The May Report: 3/17/2011: The CEC grows up!; Now, will the ITA wake-up?; Google’s Kevin Willer to head CEC, replacing the departed les enfants terribles David Weinstein — coming from the private sector with a business background and an angel investor background, Willer could be a big improvement/boost, assuming that they control and monitor his conflicts of interest and that his follow through w/entrepreneurs is better than I hear it was at Google; Do NBC 5′s Phil Rogers and Jeff Goldblatt belong in the TMR Hall of Shame?; Who’s the bigger scumpuppy (note that is opinion): Mirchael Kurgan or Bob Bernard?; How can Tom Churchwell who could not raise a fund here get a freebie from Tom Thornton for $5MM?; Surprising tidbit: Michael Gruber of Cornerstone signed an NDA with crowdSPRING

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

Assistant editor: Melanie Adcock, iPHONE: 312-259-0610, melanie_adcock@msn.com

If you missed an article, go here: www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

– Editor’s note, by Ron May
– From Crain’s: Google’s Kevin Willer to lead the CEC, taking David Weinstein’s job
– Do NBC 5′s Phil Rogers and Jeff Goldblatt belong in the TMR Hall of Shame?
– A trip down memory lane: Scumbag Michael Kurgan resurfaces after many years
– Anonymous: Comments on the UIC OTM
– Ron May and Joe Brzoska discuss who’s the bigger scumpuppy: Bob Bernard or Michael Kurgan?
– Monday, March 21: MOMO Chicago: Leveraging the Cloud in Mobile App Development – A Panel Discussion

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The Scoop section:
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Editor’s note, by Ron May

* Expect a much longer report later this afternoon. I have been hard at work on a couple of issues, one being Tom Thornton and the other being UIC and another being TIHII. There are just too damn many scandals for me to handle all of them. Can we get some help here? Try this on for size:
$30MM has been committed by the KBA (Kansas Bioscience Authority) to eight venture firms and the money is bfing paid out by the State of Kansas
Venture Capital Firms the KBA is investing in:

* Burrill & Company, San Francisco, CA, $10 million

* MPM Capital, Boston, MA, $10 million

* N Partners / MidPoint Food & Ag, Carmel, IN, $5 million

* Meadowlark Venture Partners, Chicago, IL, $5 million

* Midwest Venture Partners, Chicago, IL, $5 million

* Open Prairie Ventures, Olathe, KS, $5 million

* Prolog Ventures, St. Louis, MO, $5 million

* Triathlon Medical Ventures, Cincinnati, OH, $5 million

Aside from the requirement that the VC firms must have an office there, do you notice something interesting?

Tom Churchwell is getting $5MM. But does Tom Churchwell really have a fund?

MPM Capital is matching the $10MM with $25MM. The size of their fund exceeds $1B. What kind of matching is Churchwell doing?

Good questions for the Kansas State Senate Commerce committee to ask Tom Thornton when he testifies for the third time next week. A similar set of questions could be asked about Open Prairie Ventures. If Thornton is giving money to his buddies why is Ron Kirschner of Heartland Angels left out?

And what will Thornton say when they ask him for records of Churchwell’s track record investing? How much of a success was he? What was his IRR? Questions I’m sure Thornton will have handy dandy answers to in front of the committee with the documentation to boot.

My information so far is that there is no requirement that the deals be done with firms in the State of Kansas.
Much more to come.

* First off, I like Kevin Willer, but what does that have to do with it? He is personable and easy to deal with, but I have never dealt with him in business terms.

Since Kevin is an angel investor which is great, they had better make sure there are not conflicts with the i2A Fund. This could get very messy if they don’t safeguard it.

Willer’s job at Google was to reach out to start-ups, I am told. How well did he do with that? I am sure there will be more to come on this topic. I believe in everyone starting clean to start. The CEC is leading the way here and maybe this can be taken as an example for the ITA board to follow and finally clean house. No smiley after that one. I am quite serious. It is time for TIHII to go and he can take JAH with him. It has been long enough. No mas, no mas.

