Committed. Experienced. Sagacious.

Benjamin Tran, PhD

Managing Partner 

Benjamin Tran has been the corporate strategist, investor, and financial partner in the formation and growth of several emerging growth technology companies. Benjamin specializes in cross-border M&A, private equity, merchant banking advisory and technology marketing. Benjamin, at times, serves as senior advisor to several publicly traded companies. Since February 2021 to present, Benjamin has served as Senior Capital Market Advisor for Iveda Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: IVDA), an AI and IoT technology company to assist with financing and uplisting to Nasdaq. From August 2017 to January 2019, he served as Advisory Chairman of Vemanti Group, Inc. (OTCQB: VMNT), an innovative fintech company to assist in M&A and international business development. From November 2018 to April 2021, Benjamin also co-founded and served as chairman of CBMD.com, a privately held physician-based CBD science company specializing in pain management. Benjamin served as CFO of privately held Stock Navigators, a leading software and educational training institution for technical traders from June 2018 to June 2019. Since 2014 to present, Benjamin has served as managing partner of United System Capital, a private equity advisory firm in Newport Beach, California. Prior to United System Capital, Benjamin was managing partner of an Asia-based joint venture with Brean Murray Carret & Co., a New York-based investment bank that has transacted over 100 IPOs/APOs/SPACs and raised over $4B for the U.S. and Asian companies. Benjamin spearheaded the organization to formulate a multi-functional investment banking service for emerging growth companies via globalization strategies. Benjamin has been seasoned international consultant providing corporate development and interim senior management to small and medium sized enterprises in Silicon Valley and the Asia Pacific region. He also served as a board director, CFO, corporate strategist, and executive advisor for several distressed companies, managing turn-around situations. As a Silicon Valley high-tech veteran, Benjamin brings over 20 years of diversified experience including mergers and acquisitions, venture management, strategic marketing, and international business development. Prior to his investment and corporate advisory career, Benjamin worked for technology leaders including Micron Technology, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Mitsubishi Electric America, Philips Semiconductors, holding various senior technical and marketing management positions. Benjamin received a PhD in Business Administration, a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, a Masters of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from San Jose State University, California.

Gregory Trimarche,  Esq. 

Managing Partner 

Gregory has practiced law for over 20 years with some of the world’s top law firms. Gregory served as partner of Greenberg Traurig, Bryan Cave, and Morrison & Foerster. His law practice was unusually broad, including extensive experience in environmental and energy law and a wide range of other governmental and regulatory fields, as well as finance, intellectual property, general commercial litigation, and strategic planning and risk avoidance.  He conducted countless due diligence analyses in connection with mergers and acquisitions and other transactions (particularly involving companies in the energy, environmental and technology sectors.  For the past two decades, his primary focus has been on emerging companies in the renewable energy and cleantech industries. Gregory is uniquely positioned to identify and evaluate IPO candidates, strategic acquisition targets, strategic partnership opportunities, and other investment opportunities in the energy sector. He also has extensive experience dealing with federal and state energy and environmental regulatory programs, as well as the various governmental incentive programs relating to the energy and utility industries.  He is a frequent speaker at cleantech industry conferences, and has published many written works in these areas.  Gregory is also the President and Chairman of the Board of Cleantech OC (Orange County’s renewable energy and clean technology trade association).  He also serves on the Board of Directors of OCTANe, the fundraising and networking organization for Orange County’s technology industries. Gregory is a graduate of the University of Kansas and University of Kansas law school.

Frederick Cardin, PhD

Sr. Advisor

Dr. Rick Cardin has been advising several emerging growth companies on building their businesses through M&A strategy, leveraged financing and global marketing in the areas of clean tech, agricultural tech, nanotech, automotive, finance, healthcare, food, franchise, newspaper, environment, data storage, and e-commerce via Harvard Growth Strategies and Harvard Square Technology Partners. Dr. Cardin serves on the Board of Directors or Board of Advisors of exciting growth companies, including ProOne (environmentally friendly super lubricants and fuel catalysts; SafetySpec (real-time, reliable detection of harmful contaminants in food systems); ECO Products Group (unique products for water conservation and agriculture); KESDEE (world leader in e-learning for finance professionals). His service as a public company Director has been commended by ISS / Risk Metrics. He is author or co-author of books on conflict of interest in securities, trends affecting the U.S. health care system, entrepreneurship, business finance and recycling. He founded a publicly traded food franchisor acquired by Pacific Equities. Dr. Cardin was formerly a Director and Principal of the Cambridge Research Institute, an international strategy consulting firm where many of his partners were department chairman at Harvard Business School. Dr. Cardin earned his Doctorate in Finance and MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School, where he also served on the international finance faculty. He earned a BA summa cum laude from Tufts University where he fulfilled degree requirements in economics, math, and astronomy, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Yang Baoguo, PhD

Sr. Advisor

Dr. Yang joined our firm to help with commercialization of new technologies toward the Asian region, being also responsible for cross-border M&A executions. Dr. Yang has over 20 years of experience in investment banking, post-merger restructuring, real estate management and private equity investment. He is also managing partner of Zhongchi Capital, a late stage technology private equity fund based in Shanghai. He is an industry specialist in renewable energy, real estates, consumer electronics, media, tourism and environmental protection. Though his M&A career, Dr. Yang has designed and executed more than 100 domestic and international M&A transactions, having published over 200 research assignments covering major industries in Asia. He has served as senior executive for several investment companies in China including Hope Investment Management, Delong Industrial Investment Management, and CYTS, the second largest travel company in China listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange. Dr. Yang Baoguo holds a PhD and a Master of Science in Coastal Engineering from Nanjing University and has served as visiting scholar at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Isra Wattanasarn, MBA

Sr. Venture Partner

Isra has over twenty years of experience in the financial services and information technology consulting fields. Isra has been a consultant/industry analyst for Fuji-Keizai, one of Japan ‘s top market research and technology consulting firms. At Fuji – Keizai Isra concentrates on helping clients with the strategy, market research, technology recommendations and information systems analysis. Clients are the world’s largest and best-known consumer electronics, computer and communication companies. Before Fuji-Keizai, Isra served as a Vice President of Client Services at iframe, an Internet and information technology professional services firm, where he built the strategy group and managed all billable consultants. Prior to that, Isra was a Vice President at Merrill Lynch, in its Private Client Group, where he made venture capital investments in several media companies and high tech startups. He served as a board observer for those companies in which Merrill made investments. He has extensive experience in financial analysis, financial modeling and business plan analysis. Isra holds an MBA in Finance from New York University and has passed the CPA exam.

Charles Rosenberry

Venture Partner

Charlie is responsible for due diligence on leadership capability of proposed investment candidates while building and strengthening business relationships worldwide by promoting the portfolio of CleanTek Venture Capital and revolutionary technology products. With a vast connection in several industries and Fortune 500 companies, Charlie has spent the past 30 years developing his expertise as a polished and forward thinking business leader with widely diversified experience in value-based sales, enterprise architecture and technology consulting.  Working in senior leadership positions for some of the world’s largest companies, including Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Tata and Unisys, he generated more than $500 million in revenue in the IT services sector including Cloud Computing and Blockchain solutions. Charlie lives in the seaside community of Newport Coast, California. He is married with four children and in his leisure time enjoys gourmet cooking and coaching youth sports. Charlie holds a BS from the University of Tennessee.