Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 41

I'm a lucky man.

I've been living in beautiful Pacific Palisades since 1982 with Cheryl, my wife of 20 years, and our daughter Danielle who just started her freshman year in environmental science at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

I have been a registered, card-carrying Libertarian since I proudly became a US citizen 10 years ago. I opted Libertarian because my experiences and those of my family show that big government is inevitably bad regardless of good intentions.

I was born and raised in Lima, Perú. Both my parents' families escaped from Central and Eastern Europe to South America one step ahead of Nazis and Cossacks. I came to the US 30 years ago to study computer science, receiving a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley.

My first job after graduate school was in England because I didn't have a "green card" at the time, my first experience with our insane immigration policy. Two years living under British socialism -- with its decrepit socialized medical system, coercive unions and mile-high tax rates -- was all I could take. Gracefully, a computer company in Santa Monica sponsored my legal immigration to the US, my second experience with our insane immigration policy.

Two years later I started my first company and have been a "high tech" entrepreneur ever since following my family tradition where everyone is or was an entrepreneur: parents, grandparents, two brothers and one sister.

I am currently CEO of Koffler Ventures LLC, a firm that makes angel investments and provides mentoring and turnaround consulting services to information technology companies. One of my favorite portfolio companies is LatinoLA.com, a website that celebrates the diversity of Southern California's Latino life and thought. Previously I was president of a healthcare information systems company that was acquired in 1998.

My professional affiliations include:

• President of the Los Angeles Venture Association.
• Member of the executive committee of the Los Angeles network of the Tech Coast Angels, an organization of individuals who invest in Southern California's promising emerging-growth companies.
• Director and vice president of the Software Council of Southern California.
• Member of the advisory boards of both the Center for Technology Commercialization at the University of Southern California, and the Wells Fargo Center for Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the College of Business Administration and Economics at California State University, Northridge.