Venture Capital Academy

Adam Sterling is the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy (BCLBE) at Berkeley Law and the co-founder of Startup@BerkeleyLaw. Previously he was a startup and venture capital attorney at Gunderson Dettmer and the co-founder and director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force. Adam currently serves as a non-resident senior fellow for the Enough Project. In 2007, Adam was one of six featured subjects in the documentary, Darfur Now, produced by Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle. Adam’s writings and work have appeared extensively in the press; including contributions to The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and National Public Radio.

Neil is senior corporate counsel at Omidyar Network, where he supports all investments, U.S. and international. Prior to Omidyar, Neil was an executive at 500 Startups and an attorney at Fenwick & West, where he represented clients such as Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, King.com and Jet.com, in venture capital financings and general corporate matters. Prior to Fenwick & West, Neil was an attorney at Kirkland & Ellis, where he represented private equity funds and hedge funds including Pershing Square Capital Management, 3G Capital and Bain Capital, and public companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Burger King in complex corporate transactions ranging from mergers and acquisitions to shareholder activism

Neil graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University and earned his Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law.

Deborah Kang is the director of Startup@BerkeleyLaw, where she educates and supports startups and investors from across the UC Berkeley campus, Silicon Valley, and the world. At UC Berkeley, Deborah manages and instructs in the FORM+FUND Certificate Program, Venture Capital Deal Camp and more. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, Deborah was a trademark and intellectual property attorney at the law firm Fenwick & West.

José Antonio Sánchez-Dafos focuses his practice on private equity transactions and venture capital investments in Spain and Portugal as well as cross-border mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. He regularly advises major global and local private equity funds on transactions in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, with experience acting for both sponsors and management teams. Mr. Sánchez-Dafos also represents UK, US, and Asia-based companies in complex, cross-border M&A and joint venture transactions in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.

Rafael Sebastián is a corporate lawyer in the Madrid office of Uría Menéndez. He joined the firm in 1990 and became a partner in 1991.
Rafael was previously general counsel and secretary to the board of a leading international bank.
He opened the New York office of Uría Menéndez in 1990 and was managing partner there until 1996.
Rafael’s practice covers a wide range of corporate and banking work. He specialises in capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructuring, and has advised on insolvency proceedings involving leading Spanish and multinational companies.
Rafael has been recognized as a top lawyer in multiple fields by all the major publications (Chambers Global, PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook, etc.). According to the 2012 edition of Who’s Who Legal, Rafael is considered by his peers as one of the world’s leading banking lawyers.

Angel L. Samartino is the Founder and Director of Startup University Ventures, focused on accelerating and investing in seed and early-stage startups, as well as Founder and Director of Forward Challenges, a unique Technology & Innovation Partner for Big Corporations, Corporate Venture Funds and Venture Capitalists, dedicated to anticipate how disruptive technologies and new trends will impact industries, companies and consumers.

Angel holds a MBA and two Certificates on Entrepreneurship and Management of Technology from University of California at Berkeley, and a Double Degree in Industrial Engineering from ICAI Madrid and Ecole Centrale Paris Universities, as part of the Top Industrial Managers for Europe Program.

Javier Megias is an entrepreneur and investor passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Startupxplore (https://startupxplore.com/), the Digital VC that helps unexperienced and time-savvy investors to diversify their portfolio by co-investing with top-level investors with a proven track record on startup investment. For the past 5 years he has been advising and acting as a board member on several organizations, ranging from startups and VC funds to institutions like the European Commission. He is also an active business angel investor, has co-authored the Spain Startup Manifesto and is member of the Big Ban board, the largest independent angel investor network in Spain. He acts as an angel investor since 2007, and has several well-known startups in his portfolio, like Chicisimo, Citibox or Glassy. Javier also writes on the blog http://javiermegias.com/blog, winner of the 2011 award to the best business Spanish-speaking blog of the world.

Marcos is a banking executive with extensive experience in the areas of Equity and Structured Finance. At the European Investment Bank, Marcos is responsible for operations mandated to the European Investment Fund and, as part of his duties, manages a +EUR 10bn Private Equity and Venture Capital portfolio.

Prior to joining the EIB, Marcos held roles as investment manager and advisor in investment banks and advisory firms, being named the eighth best investor of the world by World Top Investor in 2010, after yielding a net annual return of 35.3%.

Antonio led the investments in The Hotels Network, Coverfy , Housfy and Savana. He also works closely with the team of Coru and Clintu.
Prior to Seaya, Antonio worked at Oliver Wyman.
He graduated from the Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE-E3) in Madrid.

Sonia Fernández has 15 years of experience leading Internet related businesses.

She has recently joined Kibo Ventures to focus on identifying and investing in the most prominent start-ups in the Spanish ecosystem. She had previously worked as advisor and angel investor in different Spanish startups.

Sonia holds a BA in Business from ICADE (Spain) and an MBA from Stanford University.