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Thomas Nastas

Independent Director, Member, Board of Directors | Technology & Commericalization Board, Republic of Kazakhstan

haslett, MI, UNITED STATES

Venture Investor, Specialist in Commercialization in Emerging Markets

Social

Biography

Founder of Innovative Ventures Inc (IVI), Michigan, 1986, the 1st venture investor in the State of Michigan targeting the valley of the death with investments including Neogen (NEOG: NASDAQ), AISI Inc. (acquired by ESI, ESIO: NASDAQ, USA), Personal Bibliographic Systems (acquired by Thompson Financial, NYSE: TRI & NASDAQ: TRIN, USA).

An entrepreneur himself, I left Michigan in 1992 with lots of energy yet only a few coins in my pocket to create international & emerging market funds, capitalization >$300 million, investing public, institutional & corporate money that financed entrepreneurs across countries and continents for double bottom line results; ROI & development.

I'm a member in the Int’l Science & Commercialization Board, the $85 million Kazakhstan Technology & Commercialization Project of the World Bank & the Gov’t of Kazakhstan overseeing its grant program & leading the creation of the country’s 1st technology commercialization office; member, Board of Directors of Suntyco, the Cyprus joint venture of Tata Group (Mumbai) & the EBRD (London) & its Moscow operations Sunty; the Independent Directors Association, Moscow; outsourcing SME BPOcom, Moscow & others.

I've mentored at the ‘Unreasonable Institute,’ Boulder, CO, a Y Combinator/Tech Stars clone for triple-bottom social entrepreneurs that attend from 25 counties, five continents.
I advise institutions in solutions to ‘Scale Up Innovation, Venture Capital, Commercialization & Entrepreneurship’ including the World Bank; Kazakhstan’s National Innovation Fund & the Ministry of Education & Science; the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnology & Russia Venture Company and the Govt’s of Slovakia & Croatia.

My writing about ‘Scaling Up’ appeared in Development Outreach (the World Bank Institute); the Russian, Latin American & Hungarian editions, Harvard Business Review; the Asian, Canadian, European and US Venture Capital Journals.

Contact me at Tom@IVIpe.com

Industry Expertise (1)

VC and Private Equity

Education (1)

Michigan State University, BA & MBA: MBA from Michigan State University, Marketing

Affiliations (5)

  • Advisor to Int'l Organizations in VC & PE
  • VC Investor in USA, Canada, Europe, Africa, Russia & Kazakhstan
  • Member Board of Directors in Int'l and Emerging Market Companies
  • Author of articles in Harvard Business Review, Russian, Hungarian & L. American editions
  • www.scalingupinnovation.com

Availability

  • Author Appearance