Mr. Kugell is an entrepreneur, director, and early stage investor. He has broad and deep experience in nearly every facet and phase of creating successful new ventures, including investing and finance, board oversight, senior management, strategic transactions, and sale and realization of profit. He has served in every key management and investment role required to bring new companies to successful outcome.
Since 1978, he has personally participated in critical early stage events of numerous successful companies in diverse industries including FaxNet, Half.com, Pilgrim Telephone, Office One, Buckminster Corporation, PDQ Phone, Global Phone, HealthScribe, Fairfield Computer Corporation, Computer Pictures Corporation and Javelin Software (U.S. and European Software Product of the Year). His invited speaking credits include Marketplace (the public radio business news magazine), Pacifica Radio Network, M.I.T., and Haute Etudes Commerciales, Paris (HEC), one of France’s leading business schools.
His current projects include service as a director of Alfama, a specialty pharmaceutical company developing innovative treatments for rheumatoid arthritis; Hotmath.com, helping children with the challenges of learning algebra; NetPatents, a private portfolio of important internet commerce and technology patents; Office One, a private commercial real estate company; and startup.com. He is a general partner in Viva Ventures, a newly formed trans- Atlantic life sciences fund, limited partner in VIMAC, and co-investor with Orchid Partners, both leading Boston-based venture capital firms.
Mr. Kugell studied as a researcher at M.I.T.'s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. At Harvard University, he studied at the Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government as a M.I.T. research affiliate. His academic and research background also includes the fabled Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where his work included designing and building the world’s first telephone voice mail system. He holds six issued U.S. patents. He is former host of Kugell & McLaughlin, the nationally- broadcast political talk show, founder of American Wine Geek, and past commentator for Marketplace, the main nationally broadcast business news magazine.
His leisure pursuits include spending time with his children, friends and family, travel where beautiful settings and warm weather call, coaching aspiring entrepreneurs, and enjoying and collecting wine and fine art. He serves as trustee of the Eisenberg Foundation, and serves on the Board of Overseers of Boston Baroque, America’s first and most highly regarded period instrument orchestra
