Founding President and CEO, Bendis Investment Group, LLC

Richard A. Bendis has distinguished himself as a successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, investment banker, and consultant in the technology and healthcare industries. He currently serves as the founding president and CEO of the Bendis Investment Group, LLC (BIG), a global financial intermediary firm headquartered in Philadelphia. He has a joint venture management agreement with Drawbridge Special Opportunities Advisors, LLC, an affiliate of the New York City based Fortress Investment Group. Under the management agreement, BIG is responsible for the sourcing, due diligence, acquisition, origination, management, servicing, and disposition of investments.

Most recently, Bendis served as chairman, president and CEO of True Product ID, Inc., a global publicly-traded technology company headquartered in Philadelphia that produces integrators for anti-counterfeiting and security surveillance applications and is a provider of integrated tracking devices. Bendis relocated TPID’s operations to Beijing,China. Bendis also founded and served as the first president and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia (IP), a public/private partnership dedicated to growing the wealth and workforce of the greater Philadelphia region. IP manages an umbrella of programs under four distinct areas: direct equity investment/financing assistance; technology commercialization; global and regional economic development; and market research and branding. He continues to serve on the IP Board of Directors.

Bendis has successfully leveraged a career in the private sector (with Quaker Oats, Polaroid, Texas Instruments, Marion Laboratories and Kimberly Services) and the venture capital industry (RAB Ventures) to lead the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC). As its president and CEO, he developed KTEC into a globally recognized model for technology-based economic development. He also successfully built an Inc. 500 healthcare software company, Continental Healthcare Systems, Inc., which he took public on NASDAQ and later sold to an international conglomerate. In addition, Bendis managed his own venture capital fund, RAB Ventures, which made 15 investments in early-stage technology and healthcare companies.

Bendis is a seasoned international consultant and speaker to the United Nations, NATO, the European Commission, national and international technology-based economic development industry organizations, and other global enterprises. He serves on several for profit and not-for-profit boards, and was a nominee for the 2005 Ernst and Young National Entrepreneur Supporter of the Year Award and was the 1996 recipient of the Regional Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He currently serves as an EOY national judge. He also serves on the board of Project Development Group Environmental.