Board

Our Board of Directors includes members from a wide range of technology, business, and non-profit backgrounds.

 

Mimi Cacchione

 

Michael M. Clair- Mr. Clair is a technology investor, and consultant. He is on the Boards of several Silicon Valley companies, including VT&T,  NDS Surgical Imaging and Spigit.  Mike has worked in the computer and communications industries for over 35 years. Early in his career, he held executive positions at Tymshare and ROLM Corporation, as well as being a founder and senior vice president of marketing and sales at SynOptics Communications (Bay Networks). Mike has been a member of the Wine Celebration Board for eleven years, and is driven to help find cures for cancer, because of his personal experiences with several cancer victims in his own family.

 

Mark S. Colella Mark S. Colella specializes in medical device investing at 5AM Ventures. Mark has over 14 years of venture capital and operating experience in medical device and healthcare companies, and currently serves, or has served, in board or advisory roles with companies which include: Ceterix Orthopedics, Flexion Therapeutics, Incline Therapeutics, Semprus Biosciences, Viveve and WaveRx. He also sits on the Advisory Board for the Innovation and New Ventures Office at Northwestern University and The V Foundation Wine Celebration—a charity wine auction—which has raised over $30 million for cancer research. Before joining 5AM Ventures in 2008 he was head of marketing for BÂRRX Medical, a Bay Area start-up medical device company. Prior to BÂRRX, he held various management roles with Stryker, focused in the fields of orthopedics, laparoscopy, urology, gynecology, and general minimally invasive surgery. In addition, he spent four years as an Executive Director managing healthcare facilities with Primrose Alzheimer’s Living, Inc., an early-stage healthcare service start-up company, and one year working for Versant Ventures. Mr. Colella holds a B.S. in Biology from Williams College and earned his M.B.A. from Northwestern University, the Kellogg School of Management. Prior to Williams College he spent two years at the United States Air Force Academy. Mr. Colella is based in the Menlo Park, CA office.

Julie Constantin - Julie is a co-founder of Constantin Partners, an early stage venture capitalfirm. She brings eighteen years of venture experience to her portfolio companies, which include: Bazaarvoice, Tripwire Security Systems, EzRez Software, Coremetrics, Experience Project, New Vine Logistics and SAMBA Holdings. Prior to Constantin Partners, Julie was the Director of the Internet Initiative for PFI, a telecommunications start-up which built fiber optic networks in 14 cities. Before PFI, she was with a venture financing firm making investments in software, communications and biotechnology companies. She is on the Board of The V Foundation for Cancer Research and is the co-founder and board member of The V Foundation Wine Celebration – a charity wine auction – which has raised over $30 million for cancer research. She holds an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial and Strategic Management also from The Wharton School. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her two sons.

 

Brett Hurt - Brett is the Founder and CEO of Bazaarvoice, where he is responsible for guiding the company’s strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations. Brett is a seasoned executive widely recognized throughout the online industry for turning groundbreaking ideas into leading businesses. He founded Coremetrics in February 1999 after spending 10 years developing Internet-based software. Brett helped grow Coremetrics into the leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry, servicing more than 1,000 clients today. Forrester Research eventually rated Coremetrics #1 in the industry. Prior to Coremetrics, Brett was the founder and CEO of Hurt Technology Consulting and BodyMatrix, an online retailer of sports nutrition products, which he sold. Before that, he was a consultant at Deloitte Consulting and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Brett has more than 15 years of Internet programming experience and has developed multiple software applications, including Internet marketing analysis solutions, eCommerce platforms, Web-based classroom management applications, virtual communities, multiplayer online games, and Bulletin Board System (BBS) software. He started programming when he was seven years old, launched a BBS on a 110-baud modem when he was ten, and created one of the first Internet-based multiplayer games in 1990. Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin.

Brett was named Entrepreneur of the Year for Austin in 2009. He serves on the Board of Directors of Shop.org, the leading non-profit industry association for retailers online and a division of the National Retail Federation, the largest trade organization for retailers. This is his second term on the Shop.org board, where he previously served for two years. He also serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and served as a Board of Advisors member to the non-profit Web Analytics Association. Brett actively advises several early-stage technology companies.

