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 Mark Bünger
Senior Analyst
Lux Research, Inc.
Talk Title: The Economics of Matter: Nanotechnology & Scale of Manufacturing
Abstract
My venture partners invest in, write about, and live in the realm
of mesoscale physics, or, by its more popular nomenclature, nanotechnology.
Once poorly understood as an ill-defined amalgamation of disparate,
atomic-level sciences, nanotechnology is now a young media darling
whose time has come. Sophisticated investors and corporate executives
grasp that this is no passing fad. Five years ago, we saw salient
advances in materials science being neglected as the herds stampeded
toward enterprise hardware and software and optical networking.
We were convinced that Nicholas Negroponte would have it wrong,
and that soon enough people would be trading in their bits for
atoms. When our research arm, Lux Research, released its first
annual "Nanotech Report" in 2001, 98 percent of Fortune
1000 executives were unable to define “nanotechnology." Today,
nanotechnology has become a presidential priority, has taken center
stage on CNBC, and has even surfaced as a subject of activist chatter
and environmental concern. Just
as plastics revolutionized the structural properties of matter
- entering into industries as various as communications, electronics,
food and beverage, and entertainment - now, nanoscale advances
offer the ability to control the structural and functional properties
of matter. This includes electric, thermal, magnetic, and optical
properties, which are applicable to every industry imaginable.
Biographical Sketch
Mark Bünger is a Senior Analyst in Lux Research’s San Francisco office. Mark has 15 years of business strategy experience, both as a management consultant and technology analyst. In this time, he has advised more than 40 Fortune 500 corporations, led hundreds of engagements, and authored over 60 reports and other publications.
Most recently, he was a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, where he studied and advised clients in manufacturing industries including automotive and aerospace. Prior to that, Mark was a Managing Director at European technology consultancy Icon Medialab (now LB International). He also co-founded the leading online promotional currency company, SoftCoin, which manages multimillion-dollar campaigns for clients such as Kodak, Proctor & Gamble, Frito-Lay, and Nokia. The first six years of Mark’s career were spent at Accenture in the U.S. and Europe, where he was a consultant in a variety of industries and technologies. Mark and his work have figured in leading business journals and other media outlets in the U.S. and Europe, including CNN, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and other regional and trade publications.
Mark’s education includes International Marketing at Mälardalen Polytechnic in Sweden, and Market Research at the University of Texas in the U.S. In addition, Mark studied biochemistry through the University of California at Berkeley’s extension program, and currently assists part-time in a lab at the UCSF Department of Neurology. He speaks English, Swedish, and German, and is conversant in French, Spanish, and four other languages. He has served as Chairman and Vice-Chair of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce on the regional and national level, respectively. Mark and his family split the year living in California and Sweden.
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