Pivotal Investments

Team

Pivotal Investments is led by three Managing Directors: Gregory T. Semler, Bradley A. Zenger, and John Miner. The Directors work with a team of Industry Advisors, consisting of potential co-investor partners and industry experts, to review market trends and share investment opportunities as appropriate.

Gregory T. Semler - Co-Founder, Managing Director (gs@pivotal-investments.com)

Background: Prior to founding Pivotal Investments, Mr. Semler was a clean technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of chief executive experience at advanced technology companies. His experience includes successfully financing high-growth companies, executive recruitment, management of product development efforts, acquisitions, strategic alliances, OEM partnerships and direct-to-consumer marketing and distribution. Mr. Semler has been operating clean technology companies since 2000, most recently as president and CEO of ClearEdge Power, a privately financed company creating fuel cells for industrial and residential power applications. Before that, Mr. Semler was the President and Chief Executive Officer of PolyFuel, now a publicly traded company creating fuel cells for portable, consumer electronics applications. During this time, Mr. Semler led the effort to create and implement the business and financing strategies, identified and secured strategic partners and investors and successfully secured multiple rounds of venture capital. He also recruited, selected and motivated an outstanding, multi-disciplinary team and allocated and managed scarce resources while he improved and augmented board membership.

From 1997 to 2000, Mr. Semler was president and CEO of Decibel Instruments, Inc., a privately financed company creating an innovative approach to helping people with hearing loss. Mr. Semler raised venture capital, recruited key members of management and managed the launch of the company's proprietary technology. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. Semler was President and CEO of Instromedix, Inc., an innovative medical technology equipment manufacturer focused on high-volume portable electronic patient monitors. While at Instromedix, Mr. Semler oversaw the introduction of more than ten new products, which accounted for 90 percent of the company's revenue, designed the strategies that grew the company's revenue an average of over 30 percent per year and increased returns to shareholders by over 40 percent.

Education: Master of Business Administration from The Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College and a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University.

Bradley A. Zenger - Co-Founder, Managing Director (baz@pivotal-investments.com)

Background: Prior to founding Pivotal Investments, Mr. Zenger was a sales, marketing and service executive and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in identifying new markets, building new businesses and driving global growth primarily in the technology markets. In 1997, he co-founded Pixelworks Inc., a fabless semiconductor company targeting the rapidly growing advanced display market. From inception, he led the marketing and sales efforts where he was responsible for identifying the initial market opportunity and entry strategy, developing key customer relationships and distribution channels leading to global revenues that reached $140 million in 2003 mainly in Asia. He hired and oversaw a global sales, marketing and applications support organization that spanned offices in China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Europe. He was actively involved in several acquisitions including a company largely based in China. The company conducted an IPO in May of 2000 and is listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol PXLW.

Prior to founding Pixelworks, Mr. Zenger led marketing, service and new business development teams for In Focus Systems, the market leader in the digital projection market. He was part of the team that grew In Focus' revenues from $50M, when he joined in 1992 to nearly $250M in 1996 when served as Director of Marketing and left to form Pixelworks. While at In Focus, in addition to driving new market and business initiatives, Mr. Zenger focused on building teams and processes that could scale in the context of rapid revenue growth. Prior to In Focus, Mr. Zenger worked in Customer Support management roles at KLA Instruments, a capital equipment supplier to global semiconductor companies.

Mr. Zenger has been a member of the Board of Councilors for the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development, where his most recent focus had been evaluating the opportunity for local biofuels and renewable energy development in China. Mr. Zenger began his career in energy and technology as a naval submarine officer supervising ship's operations including the ship’s nuclear power plant.

Education: BSME University of Notre Dame and M.B.A. from Santa Clara University.

Boards: SeQuential Biofuels

John Miner - Managing Director (jm@pivotal-investments.com)

Background: Mr. Miner is the former President of Intel Capital and an Intel corporate vice president. Mr. Miner was central to new opportunity formation in many markets around the world. Both inside Intel Corporation, and as head of Intel Capital, he developed relationships with prospective entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and potential strategic partners both inside and outside Intel. These relationships represent sources of deal flow. Mr. Miner's connections with researchers and product developers and executives in the Pacific Northwest and beyond represent the potential for proprietary deal flow, ranging from technology spinouts and commercialization to "entrepreneur-in-residence" investments that will be new to the Pacific Northwest. Prior to Intel Capital, Mr. Miner has been instrumental in leading Intel's entry into new market segments as an Intel Vice President and General Manager of the Communications Products Group, the Enterprise Server Group, and General Manager of Intel's desktop motherboard and PC building-blocks business. Mr. Miner joined Intel in 1983. He is also an investor in and advisor to numerous early stage enterprises, including SeQuential Biofuels, and a Trustee for the Providence St. Vincent Medical Foundation.

Education: BSEE from Tulane University and an M.B.A. from University of Oregon

Boards: LSI Logic, Avnera