account:
Management
board of observers
David Andre
David Andre is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur with over twenty years experience building, growing, and managing leading-edge technology and internet businesses. Mr. Andre is president and CEO of Mall Networks. Prior to co-founding Mall Networks in 2005, David was founding CTO of Upromise, where he was responsible for defining the technology platform, operations, and business processes. The Upromise platform today processes over two thirds of all US grocery transactions, resulting in tens of millions of contributions for millions of Upromise members, every month. Upromise Online Shopping is one of the most successful online shopping portals in the industry. Before Upromise, Mr. Andre was Vice President of Engineering at Direct Hit (acquired by Ask Jeeves), where he oversaw all development and operations for the award-winning search technology company. In addition, Mr. Andre was Vice President of Engineering at Lycos, where he oversaw the development of the personalized portal My Lycos, as well as the domestic and international versions of Lycos Search and many other products. Previously, Mr. Andre held senior technology management roles at the SQA division of Rational Software (acquired by IBM), Object Design (acquired by Progress Software), and Symbolics. David holds an MSCS from the University of Maryland, and a BSEE from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jeff Brody
Jeff Brody is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures. Jeff is focused on investments in technology companies spanning both enterprise and consumer customers. He currently serves on the board of directors of HomeAway, Kodiak Networks, LifeSize Communications and MobiTV. Jeff was an early investor and director of Danger (acquired by Microsoft), Fraud Sciences (acquired by eBay), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Loopnet (LOOP), ZING Systems (acquired by Dell), GetThere (GTHR), mySimon (acquired by CNET), NextCard (NXCD), Onebox (acquired by OpenWave), ViaVideo (acquired by Polycom), and WebTV (acquired by Microsoft). Before co-founding Redpoint, Jeff was a general partner with Brentwood Venture Capital, a firm he joined in 1994. Prior to Brentwood, Jeff was at Comdisco Ventures and Crosspoint Venture Partners. Early in his career, Jeff co-founded a mobile telecommunications company and worked as a field engineer for Schlumberger Ltd. in Europe and Africa. Jeff received a B.S. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Charles Curran
Charles Curran has experience as a venture capital investor and an investment banker. He has invested in and advised a number of high quality technology and telecommunications companies. Before joining Valhalla, Charles was a partner of Saturn Venture Partners in New York. Charles led Saturn's enterprise technology investing efforts, including application software, infrastructure software, e-security, and storage. Charles also worked as an associate with New Enterprise Associates in Virginia. Prior to NEA, Mr. Curran worked as a telecommunications and technology investment banker for Lazard Frères & Co. and DLJ Securities Corporation, advising clients on over $35 billion announced M & A and capital markets transactions. Charles received a Masters in Business Administration from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Distinction from Stanford University.
Hemant Taneja
Hemant Taneja is a Managing Director at General Catalyst Partners. Hemant is a board member of Advanced Electron Beams, Cyren Call, Lumenz, Mascoma, Quickplay Media, Sand9, and Stion. Hemant also served on the board of SiteAdvisor, a General Catalyst investment that was acquired by McAfee (MFE) in April 2006, and m-Qube (General Catalyst founded the company) that was acquired by Verisgn (VSGN) in May 2006. Before joining General Catalyst in 2002, Hemant was founder, president and CEO of Isovia, a Boston-based mobile software and applications company that was acquired by JP Mobile (MOT) in 2001. Mr. Taneja earned an M.S. in Operations Research from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. He also earned an M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, a B.S. in Mathematics, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and a B.S. in Biology & Biomedical Engineering, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
advisory board
Bill Best
Bill Best is a 35 year veteran in the telecom industry with over 20 years specialising in mobile. Bill has his own independent consulting and advisory company called iacs. Bill is also a non-executive Director with Telsis and Ganesh Technologies and a member of the Advisory Board of JumpTap. Bill is a former CTO of the GSM Association, FirstMark Communications and One2One (now T-Mobile UK), and also worked as a Venture Partner with Saturn Ventures, a New York based VC. Earlier in his career Bill worked at Cellnet (now O2). Bill started his career with BT.
