E. Scott Crist is managing partner of Texas Ventures. Prior to founding Texas Ventures, Scott was managing partner of Crist Ventures and a managing director at Garage Tech Ventures in Silicon Valley. Prior to that, he was a successful entrepreneur where he was CEO and founder of two technology companies and grew revenues to over $100 million each in the last decade. Scott is a former Entrepreneur of the Year by CNN/ NASDAQ/ Ernst & Young. He is also an adjunct professor at the Jones Graduate MBA School at Rice University where he teaches entrepreneurship and venture capital. In addition, Scott is on the Kellogg Alumni Advisory Board at Northwestern University. Earlier in his career, he worked in acquisitions for Trammell Crow Group and previously worked for IBM and Booz-Allen Hamilton. Scott has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from NC State University.
Christopher Efird is a partner with Texas Ventures and has been active in venture capital and private equity for nearly 20 years. He is founder of Access America Fund, LP, a growth-stage venture fund focused on emerging markets around the world. He also co-founded the Chinamerica Fund, LP, a private equity fund managing investments in China. Over the past several years, Chris has built a global investment network of professionals. Mr. Efird holds a Bachelors of Science degree from Texas A&M University and a Master of Arts degree from Sam Houston State University where his master's thesis developed quantitative and qualitative tools for the assessment of international political risk. Chris currently serves on the Board of the Rice University Alliance for Entrepreneurship and New Ventures.
Bryan Emerson is a partner with Texas Ventures who founded Starlight Investments, LLC (www.starlightinvestments.com), a FINRA-registered investment bank, in 1999. Prior to joining Starlight, Bryan spent 20 years as an entrepreneur, starting and operating companies, including 10 years in the telecommunications industry in Latin America. He is bi-lingual. Mr. Emerson has also co-hosted Private Equity Forums in NYC since 2001, at which companies presented their value propositions to hundreds of institutional and individual investors. Bryan received a B.A. with Honors in Economics and Spanish and a M.B.A. from the Jones School of Administration at Rice University. He is on the Council of Overseers for the Jones School. Bryan is a member of FINRA's National Technology Committee as well as a FINRA arbitrator.