John K. Balbach

John Balbach

"With a leadership career encompassing executive operational roles from early-stage to public-growth companies, venture capital and senior national and international government, John has directed $5 billion in annual assets, participated in the raising of over $130 million in growth capital, the launching of 15 early-stage companies and the founding of three international policy foundations.

"Most recently focused on telecom/digital covergence, John is a pioneer of the broadband wireless industry. For ICOA, Inc., John led the transformation of a public shell into a merger/acquisition vehicle of seven broadband wireless service providers, creating one of the nation's leading integrated Wi-Fi providers with service spanning 45 states. During his 2-year tenor, revenue growth exceeded 700% and shareholder value increased 400%. Previously on the founding executive team of Cometa Networks (a joint venture of Intel, AT&T and IBM), John developed and executed go-to-market strategies and executed launches with additional strategic partners including AT&T Wireless, Sprint, McDonald's, Barnes&Noble and Palm. With MobileStar Networks, the first national public Wi-Fi deployment company, John led the launch of the first broadband wireless services in partnership with Starbucks Coffee, American Airlines, Compaq and Microsoft.

"Prior, John was founding Vice President of a Silicon Valley venture capital firm recognized under his watch as one of Silicon Valley's leading next-generation venture firms by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNNfn and Inc. The venture firm -- Blueprint Ventures -- was a spin-out from Intel Capital. John spearheaded the launching and market acceleration of nine early-stage companies and assisted the doubling in size of the firm to over $200 million under management and a market position leading 60% of investments.

"Starting in the mid-Nineties, John was founder and Managing Partner of international strategic consultancy Global Alliances, with clients including Compaq, OneSecure, Photon Dynamics, Advanced Motion Technologies, Tangent Computers, LinkTV, Mexican President Vicente Fox, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Pakistani Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, among others. Under his leadership, the firm provided capital formation & growth advisory, strategic positioning, branding and marketing services for new product offerings, business models and policies reaching more than 300 million customers/constituents.

"John's public service includes serving as a Senior Aide in the US Senate as Staff Director of the Congressional Task Force on Afghanistan, Senior Aide to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and member of the US-German Reunification Task Force. During this period, his work focused on the Cold War end-game, international trade, humanitarian crises, environmental and energy issues and human rights.

"He also served as co-founder of the State of the World Forum in work with Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev, George Bush, Vicente Fox, Oscar Arias, Thabo Mbeki and Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher, Benazir Bhutto, Brian Mulroney and Hau Pei-Tsun on finding global common ground in the post-Cold War era.

"John was also honored to serve as Vice President of the Gorbachev Foundation and Vice President of the Eduard Shevardnadze International Foreign Policy Institute during the immediate post-Soviet era.

"Work on the above provided him the opportunity to travel to over 65 countries.

"John currently serves on the board of directors of the Global Footprint Network and Ecotoure, and is a co-founder and chair of the board of advisors of Xocomaya, an organic/fair trade chocolate manufacturing company. He previously served on the boards of Artic Cloud, Advanced Motion Technologies and Vinometer Company...

"...his wife and partner, Amy Fritz, a world-class environmental entrepreneur and designer." Full CV

• Senior Counsel, Seva Foundation
• VP Corporate Development (2005), ICOA
• Managing Director (2007), Cleantech Group