About_Us - Converting Innovation to Business and Economic Development

Focus on Outcomes
Alameda Advisors partners with its clients to achieve success and prefers arrangements where we share the benefits of that success with our clients.

The Alameda Approach
Alameda provides strategic resources for our clients when and where they are needed. We are there strictly when you need us, and not more.

Who We Are

The heart and soul of Alameda consists of serial entrepreneurs and corporate executives who have successfully converted complex technology and life science ideas into businesses that sell real products.

We are experts in our fields, turnaround executives, and innovators. We have been parts of large organizations early in our careers and learned what works in large organizations as well as the challenges of corporate culture.
We have been founding entrepreneurs of companies developing complex hardware targeting customer bases globally.
We have broad educational backgrounds that have been enhanced by real world business experience in dozens of countries.
Some of us have been guest instructors at leading universities. We are recognized in our fields as invited speakers, quoted by the press and interviewed on television news.

While our team has had deep education and experience in science and engineering we understand that we are not experts in every sector of technology. Alameda's extended team of technical advisors includes senior industry professionals and leading academics with exceptional technology track records, publications and patents.

President Richard W. Helfrich

Richard W. Helfrich has many years of experience as an entrepreneur, public company turnaround leader, and has been a venture and corporate investor. Richard is an active board member and has served on boards of companies developing advanced materials, alternative energy, semiconductors, electronic equipment, and communications hardware. Richard has held executive business and marketing roles in large enterprises, mid-sized companies and startups along with board and committee positions in universities. Richard provides focus for corporations and institutions for all categories of stakeholders including shareholders, boards, employees, suppliers and customers. Helfrich leads teams that increase technologies commercialized from innovations at universities, government labs as well as corporate labs, not just in the US but from several emerging countries. Richard has served on National Science Foundation SBIR-STTR panels as well as other federal, state and regional agencies.

Helfrich's interests are in improving economic growth and the quality of life through both technology and a technology savvy workforce that understands how to use technology for their own benefit and to innovate in their own endeavors. Helfrich promotes public policy initiatives regionally and globally through promotion of legislation, fiscal reform and intellectual capital. Richard is promoting programs for expanded K-12 science education, reduced regulatory and governance burdens for small business, and programs to encourage more spinouts/startups from federally funded research.