Transform Innovation Partners

 

Michael Steep

Steep began his extraordinary 35-year career in Silicon Valley as an operating executive serving at HP, Apple, IBM Lexmark, Microsoft, and Xerox PARC. He is one of the most highly regarded public speakers on transforming technology into pragmatic opportunities. 65 global keynotes to the association and corporate audiences

 

Career highlights In Chronological Order:

 

• Launched the first software for the IBM PC - Assistant Family Series

• Led Apple's project on the industry's first digital camera

• Started and grew IBM Lexmark's pre-IPO global business in Asia

• Worked at Microsoft in the Gates office of the CTO under Gary Flake, founding the company's first Innovation Outreach Program

• Participated on the launch of Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform

• Ran global commercial operations as SVP at the world-renowned Xerox PARC

• Founded and ran the Stanford Engineering School's Disruptive Technology Program, where he also created and taught a new course for Ph.D. engineers on Reinventing Innovation

• Published his first book First Light of Day, about the impact of tech on our society, which became a business bestseller

• He delivered over 70 keynotes crossing 25 industries, helping companies understand how to transform disruptive tech into a pragmatic opportunity

• Is an investor in 10 startup companies

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Herman Donner

Dr. Herman Donner is a partner at Transform and serves as an Associate Professor in Real Estate Economics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Herman has published numerous papers on the impact of technology on markets, household finance, and housing policy. Herman has held positions at Stanford University, the George Washington University, and KTH. As Research Director, Herman managed research while he worked with Mike in the Disruptive Technology Program at the School of Engineering.

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Jeremiah Baker

Jeremiah Baker is a well-respected expert on cybersecurity and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Jeremiah was an early innovator in the CRM (Customer relationship management) software business. While working in Silicon Valley In the late '90s, he implemented the first web-based CRM called Siebel eService for a Fortune 100 company.

 

Over the course of the past two decades, Jeremiah has honed his expertise by collaborating with enterprise technology firms spanning a wide range of industries.

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David Frank

Venture Capital-advising on strategy, execution, scaling, monetization. West Coast based Advisor to UHN  family offices, venture funds, corporate strategics, media companies, Fortune 500, sovereign wealth funds, providing venture capital advisory on strategy, execution, monetization, scaling . Target sectors generative AI, cyber security, telecom. data analytics, robotics,  digital media, SaaS software, IT.  Advisor to Draper University and their students.  Veteran  in media,  broadcasting, entertainment with ABC, 32 years experience in financial services, venture capital,  Stifel Financial, JP Morgan Chase,  Merrill Lynch.

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Ray Levitt, Advisor and Speaker
Ray Levitt was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. After completing his BS Civil Engineering Degree in South Africa, he worked as an engineer in marine construction. Ray came to the US in 1972 to pursue graduate study in Construction Management. After completing his MS degree, he worked with V.K. Mason Construction in Toronto, and then returned to Stanford to complete his PhD. Following his PhD., Ray was appointed to the faculty of MIT’s Civil Engineering Dept. He was recruited to join Stanford’s Civil Engineering Faculty in 1980. During his time at Stanford, Ray launched Stanford’s Center for Integrated Facility Engineering in 1988, and its Global Projects Center in 2002. Ray retired from Stanford as the Kumagai Professor in Engineering and Director of the Global Projects Center in 2019.

In 2017, Ray became an Operating Partner at Blackhorn Ventures, a Denver-based VC firm with four funds. Blackhorn invests in Seed and A Rounds of firms that exploit emerging sensing, computing, communication and AI analytics technologies to unleash radical resource efficiency and decarbonization in four sectors of the “real economy,” including: real estate, finance, construction, manufacturing, transportation, logistics and health care. He serves as Blackhorn’s lead partner for investments in the Built Environment Sector.

 

Ray is President of the Farmers Investment Club, an angel investment group of Stanford faculty and affiliates from multiple science, engineering and business backgrounds. He currently serves on the Board of CoFi, and is a Board Observer at Rhumbix, Briq, Hyperframe, Ecoworks and Toggle.