 

Peter Jackson is currently the CEO of Experience Project Inc. Previously, he was a Partner at the Floodgate Fund, and before that he was the CEO at GroundWork Open Source. He’s been the Chairman, CEO and President of Intraware Inc. (ITRA) , the premier provider of on-demand delivery solution from 1996 to 2010. Previous to Intraware, Peter was the president and CEO of Dataflex, Inc (DFLX) – a full service systems integrator who had revenues over $400MM and lead the sale to Vanstar. Prior, Peter was the CEO, President and Director of Granite Systems, Inc. which became one of the largest service and product suppliers for HP, Apple, IBM, Compaq and Microsoft. Peter graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and has won the 1998 Red Herring Entrepreneur of the Year award and has twice been a finalist to the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Peter was past Chairman of YPO’s Golden Gate Chapter 1999-2000.

Anthony Kozy 

Kay Lloyd

 

 

 

Robert E. Lloyd - Mr. Lloyd is Chairman of the V Foundation for Cancer Research and a founding member of the organization as well as being a member of the V Wine Celebration Board. Bob was Jim Valvano’s college roommate and basketball teammate, served in the military with Jim and the two were friends for 30 years before Jim’s passing. In his business career, Bob served as the Chairman and CEO of Mindscape, a publicly traded software company until his retirement in 1997. Prior to this he was President, CEO, of Data East, Inc. a developer of entertainment software, and held various senior management positions with several other companies. Bob currently sits on several boards and consults with emerging growth companies. Bob holds a BA in Economics from Rutgers University, and an MBA from Pepperdine University. After college, he played professional basketball with the New York Nets.

Frank Lonergan Jr. - Mr. Lonergan serves as President and CEO of A29, Inc., a high-tech consultancy specializing in US/Asia business development. Significant projects over the past 20-years include the founding of Nan Ya Pacific (U.S. agent of the Formosa Plastics Group / Taiwan) and more recently, the establishment of both Meiko America (a major U.S. subsidiary of Meiko Electronics / Japan) and Dynamic USA (U.S. agent of the Dynamic Group / China). Mr. Lonergan is also a co-founder of SPUR Projects, Inc., a business focused on the development of contemporary art opportunities. In addition to the Jimmy V Wine Celebration, Mr. Lonergan also serves on other non-profit boards including The Bring Me A Book Foundation for Children’s Literacy.

Ryan McDonough - Ryan was most recently the CFO at Ning, where he oversaw financial planning & operations to help Ning achieve its business objectives and scale for the future. During his two years with the company, Ryan shepherded the business from a freemium model to focusing exclusively on its subscription business, increasing the paid user base by 5X and tripling revenue. In addition to leading the pricing strategy, Ryan stripped millions in annual spend out of the cost base, instituted professional finance operations and laid the foundation for a metrics driven business.

The turnaround resulted in Ning’s acquisition by Glam Media completed in December 2011. The combined company is now the second largest social media company in the world with more than 250 million monthly unique users, and more than 100,000 publishers and content creators.

Ryan is currently a Venture Partner with Allegro Partners, a seed venture fund based in the San Francisco Bay Area. At Allegro he invests in and works closely with early stage technology companies like Mass Relevance, OrderGroove, Bazaarvoice, Experience Project. Prior to Allegro & Ning, Ryan was a senior manager at McKinsey & Company – where he served a range of clients in the high-tech, financial and telecom spaces. His strategy and operations work has taken him around the globe, working in McKinsey’s San Francisco, Silicon Valley, London, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv offices. He’s counseled CEOs and top management across the range of business issues, from corporate vision setting to product definition to streamlining back-office operations to more cost-effectively meet customer needs. Ryan also served as key advisor for a global multibillion private equity firm and a leading Israeli VC.

Ryan holds an MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, with honors, and did his undergraduate work at Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley where he was top of class.

 

Lawrence F. Probst III - Lawrence F. Probst III is Chairman of the Board of Directors at Electronic Arts, the world’s leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Mr. Probst also serves as the Chairman of the United States Olympic Committee.

