About Us

Christine Whitman is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist and serves as Chairman & CEO of Mosaic Microsystems. Ms. Whitman was the co-founder and CEO of CVC Products, a semiconductor equipment company that captured 95% world market-share for magnetic thin film deposition, which went public and was acquired. She is a past Chairman of the Board of Rochester Institute of Technology.

Paul Ballentine has over 30 years of experience in the semiconductor and related fields. He was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for CVC Products. In additional, Dr. Ballentine spent 10 years with Motorola Semiconductor/ Freescale, and has led major optics, photonics and imaging economic development efforts in Rochester, including bringing AIM Photonics to the region.

Shelby F. Nelson is a semiconductor device physicist with broad industrial research experience. Her work has included ferroelectric materials at AT&T Bell Labs, silicon/germanium heterostructures at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center, and a mixed-signal CMOS process for ink-jet ejector heads at Xerox Corporation. In addition, Dr. Nelson spent 16 years as a Senior Research Scientist in the area of thin-film and printed electronics at the Kodak Research Labs.

Chris Mann is a highly accomplished senior executive with 40 years of success within semiconductors, optics, data storage, software development, customer service, telecommunications, and SaaS businesses. His areas of expertise include sales and marketing, channel optimization, finance, strategic planning, growth opportunities, revenue maximization, customer acquisition, customer service, logistics, M&A and post-acquisition integration. Prior to joining Mosaic Microsystems he was CEO of VoicePort a SaaS customer service company. He has successfully led M&A’s and has had multiple successful exit strategies, including an IPO with CVC Products.

Gregory Jamele has over 25 years of experience in corporate finance.  Greg began his career as a Certified Public Accountant, and has held various corporate finance positions with experience in carve-outs, divestitures and mergers & acquisitions.  He served as VP Corporate Finance with Eastman Kodak and, most recently, as Chief Financial Officer for OneStream Networks.

Brian Harding is an electrical engineer with more than 20 years of manufacturing experience in the semiconductor industry. He started his career as a thin films process engineer at Agere Systems 150mm & 200mm manufacturing site in Orlando, FL. While part of the Image Sensor Division at Eastman Kodak, he held many leadership roles across the organization that covered Engineering, Maintenance, Operations and Supply Chain.  Most recently he has been a Sr. Manufacturing Manager for ON Semiconductor, overseeing the 150 mm wafer fab and device assembly areas.

Andrew Peskoe is an active private investor in early-stage companies and venture capital and private equity funds; he is also a principal in two technology venture capital groups. As Chairman of the Golenbock law firm, he represents private and public emerging growth companies, VC and PE funds, and strategic investors.

Samtec Vice President of Advanced Technology. Jeremy has been at Samtec for more than 20 years with a range of responsibilities including high volume manufacturing operations, strategic investment and acquisition, product and P&L management and driving new technology development.

Jennifer Tegan has been the Managing Director of Empire State Development’s New York Ventures since April 2020. In that role, Tegan oversees and leads the activities of the NYS Innovation Venture Capital Fund (New York’s $100M venture investment fund) as well as the Technology Commercialization Fund, Innovate NY Fund and Minority-and Women-Owned Business Investment Fund, fund of funds programs. She has also led the effort to create additional sources of capital for the innovation community through the recently launched Pre Seed and Seed Fund as well as the Emerging and Regional Manager Fund. New York Ventures invests in diverse entrepreneurs and high growth companies with a goal of building and maintaining a robust startup ecosystem across New York State. Prior to joining Empire State Development, Tegan spent 18 years as a partner with Cayuga Venture Fund (CVF), a venture capital fund based in Ithaca, NY that invested over $70 million in technology startups. As an innovation ecosystem champion, Tegan served on the board of the National Venture Capital Association from 2017-2022 and has regularly met with leaders on Capitol Hill to advocate for greater access to capital across all regions of the US. She also serves on the boards of Tompkins Financial Corporation (NYSE: TMP) and its affiliated bank, Tompkins Trust Company, as well as the Upstate Capital Association of New York, a membership-based association focused on increasing access to capital in the Upstate NY region. Tegan received her BA from Smith College, MS in Geology from University of Cincinnati, and her MBA from Cornell University and currently resides in Ithaca, NY.

Commercial Technology Director, Advanced Optics / Specialty Materials, Corning. Xavier Lafosse graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Paris and received a doctorate in material physics from Paris University, France. Lafosse joined Corning in 1995 as a scientist for polymer research and development at the Corning European Technology Center in France. He held several positions in R&D supporting various Corning businesses. In 2007, he relocated with his family to Corning, NY and was appointed business technology director for Specialty Materials. In this position, he established critical technical capabilities in support of Corning® Gorilla® Glass business growth, and he contributed to several new product introductions. In 2019, he was appointed Commercial Technology Director, Advanced Optics and Precision Glass Solutions. In this role, he works with customers and industry leaders to identify new trends and opportunities and drive the technology road mapping process.