Alan Hall is a founder and managing director of Mercato Partners, a top performing growth capital fund. Its focus is to invest in high growth technology companies that need additional funding and expertise in marketing and sales. Current portfolio companies include: Skullcandy, Fusion-io, Control4, Cymphonix, Mediconnect, CradlePoint and Stance.
Mr. Hall is also the founder, chairman and former CEO of MarketStar Corporation, a global outsourced marketing and sales company with a focus on assisting high technology companies increase sales through the small to medium business sectors. The company employs several thousand employees and generates billions of dollars in sales for its marquee clientele, including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Sony, Intel and Verizon. MarketStar is owned by Omnicom Group (OMC).
Alan Hall is the chairman of Weber State University's board of trustees and the chairman of the University's capital campaign committee, a trustee of the Intermountain Healthcare Foundation, former chairman of the Utah Technology Council and chairman of Prosperity 2020, a business-led movement committed to enhancing Utah's educational system through investment and innovation.
Dinesh Patel has become known across the country for his business ventures. He is the co-founder of vSpring Capital, a Salt Lake City-based investment firm in which he is currently the founder emeritus (it is now known as Signal Peak Ventures that manages more than $450 million). He is also a primary angel investor in at least 20 IT and biotechnology companies, such as TheraTech (which he co-founded and which was acquired by Watson Pharmaceuticals (now Actavis) for $350 million), and Ashni Naturaceuticals, the latter of which Patel was formerly CEO.
Additionally, Patel holds 15 patents in both the US and abroad. In 2006, he was awarded UtahTechnology Council Hall of Fame Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2009, he received the University of Michigan's College of Pharmacy's Alumni Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, and last year, he was awarded the Utah Life Science Award from BioUtah.
