In this session we will focus on hearing from investors and investment bankers in technology with long histories in the electronics, semiconductor, communications and photonics sectors.

• What is the climate today of the public markets in tech and in the eco-system around photonics?
• What are the near and long-term outlooks as we come out of the crisis?
  • What might evolve for optics and photonics-based applications out of this?
  •  Implications for Cloud/datacenters? Automation? 5G? Sensing?
• How are public investors and companies thinking about asset deployments, when and where to target growth, where to tread carefully or exit?
• What are venture capital and corporate investors in technology doing?
  •  What are private investors telling their existing portfolio firms?
  • Is now a good time to start a new company?
• What is the status of lending sources, creative funding strategies and the M&A market?

Speakers:

Barry Newman, Catapult Advisors, Partner

Lisa Thompson, Zacks/SCR, Senior Technology Investment Analyst

Moderator:

John Dexheimer, OIDA Council Member, President, Lightwave Advisors, Inc.

Host:

Anjul Loiacono, OIDA Council Member

About the Speakers:

Barry Newman is a Partner with Catapult Advisors, an SF Technology investment bank.

• Barry has extensive experience in business strategy, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions.
• Previously, he was Vice Chairman of the Technology Group at Bear Stearns, the Head of Global Technology Corporate and Investment Banking at Banc of America Securities and the head of Global Technology Corporate Finance at Salomon Brothers and Salomon Smith Barney. During his career he has been the primary M&A advisor to many of the largest technology and media companies in the world.
• From 2006 through 2011, Barry was a Managing Director at NeoCarta Ventures.
• Barry holds BS degrees in both Chemical Engineering and Life Sciences from MIT, MBA and JD degrees from Stanford University and a Master of Laws (Taxation) from NYU.

Lisa Thompson is a Senior Technology Investment Analyst (with Zacks/SCR) having over two decades of experience in the technology and TMT space, specializing in small cap technology research.

• Lisa was the first Internet analyst on Wall Street and has always sought the next big thing in the tech space with a specialty in consumers. She has worked extensively on both the buy-side and sell-side.
• Her expertise includes valuing public and private companies in the technology arena, with a strong focus recently on TMT, telecom, media, Internet, consumer electronics, digital media and streaming services, semiconductors, software, and Augmented Reality.
• Lisa holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a BSChE from Tufts University.