Judge, 2005 Global Finals
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The CEO of Headland Management LLC is Robert M. Smelick. Mr. Smelick’s career began in the computer systems analysis business in 1962. In 1968 Mr. Smelick joined the investment banking group of Kidder Peabody & Company Inc. in New York, and moved to San Francisco in 1973 to lead this firms West Coast investment banking group. In 1979, Mr. Smelick became a Managing Director of The First Boston Corporation and took over the leadership of this company’s West Coast investment banking group. Mr. Smelick formed Sterling Payot Company with William Jesse in 1989. Sterling Payot provided corporate finance advice to companies that included Pacific Telesis, Consolidated Freightways, King Broadcasting, Wired Ventures, Metricom and The Wine Group. During the last half of the nineties, Sterling Payot made early stage investments in Yahoo, Packeteer, Agile Software, Wired Ventures and Accrue Software. Headland Ventures was formed in 2002 to continue the early stage investment activities of certain Sterling Payot investors.