David Chacon – Director of Investment Banking
David Chacon has over 15 years experience in sales, marketing, business development, finance and management. At the age of 27 he became senior-vice president of the world’s largest bank, Citigroup, perhaps its’ youngest. He was a vice-president at Credit Suisse.
David has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Business Week. David is the founder of Lightspeed Enterprises, a sales and business development advisory firm focused on communications, security, healthcare and environmental technology. He was an advisor and investor to a number of successful start-ups including Movaz (acquired for 53MM), Vivace Networks (sold for 135MM), Navini Networks(sold to CSCO for 330MM) and personal financial advisor to the principals at Cyrus (sold to Ciena for 2.6 billion). David was the President of Waterlink Systems, an innovative weather-based water conservation service. David was the VP of business development for Ecovation, a technology service which converts waste water into usable energy in the food and beverage industry, which was sold for 220MM. Recently, David served as strategic advisor in the capacity of VP of strategy and business Development for Altela Inc, a firm utilizing a break-through technology service to make the oil and gas industry cleaner.
David graduated from UCLA in 1994 and attended a Coopers & Lybrand program at the USC Graduate School of Accounting. David is a Prince of Whales Delegate and attended the University of Cambridge Business and the Environment Program. David serves as an advisory board member for the Apollo Alliance and on the national solutions council for the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental “think and do” tank.
Brandon Beagle – Technology Advisor, Culver Investment Banking Division
Brandon Beagle received his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Alabama Birmingham Medical School (Ranked 27th by U.S. News and World Report). Recently he brings eight years of experience as a scientific researcher in the fields of nutrition, cell and molecular biology, oncology as well as pharmacotherapy. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) as well as the American Cancer Society (ACS) have praised his research skills, productivity and research acumen. Brandon has five first author peer-reviewed publications (six in late 2012) as well as co-author of a book detailing advances in cell and molecular cancer therapy.
Brandon’s research initially focused on the genetic mechanism(s) that influence micronutrient metabolism through a multi-input biochemical cycle. His findings identified a genetic mutation that influences the production of a disease-associated molecule. His published (Beagle et al, 2005, J of Nutrition) findings further showed that such genetic susceptibility could be abrogated through effective nutraceutical therapy. Although nutrient biochemistry and nutraceutical therapy are still a focal point, Brandon’s research has more recently focused on elucidating the molecular mechanism(s) that regulate a cellular pathway implicated in diseases such as neurological (ex. Alzheimer’s disease), immune (ex. rheumatoid arthritis) and cancer, to name a few. His work in this area resulted in a research fellowship from the NIH/NIA and has been published in three peer-review publications (Beagle et al, 2010, JCB. Beagle et al, 2011 PlosOne. Beagle et al, 2011, Developmental Dynamics). He has received research fellowships from the NIH/NCI and ACS to identify the genetic and molecular mechanism(s) that underlie a cancer cells ability to resist anti-cancer therapies (new and old therapies). The fellowship’s objective of supporting those “that illustrate the utmost promise as future leaders in scientific research” is further confirmation of Brandon’s scientific acumen. Brandon’s advanced knowledge of cell and molecular pharmacotherapy also played a key role in obtaining a $5.0MM from the NIH/NCI. His research into small molecule anti-cancer therapy has been presented at various notable conferences and author publications (Beagle et al, 2011, Cancer Cell) and (Beagle et al, 2012, Blood).
Brandon received his bachelors from California Polytechnic Institute in Human Nutrition and Food Science were he received student of the year award and graduated Cuma Sum Laude. As a cell and molecular PhD candidate at University of Alabama Birmingham Medical School (Ranked 27th by U.S. News and World Report), he was bestowed one of the highest predoctoral honors: NIH Research Fellow. His postdoctoral work focusing on molecular anti-cancer therapy was conducted at UCI where he was an NIH/NCI and ACS Research Fellow. Brandon is a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society and an active member of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Current Advisory roles:
- Asta Ltd., a food biotechnology company that efficiently converts unwanted and/or unusable food residual into high quality nutraceutical products.