Colin Wiel
Co-President, Keiretsu Forum San Francisco and North Bay

Colin Wiel is a Co-President of the San Francisco and North Bay Chapters of the Keiretsu Forum.

Colin is an active Angel investor, having made Angel investments in more than a dozen companies in the past five years. Colin often remains actively involved in the companies in which he invests, and he currently serves on the boards of five companies.

Colin is also an Entrepreneur, having started a 35-person software engineering firm which he ran from its inception in 1998 through to its acquisition in 2001.
Over his career, Colin has made a wide variety of technical contributions such as co-architecting a genomics database to host the fruit fly genome; designing and developing a fuzzy logic based antiskid system for commercial aircraft for Boeing (two US patents issued); co-architecting the Java infrastructure for Charles Schwab’s online trading website (the largest dollar volume e-commerce website in the world); and developing and teaching the Java Servlet and JSP curriculum for UC Berkeley Extension. Colin holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from
U.C. Berkeley.

Colin has founded several community organizations including special interest groups of the Software Development Forum and the IEEE.

Contact: colin@keiretsuforum.com

Matthew C. Le Merle
Co-President, Keiretsu Forum San Francisco and North Bay

Matthew C. Le Merle is Chapter Co-President of Keiretsu Forum San Francisco and North Bay. 

Matthew has over 20 years experience as an investor, management consultant and corporate executive.

He combines line management experience in strategy, financial planning, corporate development, branding, marketing, e commerce and operations with consulting experience in the consumer, retail, entertainment, high technology, biotechnology and financial services industries gained with McKinsey & Company, A.T. Kearney, Monitor Group, and Gap Inc where he was SVP for Strategy and Business Development and SVP Gap Global Marketing.

Matthew is also an active angel investor focusing on the consumer, entertainment and high technology industries.  In addition to his current role with Keiretsu Forum, Matthew was previously a Monitor Venture Partner and worked with Bankers Trust Venture Capital.  Matthew is President of Gameplay Holdings LLC, Chairman of MindFuse, and a Director of Qube Learning.  Matthew also serves on the advisory boards for Les Concierges, Mavericks Surf Ventures, and Signalink as well as on the Economic Advisory Board of BayBio.

Matthew is a frequent guest speaker at investment conferences, business functions and at the leading business schools in the US and abroad.

Matthew received his MBA from Stanford Graduate school of Business and his undergraduate degrees from Christ Church, Oxford.  He is an active rower and sculler, with recent medals at the 2006 World and US national championships.  He lives in Tiburon with his wife, Alison Davis and their children, Max, Tallulah, Louis, Felix and Leo.

Contact: matthew@keiretsuforum.com

Maggie Jacobberger
Entrepreneur Director, Northern California

Maggie is the Entrepreneur Director for Keiretsu Forum Northern California. She works closely with the Software, Clean Technology, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Social Investing Committees by overseeing the entrepreneur application and committee review process.

Born and raised in Lafayette, California, Maggie ventured east for college and graduated cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in History. Her post-college pursuits include co-authoring, researching, and editing a book about Frances Grant, one of Radcliffe College’s first African American graduates.

In addition to writing professionally, Maggie directs a tutoring business in Lafayette that focuses primarily on developing students’ writing and critical thinking skills. Outside of work, Maggie is committed to community service and enjoys running, exercising, and cooking.

Contact:  Maggie@keiretsuforum.com

Jason Ridenour
Entrepreneur Director, Northern California

Jason Ridenour is the Entrepreneur Director for the Keiretsu Forum Northern California chapters.  He is responsible for receiving initial applications from entrepreneurs and following up with companies in the Real Estate, Telecommunications, Life Sciences, Food and Beverage, and Consumer Products space.  Jason oversees the application process and committee coordination. Jason assists in organizing Forum meetings, Academies, and partner conferences on the entrepreneur side. 

Jason received his BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance from California State University Chico.  Jason was honored as a member of Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Contact:  jason@keiretsuforum.com

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