Mike Buhrmann
Mike Buhrmann has over 28 years experience building technology businesses. Mr. Buhrmann is currently a partner with 1024 Partners, LLC, a Kirkland, WA-based venture firm focused on supporting early stage high tech and life sciences companies. Prior to 1024 Partners, Mr. Buhrmann was the founder and CEO of @mobile, which ultimately became part of OpenWave Systems. He has also held senior executive positions with McCaw Cellular and AT&T Wireless. Most recently, Mike was the Chairman of the Board of Directors for m-Qube which was acquired by VeriSign Inc. (Nasdaq:VRSN) in April 2006. Mike was also an advisor to UIEvolution which was acquired by Square Enix USA in March 2004. Mr. Buhrmann received his BASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and post graduate studies in business administration.
David Hose
David Hose, a noted leader in the wireless industry, runs Ideas & Plans, a hands-on strategic advisory service. Ideas & Plans works with early and late-stage companies across the mobile market from mobile devices to infrastructure to software to services. From 2002 to 2004 David held positions at Openwave Systems, including Chief Development Officer and SVP/GM of the Client Software Business. As Chief Development Officer, David Hose was responsible for the business strategy, product management, and engineering development of Openwave's entire product line, including the mobile infrastructure, messaging applications, and client software businesses. As SVP/GM of the Client Software Business, David ran sales, marketing and product development for Openwave's $100M revenue handset business. Mr. Hose was previously founder and Chief Executive Officer of Signalsoft, a pioneer in the development of location based services for mobile phones - and guided Signalsoft through its venture funding, subsequent I PO and acquisition by Openwave. SignalSoft's major customers and partners included Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, AT& T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Bell Mobility, Lucent, Motorola, HP/Compaq, and Siemens. Key strategic investors included AOL, Comverse, Intel and Siemens.
Mark Duffy
Mark served as JumpTap's first CFO from July 2005 to October 2007, a period when the company raised $42 million and grew from 11 to over 100 employees and signed its first 9 carrier partners. Mark is President & CEO of Sound Vision, Inc. (www.soundvisioninc.com) a fabless semiconductor company based in Boston. Mark started his entrepreneurial career with Advanced Technology Ventures. ATV leveraged the broad intellectual capital of its founding team into a varied portfolio of medical device, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, systems and software companies, including VLSI, Valid Logic, Cytyc, Teradata, XTENT, and Acme Packet. In 1993, Mark co-founded ExpressPoint Technology Services, a technology logistics company based in Minneapolis and Sacramento, and served as COO, EVP Business Development and Director. ExpressPoint grew from 4 employees at inception, to over 400 employees and $60 Million in sales by 1997. In 1999 Mark co-founded Onex Communications in Bedford, MA. Onex developed terabit service processors and switching fabric and was sold to TranSwitch (TXCC) in 2001. The Company's investors included St. Paul Ventures, Star Ventures, and Venrock. Mark served as a Director of Integrated Healthcare Information Services, Inc. from inception until its sale in 2005 to United Health Care. He is a co-founder and director of the Initiative for Music and Youth (www.musicandyouth.org). Mark received a BA (Lit) and an MBA (Finance) from Boston College.
Tomas Isaksson
Tomas Isaksson, a 27 year veteran of the international telecommunications industry, spent 11 years at Vodafone, the world's leading mobile wireless communications company. Most recently, he was chief executive and chairman of the management board of Vodafone Netherlands, a subsidiary of the Vodafone Group. During his tenure at Vodafone, Mr. Isaksson was also chief executive of the Americas Region and president of Vodafone Global Platform and Internet Services, as well as the chief executive officer of Europolitan Holdings AB, a Swedish mobile operator. Earlier in his career, Mr. Isaksson spent 16 years at Ericsson, a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators, most recently as president and chief executive officer of Ericsson Radio Systems Inc. Mr. Isaksson has served on the board of directors of many companies, including Europolitan Holdings AB, Verizon Wireless and Telecel. Currently Mr. Isaksson serves on the board or as an advisor to several companies.