* In the headline we have the term “enfants terribles” dictionary.reference.com/browse/enfant+terrible and I think that is what they referred to the Russian czar Ivan the Terrible as but I am not sure about it.

Weinstein was an overgrown and overblown (pun intended) child — hence the reference to the CEC growing up. He swore incessantly, ranted, raved and threw tantrums at the drop of a hat. Aside from that, he clearly suffered from ADD. Maybe a new era shall descend on Chicago high tech if Willer exerts some good influence and does not get co-opted by the set-up at the CEC.

* I am hearing that there are problems and some ruffled feathers in the social media area at Discover Card which has a pretty big group.

* No time now, but the MIT-EF meeting was excellent and a good discussion. I’ll have some observations for you later on Nancy Sullivan. But let me say this: Ross Kimbarovsky is not just a big bag of hot air which I had been starting to believe. No question that he is in love with himself, but that is not always a bad thing. He does actually bring value to the discussion.

By far the most interesting discussion of open innovation centered on something Ross brought up — actually in response to a question I asked but it seems to me to have been a tenuous connection: The $1MM prize money offered by Netflix to anyone who could improve their suggestions to customers for movies they might like by 10%. It took six days for someone to come up with a 1% improvement and maybe 30 days to do 2%, but it took a long time to get to the 10%.

www.shmula.com/netflix-improve-the-recommendation-prediction-engine/213/

www.nowpublic.com/netflix_1mm_prize_for_improving_their_recommendation_engine_still_up_for_grabs

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=537371

caddellinsightgroup.com/blog2/2009/06/

It was a multi-year process in the end and Netflix had to reveal its secrets for the mostly engineers and mathematicians to come up with solutions. They had two sets of data, a clean data set and a control set used to test any results.

The problem with the meeting was the lack of women. They had seven in the room by my count including Nancy Sullivan and Nancy Munro, plus Sally Duros and two professors from DePaul plus one woman who just started working for Nancy Sullivan.

That is pitiful and Nancy Munro agrees so next month she has cut a deal with reduced admission to folks coming from the WBDC. Jessica Lybeck who helped them to organize was not there but for once, Bob Brill showed up and I was surprised to learn that he started planning this meeting a year ago!

Michael Gruber of www.cornerstoneangels.com, Paul Kawalek of www.redblock.net , and Collin Anderson of www.digitalinnovations.com who is back at the firm after a four year hiatus, all contributed useful things and one other thing. Gruber, admitted that he signed an NDA with Ross Kimbarovsky of www.crowdSPRING.com ! Gruber was rightly embarrassed because all VCs and angels tell entrepreneurs they won’t do it.

Irv Michaels reports that Administaff has changed its name to Insperity, www.insperity.com. .

More on MIT-EF and what I have heard about Tech Pitch and SMCC last night. I did not go to either but I sure hope that Bill Anthony is wrong and that doofus David Carman taped the talk by Sam Yagan. If he didn’t, there will be h*** to pay.
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From Crain’s: Google’s Kevin Willer to lead the CEC, taking David Weinstein’s job

Google’s Willer to lead Entrepreneurial Center

www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110317/NEWS08/110319887/googles-willer-to-lead-entrepreneurial-center

Video from Chicago Business Today

bcove.me/swjok7l2

By: John Pletz March 17, 2011

(Crain’s) – Kevin Willer, who launched Google Inc.’s Chicago office a decade ago, is taking over the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, an arm of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce set up to boost startups.

“We’re trying to indentify high-potential entrepreneurs with big ideas and connect them with the right mentors and resources to help them become scalable businesses that can create jobs,” said Mr. Willer, 37, who begins the CEO job on April 4.

Mr. Willer replaces David Weinstein, who left the center last year and takes over at a time when Chicago’s entrepreneurial activity is soaring thanks to such fast-fliers as Groupon Inc., GrubHub Inc. and CleverSafe Inc.

