Lou Gerken

Lou Gerken founded San Francisco Bay Area-based Gerken Capital Associates in 1989. Prior to forming GCA, Mr. Gerken was a Managing Director and Group Head of Prudential Securities’ technology investment banking division. The group served as adviser to over 30 international M&A and corporate finance mandates exceeding $4.5 billion in total financing. Clients included British Telecom, Hong Kong Telecom and BellSouth. Earlier, Mr. Gerken was a General Partner to Prudential Securities’ four venture capital funds with $336 million under management. As one of the largest U.S. venture capital funds, PruTech was responsible for completing 50 IT and biotech early- and expansion-stage investments, and was one of the first VC funds to pioneer corporate partnering as a coinvestment strategy. Mr. Gerken had board of director and/or portfolio responsibility for EcoGen, Summit Technologies, Boston Scientific, Marquest Medical, Masstron, Visiontech, Crystal Diagnostics, LaPine Technologies, Navtech, Plexus Computers, American Software and Tridon. Prior to Prudential, Mr. Gerken was associated with Montgomery Securities’ venture capital funds, and Wells Fargo Capital Markets, where he developed one of the first U.S. fund of funds. Earlier, Mr. Gerken was Founder of TCG International, a telecommunications consulting engineering practice responsible for the deployment of over 60 international telecom/datacom projects. The firm was successfully sold to Price Waterhouse. Prior to TCG, he was a Senior Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager with GT Capital Management, a London-based emerging markets investment management firm. Mr. Gerken is a prior Chairman of the Film Institute of Northern California. He received an MBA from the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business, a master’s degree in international business from the American Graduate School, and was awarded a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Redlands. As a recognized authority on alternative investments and emerging markets, Mr. Gerken is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences, including keynote speaker atInstitutional Investor and MARHedge conferences. He has made guest appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg, and has been the subject of numerous press reports including Euromoney,Financial Times,HFM Week,Barron’s,The Wall Street Transcript and Fund Strategy, and has authored numerous articles and white papers on investments and economic topics. He speaks Spanish fluently, has a working knowledge of French and German, and has previously held series 7, 24 and 63 licenses.