Ed Valdez is Vice President of Global Business Strategy at G51, a thought leadership team that accelerates corporate innovation by connecting high-potential startups to Fortune 1000 companies for partnerships, investment and potential acquisition. He has over 20 years of high-tech executive experience in product development, marketing, sales and operations for Fortune 500 companies and start-ups.

Ed has served as VP of Solutions Marketing at SUN (now Oracle) as well as President of Parrot, a French wireless innovator of drones (UAVs) and smartphone accessories. Ed was also Global Marketing Director at Motorola for the 1st generation RAZR platform and has worked with seven high-tech startups from seed stage through IPO and acquisitions. He is a Mentor at the Capital Factory, Techstars and the International Accelerator.

Ed is a member of Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN) and serves on the Board of Advisors for SXSWedu and several Edtech, Mobiletech and SaaS startups. As a contributor to various media, he tracks mobile tech trends and has co-authored Samsung 3.0: Talent, Technology and Timing. Ed holds a BSEE from MIT and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

CEO/Managing Director of the International Accelerator based in Austin, Texas. The International Accelerator is focused solely on non-U.S. citizen founders. IA provides access to seed funding,quality mentors, and services founders need to startup in the United States.

Phil is serial Entrepreneur with executive management and board level experience ranging from startups to F100 companies.