John Blyzinskyj
John was previously President of Avotus Corporation, a Software and Services company. Prior to that he was SVP and Division Head of a number of businesses ranging in size from start-up’s to over $700M in annual revenue, with companies including IBM and Motorola. These roles including significant experience of conducting and managing businesses in Japan, China, India, the US, and many European countries.
John holds a BSc in Electronic Engineering from Kings College, University of London; and a MBA from the Cranfield Institute of Technology.
Thomas H. Brantley
Mr. Brantley is a partner in the Boston law firm of Rubin and Rudman, LLP, with a primary concentration during his 34 years of experience in tax and other areas of the law having a major tax component. He is also a CPA, and worked for five years in the Boston tax department of Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young). He has had extensive involvement with the tax and tax-related needs of start-up and early-stage companies, as well as those of individual and venture capital investors. Mr. Brantley received his B.A. degree from Yale College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Don Burrer
Mr. Burrer’s career centers on far infrared imaging systems and their semiconductor detectors. He was a founder and originating President of Inframetrics which developed, manufactured, and marketed a broad line of infrared imaging instruments for both commercial and government applications. The company was recently acquired by FLIR Systems and now operates as their Boston facility. Mr. Burrer received his BSEE from MIT and MSEE from University of Cincinnati. He has been a Beacon Angels member since its inception.
Eric Clayberg
Eric Clayberg is a Software Engineering Manager at Google and former co-founder and EVP of Product Development for Instantiations (acquired by Google in 2010) and former co-founder and VP of Engineering for ObjectShare (acquired by ParcPlace-Digitalk in 1996). He is also a co-owner and board member for Instantiations (a new company spun off from the original Instantiations at the time of the Google acquisition). In addition to being a successful serial entrepreneur, he is a seasoned software technologist, product developer, and manager with more than 20 years of commercial software development experience. He has been responsible for creating more than a dozen commercial software products including the award winning WindowBuilder, CodePro, and VA Assist product lines. He holds a BS degree in Aerospace Engineering from MIT, an MBA from Harvard, and is co-author of Eclipse Plug-ins (3rd Edition, Dec 2008), Addison Wesley, 2008.
Wolfgang Daum
Wolfgang is a six time serial entrepreneur in healthcare and has successfully started, raised and sold three medical device companies in the US and Europe. Currently he is CEO of Castlewood Surgical. Before he was CEO of Boston Heart Lab, (now Boston Heart Diagnostics) a Framingham-based life sciences company that is a pioneer in specialized diagnostics for patients with heart disease, and was named the “Most Promising Early Stage Company” at the 2009 Silicom Ventures investment summit. In addition, he holds a M.S. in Physics and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Hamburg, Germany.
Charles Fadel
Charles Fadel spent 15 years in ICT (semiconductors and systems). He has been awarded five patents and holds a B.S. in electronics/physics with a minor in neuroscience and an M.B.A. in international marketing. He is a visiting scholar at Harvard GSE and Wharton/UPenn. He is vice chair of the education committee of BIAC at the OECD and a senior fellow at The Conference Board. He was global education lead at Cisco Systems, and liaison with UNESCO and World Bank. He has co-authored a best-selling book titled “21st Century Skills”.
David Fogel
David Fogel is Managing Director of Swifton CFOs LLC, an outsourced CFO firm that provides emerging businesses with strategic and financial Ieadership. David’s expertise lies in constructing a financial framework to help companies attract funding and guide continued growth. A contributor to the development of Greater Boston’s Mass Challenge, Boston BizSpark, and The Capital Network, David is also Adjunct Instructor of Finance in the MBA program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Alexander S. Kelso, Jr. [Resume]
Mr. Kelso has been an entrepreneur, business executive and management consultant for twenty-five years. Today, he is building houses in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In the early part of the decade, he bought, raised capital, built and sold a software firm. For start-up companies he has worn executive, marketing and production hats, and developed business plans. As a consultant he worked with executive teams of financial services, information processing, agriculture, industrial and consumer products companies in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Before entering business Lex was a professor of Finance and Economics at the Boston University School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., a M.Sc. in Economics from the University of London, an A.B. from Princeton University, and is a Certified Management Accountant and Certified Financial Manager.
