Board of Directors

Ronald D. Fisher
Ron Fisher oversees SOFTBANK’s U.S. operations and other activities outside of Asia, and was the founder of SOFTBANK Capital. He is currently Vice Chairman of SOFTBANK Holdings, Inc. and serves as a member of the board of directors of SOFTBANK Corp., Japan. Ron has over 30 years of experience of working with high growth and turnaround technology companies.

Prior to joining SOFTBANK, he was the CEO of Phoenix Technologies Ltd., the leading developer and marketer of system software products for personal computers. Ron serves on the boards of several public and private companies, including E*Trade Group, GSI Commerce, and Vie Financial Group. He is also on the investment committee for the SB Asia Infrastructure Fund.

Ron earned an MBA from Columbia University, New York, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Witwatersand in South Africa.

Gary Griffiths
As CEO of LiteScape, Gary Griffiths is responsible for heading LiteScape’s operations and strategic direction. Prior to joining LiteScape, Gary was president of products and technical operations at WebEx, where he was responsible for all WebEx products, including strategy, research and development, product management, network and MediaTone operations, and customer technical support. A twenty–five year veteran of the high–tech industry, Griffiths was the CEO of on–demand application company Everdream for the past six years, and held senior management positions with IBM for more than 16 years. He was also the CEO and co-founder of SegaSoft Networks one of the pioneers in interactive entertainment. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Gary served as an officer aboard nuclear fast attack submarines for five years, and was an associate professor of systems engineering at the US Naval Academy.

He has a BS in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and an MS in business administration from the George Washington University.

Arjun Gupta
Arjun Gupta is the Founder and Chief Executive of TeleSoft Partners, a venture capital firm focused on high-tech startups. He has over 20 years of experience working with technology companies in venture capital, consulting and design engineering roles. At TeleSoft, Arjun manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established Corporate Partnerships with Alltel and Bechtel in the US, Deutsche Telekom in Europe and Comverse in Israel.

Arjun serves on the Board of Directors of Calient Networks, CreekPath Systems, Knowledge Adventure, LogLogic, Matrix Semiconductor, Sierra Design Automation, Validity Sensors, VoiceObjects, and the Red Herring. Arjun also served on the board of Omnipoint as a private company through its IPO (NASDAQ: OMPT) until its acquisition by Voicestream for $10+ billion (subsequently Voicestream was acquired by Deutsche Telekom for $50+ billion to
form T-Mobile USA).

Arjun received an MS and BS in Computer Science from Washington State University and has an MBA from Stanford University. He is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

Farzad Naimi
Farzad Naimi is a serial entrepreneur and a co–founder of LiteScape Technologies. Farzad brings twenty–one years of successful Silicon Valley startup leadership to the company and is responsible for leading LiteScape’s Business Development initiatives. Farzad started his high–tech career at a start up, Centex Telemanagement, as the head of Technology, and led Centex to its IPO, which preceded its subsequent acquisition by MCI. He continued his career as Executive Vice President and COO at Prestige International, Japan’s largest Customer Relationship Management organization that later had a successful IPO in Japan. Farzad was a co–founder of Genesys Labs, a leader in delivering real-time customer interaction software solutions to medium– and large–sized businesses, that went public and was subsequently acquired by Alcatel for $1.6 billion. He participated in a successful start up, VisaNet do Brazil, funded by Visa International and four major banks in Brazil. VisaNet do Brazil has become the largest e–commerce and retail banking group in Latin America and one of the most profitable companies in Brazil. Farzad has been the co–founder and chairman of several other companies including IQLabs, an enterprise software company specializing in real time IT infrastructure provisioning and management, and Sentek, a profitable global system integrator with clients such as American Express, Master Card, Visa and other major financial institutions.

As a member of adjunct faculty at Golden Gate University, Farzad taught MBA courses in its School of Industry and Technology. Farzad is actively involved with Entrepreneurship Programs at Stanford University and the National University of Singapore.

Alessandro Piol
Prior to co-founding Vedanta Capital, Alessandro A. Piol was a General Partner at Invesco Private Capital and led the information technology practice, an industry in which he has been active since the late 1970s. At Invesco, Alessandro was involved in numerous transactions that have led to successful IPOs or sales. Since joining the firm in 1995, Alessandro led investments in Arbortext (sold to PTC), CADIS (Aspect Development), Cast Iron Systems, Digital Persona, Extricity (Peregrine), LogLogic, ONI Systems ("ONIS"), Placeware (Microsoft), Portal Software ("PRSF"), Torrent Networking (Ericsson) and Verisign ("VRSN"), among others. Prior to joining IPC, Alessandro spent 10 years with AT&T Corp. where he split his time between operating and investment positions. In 1991, he co-founded AT&T Ventures, the venture capital arm of AT&T where he led the fund's investments in several new media and communications companies. He was also a co-founder and VP of Marketing of Pixel Machines, an AT&T-backed venture in the graphics computing business and was later director of Strategic Partnerships for AT&T Computer Systems. Alessandro received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 1985. He received an M.S. and B.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University in 1982 and 1979, respectively.

Bruce K. Taragin
Bruce is a partner of Blumberg Capital, a San Francisco-based, classic, early-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging information technology companies. He has 15 years experience as a venture capital investor, entrepreneur, technology investment banker and corporate attorney. Bruce’s venture experience includes the following exits: eVoice – acquired by AOL [TWX], PureSight –acquired by Boston Communications Group [BCGI], Vista Research– acquired by McGraw Hill [MHP] and IP Infusion – acquired by ACCESS CO., LTD [TSE: 4813]. Bruce also serves as a member or observer on the Board of Directors of CaseStack, Insightix, and Correlix.

Prior to joining Blumberg Capital in 1998, Bruce held several senior management positions within technology companies including Charles River Computers. Bruce also structured and managed early-stage technology transactions at Hambrecht & Quist, Mayer Brown & Platt and Bankers Trust Company. Bruce earned his BA in Finance and Communications, cum laude, from Yeshiva University, and his MBA and JD from Fordham University in New York.