3rd Annual Irvine Entrepreneur Forum to Feature Director of Strategy

The 3rd Annual Irvine Entrepreneur Forum (IEF), the signature event for the Irvine Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, will be held March 1, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Irvine California featuring Drew Clark, Director of Strategy and Co-Founder at the IBM Venture Capital Group. Clark is a chief strategist with IBM’s key business imperatives including Sustainability/Cleantech, Information Management and Cloud Computing, where he works closely with the global venture capital community across multiple IBM brands and industry units to help drive new business opportunities.
The IEF, with a theme of “Start - Build - Thrive”, will provide an environment to learn from experts, gain exposure as well as networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs, investors, local businesses and resources. The forum will provide experience, knowledge and mentoring to more than 300 participants to help lower the barrier of entry for these startup companies. The forum program will feature this year’s keynote speaker Drew Clark and six entrepreneurial companies from Orange County who will make “Shark Tank” type pitch presentations before a panel of angel and venture capitalists in this day-long event. In addition to the Tech Expo and the high-profile keynote speakers, the attendees will be able to choose between topical sessions such as finance, distribution strategies, innovative marketing, protecting your intellectual assets, business planning and others designed to prepare entrepreneurs in emerging their businesses.
A serial “entrepreneur”, Clark has led a range of internal startup initiatives, including a key role in the formation of IBM’s Internet Division. Later, Clark led IBM’s search, knowledge-management, social media and Web 2.0 initiatives. Named IBM “Search Czar”, Clark is responsible for managing search and information retrieval products and solutions across IBM. “The Irvine Entrepreneur Forum is designed for entrepreneurs to roll up their sleeves to learn about startup business strategies and tactics that will deliver results to emerge businesses, find funding or an investment,” said Christopher Lynch, Vice President Business and Economic Development for the Irvine Chamber of Commerce. “It is about current companies and service groups coming together to support entrepreneurs with mentoring and services to help them launch their companies.”

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