Leon Liebman
Successful VC and private equity investor seeking opportunities in the US, Great Britain and Sweden. Earlier stage opportunities are of particular interest. Also board involvement with equity incentives. Substantial operating experience in a range of business areas.
Alex Matov
Norman Meisner
Mr. Meisner has worked for nine startups as VP of sales or VP of business development yielding five acquisitions and one IPO. His expertise is in the areas of enterprise software, security and data communications. Most recently, he served as the VP of business development at Authentica, acquired by EMC in early 2006. He has been a private angel investor since 1998 and he led the angel round at Lumigent Technologies, where he served on the Board for 5 years. He works with his investments to help develop sales and partnering strategies.
Francis H. Murphy
Retired financial executive whose career includes positions in manufacturing, engineering and management, international operations and as Chief Financial Officer of two small public companies. These positions were with Boeing, Gillette, Costar Corporation, Corning and Biopure Corporation. He received a BSIE and a BA from Rutgers University in 1960 and an MBA from Boston University in 1972.
Richard B. Noyes
Mr. Noyes is a retired financial executive whose career has included CFO positions with a UK-owned US R&D and defense products firm, QinetiQ NA (formerly Foster Miller, Inc) and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Richard started his career in engineering with GE after receiving degrees from Dartmouth College. He later switched to accounting and finance starting with Ernst & Young after receiving an MBA from Amos Tuck and a later MSF from Bentley University. Richard is a CPA/CMA with a Top Secret Security Clearance. He is currently serving on the board of a small So. Maine building products company. Mr. Noyes has extensive experience in business valuations and has worked on several acquisitions from both the buy and sell side.
Erik Pedersen
Mr. Pedersen is a retired entrepreneur, having started several businesses that provide application software for the property/casualty and group health insurance industries. Currently he serves as a mentor to management teams of high tech startups in the Boston area, focusing on the development of the business and funding plans. Mr. Pedersen has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT and a masters degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Dola H. Stemberg
Dola H. Stemberg has served at various times as either an executive or director of marketing for The Massachusetts Office of Tourism, Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, Stride Rite, Polaroid, Gillette, SSC&B Advertising and Clairol. Mrs. Stemberg serves on the boards of numerous charitable institutions, and is a member of several area clubs, including the Union Club of Boston. Dola graduated from Vassar College and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
William K. Stewart
Kem Stewart is an LSU- and MIT-educated electrical engineer. Over the past three decades he has worked for six Boston-area computer hardware startups and one consumer-electronics startup, as an engineer, manager, or executive, including Alliant Computer, Stellar Computer, Thinking Machines Corporation, Netezza, and most recently, SiCortex. Holder of a dozen patents, his interests include computing, networking, storage, and manufacturing enterprises of all kinds.
William F. Swiggart
Oleg Uritsky
Michael S. Vitale
Mr. Vitale is the current president and CFO of Puritan Fish Co., Inc. a Boston-based international seafood company, and the current treasurer of the New England Seafood Producers Association. He served as past president of the Boston Fisheries Association. Mr. Vitale received his B.S. in Accounting from Bentley College.
Daniel Von Kohorn
Douglas Zaccaro
Mr. Zaccaro, CPA, CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant). Previously CFO of ManageSoft Corp., a Boston based software company that was sold to a private equity group. He was formerly CFO at a publicly held software company, and he has worked in the public and private sectors in various accounting, finance and management positions in software and manufacturing. He has lived and worked aboard for several years and is presently retired. Mr. Zaccaro received his BSA from Bentley and MBA from Babson with a Masters Certificate in Personal Financial Planning from Bentley and a Multi Nation Marketing Certificate from Harvard in Switzerland.
