The Vermont Investors Forum (VIF) brings together the best of Vermont’s entrepreneurial and investment communities.  We’re responsible for millions of dollars in raised investment capital, strategic consulting and board relationships, and the tools and resources you’ll need to transition from start-up to profitable company.

The VIF Steering Committee is currently in the process of selecting 10 unique growth companies seeking to raise capital, to present executive summary style pitches to an invitation-only audience of investors on Friday, October 29, 2010 from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at the Stowe Mountain Resort in Stowe, Vermont.

The selected companies will receive coaching from the VIF Steering Committee and will present in back-to-back groupings, leaving ample time for attendees to meet individually with the presenters during breaks. With this format, the Forum provides an excellent and efficient way for a number of growth companies and investors to connect in a short period of time.

The Keynote Speakers for this year’s Forum will be Dr. Richard Bruno and Dr. Gilles Durufle.

Dr. Richard Bruno is the CEO of Beyond If Corporation of Chicago, a venture partner at Cycle Capital of Montreal, the founder and former chairperson of Quebec Angels (Anges Quebec), a member of the National Research Council Industrial Program advisory board, a member of the Stromatec and CVT Corp advisory boards as well being a board member of the Foundation of the Mayor of Montreal and of Toon Boom Inc.

Since 2004 Richard Bruno was a board member of Medical Intelligence Inc. and Hexagram Inc., a venture partner at iNovia Capital, director of McGill University’s Office of Technology Transfer Office and has helped the governments of Canada, Alberta and Quebec shape their early stage innovation and investment funding policies.

A technologist, businessman and passionate repeat entrepreneur, during the past 40 years Richard Bruno built and sold a half a dozen multimillion-dollar high-tech companies in the US and Japan in businesses ranging from karaoke production systems (Prism Interactive Corp), chip sets for games systems and DVDs (GCA Corp), video conferencing chip sets (GCT Corp), film based PC and Mac computer games (Alliance Interactive Corp), internet website production tools (Digital Frontiers Corp) to internet security systems (Beyond If Corp).

As a senior manager at Philips N.V. in Germany, the Netherlands and the US, he also developed and launched several dozen billion dollar mass-market products as diverse as: the Compact Disc in its various formats, signal processing chip sets, computer games systems (Odyssey, MSX), photovoltaic and photo-thermal solar collectors, heat pump systems and the Minitel, in Europe, Asia and North America. These products have been used by many millions of consumers worldwide.

As CEO of Beyond If Corporation he has provided management services to several dozen Fortune 1000 international private companies and policy reviews for several public sector organizations. Richard Bruno has an extensive network of business contacts at major corporations in Europe, Japan and the USA.

Dr. Bruno obtained his Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from McMaster University in 1971, an honors B.Sc. degree in Physics from McGill University in 1967, and an Executive Program MBA from Michigan University Ann Arbor in 1988.

Dr. Gilles Duruflé is presently an independent consultant advising venture capital and private equity funds, institutional investors and governments. He is also Executive Vice-President of the Quebec City Conference and President of its Public Policy Forum on Venture Capital and Innovation.

He was until 2004 Senior Partner at CDP Capital Technology Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in charge of the Funds of Funds portfolio, investing in North American and European VC funds.

He was previously head of strategic studies at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. From 1979 to 1991, he worked as Senior Partner in strategic consulting firms in the CDC Group (Caisse des dépôts et consignations, Paris) in Europe and North America.

He is a Vice-President of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) and sits on the Board of the Quebec City Conference and on the International Private Equity Valuation (IPEV) Board.

Dr Duruflé obtained his Masters in Philosophy from the CERP (Paris), his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Paris VI University and the Diploma of the Centre d’Études des Programme Économiques (Ministry of Finance, Paris) and is also a CFA.

Qualified angel and institutional investors attend our invitation-only event. The participating investors bring a broad range of entrepreneurial and professional experience and expertise, and typically participate in these exciting companies as

• investors
• coaches
• consultants
• board members
• management

For more information about the Forum and a schedule of events, please contact us.