Board of Advisors

Norman Monson
While serving as Chief Financial Officer for the publicly traded Ramada Inn chain, Mr. Monson was responsible for raising capital and the acquisition for over 30 major hotel and resorts. Later on, through his own consulting company, he negotiated the syndication, purchase and management for several large hotels and resorts. He has also taught finance and economics at Columbia University and the University of California at Berkley.

Ken Aldrich
Mr. Aldrich has over 25 years of experience as a private equity investor and entrepreneur. He has provided early stage funding and management expertise for a variety of biomedical and technology start-up companies. Mr. Aldrich is a Managing Director of Convergent Investors, the General Partner of a Los Angeles-based biotech and life science technology fund and is also president and owner of The Aldrich Company, a private venture capital company.

Patrick J. Kelvie
Mr. Kelvie is Secretary and General Counsel of Holdings for American Restaurant Group (ARG”). He has served as General Counsel of ARG since 1987 and Secretary of the company since 1989. Between 1978 and 1987, Mr. Kelvie held various legal counsel positions for Saga Corporation, the predecessor owner of Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus.

T.J. Pempel Ph.D.
Dr. Pempel, is currently the director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California Berkeley. Prior to joining the Political Science Department at Berkeley, he was the Boeing Professor of International Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies and an adjunct professor in Political Science, at the University of Washington. Other teaching assignments included Cornell University, the University of Colorado, and the University of Wisconsin.

Oliver Greeves
Prior to his recent retirement from Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Mr. Greeves held the positions of Vice President of International Investments and Regional Executive for the Asia-Pacific region. He has also served as a director of Commercial Bank of San Francisco and worked for 18 years at Chase Manhattan Bank in several capacities, including Country Manager in Korea and Managing Director of Chase Asia in Hong Kong.