Still the Age of Silicon Valley and Venture Capital? The Inphi Story.

The MIT Enterprise Forum Singapore brings you two speakers: President and CEO Mr Young K. Sohn of Silicon Valley-based Inphi who will be opening its international headquarters in Singapore; and Managing Director Singapore of Walden International, Hock Voon Loo. They will talk about Singapore as a startup hub and the venture capital scene here.

Silicon Valley has been the epicenter of entrepreneurship and innovation since the mid-80s. Governments and cities that try to nurture startup ecosystems inevitably look towards recreating Silicon Valley.

However, the dot-com bust sent streams of immigrant engineers and entrepreneurs – the lifeblood of the Valley – home. Venture capital, the number of new patents and investment in education are all trending downwards. Silicon Valley is increasingly suspected as being on the decline – is this the start of the end?

The story of Inphi, a Silicon Valley/Southern California headquartered startup specializing in designing high-speed analog semiconductors that operate at critical interfaces within cloud computing environments, will be used by its President and CEO, Mr Young K. Sohn, to demonstrate how innovation and entrepreneurship still thrive in Silicon Valley.

At the same time, Inphi is opening its International Headquarters in Singapore, a country determined to be a startup hub. Does Singapore have what it takes?

Over recent years, the existing Venture Capital model has been labeled as broken. With liquidity events — IPOs and acquisition exits — for venture-backed firms becoming more difficult, returns have slowed relative to risk and time, except for the headline deals. Mr. Hock Voon Loo, Managing Director Singapore of Walden International, will discuss Venture Capital in the context of Singapore.

Mr Young K Sohn

Prior to joining Inphi, Young K. Sohn was President of Agilent Technologies’ Semiconductor Group, where he led the successful turnaround of the semiconductor operation. Before that time, he served as chairman and CEO of Oak Technology, a digital media semiconductor company providing solutions for the consumer electronics markets.

Earlier, Mr. Sohn worked as co-president of Quantum Corporation, a data storage solution products manufacturer. He also worked at Intel Corporation managing the Samsung-Intel strategic partnership. While with Intel, he started the company’s PC chipset business unit, which achieved #1 PC chipset market share under his leadership.

He currently is a board member for ARM Holding PLC and Cymer, Inc. In addition, Mr. Sohn was an advisor to MIT Media Lab’s OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program.

Mr. Sohn earned a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Mr Hock Voon Loo

Hock Voon Loo is Managing Director Singapore of Walden International, a leading venture capital firm with close to USD 2 billion in investments and a strong presence in the US and Asia.

He joined Walden in 1989. He has been involved in venture capital investments for over 20 years and has worked in Singapore, China (Beijing and Hong Kong), Australia and the US. Some of his successful investments include Creative Technology, Premisys Communications, Mediaring, and JobStreet.

Prior to WaIden International, he worked as a Senior Investment Officer for the Singapore Economic Development Board, specializing in venture capital investments. Earlier in his career he was an Engineer for Singapore Telecom.

Hock Voon holds a B.S. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.

5:30-6:00pm Registration
6:00-6:10pm Introduction
6:10-6:55pm Speech by Mr Young K. SOHN
7:00-7:45pm Speech by Mr Hock Voon LOO
7:50-8:30pm Moderated Question and Answer Panel (Moderator: Mr SEOW Choong Huei)
8:30-9:30pm Networking Reception

Date: Thursday 3rd June 2010
Time: 5:30pm-9:30pm
Venue: Possibility Room, Level 5, National Library Board, 98 Victoria Street Singapore 188064

Register here.

About The Author

SGEntrepreneurs - (SGE)

Covering the Singapore and Southeast Asia entrepreneurship scene since 2005.

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