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Board of Directors
George Schmitt, Chairman of the Board
George Schmitt has over 40 years of broad telecom experience in
wireless and wireline companies. He is a Managing Director & SBIC
Director at TeleSoft Partners and serves on the boards of CALIENT
Networks, VoiceObjects, SOFA, PlumbInTime, Ready Jet Go Airlines, Tele
Atlas NV, and Teleworx.
George’s experience includes leadership and management of Fortune
100 and startup firms, public and private companies, international and
domestic operations. Some of the more recognizable firms include
e.spire Communications, Omnipoint, LHS Group, Objective Systems
Integrators, PCS PrimeCo, AirTouch Communications, Mannesmann Mobilfunk
(Germany), Pacific Telesis, Pacific Telephone, and AT&T. Most
recently, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of e.spire
Communications, a provider of voice, data and Internet services to
markets throughout the U.S.
George received an M.S. in Management from Stanford University, where
he was a Sloan Fellow, and a B.A. in Political Science from Saint
Mary’s College.
Arjun Gupta, Board Member
Arjun Gupta is the Managing Partner and Founder of TeleSoft Partners,
an international venture capital firm focused on high-tech startups.
Over the last decade, he has overseen investing in and helping build
60+ private companies, resulting in 32 acquisitions and IPOs to date.
At TeleSoft, he manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has
established Corporate Partnerships in the US, Europe, and Israel
Alltel, Bechtel, Deutsche Telekom and Comverse respectively. He serves
on the Board of Directors of CALIENT Technologies, Education.com, Knowledge
Adventure , LogLogic, Nexant, Validity, and the VoiceObjects.
He is also President of the Arjun Gupta Community Foundation, which
supports community projects in education, medical research and the
arts. Earlier in his career, Arjun was a Strategy Consultant for
high-tech clients with McKinsey & Company, and a Software Engineer
with Tektronix, Inc. He is a,Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute
holds an MS and BS,Phi Beta Kappa, in Computer Science from Washington
State University, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Edgar Masri, Board Member
Edgar Masri is currently president and CEO of Qualtre, Inc., a Marlborough, MA startup, funded by Matrix Partners and Pilot House and focused on commercializing the next generation of motion sensors.
From 2006 till April 2008, Mr. Masri was President and Chief Executive Officer of 3Com Corporation, a leading global data networking company. During his tenure, he negotiated, led the acquisition of, and chaired the board of H3C, the joint venture between 3Com and Huawei. He also brought 3Com to record revenue and gross margins and 6 consecutive quarters of profitability (non-GAAP) from the point 3Com started consolidating H3C results. 3Com moved during this period to 2nd or 3rd market share position in enterprise switching (ports sold) and enterprise routing (units). Mr Masri recommended and managed the go-private transaction with Bain Capital
From 2000 till 2006, Edgar was general partner at Matrix Partners, a leading high technology venture capital firm. He led the investment in and served on the board of a number of semiconductor and telecommunication equipment startups, including Sandburst (acquired by Broadcom Corporation), Redline Communications (TSX/AIM: RDL).
Mr. Masri holds a Diplome d’Ingenieur from Ecole Centrale de Paris, a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration with distinction (Arjay Miller Scholar) from Stanford University.
Scott Alcott, Board Member
Scott Alcott is Executive Vice President in charge of operations for the Belgacom Group and a member of the group executive committee. Belgacom is a $9 billion communications company and the leading provider in Belgium of fixed and mobile telecommunication services, including telephony, Internet, data, IT services and digital television services. Scott oversees all technical infrastructure and operations for the group as well as wholesale activity.
Previously Mr. Alcott has held senior marketing and product management roles with AT&T and Ameritech/SBC. Mr. Alcott is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Chandler, Board Member
Mr. Michael Chandler is the former President of General Dynamics Information Technology. During his time at General Dynamics Information Technology, Mr. Chandler led a diverse organization of 16,000 professionals that provided systems integration, information technology, systems engineering and professional services to customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal civil and commercial sectors. Mr. Chandler has also served as President of General Dynamics Network Systems and President of General Dynamics Worldwide Telecommunications Systems.
