We Are Lucky to Have Such a Great Board.
Bob Abbott, Norwest Venture Partners
Robert joined NVP in 1998 and is focused on a wide variety of investment categories including mobile, online advertising, infrastructure and systems. His current investments and board seats include Brand.net, ClariPhy, mBlox, Mozes and Zenverge. Robert was formerly a member of the board of directors of Covigo (acquired by Symbol Technologies), KACE (acquired by Dell), Occam Networks (acquired by Calix), Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices) and SideStep (acquired by Kayak). He has also worked with such companies as Embark (acquired by Princeton Review), Escalate (acquired by GERS), mPower (acquired by Morningstar) and Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMC-Sierra).
Robert has nine years of operational experience in various roles, from engineering to marketing and product management. Before joining NVP, he was at Silicon Graphics. Prior to Silicon Graphics, Robert worked at IBM-ROLM Systems.
He holds a bachelor of science and a master of science in electrical engineering and an MBA, all from Stanford University.
Michael Brown
Michael is the Chairman of Line 6, one of the top 20 largest musical instrument companies and the largest worldwide supplier of guitar amplifiers. He currently serves on three public-company boards: Quantum Corporation, Symantec Corporation, and Nektar Therapeutics. Michael also serves on the president’s advisory committee at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He was Chairman of EqualLogic, a networked storage business until Dell purchased the company for $1.4 billion in the largest all cash venture deal on record. From 1984 to 2003, Michael worked for Quantum Corporation, a leader in computer storage products. He served as Quantum’s CEO from 1995-2002, and Chairman from 1998-2003. Earlier in his career with Quantum, he held numerous senior executive positions in general management and marketing. Michael’s leadership created a work environment recognized in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Places to Work” two years in a row. Michael holds an MBA from Stanford Business School and a BA in Economics from Harvard.
Dorrian Porter, Mozes
Dorrian Porter is the founder and CEO of Mozes. He is an entrepreneur who co-founded HigherMarkets, an on-demand software company in March 2000. He later became CEO and led it to its acquisition by a Nasdaq listed company in 2002. Dorrian worked with the combined company until July 2005, where he helped significantly grow the business and shape the company’s product offerings. Previously, Dorrian practiced law at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California where he represented a wide range of tech companies. Prior to joining WSGR, he worked in Canada as an associate at McCarthy Tetrault, an analyst at Harrowston, Inc. (now TD Capital) and at the Canadian Parliament, including the Prime Minister’s Office. Dorrian received his law degree and MBA from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Ottawa.
Paul Santinelli, North Bridge Venture Partners
Paul Santinelli has been a Partner at North Bridge Venture Partners since 2005. He specializes in Communications & Infrastructure and is based in California.
Paul focuses on investments in open source, software, security, Internet applications and infrastructure & communications. Previously, he served as director of Red Hat Network and was responsible for product definition, strategy, engineering, product management, marketing and lifecycle management for the company’s flagship software services offering. Paul also served as the Director of Global Information Systems and Technology during his tenure at Red Hat.
Prior to Red Hat, Paul was founder and CEO of NOCpulse, a Silicon Valley software start-up focused on delivering the next generation enterprise systems management platform. NOCpulse was acquired by Red Hat in October 2002. While at NOCpulse, Paul was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award of 2002. Previously, Paul was Chief Technology Officer of Global Center and Vice President of Technology for Global Crossing, a telecommunications company that built and operated the world’s first independent global fiber optic network. During the past twelve years, Paul has held various engineering, product management and marketing positions in companies including Red Hat, IBM, Lotus Development, and Compuware.
Before joining North Bridge, Paul served on the advisory boards of Arrowpoint Communications (acquired by Cisco), Inflow, Kiva Software (acquired by Netscape), Mobility.net (acquired by Software.com) and One Secure (acquired by Netscreen).
Paul has a BS from Emerson College in Boston.
Amy Errett, Maveron
Amy Errett, Partner at Maveron, joined the team in 2008. She offers Maveron, and Mozes, more than 25 years of business and operating expertise as a leading entrepreneur, senior executive and social-mission visionary. Her focal points are emerging Web enabled consumer trends, e-commerce social shopping, and online education. Amy currently serves on the Altius Education, Course Hero, KidZui, Livemocha, Mozes, and VideoEgg boards of directors.
Amy’s multifaceted career has ranged from the online Web 2.0 media industry to the offline consumer marketplace, and has stretched as far as volunteer nonprofit leadership. Most recently, she was chief executive officer and an owner of Olivia, repositioning the travel company as a complete lifestyle company for gay women both online and offline while multiplying revenues from $5 million to $25 million in 2007. In 2006, she was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California. Prior to her work at Olivia in 2002, she founded and served as chair and chief executive officer of The Spectrem Group, a worldwide strategic consulting, information, and M&A advisory firm. Amy sold Spectrem to an IPG subsidiary, NFO Worldwide (NYSE:NFO) in 1996. After the sale, she joined the senior management team at E*Trade where she diversified the company’s business beyond brokerage and ran a $200 million business that encompassed the management of E*Trade’s growth areas, including their business-to-business stock option division, and launched a successful asset-based products and investment management services division.
A New York native, Amy earned an MBA in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in liberal arts from the University of Connecticut.