“We’re at a transformational moment, where everything is aligned in Chicago,” Mr. Willer told Crain’s. “We have all this talent and start-up success. There’s a lot of angel (investing) activity going on. So you’ve got the talent, capital and infrastructure. And we’ve got a new mayor coming in.”

The Chicagoland Chamber founded the Entrepreneurial Center in 1999 to identify potential high-growth companies. The organization is looking to become the primary conduit between entrepreneurs and the city’s growing roster of venture-capital funds and individual investors.

“Kevin is the ideal candidate at the ideal time,” said Jim O’Connor, co-chairman of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center.

Mr. Willer, a Wilmette native, spent his career in high-tech sales with U.S. Robotics Corp. and CMGI Inc. before landing at Google in 2000, opening an office that has grown to about 400 software engineers and sales reps in River North.

He also used his stint at Google to forge relationships by introducing the company to the city’s largest companies, such as United Airlines, along with tech startups, venture capitalists and universities. He understands digital search and advertising, which is producing many of Chicago’s new startups, such as Groupon and GrubHub. He also was involved as an investor in Hyde Park Angels.

“His experience at Google brings a lot of brand cachet and credibility,” said Dan Lyne, director of Technology Development at World Business Chicago, the economic-development arm of the mayor’s office. “What’s more important is he has proven outside of wearing his Google hat that he was able build relationships with a lot of different groups in town.”

Read more: www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110317/NEWS08/110319887/googles-willer-to-lead-entrepreneurial-center#ixzz1GrzWxNvW
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Do NBC 5′s Phil Rogers and Jeff Goldblatt belong in the TMR Hall of Shame?

NBC 5 – Original Reporting w/ Integrity

Inbox
X

Reply
|
Chris Maloney
to me, ronaldmay, phil.rogers, jeff.goldblatt

show details 1:20 AM (3 hours ago)

from Chris Maloney
to ron@themayreport.com,
ronaldmay@aol.com
cc phil.rogers@nbc.com,
jeff.goldblatt@nbc.com
date Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 1:20 AM
subject NBC 5 – Original Reporting w/ Integrity

hide details 1:20 AM (3 hours ago)

Hi Ron,

Hope things are going well. I just wanted to let you know that NBC 5 “broke”
a potentially major story yesterday – “More Gacy Victims?”

The NBC story came from my start-up investigative news site
ShadowReports.com, which launched and published the in-depth piece “Find The
Bodies If You Can: Should The John Wayne Gacy Case Be Reopened?” on Feb. 7,
2011.

The May Report: 2/11/2011 mentions the launch of ShadowReports – Chicago
Start-Up ShadowReports.com Reveals New Information About John Wayne Gacy
Case

NBC’s report did not mention ShadowReports and gave viewers the impression
it was an NBC original story.

Previously, NBC 5′s Jeff Goldblatt and Phil Rogers called me saying how much
they liked the ShadowReports article and that NBC was interested in the
story. I guess being from a small town in Ohio, I didn’t realize how big
city journalism operates – steal the smaller guys story and pass it off as
your own.

Take care.

Chris Maloney
Founder, ShadowReports.com
_____________________________________
A trip down memory lane: Scumbag Michael Kurgan resurfaces after many years

Michael Kurgan

[Name withheld upon request]
to me

show details 1:23 AM (12 hours ago)

from [Name and email withheld upon request]
to ron@themayreport.com
date Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 1:23 AM
subject Michael Kurgan

hide details 1:23 AM (12 hours ago)

Dear Ron,

I have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with Michael Kurgan. He is currently threatening to sue myself, my co-founder, and my company as an apparent ploy to gain control of our company. I found your report while researching this guy. We felt like we couldn’t be the first company he has tried to screw via the courts.

Any additional information you could provide other than what’s already in your reports could be very helpful. Also, I noticed that your last entry on MK is from 2004. Do you have any newer complaints from others?

Please do not use my or my company’s name in any of your reports. We are afraid of this guy and what he is trying to do.