Prior to his work in the private sector, Mr. Chandler served 20 years in the United States Navy, retiring with the rank of Commander. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University and a Master of Science in Management from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is also a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program. He and his wife Susie reside in Virginia and have a second home in Pebble Beach, California.
Mr. Chandler currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Information Technology Association of America. He is also the Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation.
Dick Moley, Board Member
Dick Moley, originally educated in England, has deep and broad
experience in high tech; both with startups and a who’s who list
of successful giants. He is a Founding Venture Partner of Storm
Ventures and serves on the boards of CALIENT Technologies, Echelon, and
Linear Technology.
Dick started his career in England in the computer industry and came to
California in 1966 to join Hewlett Packard at the start of their
computer business, working in software development and then
marketing. In 1973, he joined ROLM Corporation where he developed
the business plan for the very successful telecommunications business
which was acquired by IBM in 1984. After two years with IBM, he
joined the startup company Stratacom as Chairman, CEO and President
leading the company in the pioneering of ATM and Frame Relay
technology, and a successful IPO in 1992. He served as a Senior
VP and Board Member of Cisco Systems following their acquisition of
Stratacom in 1996.
Dick received a BSEE from Manchester University, England, a MSEE from
Stanford University and a MBA from Santa Clara University. He is also
on the Board of Trustees for Santa Clara University.
John Bowers, Board Member
John Bowers holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, and is the Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSB. He is a cofounder of CALIENT Technologies. Dr. Bowers received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell before joining UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Bowers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the IEEE, OSA and the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the OSA Holonyak Prize, the IEEE LEOS William Streifer Award and the South Coast Business and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He has published eight book chapters, 450 journal papers, 700 conference papers and has received 52 patents. He and coworkers received the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.
Chris Smith, Board Member
Chris Smith is currently a partner at the Circumference Group. Prior to Circumference Mr. Smith was the Executive Vice President of Network Services of Alltel Corporation, the fifth largest wireless company in the U.S. Prior to it's acquisition by Verizon in January 2009, Alltel served over 14 million customers with revenues of approximately $9 billion.
As the EVP of Network, Chris was responsible for short- and long-term network planning, engineering, operations, LD network planning and operations, capital budgeting and management for the entire company, and wholesale roaming contracts and budgeting.
Chris joined Alltel in 1991 in a management role within sales and marketing. He subsequently served as a General Manager of Operations in two of Alltel's largest markets. In 1997, when Alltel merged their wireless and wireline companies, Chris became President of the Southeast Region. In this capacity, Chris was responsible for all aspects of market operations. He was promoted to the EVP of Network Services in 2000.
Prior to Alltel, Chris worked within marketing at Dillard's headquarters and at Acxiom' s headquarters, both located in Little Rock. Chris is a graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in Business Management.
Victoria Katsov, Board Member
Victoria Katsov is a partner in Wall Street Technology Partners LP
("WSTP"). Previously she was a Director of Dresdner Kleinwort
Wasserstein Private Equity Group which seeded WSTP. She has experience
in originating, structuring and monitoring venture capital transactions.
Ms. Katsov has worked with, and made investments in, a number of
enterprise software, wireless technologies, security, storage and retail
companies. She is also an active board member and observer of a number
of technology companies and was actively involved in structuring and
negotiating investments in Apriso, Avexus, Avista Labs., ClearCube,
iWitness (acquired by Zantaz Inc.), MetaStorm, Peppercoin, SilverCarrot
and Saqqara.
Prior to joining Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, Ms. Katsov was with a Los
Angeles-based venture capital/incubator firm focused in the emerging
technology, Internet, and biotech fields. Earlier, she worked in the
investment banking division of Salomon Brothers in New York, where she
participated in M&A advisory assignments and capital raising for
commercial banks and finance companies.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Katsov did cancer related research at the
National Institutes of Health. Her research was published in
well-respected science magazines.
Ms. Katsov received a B.A. in economics and biochemistry, Summa Cum
Laude, from Washington University, winning both a Florence Moog Academic
Science Scholarship and a Mabel Blake Academic Science Scholarship.
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