Winn Hong, MBA, MS, North America Venture Manager at Nokia Ventures; Cofounder, President, and CEO at Mesencyte Inc.
About: Mr Hong was the Deputy Executive Director at the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering, at the University of Southern California (USC-AMI). He has over 18 years of experience in high-tech product development and high-tech start-up successes and leadership. Prior to USC-AMI, Winn was a senior technology strategist for the Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) focusing on biotechnology, alternative fuel, medical device, and internet, media, and related software technologies.
Winn began his career as a researcher at the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1996 to 1999 where he was involved in the design, fabrication, and testing of sensors for military, medical, commercial, and space exploration applications.
Mr Hong was the COO of Sega.com, Inc. and Sega.com, Ltd. (publicly traded on the HKSE) and has been involved in company formation, funding, and management. Since then, companies include alternative fuel, green chemicals, medical devices, and material sciences and held various executive level positions in each of these companies.
From June 2005 to December 2007, Winn worked as a principal for Convergent Ventures, LLC, a venture capital firm that invests seed capital, management, and operational participation in early-stage life science and technology investment opportunities in Southern California.
Mr Hong obtained a MBA degree from the University of Chicago in 2005. He also received a MS in Mechanical Engineering and a BS in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA in 1996 and 1993, respectively. Winn is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.