Thanks,

[Name withheld upon request]
President/CEO

[Company name and contact info. withheld upon request]
________________________________
Ron May here. If you have info. that might be helpful to this guy in dealilng with Kurgan, shoot me an email and I will forward it to him. Send the email to ronaldmay@aol.com
______________________________
Anonymous: Comments on the UIC OTM

please keep sender, date, etc. anonymous, if you choose to print. re: UIC OTM

[Name withheld upon request]
to me

show details 5:14 PM (11 hours ago)

from Name and email withheld upon request
to ron@themayreport.com
date Date withheld upon request
subject please keep sender, date, etc. anonymous, if you choose to print. re: UIC OTM

hide details 5:14 PM (11 hours ago)

please keep sender, date, etc. confidential if you choose to print (thank you.)

Hi Ron,

The UIC OTM story is truly fascinating. Why is Brenda Russell trying to protect Nancy Sullivan? BTW I just went to the OTM site – it seems the inventor of the year was Dave Carley. According to the University records, he was also on the committee that hired Nancy Sullivan. This looks like blatant kickback. I think taxpayers have the right to know how the awards committee came to the decision. Now if the investigation reveals that Jeremy Brown Noser ( the actual name seems Jeremy Hollis ) was the technology manager handling the Dave Carley technology, that would indeed be truly scandalous. Seems that there was a monetary award (state taxpayers $) to the inventor of the year too.
____________________________________
Ron May and Joe Brzoska discuss who’s the bigger scumpuppy is: Bob Bernard or Michael Kurgan?

Subject: Re: A trip down memory lane. Here’s a name from the past. Remember Michael Kurgan?
Date: 3/15/2011 2:22:11 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jbbrzoska@aol.com
Reply To:
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

try to figure if Kurgan or Bernard was the bigger scumpuppy

I still think I have some bad checks Kurgan wrote me just before he joined your office. That has to be about fifteen years ago.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: the Pol Pot v Mao debate
Date: 3/15/2011 3:16:32 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jbbrzoska@aol.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

I agree
Kurgan is a worse person and a sorry excuse for a human being.
Bernard ended up hurting more people but had the common courtesy to eat a shotgun.

On another note, how is life treating you?

—–Original Message—–
From: RONALDMAY
To: jbbrzoska
Sent: Tue, Mar 15, 2011 3:34 pm
Subject: Re: A trip down memory lane. Here’s a name from the past. Remember Michael Ku…

It was 1995, I believe. I still have a lot of his stuff which he stored with me, including his entire collection of The Robb Report. On a small scale, Kurgan was the bigger scum. He was a nickel and dime con. Bernard was bigger on the grand scale. He stole millions.
_______________________________
Ron May here. The reason Brzoska asked this question is that both Kurgan and Bob Bernard were recruiters whom we worked with. I worked with Bernard for about five months back in 1983 and he was very young then, but he was also not very honest. He faked a placement to keep from being canned by Scott Upp who would have fired him for such a large draw balance. The night before Bernard quit and disappeared about 3pm from the office on the pretense he was picking up a relative at O’Hare, he had invited me to spend the night at his house (he lived at home with his parents) and I took him up on it. We slept on bunk beds — bet you can’t guess which bed I got. Kurgan never really did much recruiting but for the short time he did, he was pure scum. I made the mistake of taking him under wing.
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Monday, March 21: MOMO Chicago: Leveraging the Cloud in Mobile App Development – A Panel Discussion

MOMO Chicago March 21, Leveraging the Cloud in Mobile App Development – A Panel Discussion

Melanie Adcock
to me, ronaldmay

show details Mar 15 (2 days ago)

from Melanie Adcock
to ron@themayreport.com,
ronaldmay@aol.com
date Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:10 AM
subject MOMO Chicago March 21, Leveraging the Cloud in Mobile App Development – A Panel Discussion
mailed-by msn.com

hide details Mar 15 (2 days ago)

