David Beirne Partner, Benchmark Capital
Dave joined Benchmark in May 1997 and serves as a general partner to Benchmark's $2 billion in committed venture capital. Benchmark's strategy is to be the first investor in technology-driven companies that seek to create new markets and have significant growth potential. Dave's other investments at Benchmark include 1-800-Flowers, Inc. (FLWS), Galyan's Trading Company (GLYN), and Kana (KANA). Prior to joining Benchmark, Dave founded Ramsey/Beirne Associates, the leader in high-impact senior management search for information technology companies. In his more than 10 years at Ramsey/Beirne, Dave was the firm’s Chief Executive Officer and developed a nationwide reputation for recruiting high-profile executives. Dave currently serves on the boards of Cohesiant, ePhysician, Securify, Vivecon, and NorthStar. He holds a BS from Bryant College, 1985.
Todd Goergen Managing Partner, Ropart Asset Management Funds
Todd is founder and Managing Partner of the Ropart Asset Management Funds. He started his career in Mergers and Acquisitions at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette (1994 to 1999). After leaving DLJ, Todd became Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at Blyth, Inc. (NYSE:BTH), a leading global designer and marketer of home decorative and fragranced products. Todd is Chairman of the Board of Digital Traffic Systems and iMergent (AMEX:IIG) and serves on the Boards of Directors of Genapure Corporation, Heads & Threads International, NorthStar, and ViSalus Holdings. Todd is on the U.S. and International Advisory Councils to the Global Leadership Foundation (www.g-l-f.org). Todd received a BA in economics and political science from Wake Forest University.
William Guttman, Executive Chairman, Professor Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. William Guttman is Special Advisor to the Provost of Carnegie Mellon University, and Chairman of iCarnegie, Carnegie Mellon’s for-profit education company; he previously co-founded Cylab, one of the world's largest University-based research initiatives focused on dependability and security in software and networked systems. Bill has been instrumental in a variety of University tech transfers; most recently he co-founded the video search software company, Panopto, whose board he also chairs.
Guttman is also Investment Partner and leads the financial technology practice at Philadelphia-based TL Ventures. In addition to his investing activities on behalf of TL, he has founded, co-founded, or held other leadership roles in more than a dozen institutionally-backed ventures – serving as chief executive at several of these, including Printcafe (NASDAQ: PCAF), a 500-person software developer acquired by Electronics for Imaging (NASDAQ: EFII).
Earlier in his career, Dr. Guttman served in advisory capacities for the United States, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the OECD. He is the author of Pacific-Asian Capital Markets (OECD/Oxford & IBH), Between Bailout and Breakdown: A Modular Approach to the Latin American Debt Crisis (Center for Strategic and International Studies), US Telecommunications Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa (U.S. Agency for International Development), along with other publications and patents. Bill completed his Masters and Doctoral degrees at Balliol College, Oxford University, where he was a British Council Scholar.
Fred Sturgis, Managing Director, H.I.G. Ventures
Fred Sturgis serves as a Managing Director at H.I.G. Ventures where he is primarily focused on enterprise software and services investments for the firm. Fred has extensive experience advising software companies throughout all stages of their growth, as well as consulting to Fortune 500 companies on large-scale software projects. Prior to joining H.I.G., he was a Vice President in the technology investment banking group of JPMorgan H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist) and was a founding team member of H&Q's Atlanta office. At H&Q, Sturgis was responsible for the firm's East coast software practice, advising clients on a variety of merger-and-acquisition and capital-raising transactions and sponsoring several principal investments through H&Q's $500 million venture capital fund. Previously, he was with the investment banking groups of both Alex Brown & Sons and Salomon Smith Barney. Sturgis began his career with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), where he managed operations strategy and technology initiatives for several large clients, primarily in the high-tech and telecommunications industries. Fred serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Invistics, Nexidia, Savvion and VistaScape. Fred earned an MBA with distinction from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. In addition, he received a BS in mathematics, cum laude, from Furman University.
Jay Wolf, Partner and Portfolio Manager, Trinad Capital
Jay has 14 years of investment and operations experience in a broad range of industries. Jay’s investment experience includes senior and subordinated debt, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and public equity investments. Prior to joining Trinad, Jay served as the Executive Vice President of Corporate Development for Wolf Group Integrated Communications where he was responsible for the company’s acquisition program. Prior to that, he worked at Canadian Corporate Funding, a Toronto-based merchant bank in the senior debt department and subsequently for Trillium Growth, the firm’s venture capital fund. Jay currently sits on the board of Shells Seafood Restaurants (SHLL), Prolink Holdings (PLKH), Optio Software (OPTO), Mediavest (MVSI), and Starvox Communications (USWI). Jay received a BA from Dalhousie University.
Robert Zangrillo, Founding Chairman
Robert is a veteran in the financial services and software industries and his talents for building teams dedicated to delivering leading industry solutions are widely known. Prior to founding NorthStar, Robert was the founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of InterWorld, a leading enterprise ecommerce software application provider. Robert was one of the early visionaries to recognize the enormous potential of Internet commerce and how it would transform the way business is conducted in the new global economy. As a result, he has been recognized for his leadership in the industry and has received numerous personal and technology awards such as the 1998 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® and Crain's Top 40 under 40 Award. Prior to InterWorld, Robert was the Managing Director of the Cisneros Family Office. In addition, he was an associate at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Investment Banking Division. Robert is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he serves on the Committee on Finance and Budget. Robert received his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and BA from University of Vermont.
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