| ABOUT US / TEAM
Chester Aldridge (Chairman and CEO)
Greg Knight (CTO)
Ben Zadik (CFO)
Mary Hubert (Accounting Manager)
Tony Shapiro (Executive Assistant)
Todd Weimer (VP Business Development)
Simon Price (VP of Strategic Planning and Analysis)
Don Prestage (Director of Business Development)
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CHESTER ALDRIDGE is the Chairman and CEO of US Equity Holdings. Through US
Equity Holdings, Mr. Aldridge incubates, finances and manages numerous ventures in the
fields of entertainment, internet, clean energy (solar and biofuels) and biotechnology (life
science pharmaceutical).
BACKGROUND
Mr. Aldridge has more than 21 years of experience in founding, operating and financing
businesses, ranging from start-ups to multi-million-dollar publicly traded companies.
Areas of operation have included technology, manufacturing, publishing and software
verticals. Highlights of Mr. Aldridge's career include raising over $125 million of private
equity, licensing major Hollywood properties including MTV's Jackass, Disney brands
and Frank Miller's Sin City, and securing sales and distribution deals worth tens of
millions of dollars from partners including Vivendi Universal, Sony, Atari and Disney.
TECHNOLOGY
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of renewable energy technology fund Green
Edge Ventures (a founding sponsor of the Fraunhofer TechBridgeTM Program) and
has been a valuable advisor to the TechBridge Program from its inception. Fraunhofer
is Europe's largest application-oriented research organization and has established
the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (Fraunhofer CSE), based in
Cambridge, Mass., which works in close cooperation with scientists at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT). The TechBridgeTM Program was established by
Fraunhofer CSE to support the development of innovative clean energy technology
companies.
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of Equity Solar, which has secured the
exclusive license to a patented solar photovoltaic technology. Equity Solar's technology
is used within the solar cell manufacturing line. The technology was co-developed
by Special Materials Research and Technology (SPECMAT), NASA and the US
Department of Defense.
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of Equity Micro Tech, which has secured
the exclusive license to a room-temperature silicon oxide coating process for potential
applications within the microelectronics industry, including MEMS devices. The
technology was co-developed by Special Materials Research and Technology
(SPECMAT), NASA and the US Department of Defense.
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of PV Tech Group, which is a full-scale
integrator of solar photovoltaic manufacturing facilities (wafers, cells, modules). PV
Tech Group executives have designed and installed solar manufacturing factories around
the world, including facilities in Greece, Russia, Spain, Germany and North America.
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of Microline PV, which was formed to
commercialize a cutting-edge solar photovoltaic technology developed by Nano Terra
Inc, of Boston Mass. Nano Terra's experienced management team includes its chairman
Dr. George Whitesides, the Woodford L. and Ann A Flowers University Professor at
Harvard University, who has co-founded companies with combined market capitalization
exceeding $20 billion.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of BioCorp Ventures, which was
formed to evaluate and commercialize cutting-edge gene regulation technology for
biofuels developed by Senesco Technologies, Inc. Senesco has licensed the same
technology for agriculture biotechnology to Monsanto and Bayer CropScience.
Mr. Aldridge has acted or is acting as Chief Advisor to the following companies:
Prosetta Antiviral, Inc. Prosetta Antiviral, Inc. is
a biotechnology company developing novel small-molecule antiviral therapeutics
based on over 25 years of basic research on Cell-Free Protein Synthesizing Systems
(CFPSS) by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and the University
of Washington, Seattle. Prosetta has successfully produced highly potent compounds that
display activity against multiple strains of many viral families including lead series of
molecules that are effective antiviral agents against influenza, HIV and HCV.
Akonni Biosystems, Inc. Based in Frederick,
Maryland, Akonni is a molecular diagnostics (MDx) company that develops
and manufactures systems that can test for multiple disease indicators, industrial
contaminants, food pathogens, or bioterror agents with significantly greater accuracy and
speed, and at lower cost, than traditional diagnostic tools.
PuraCath Medical, Inc. PuraCath Medical,
Inc. is a medical device company developing safer and cost-efficient medical
devices for the predominant form of home dialysis (peritoneal dialysis).
Based in Berkeley, CA, PuraCath was spun out of Stanford University in 2010,
and since then secured multiple SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research)
and other grant financing to support its R&D. PuraCath has shown repeatable
preclinical results of 99.99% reduction of infection (fungal and bacterial)
with its functional prototype - better than Purell hand sanitizer.
PuraCath's clean catheter technology is seeking 510(k) and CE Mark approvals
for U.S. and European clearance end of this year, and will conduct clinical
studies in mid-2013. Unlike existing technologies, PuraCath's proprietary
clean catheter technology will save patients from life-altering infections,
decrease infection-related costs, and allow the use of more effective
therapies.
INTERNET
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman of Muzooka, a social music discovery and sharing application that launched in December 2012. Muzooka has recently added notable music icons David Foster and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds to its list of industry professionals.
Mr. Aldridge is Co-Founder and Chairman Push Media Works, a San Francisco Bay Area
media company that specializes in delivering high quality traffic to customers' videos on
YouTube.
ENTERTAINMENT
Mr. Aldridge has substantial entertainment ventures and is Founder and CEO of The
Royal Factory (re-named to South 5 Records), a music label that has exclusively licensed the entertainment rights to
Austin Brown, the nephew of Michael Jackson. Austin is currently working on his debut
album, "85," with Grammy Award-winning producer and co-writer Rodney Jerkins, who
has produced for Beyoncé, Britney Spears, George Michael, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson
and many other artists. In addition to his collaboration with Mr. Jerkins, Austin Brown is
working with renowned recording artists Pharrell Williams and Q-Tip.
Mr. Aldridge has management and advisory engagements with high profile individuals
including Dallas Cowboys legend Tony Dorsett and music producers Rodney Jerkins
and Rex Salas. Mr. Salas is a Grammy- and Emmy Award-nominated American record
producer, songwriter, musical director, and music arranger. Best known in recent years
for his work as the musical director for Janet Jackson on several of her tours, Mr. Salas
has worked with such artists as Justin Timberlake, Cher, Boyz II Men, Robert Palmer,
Mariah Carey, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, 50 Cent, will. i. am, and many others.
Mr. Aldridge is also the personal manager for Walter Afanasieff, a Grammy Award-
winning writer and producer who has worked with many leading artists including
Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Josh Groban, Christina Aguilera and Luther
Vandross. Mr. Afanasieff produced "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, one of the
best-selling singles of all time. Mr. Afanasieff is collaborating on Austin Brown's debut
album.
EDUCATION
Mr. Aldridge is a Life Member of the Stanford Business School Alumni Association. |