Karim Khoja
Karim Khoja is CEO of Roshan, the largest mobile operator in Afganistan. Under Mr. Khoja's leadership, Roshan in one year reached 250,000 subscribers, became EBITDA positive and generated $100M in revenue. Mr. Khoja also held positions as President and CEO of Mobilink in Pakistan, COO Croatian Telecommunication ($300M mobile business), and Director of Strategy at Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (one of two mobile operators in Poland). He holds a Masters of Science in Management Science from Imperial College at the University of London and a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Biochemistry from Chelsea College at the University of London.
Jim Manis
As President and CEO of 1024 Wireless Services, Mr. Manis has over 25 years of experience in developing international markets for technology-based companies, advocating the advancement of wireless technology and promoting the mobile Internet on a global scale. Prior to 1024 Wireless Services, Jim was a member of the founding executive team for m-Qube, Inc. m-Qube was acquired by VeriSign in 2006 where Jim continued his responsibilities until March of 2007. Prior to joining m-Qube, Mr. Manis held senior leadership positions with Openwave Systems, Software.com, @ mobile.com, the Universal Wireless Communications Consortium, WestBridge International and the International Trade Administration. Known for his collaborative and inclusive style, Manis serves as Chairman Emeritus of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), as a member of the Leadership Council of the Wireless Internet Caucus, and as an advisor to a number of mobile related companies. He holds a Masters degree from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree from Illinois State University.
Susan Norris
Susan Norris brings more than twenty-five years of diverse telecommunications, business, and education experience to her advisory role in Technology Management. She has formally consulted with companies ranging from high-tech start-ups to much larger telecommunications vendors. As preparation for her advisory role, Susan held increasingly responsible positions within the Service Provider arena. Most recently, as Assistant Vice President of Network Systems Development at Sprint, she was responsible for the technical design, development, and implementation of its 2.5G network infrastructure. Susan currently sits on the Advisory Panel for The University of Kansas, School of Engineering, Information and Telecommunication Technology Center and several companies. She has also been active in various technical forums, related to Next Generation planning and implementation, and served as a judge for competitions involving innovation and project funding.
J. Michael (Mike) Turner
Mike is a former SBC senior executive with over 30 years experience working with tier-one service providers. Most recently, Mike was president of SBC’s DataComm, Global & Internet Services Division, where he was responsible for providing internet services, global customer care, and networking services and integration. In addition to domestic and international responsibilities, Mike has worked extensively with digital media companies. During Mike’s lengthy career at SBC, he held senior officer positions with diverse responsibilities leading key business units. As head of SBC’s DataComm division he managed 7,000 employees throughout 36 states and Canada, and led SBC Internet Services as it expanded to over one million customers. While at SBC, Mike improved network cost structure, shifted capital to forward-looking products and services, and identified a cost-effective ways to enter new markets during a time of increasing competition and regulatory challenges. Mike holds an MBA from Illinois Benedictine University and a BSEE from LamarUniversity.
Tom Wilde
Tom Wilde is the CEO of EveryZing, the world's premier audio and video search engine. Prior to EveryZing, Mr. Wilde was Senior Vice President and General Manager North America for MIVA, the largest independent Performance Marketing Network. Mr. Wilde joined MIVA in October 2004 as Vice President and General Manager, primary traffic, and was promoted to Senior Vice President and General Manager, primary traffic, in January 2005. Before joining MIVA, he was Vice President and General Manager of search and publishing at Terra Lycos. In this role he was responsible for the creation, execution and management of Terra Lycos' global strategy in search and web publishing. Mr. Wilde's prior professional experience includes serving as a member of the board of directors at Fast Search & Transfer, a software company that develops enterprise search technologies, and as Vice President of marketing and channels at FAST. He has also served on the IAB Search Engine Committee. Mr. Wilde holds an M.B.A from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Colby College.
