Steve Pederson

Mr. Pederson has 25 years of entrepreneurial management and business development experience with a focus on bringing new technologies to market through "customer education". He is currently the CEO and Chairman of BrightPlanet Corporation. Mr. Pederson is a founding Partner and Managing Director of Sherpa Partners, LLC, an early stage mid-west based venture capital firm focused on software technologies in the IT and life sciences markets. (The Sherpa fund is fully invested.) He was responsible for raising capital for the Sherpa Trek I fund and currently serves as a Director on numerous Sherpa's portfolio boards. In his capacity as a venture capitalist Mr. Pederson provided strategic guidance on milestone planning, marketing and sales strategy, corporate messaging, fundraising, and establishing repeatable, profitable and scalable business practices. From 1992 through 1998 Mr. Pederson served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Skyline Displays, Inc., the world leader in trade show marketing. While at Skyline Mr. Pederson was responsible for product development, sales & marketing, corporate and distributor training, along with direct responsibility for all 86 independent distributorships world-wide. During his tenure, Skyline revenues doubled and Mr. Pederson's accomplishments included the creation of Skyline University, a complete program of value-add courses for engineering, graphic design, project management and sales (1100 students/year). His "Marketing Through Education" seminars have drawn over 750,000 attendees worldwide. In addition, he was responsible for opening distribution in China, Hong Kong, South America and Europe and created Total Quality Management (TQM) systems at Skyline-owned distributors. Prior to his tenure at Skyline, Mr. Pederson served at Xerox Corporation's Engineering Division in numerous national management, sales, training, and quality (TQM) roles. While at Xerox, Mr. Pederson was a regional and national sales trainer (SPIN) and managed a sales force that serviced Fortune 100 clients nationwide. Mr. Pederson received his undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College. He received his Masters degree and completed his coursework for his doctorate in education at the University of Illinois.