CommNexus San Diego

Franz Birkner
Board Advisor

Franz Birkner brings to EvoNexus over 25 years of successful experience as a telecommunications entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the wireless, wireline and optical networking sectors. He was CEO and co-founder of Rayspan Corporation, a leading innovator of metamaterial air interface solutions, and he was co-founder and Managing Director of Express Ventures, a venture capital firm that provided early stage investments to San Diego start-ups. Prior to that, he was an active investor and board member at Dot Wireless, acquired by Texas Instruments, and Cognet Microsystems, acquired by Intel.

Birkner was co-founder and chairman/CEO of ComStream Corporation, a highly successful supplier of digital satellite communications equipment that was acquired by Spar Aerospace. For his accomplishments at ComStream, he was elected San Diego High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year. Prior to founding ComStream, he was Vice President - Strategy Development for the Linkabit and the Digital Communications units of M/A-COM.

Birkner was a founding board member of the San Diego Telecomm Council and launched its University Outreach program. He serves on the Industrial Advisory Board of UCSD’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Previously, Birkner was a manager at the Boston Consulting Group. He began his career as a microwave systems engineer at Watkins-Johnson Corporation. He earned dual B.S. degrees with honors from MIT’s School of Electrical Engineering and from its Sloan School of Management.

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