NorthStar’s Board of Directors is comprised of notable industry veterans with the vision, experience, and determination to guide NorthStar to market leadership. As stewards of the company, these leaders are focused and committed to ensuring corporate fiscal responsibility, customer delight, and market competitiveness for NorthStar.

Robert Zangrillo
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

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.




Collin Cohen
President

Collin is a proven executive and leader, with over two decades of professional experience, including 15 years in financial services. Collin joined NorthStar in 2004 and has built and led the team which has grown the company twelvefold during his tenure. Previously, Collin served as Executive Vice President at Advent Software, the leading provider of investment management solutions for the financial services industry. At Advent, Collin was responsible for a broad set of functional areas and business units, helping grow the company from $50 million to $170 million over four years, while sustaining operating margins exceeding 20%. Prior to Advent, Collin was a principal in the private equity industry and before that, a management consultant at Bain and Company. Collin has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Stanford University.




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.


Bill Guttman
Professor, Carnegie-Mellon University

Dr. William Guttman is Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Technology and Special Advisor to the Provost at Carnegie-Mellon University.  He was part of the founding group of Carnegie-Mellon's CyLab, one of the world's largest university-based research initiatives focused on dependability and security in software and networked systems. He also serves as Chairman of Carnegie-Mellon's education management company, iCarnegie.  Bill has helped build a number of technology companies, including Printcafe (NASDAQ:PCAF, acquired by NASDAQ: EFII), which he co-founded and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. He has previously served in various advisory capacities for the U.S., the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the OECD. He is the author of Pacific Asian Capital Markets (OECD/Oxford & IBH), among numerous other publications and patents. He 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.