AboutWith extensive experience in starting and growing several successful venture capital (VC) funded emerging technology companies, Nazim Kareemi serves as Mixamo's CEO and is a co-founder.
Kareemi co-founded Canesta in 1999 as its CEO, and subsequently served as its chairman of the board. Canesta has developed breakthrough CMOS 3D sensors, has been granted 40 patents, and built innovative products used in automotive, industrial, consumer and video game markets. Other accomplishments during his tenure at Canesta include assembling an outstanding team and raising several rounds of VC funding. Kareemi currently serves on its board of directors.
Prior to Canesta, Kareemi was the founding CEO of PenWare, a VC funded technology firm. Under his leadership, PenWare attracted and retained some of the best people in the industry to develop award-winning software for mobile devices. PenWare acquired another company to successfully enter the retail point-of-sale terminal market and became public in 1996. The company was later acquired by Symbol Technologies, Inc. Before starting PenWare, Kareemi held engineering and management positions or consulted for companies such as Zilog, Xerox and Intel. He has a SB in electrical engineering from MIT and an MSEE and engineer's degrees from Stanford University.
The mastermind behind Mixamo's advanced technology, Stefano Corazza applied his experience from the University of Padua Human Movement Lab and the Stanford University Biomotion Lab to develop the effective mathematical and machine learning solutions that support Mixamo.
Prior to Mixamo, Corazza was a research associate at the Stanford University Biomotion Lab until 2008 where he developed markerless motion capture technology. He additionally is the CTO and co-founder of dublit.com, a Web 2.0 site for short-form literature based in San Francisco; and co-founded and served on the board for Memory SRL, an enterprise software company based in Italy.
A true Renaissance man active within the domain of large scale kinetic and new media art, Corazza holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from University of Padua, a master of design from University of Florence, a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in bioengineering and computer vision from University of Padua, part of which was completed at Stanford University.
Tom Furlong is a Managing Director at Granite Ventures. He joined Granite after serving as a Vice President at Zhone Technologies, a communications equipment provider. Before working at Zhone, Tom was a partner at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich, LLP, a leading Silicon Valley law firm, where he practiced corporate, securities, and intellectual property law for 13 years.
He holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from Northwestern University. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Mixamo, Biz360, Indicee, Skytide and TuVox. Past investments include Digital Fountain (acquired by Qualcom), Five Across (acquired by Cisco), and Kinecta (acquired by Stellent).
Alessandro Biral is a founder and general partner of KeyNote Ventures, where he focuses on digital media and the consumer internet. Prior to KeyNote, he was head of corporate finance, development, and technology investments for the Fininvest Group, a $15 billion media conglomerate owned by the Berlusconi family of Italy.
From 1994 to 1999, Alessandro was an investment banker at Morgan Stanley in London, where he completed more than $80 billion of strategic transactions. Alessandro holds an M.B.A. in finance from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and a B.S. in technology and industrial engineering from the Politecnico of Milan, Italy.
Jim Levy, Chairman, Park Lane Ventures, is a successful entrepreneur who currently serves as a strategic advisor to early-stage companies. He was the founding Chairman and Chief Executive of Activision (now Activision Blizzard), the world's leading video game company, and The Park Lane Group, a leader in the consolidation of small market radio stations. His career includes experience in the packaged goods, publishing, direct marketing, recorded music and Internet services industries.
Levy spent a number of years working with venture capital organizations in Singapore, China, Europe and Silicon Valley. He serves on the Business Board of Advisors of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon University and works with non-profit organizations in Sonoma, CA, where he currently resides.
Currently a digital media and mobile industry consultant and advisor, Issac Babbs was the founder, CEO and chairman of Tapatap, Inc, a leading mobile social games company, until its acquisition by Limelife in March 2009. Babbs has additionally served as vice president and general manager of Infospace Mobile Games; founder, president and CEO of Atlas Mobile; president of Sorrent; vice president of entertainment marketing at Silicon Graphics, and has held senior roles at Alias/Wavefront and Alias Research, Inc.
As a VP and GM at Macromedia, where he co-founded shockwave.com US and shockwave.com Japan, Babbs led the company's audio/video division to successful acquisition by Apple Computer. Babbs started his carrer in technology at Hewlett-Packard Company and has a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oregon.
Luc Barthelet currently serves as CEO of Tirnua, Inc. Following the sale of his software startup to Electronic Arts (EA) in 1988, he joined the EA team and held multiple roles during his twenty year tenure. As Group Studio Head, Barthelet was instrumental in the development of persistent state worlds including Earth and Beyond, The Sims Online and Ultima Online. He additionally served as general manager of Maxis where he led product development for The Sims, The Sims 2, SimCity 4 and SimCity 3000.
An avid Mathematica user, Barthelet is credited with the creation of the user based content for The Sims. He has also become famous for utilizing social media to effectively interact and engage with video game players. He has an engineering degree in Mechanics and Electricity from E.S.T.P in Paris.
