Tom Manning

Chairman of Board of Directors

Tom is an honors graduate of Harvard University (A.B., East Asian Studies) and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA). He is Chairman of Indachin and Director of the Board of China Communications Bank. He was a Director of Bain & Company and previously served as CEO and Chairman of CGE&Y Asia Pacific. He was recognized as one of the world’s top 25 technology business consultants in 2002.

Mr. Manning pioneered the concept of globalization and his theories on newly arisen science and technology have been published in International Forum, Fwortune magazine, Business Weekly magazine, the Financial Times, CFO, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC etc.

Evan Schulman

Director of Board

Evan’s career in the asset management and financial technology industries has spanned 40 years, much of which has been documented in the book Super Traders. Currently, Evan is Chairman and Co-founder of Upstream Technology, a firm that produces portfolio management solutions for investment managers. Prior to Upstream, Evan co-founded Lattice Trading, which was acquired by State Street Global Advisors in 1996. Evan has been referred to as one of the "fathers of electronic trading" and, in 1975, as Director of Computer Research at Keystone Funds in Boston, he completed what is generally regarded as the first equity program trade.

Dr. Pengkai Pan

Chief Executive Officer and Founder

Pengkai has a BE in industrial design from Zhejiang University, and a Masters Degree and PhD in Media Science and Technology from MIT.

From 1997 to 2004, Pengkai studied at the MIT Media Lab making original contributions to the mobile cinema research domain and presented more than ten peer-reviewed publications at international conferences. He was a member of IEEE, ACM, TESOL, and AIVF and was an Interval Fellow in 2000. In 2004, he received the first-ever "National Excellence Award for Overseas Chinese Students" from the Ministry of Education of the P.R.China.

Pengkai is Saybot's founding CEO and established the company with the strong support of Nicholas Negroponte in 2004 in Cambridge, MA. Pengkai is leading Saybot’s strategic planning, corporate building, and product development.

Lisa Lo

Director of Board

Ms. Lo has extensive experience in direct investment in technology related projects in both Taiwan and North America, as well as China. At CID, she is responsible for direct investment in China and head of CID Beijing office. In her earlier career, Ms. Lo joined China Development Industrial Bank (CDIB) for 13 years. She served in both the Direct Investment Department and the Overseas Business Department, and she was involved in numerous projects which covered PC, semiconductor, communication, and material industries in both Taiwan and the United States. In 1998, she was sent to help setting up CDIB Venture Management (USA) in Silicon Valley, California. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of CDIB and manages USD150 million to invest into North America technology projects. During 1998 through 2003, Ms. Lo was responsible for portfolio building and fund raising process as well as serving on the board of several portfolio companies. Ms. Lo holds an MBA degree from National Chengchi University and a B.S. degree from Electronic Engineering Department of National Taiwan University.

Darren Ho
Director of Board

Darren Ho has nine years of venture capital experience and co-founded CMHJ Partners and served as its Managing Partner. Prior to that, Darren was a general partner of Venture TDF China, one of the leading venture capital funds in China. At Venture TDF China, he was involved with a strong portfolio that had eight successful exits including: Baidu, Alibaba, Focus Media and China Netcom.
Darren has a strong technology background and significant start-up operational skills. He was an ASIC Design Manager at TriTech Microelectronics Pte, Ltd, where he managed the ASIC group. Darren holds a BS in Electronics (Highest Honors) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Nanyang Technological University.

Nicholas Negroponte

Founding Advisor

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child non-profit association. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. Conceived in 1980, the Media Laboratory opened its doors in 1985. He is also the author of the 1995 best seller, /Being Digital/, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola, Inc. and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.

Eric Rosenblum

Business Advisor

Eric is Country Manager of RealNetworks. Prior to Real, Eric was Chairman of Smartpay and served as CEO from its inception in 2001 to January 2004, overseeing its growth from start-up to 200 employees, with offices in 8 cities. Eric was previously COO of ChinaNow Ltd.--a media company that was sold in 2001-- after working for the Boston Consulting Group in China from 1993-1999. He holds an AB (Magna cum Laude) from Harvard University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has been resident of China for over 10 years.

Idit (Harel) Caperton

Education Advisor

Dr. Caperton is an internationally recognized entrepreneur and an authority on how children learn and gain reasoning power through the use of computers and Internet media technology. Idit holds an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a PhD from the MIT Media Lab. Over the past decade, she has broken new ground by building a powerful born-on-the-Net brand, anchored by the first-ever Internet Magazine for Kids and Mamamedia.com that offered many popular online activities to children and parents.

Jane Shao

Business Advisor

Jane is a renowned international investment banker. During her investment banking career, Jane worked with Chase Securities, CSFB and JP Morgan in New York, Hong Kong and Beijing. She closed over US$20 billion deals in M&A and debt/equity financing. She was also one of the first few Chartered Financial Analysts in China in 1998, and has been a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts and the Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts. Jane received her MBA from Columbia Business School and her BA from Beijing University..

Gary Ren

Business Advisor

Mr. Gary Ren is VP of Business at Herbalife China. Prior to Herbalife, he was VP of Business at Wall Street Institute China in charge of both marketing and sales for 3 years. In the 90s, he worked for Amway and Gillette China. Mr. Ren was recognized as one of the China’s top 10 professional managers for direct sales business in 1999.

Ralph Parks

Business Advisor

Ralph Parks is the CEO and founder of Ralph Parks Investment Group, LLC. During his 35 years of investment industry experience, he created his formulas and investing techniques that have allowed him to consistently beat the comparative indices. The decision to launch Ralph Parks Investment Group in November 2005 was the next natural step in Mr. Park's career. His proprietary and unique method of investing has exceeded his clients' expectations for years and he brings his enthusiasm for success to his new firm. Before founding Ralph Parks Investment Group, Mr. Parks was a senior vice president of investments at Smith Barney in New York, partner at Edward D. Jones & Co., senior vice president at Merrill Lynch, vice president of Manufacturers Hanover National Bank, and senior financial analyst at Marine Midland Bank. He started his long career as a commercial loan trainee at the Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Company. Mr. Parks is frequently interviewed by the local and national media and holds a BS and MBA in finance from Michigan State University.