John Alexander has 27 years experience starting & building technology businesses and currently serves as President of Business Development Advisors, Inc., “BDA”, (www.BusDevAdvisors.com), a company he founded in 1996. 

Mr. Alexander speaks on a range of topics focused upon starting, building, and growing businesses.  Related topics include: strategic planning; performing due diligence, negotiating, and integrating acquisitions; creating angel/venture investor tax credits in incent investment in

BDA is a consulting firm that provides the extensive range of business development capabilities found in America’s best companies, but generally unavailable or unaffordable for early-stage technology companies. 

For three years ending October 2008, Mr. Alexander stepped away from BDA to serve as CEO of Chameleon Scientific Corporation – a medical technology company focused on atomic-level surface modification.  John first turned around the company’s financing with $11 million in new venture capital and then built the team of 27, filed 23 patents (one was granted in 4 months), and grew to the revenue stage with nine major medical device customers. 

Prior to joining Chameleon Scientific Corp., Mr. Alexander’s team of seven at BDA supported 45 start-up companies over more than nine years through strategic, project and acting management roles; M&A and alliance consulting; and capitalization support -- assisting clients raise over $101 million. 

Prior to founding BDA, John was Vice President of Corporate Development at St. Jude Medical.  He led acquisition and diversification efforts which transformed St. Jude from a single product line, $200 million dollar company into an $840 million multiple product-line company in three years, which in-turn drove a 3.5 times market cap increase to $3.4 billion. 

John has also been Director of Business Development & Planning at Baxter Diagnostics, has held positions in M&A at W.R. Grace & Co. and G.E. Venture Capital and was a product development engineer at Reynolds Metals (now Alcoa).  Mr. Alexander has an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Colgate Darden School of Business Administration, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University.  He is has been a visiting lecturer at the Darden School since 2004.  Mr. Alexander is founder and Chairman of Twin Cities Angels, a series of angel investment funds, currently Twin Cities Angels II, LLC.  He led the business efforts and supported legislative leaders from both parties resulting in the successful enactment of an Angel Investor Tax Credit in Minnesota in April 2010.  He was appointed by the Governor of Minnesota to serve on the Science and Technology Council.  He also serves on the Board of the Defense Alliance (an industry association which promotes the Upper Midwest’s innovative contributions to the nation’s defense).