Team

Brad McManus, Director
Brad manages the Panasonic Venture Group. With over twenty five years of combined experience investing in high growth companies and building startups, he brings significant venture investment and business expertise. Prior to joining the venture group, Brad led the syndicate funding of several startups, raising over $30 million for venture stage companies and served as CFO and VP Operations for Startups.com, an accelerator services company for fast track startup companies (funded by Redleaf and Garage Technology Ventures). Before transitioning in 1994 to the venture industry, as an institutional investment manager, Brad directed $100 million in high growth public equity portfolios at Harris Trust in Chicago and $180 million at Guild Investment Management in Los Angeles (which he co-owned). Brad earned a BS in finance and economics and an MBA from Northern Illinois University.

 

Dilip Sampath, Venture Partner
Dilip joined Panasonic Venture Group in 2004. He is a technology industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience in engineering, investment, marketing and business development. Most recently, he drove the broadband and wireless investments for the Digital Home Ecosystem at Intel Capital. Dilip’s achievements include co-founding 2 startup companies and receiving 9 patent awards in the areas of high-speed inter/intra chip communication and system protocol. Dilip focuses on identifying and evaluating investment and partnership opportunities for PVG. Dilip holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Annamalai University in India.

 

Patrick Suel, Venture Partner
Patrick joined the venture group in 2006. He brings 18 years of experience in software technologies, venture investment, international marketing and business development. He previously worked as a venture partner for SKG Ventures and was a software executive with various venture-backed Silicon Valley startups in artificial intelligence, financial services, enterprise software and software tools where his contributions resulted in two IPOs and two M&A exits. As an entrepreneur, he founded three startup companies in software and life sciences. Patrick holds a Masters of Science in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Marseilles III and a Masters of Science in Advanced Physics from the University of Marseilles II.

 

Ira Nydick, Senior Technology Analyst
Ira has contributed to Panasonic’s research and development for over ten years, working both in Japan and the US. He has broad contacts and deep knowledge of the technology roadmaps inside of Panasonic which are essential for developing corporate alliances between venture backed companies and Panasonic. Ira earned his Ph.D and Master’s degrees at the University of California Los Angeles and his Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic University.

 

Hiroshi Miyajima
Hiroshi has been with Panasonic for over 11 years. Prior to joining the venture group, he was a design engineer of System LSI's and also a planner of corporate R&D strategy in Japan. Before he joined Panasonic, he was an entrepreneur having co-founded a start up in the field of high performance scientific computing. Hiroshi earned his Master's degree in Computer Science from Kyushu University in Japan.