Gary Smaby, Principal

Following a successful ten-year entrepreneurial career, Gary Smaby joined the Minneapolis-based investment banking firm of Piper Jaffray in 1982 as a vice-president and senior analyst to set up an emerging technology group.

At Piper, Mr. Smaby built an international reputation as a leading Wall Street analyst in the information technology sector, encompassing a broad spectrum from high-performance workstations and supercomputers to networking and decision support systems. He was promoted to Managing Director, Technology Research in 1986. In 1988, Mr. Smaby left Piper to join the New York investment firm of Needham and Company as Managing Director.

In forming his own firm, Smaby Group, Inc. in 1989, Mr. Smaby set out to use his experience and contacts to keep clients abreast of the emerging trends that are shaping the technology landscape. Over the last decade, his retainer clients have included corporate giants like AT&T, Cray, HP, IBM, Intel, SGI, Sun, and Unisys, as well as many high-profile start-ups.

Mr. Smaby is also managing partner of Quatris Fund, a seed-stage venture capital fund formed in 2000 with St. Paul Venture Capital the former venture arm of St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company (now St. Paul Travelers) .

He has been widely quoted in such national publications such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, and Business Week. He has also been a keynote speaker at major industry conferences, seminars and forums. He has appeared as a guest on nationally televised programs such as Adam Smith's Money World and ABC's Business Journal and has served as a regular contributing editor to Technologic Partners ComputerLetter.

He serves as Managing Director and VC-in-Residence at the Carlson School of Management's Ventures Enterprise MBA program at the University of Minnesota. Gary just completed a six-year term on the Board of Trustees for the Science Museum of Minnesota, where he remains chair of the Investment Committee. He served for five years on the External Advisory Board for the Deep Computing Institute at IBM TJ Watson Research Laboratory. Mr. Smaby was also the 2003 President of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association. He is on the Board of Directors of several venture-financed start-ups, and serves as board chair for Quatris portfolio companies Algos Therapeutics, finEye, Iconoculture, and Pontus.

Mr. Smaby is a 1971 Cum Laude graduate from St. Olaf College.

He can be reached at gary@smaby.com.