Board Of Directors

Mr. Brian Long, Managing Partner at Atlantic Bridge Ventures - Chairman

Brian Long has over 25 years' operating experience in the technology industry, working in both the U.S. and European markets. He founded Parthus Technologies plc (now CEVA Inc.) in 1993 and served as its CEO for nine years. In 2002, Brian led the company through the successful $150m Initial Public Offering of the company on both the LSE and NASDAQ stock markets. During his time at Parthus he managed the company through multiple realization events, five acquisitions and the successful $350 million secondary stock market offering in November 2000. He also completed the successful merger of the company with DSP Group to form CEVA Inc., the leading licensor of DSP technology in the industry. Brian has an extensive industry network of entrepreneurs and investors, across Europe and the U.S. with whom he has worked for almost 25 years. In 2006 Brian founded GloNav Inc., a GPS semiconductor company, which he sold to NXP In January 2008 for $110M. Brian is currently a Partner with private equity firm Atlantic Bridge.

Dr. Christian Nagel, Managing Partner at Earlybird

Christian Nagel is a co-founder of Earlybird and has strong entrepreneurial and operational experience. Previously he was a co-founder and Managing Director of SMB Industrieholding Wildau GmbH, an industrial group concentrating on machinery and plant construction. Prior to that, he worked as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Co., in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. Christian studied business and engineering at the Technical University, Hamburg where he received a Dipl. Wi.-Ing. (MSc equivalent). He also earned a PhD in Management from St. Gallen University, Switzerland. Christian serves on the following boards: bridgeCo AG, Interhyp AG, Lumics GmbH, MergeOptics GmbH and Tipp24 AG.

Dr. Christian Wenger, LL.M.; Attorney

Christian Wenger specializes in commercial and business law, with a focus on private equity, venture capital and mergers & acquisitions. He serves as chairman and member of various boards of directors of Swiss and international companies. Christian Wenger is a member of the Executive Committee of SECA (Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association) and, as member of the committee, leads the chapter "Venture Capital and Seed". In 2003, he founded CTI Invest, an investor platform (association) connected to the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI), which he has chaired since its establishment. Further, Christian Wenger belongs to the Board of Directors of the EVCA (European Venture Capital Association) and represents the interests of Switzerland. Christian Wenger studied at the University of Zurich and earned his doctorate degree with a thesis on the topic „The Conditional Capital“. He completed his academic career with graduate studies at Duke University Law School in North Carolina (LL.M.).

 

Gene Sheridan, Chief Executive Officer

Gene Sheridan, currently CEO of BridgeCo has 18 years experience in the semiconductor industry with a broad range of experiences across sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing and general management. Prior to BridgeCo, at International Rectifier, a global $1B+ leader in the power management market, he most recently served as Vice-President of a $500M business focused on the computing, communication and consumer segments, managing a staff of 140 employees engaged in sales, marketing, applications engineering, and R&D.
Prior to this, he started a new business unit, also at International Rectifier, focused on the notebook PC market. With this start-up initiative, he secured funding, built a team and ramped the business to over $70M in four years with significant revenue from leading companies such as Intel, Dell, IBM, Sony and HPQ. Mr. Sheridan has served on the board of directors for multiple companies, led both licensing and equity investments, and presented as keynote speaker at many industry conferences in the field of semiconductors for the information technology markets. Mr. Sheridan earned his BSEE from Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY