| Gerard's professional passions revolve primarily aoound developing and marketing new products, technologies and business models. Gerard is keenly interested in community networks as vectors of influence for affecting individuals' opinions on everything from purchasing decisions and brand loyalty to policy matters.
Gerard started his career negotiating
international technology transfer
deals
while
studying at Seattle University.
He has lived and worked on three continents, and
traveled
to over 40 countries.
Gerard currently works for Mixpo, a Madrona Ventures portfolio company enabling marketers to extend their local television campaigns online with the use of in-banner video ads. Prior to Mixpo, Gerard worked for Verdiem, a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company that develops "Green IT" software for large enterprises.
For six years Gerard worked for Philip
Morris International in a variety of finance, marketing and public relations functions (which was a lot like living out the role of the main character in Christopher Buckley's book, "Thank you for Smoking").
After leaving the tobacco industry, Gerard started a synthetic, eco-friendly wine cork company and co-founded
one of Europe's first
Internet and web development firms with clients like Honda and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
After selling his web development company in 1995, Gerard joined Swisscom to help lead the company's international
expansion in South Asia. In this capacity, he managed telecom
M&A activities and oversaw startup investments in Indian GSM businesses, which were eventually acquired
by Vodafone for US$19 billion in 2007.
Gerard has conducted MBA workshops at UW Foster School of Business and served
local organizations such as the World Trade Club, OneWorld Now!, the World Affairs
Council, TiE-Seattle, Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA), CityClub of Seattle, the Seattle Swiss Society and Knowledge as Power. |
