finance from Santa Clara University.

Denis Dovgopoliy
Partner, Managing Director at BayView Innovations

Before BayView Innovations, Denis was working in the Venture Capital & Private Equity Industry as a Managing Director of Center for Innovation Development (CID). CID is a member of Techinvest Group that works closely with Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Techinvest manages Ukrainian High-Tech Competition and provides technology business incubator management, consulting, training, market research for Ukrainian startups.

Prior to CID Denis Dovgolopiy spent over 10 years in IT and telecommunications industry consulting. Denis was a co-owner and CEO of Profitcenter, management and consulting company and a co-owner of Mobile Marketing Research (MMR) Agency. Both Profitcenter and MMR were acquired by Center for Innovation Development. Mr. Dovgopoliy is a co-organizer of Conference "Client oriented company" (Education Management Industry). He was a commercial director at Novatek (Outsourcing/Offshoring Industry), Commercial Director at Ukrpage (Information Technology and Services Industry). Denis Dovgopoliy holds MBA degree from International Management Institute (Kiev) and MA degree in Aerospace Systems from Kyiv Politechnic Institute.

Natasha Krol
Managing Partner,Alexander and Krol Executive Search

 Natasha Krol is a Managing Partner at Alexander and Krol, an Executive Search firm specializing in the US and Eastern European Technology Markets.

Prior to that, she was a Senior Client Partner with Korn/Ferry International’s Global Technology Market, based in the firm’s Silicon Valley office. He clients included companies like Google, HP, Audatex, TransUnion and others.

Most recently, Ms. Krol led overall marketing efforts for several start-up and medium-size Silicon Valley software companies, including Evoke Software (now Informatica) and eMotion (now Corbis).

Prior to Gartner, Ms. Krol managed advanced technologies for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston, MA, where she developed strategic technology plans and overall information architecture.

She began her career as a Marketing Officer in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ms. Krol holds an M.S. degree in Linguistics from St. Petersburg University.

Ms. Krol has served on the technical advisory board for American Express, and has been a featured keynote speaker at more than 50 international conferences.

Alexei Kudriashov
Co-founder, President and CEO, SperaSoft, Inc

Prior to founding SperaSoft, Inc., an offshore software development and outsourcing services company, Alexei was a Channel Development Manager with the Software Marketing Group, Sun Microsystems. He was responsible for business and channel strategy and management in driving adoption and deployment of Sun's business productivity suite worldwide. Previously, Alexei founded Martak International, Inc., a manufacturer's representative and export company, distributing hi-tech and medical equipment overseas. He received an M.S. in Management and Business from MIT, Sloan School of Management and M.D. from Volgograd Medical Academy, Russia.

Andrey Kunov
Founder and CEO, Amecra, Inc.

Andrey is an entrepreneur focusing on technology startups. He is a co-founder of the US-Russia Technology Symposium LLC (Global Technology Symposium), "A-Business" business magazine in Kazakhstan, and "3DMission" technology startup in California. Andrey is also interested in economic and political research on the issues related to Russia and Eastern Europe.

Previously, he served as an Associate Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, Stanford University. Before that he worked as a senior economist at the Institute for Open Economy, Moscow, Russia. Prior to that he was a researcher and academic coordinator at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Andrey received his PhD in political science from Stanford University, MA in international economics from the University of Newcastle (UK), MA in transition economics and politics from the Central European University (Hungary), and BA in philosophy from Kazakh National University (Kazakhstan). He has authored and co-authored various publications on politics, economy, and state of technology in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Igor brings more than 15 years of experience in software engineering as an engineer, project manager and architect. At Kaiser Permanente IT Igor's major role is to assess performance and scalability of software applications that serve 3.5 million of North California region members. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Igor worked at two Silicon Valley startups: Attest Systems and Softchain Inc.

Before coming to the United States in 1999, Igor devoted 10 years of his life to Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology, where he studied, developed educational software, conducted scientific research and taught engineering classes.

Before joining Microsoft Leonid founded IOnKey Systems, an early-stage technology company where he was responsible for operations and product management. Prior to that he co-founded CallTheShots, an internet infrastructure company acquired by Akamai Technologies and worked for Financial Engines and Morgan Stanley. Leonid holds B.S. from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and M.S. and Ph. D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University.

Elena Masolova
Founder, AddVenture

Elena is a founder and Investment director of Russian early-stage fund AddVenture (http://addventure.to). Similar to YCombinator the fund invests seed money, provides smart money and helps IT startups develop rapidly. Fund portfolio includes startups in LBS services, 3D modeling, widgets, professional networks.

Prior to AddVenture Elena worked as Ruvento early-stage fund partner, cofounded and led as CEO e-learning startup, organized University business plans competitions and worked in leading Russian strategy consultancy.

Olivier Minkowski
CEO, SiliconFrench

Olivier Minkowski is the CEO of SiliconFrench: a Francophile networking group gathering together 5,000 professionals in the San Francisco Bay area and the founding chapter of InterFrench: an international organization which has over 10,000 members in 20 locations worldwide.

Mr. Minkowski has over 10 years' practice throughout Europe, the Middle East and North America. His experience in Software Quality, IT Governance, Risk Management and Process Optimization benefited companies in the Telecom industry (Comverse), in multimedia (YES DBS, TiVo) and in the online advertising sector (Quigo, today AOL).

Earlier in his career, he served in an IDF Chief of Staff Analytical Crew and as a student started his own computer support and training business for university academic staff.

Mr. Minkowski is a Certified Information System Auditor (CISA). He holds a Bachelor degree in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Masters degree in Diplomacy and Security from the Tel-Aviv University. Recently, Mr. Minkowski contributed to continuous study trainings at Stanford University.

Portfolio Manager, Silicon Valley Bank

Vera is in charge of a diversified portfolio of loans to emerging growth companies, primarily in the technology and life sciences industries. Prior to joining Silicon Valley Bank, she was a portfolio manager with GE Capital and a trader with Goldman Sachs in Menlo Park. Before coming to US in 1998, Vera was a relationship manager with Citibank Moscow where she worked with institutional foreign investors, including Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, Goldman Sachs and Union Bank of Switzerland. Vera holds B.S. from the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages and MBA from the Finance Academy of the Russian Federation.

Ekaterina provides outsourced services to several start-ups in the Silicon Valley. Her area of specialization is companies that either already have offices in both US and Russia, or plan to do it. Before moving to the United States in 2007, she held a position of Senior Accountant in Mobile TeleSystems (NYSE: MBT). There she was responsible for financial statements consolidation and control over North-West Region. She was responsible for tax accounting in that region and for international accounting of fixed assets. Prior to that, she was working as a Chief Accountant Officer and Financial Manager in Russian SMBs.