MOMO Chicago
Leveraging the Cloud in Mobile App Development – A Panel Discussion

www.meetup.com/momo-chicago/events/16565564/

Monday, March 21, 2011
6:00 PM

SELECTED BY: TRACE JOHNSON
Morningstar
22 West Washington Street Chicago, IL

SELECTED BY: TRACE JOHNSON
60 Members going
Trace Johnson (Co-Organizer) added this Meetup on Feb 14, 2011
“We will bring together several experts in leveraging the cloud in mobile app development for a panel discussion. We’ve just announced the panel for this discussion.”
Who’s hosting? Jeff, Trace Johnson, Vivek Vaid

www.meetup.com/momo-chicago/events/16565564/

The panel has been set for this meetup. Read the bios below. Feel free to send any questions you want to ask the panel to info@momochicago.org.

Moderator

Mark Wilson – Philanthroper & Gizmodo
Mark Wilson is best known for his work at Gizmodo, where he was a Reviews Editor and still contributes weekly articles at a friendly alumni capacity. He’s also done his rounds in the freelance world, writing for sites like Kotaku, PopMech and Esquire. What pulled him away from the glitz and glamor of professional blogging? He’s started Philanthroper, a daily deal site for nonprofits.

The Panel

Chris Balcer – Slalom Consulting
Chris Balcer is a Solution Architect at Slalom Consulting focused on cloud computing, mobility and the Microsoft .NET technology stack. Over 12 plus years of technology work, Chris has implemented solutions ranging from console applications with AS/400 integration and VB6 to most recently mobility and cloud computing with Windows Azure and Android 2.1

Mark Ferry – Roundarch
Mark Ferry, Director of Technology at Roundarch a digital strategy and solutions firm. Mark has a background in physics and a long history of software development and architecture across all industries. Mark is the creator of a mobile framework known as EchoServ, which enables developers to use sound to execute commands between devices.

Tom Gersic – Model Metrics
Tom’s role as Senior Technical Architect involves technical design and oversight of projects for Model Metrics’ clients, he has spent over 10 years architecting and developing solutions with a wide variety of languages and platforms. His experience with multiple cloud and mobile technologies has made him a valuable asset on a wide variety of projects at Model Metrics, and he has consistently delivered successful solutions to clients both large an small.

Tom’s work has been deployed to rapidly growing and innovative companies such as Groupon and has been scaled across large organizations such as Abbott Labs, ADP, Allergan, Medtronic, Walgreens, and Zimmer, who rely on applications he designed and built for enterprise-level deployment. The development effort he led with Zimmer resulted in the largest enterprise iPad deployment ever.

Jeff Judge – Signal
Jeff loves technology and using it to solve problems big and small. As co-founder and CEO, Jeff is responsible for ensuring that the company has what it needs to be successful and executing against it’s mission of providing simplified solutions for making every digital interaction between marketer and consumer genuine and compelling.

Prior to Signal, Jeff worked for Orbitz Worldwide where he led the engineering team responsible for vacation packaging, the company’s most profitable product line. Prior to Orbitz, Jeff worked for technology consulting firms Diamond Management & Technology Consultants and Cap Gemini.

Jonathan Ozeran – Lextech
Jonathan currently leads client strategy and mobile product design for Lextech Global Services, an enterprise mobile application development group that has built some of the most advanced iOS apps in the world. Apple asks Lextech to help brief government agencies and enterprises on the power of the iOS platform to help open their eyes to mobile possibilities.

Before coming to Lextech, Jonathan established and led the mobile applications unit for the Tribune Company within its interactive division. While at Tribune, he assembled a staff of mobile-focused engineers and managed the design and development of numerous mobile applications including the Los Angeles Times for iPhone, Chicago Tribune for iPhone as well as an Android application for the Chicago Blackhawks. .

Melanie Adcock
Assistant Editor of The May Report
312-259-0610 melanie_adcock@msn.com
LinkedIn: linkd.in/MelanieAdcock
The May Report Facebook Page: on.fb.me/TheMayReport
Visit The May Report Archives: bit.ly/TheMayReportArchives
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END OF REPORT