Board of Directors
Dr. Hemant Kanakia, Chairman of the Board
Dr. Kanakia has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry as an entrepreneur, executive, and most recently as an investor in early stage startups in India. Previously, Dr. Kanakia was a General Partner with Columbia Capital, a well-known U.S.-based venture capital firm. Dr. Kanakia has been on the Board of Directors of Enpirion, Teranetics, WiNetworks, and Tilera. He was previously founder and CEO of Torrent Networking Technology (acquired by Ericsson) and co-founder of Photuris (acquired by Meriton) and Gemplex, Inc. (acquired by Tata Telesystems). Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Hemant served on the Board of Directors of Photuris, Viagate, Price Hawk, Gemplex, and Torrent Networking Technology. Prior to founding Torrent, Hemant worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Tata Consultancy Services, India. Hemant received his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, his M.S. degree from Case Western Reserve University, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Dr. Kanakia is a member of the board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University. He also has been a trustee at Virginia Polytechnic, and on several other non-profit boards in past.
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Tom Scholl, Director
General Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
Tom is a successful entrepreneur and investor with over 25 years experience in communications systems, equipment, chipsets and software. In 1990, Tom founded Telogy Networks, a leader in providing embedded communications software products for wireless and IP networks. In 1998, Motorola purchased Telogy's digital cellular technology and development team for over $40M, and in 1999, Texas Instruments purchased Telogy for its leadership in embedded VOIP software for over $700M. Prior to joinging Novak Biddle, Tom co-founded and was chairman of Cognio, a developer of spectrum management and MIMO antenna technology for wireless applications. Cognio was acquired by Cisco in October 2007. Tom has also served as a Director of Torrent Networking, acquired by Ericsson, and Integrated Telecom, acquired by PMC Siera. Before Telogy, Tom was Senior Vice President of Engineering at Hughes Network Systems, a combination of M/A-Com DCC and Linkabit. In addition to Fiberzone, Tom currently sits on boards at Centice, Paratek, Princeton Optronics and Avail-TVN. Tom is an alumnus of Purdue University and the Executive Management program at MIT Sloan School, and he is Chairman of the A. James Clark School of Engineering Board of Visitors and a Trustee at the University of Maryland.
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Jack Biddle, Director
General Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
Jack has over 20 years experience in venture capital and high-tech management. Prior to co-founding Novak Biddle Venture Partners in 1996, Jack served as President and CEO of InterCAP, a software company serving 100 Fortune 500 clients, which was acquired by Intergraph in 1995. From 1987 to 1990, Jack rose from Senior Associate to Partner at Vanguard Atlantic, Ltd., a merchant banking group focused on M&A advisory work and control investments in software companies on the firms own account. Earlier positions include IT Industry Generalist, focusing on telecommunications technology, at the Gartner Group, and Business Development Partners, an Austin-based early stage venture capital partnership. Jack currently serves on the boards of Trusted Edge, Vision Chain, CorasWorks, Netcordia, Chorus Systems and FiberZone Networks. Past board or observer seats include SafeView, Inc. (acquired by L3 Communications), Matrics (acquired by Symbol Technologies), Giga Information Group (Nasdaq: GIGX. Lead Director), acquired by Forrester, Telogy Networks, (acquired by Texas Instruments), Tantivy (acquired by Interdigital), AnswerLogic (acquired by Primus Knowledge Systems), and Blackboard, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBB). Jack is an alumnus of the University of Virginia.
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Vladimir Yakushev, Director
Managing Partner of S-Group Capital Management
Prior to joining S-Group in 2007, Vladimir Yakushev served as executive director of OAO Severstal-Resource, where he oversaw management and development of mining assets of the company since 2003. In 1998 he joined McKinsey and Co. where he served industrial and FNCG clients; he was elected an Associate Partner of the company in 2002. Vladimir started his career in FMCG sector and worked for companies such as Wrigley, Mitsubishi and Mars.
Vladimir is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Metallurgical Commercial Bank, a U.S. laser-optical company Spectralus and American optical company Nano-optic Devices, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of OOO "Innolume", Centice and is a member of the Supervisory Board of TUI AG.
Vladimir graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and holds an MBA degree from the INSEAD Business School (France).
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Aidar Gabidoullin, Director
Partner of S-Group Capital Management
Aidar Gabidoullin is a Partner of S-Group Capital Management, with responsibility for financial and several high-growth technology companies.
Prior to joining S-Group in 2007 Aidar served as Director of Strategy and Operations at Capital One (USA). Earlier Aidar held the position of Engagement Manager in McKinsey and Co. (Russia), where he was responsible for the strategic development projects for high-growth companies. Prior to McKinsey and Co Aidar was a senior adviser for Andersen Consulting (London), where he was responsible for decisions in the field of information technology and optimization of business processes.
Aidar is a member of the Board of Directors of several companies located in Russia, the USA and Europe.
Aidar graduated from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and holds an MBA degree from the INSEAD Business School (France).
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Yosi Lahad, Director
CEO FiberZone Networks
Yosi brings over 25 years of diverse leadership experience to FiberZone. He has led companies as CEO and Chairman from the start-up/R&D phase to sales growth and M&A, and has held varied positions ranging from interdisciplinary product development to international sales and business development. Before joining FiberZone, Yosi led the turn around of Octalica, a provider of home networking products, serving as interim CEO and active Chairman and until the company was acquired by Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM). Prior to Octalica, he served as CEO of Avantry Networks, formed by the merger of RadioTel and Witcom. Avantry successfully delivered wireless and networking products to global telecom and datacom customers and was acquired by Unity Wireless. Yosi previously served as VP of Sales and Marketing at RADLAN, a data communications company subsequently acquired by Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL). Earlier in his career, Yosi established the China operations of Tadiran, serving as the country's Managing Director, and held senior R&D positions at ELBIT (Division VP) in the Israeli Air Force), where he was responsible for command, control, and communications systems. Yosi is a part time Faculty member in the leading Graduate Business Schools in Israel, lecturing on strategy of global emerging companies and Global innovation: The Interdisciplinary Center Hertzliya - the Global Consulting Practicum, a joint program with Wharton school of business at the University of Pennsylvania. Yosi holds an M.Sc. in Engineering from the University of Texas, an MBA from Tel Aviv University, and a B.Sc in Engineering from the Technion.
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