Eric Benhamou has over 48 years of experience in the IT industry, including 18 years as an active venture capitalist. He founded Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) in 2003, investing in early-stage enterprise technology and telecommunications companies. His investments include Swan Labs (acquired by F5), Dasient (Twitter), Voltaire (Mellanox), Finjan, Contextream (HP), and Grid Dynamics (NASDAQ: GDYN). He currently serves on the boards of Grid Dynamics, Evinced, Secret Double Octopus, and 6d bytes.

Eric has extensive corporate governance experience, serving on more than 25 corporate boards, including 11 public companies such as 3Com, Palm, Netscape, Legato, RealNetworks, and Cypress Semiconductor. He currently serves on the boards of Silicon Valley Bank (SVBFG) and Grid Dynamics. Throughout his career, he has participated in nine IPOs and 41 mergers and acquisitions.

Before founding BGV, Eric built and led several technology companies through every stage of growth. He served as CEO of 3Com from 1990 to 2000 and Chairman until 2010, overseeing 25-fold revenue growth and leading the company into the Fortune 500. He also launched 3Com Ventures, a $250 million corporate venture fund. Eric later served as CEO and Chairman of Palm, which, along with 3Com, was acquired by HP in 2010. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Bridge Communications, helping take the company public on NASDAQ in 1985, and began as a software engineer at Zilog.

For the past decade, Eric has taught entrepreneurship at leading institutions including Stanford University, INSEAD, and IDC Herzliya. He has served on the Advisory Board of Stanford’s School of Engineering and the Board of Governors of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He also chairs the Israel Venture Network and the American Friends of Arts et Métiers.

Kathy Matsui is a founding General Partner of MPower Partners, Japan’s first ESG-integrated global venture capital fund. She is the former Vice Chair of Goldman Sachs Japan and Chief Japan Equity Strategist. Her groundbreaking ʻWomenomicsʼ research spurred the Japanese government to promote gender diversity, and she has advised corporations on governance and diversity best practices. She has an MA from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and an AB from Harvard.

Mas is a partner at Benhamou Global Ventures, a cross-border venture capital firm in the heart of Silicon Valley, California.

He is a seasoned professional with a diverse background in international business development, strategic planning, venture capital investment, new business incubation, and cross-border operations. Mas has had a long-standing association with NEC Corporation, where he served in various leadership roles. Among others, he also served on the board of Vidient Systems, Inc. and Niteo Partners, and during this time at NEC, Mas was involved in The Open Group and The Enterprise Network, both non-profit organizations.

Mas’ extensive experience includes key advisory roles and affiliations with Bay Angels, Plug & Play and Alchemist Accelerator in collaboration with the J-Startup program. Mas is also an angel investor, with startup companies that include Bedrock Robotics, Glydways, LUUM, Fort Robotics, Invia Robotics, Marble Robot, Copado, Mission Barns, SKUChain, Genia, Ekso Bionics, and others.

Mas currently serves as advisor to several Japanese companies and has been a frequent guest lecturer at Kyoto University, Aoyama Gakuin University, UC
Berkeley, and NYU. Mas also served on the board and Secretary of Harvard
Business School Association of Northern California.

Mas has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics from Keio University in Japan and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mas is an avid tennis player, and after 24 years in Silicon Valley, he currently resides in Southern California covering the region for new startups.