Larry joined Electronic Arts in 1984 and served as the Vice President of Sales until 1986. From January 1987 to December 1990 he was Senior Vice President of the company’s publishing division. He led Electronic Arts as President from December 1990 to October 1997, and was named Chief Executive Officer in May of 1991 serving in that capacity until April 2007. Mr. Probst has been a Director of Electronic Arts since January 1991 and was elected to the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors in July of 1994.

Under Mr. Probst, EA navigated multiple technology transitions, made strategic investments in new platforms such as mobile and online, and expanded international operations to over 75 countries. During his tenure as CEO, the company grew its annual revenue from $175 million in 1991 to $3 billion in 2007, and increased its market capitalization from approximately $300 million to more than $18 billion.

Before he joined Electronic Arts, Mr. Probst held the positions of National Sales Manager at Activision, Inc. and National Accounts Manager at Clorox. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Delaware. Mr. Probst lives with his family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

John Roediger is a managing director with Montgomery & Co. He has more than 20 years of investment banking experience, specializing in public and private capital financings and strategic advice to global companies.Prior to joining Montgomery, John was a managing director at JP Morgan and Hambrecht and Quist. John received a degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California and served in the US Navy.  John is on the board of Hedgefort Capital, a US based investment fund specializing on the country of Brazil, and the advisory board for the Injured Marine Semper Fi fund.

 

Constance E. Skidmore - Connie sits on the Audit Committee of BayCare Health Systems, a $2B health care provider in central Florida and is on the Board of Ivis Technologies, a West coast software company.  She also serves as an informal advisor to a number of technology companies with aggressive growth strategies.  In a consulting role, Connie is assisting PwC with the execution of its off-shoring strategy in India. Connie served on the 18-member elected Board of U.S. Partners and Principals for PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, ($7B in revenues) for a four-year term prior to her formal retirement.  Concurrently, Connie was the U.S.Tax Strategy Leader for the Firm. She was responsible for both short term and long term strategies for this $2B business.   Earlier in her PwC career, she was West Region Tax Managing Partner where she was the equivalent of CEO for the $300M unit, managing the coordination of all tax compliance and consulting advice provided by the Firm for clients throughout the West. Prior to joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, Connie was a tax specialist with the Internal Revenue Service.  She holds a B.A. degree from Florida State University and a M.S. degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University.  Recently, she completed the Directors College program at Stanford Law School.

Anthony Smith - Mr. Smith is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Leadership Research Institute, one of the top management consulting firms in the world. An expert in organizational change, executive development and leadership training and design, he has served a wide range of clients, including ESPN, McKinsey & Company, Goldman, Sachs & Co., American Express, and the NFL. He has served on the teaching and research faculties of several universities, including the University of California, the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and the European School of Management at Oxford. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in the Behavioral Sciences, a Doctorate in Leadership Science and Administration at the University of San Diego, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of California. Anthony is the author of the best selling and critically acclaimed book, The Taboos of Leadership, and has published his research in the European Journal of Management, the Journal of Leadership Studies; and the best-selling books, The Leader of the Future and The Organization of the Future, both published by the Drucker Foundation.

 

In Loving Memory

David A. Kane - Mr. Kane was a Senior Audit Partner in KPMG LLP (US)’s Silicon Valley office and served on the Wine Celebration Board until his passing in October 2011. He led the Firm’s Western U.S. Information, Communications and Entertainment (ICE sm ) practice, and served as the Silicon Valley office Managing Partner. He also served as partner in charge of KPMG LLP (US)’s New England ICE practice. In addition, Dave served as the Firm’s Southern California high-technology practice leader for six years. As a former SEC reviewing partner, Dave has extensive experience serving a variety of global Fortune 500 companies and has taken several companies through the IPO process. He has over 29 years experience serving high-technology clients. Dave received his B.S. from the University of Illinois and his graduate degree from the International Development Program of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Dave is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, and a board member of the Exploratorium and the Silicon Valley American Cancer Society.