LiteScape has a Board of Directors
and Advisors of industry professionals with exceptional experience
that will help guide the company through its next growth
phase.
Farzad Naimi, Chairman, CEO and President
Farzad Naimi is a serial entrepreneur and a co-founder of LiteScape Technologies.
Farzad brings 21 years of successful Silicon Valley startup leadership to the
company and is responsible for leading the LiteScape team and managing its strategic direction.
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 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 National University of Singapore.
Arjun Gupta, Chief Executive and SBIC
Chairman of TeleSoft Partners
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.
Ronald D. Fisher, Managing Partner of
SOFTBANK Capital
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.
Hossein Eslambolchi, PhD
Hossein Eslambolchi is the former AT&T Chief Technology Officer and
the President of AT&T Labs. As CTO, Hossein advised the AT&T Chairman and
its senior leaders on technology issues, and chairs a company-wide Technology
Strategy and Development Council. As President of AT&T Labs, Hossein leads a team
of the world's best scientists and engineers focused on next-generation Internet
Protocol (IP)-based communications, entertainment and information services.
Hossein has a track record of developing new IP and broadband technologies.
He holds 106 patents and received AT&T's highest technical honor when he was
appointed an AT&T Fellow. He has also received the 2001 NJ Inventors Hall of
Fame Inventor of the Year Award, and in 1997 received the Thomas Alva Edison award,
Strategically Significant Patent and the AT&T Labs Science and Technology Medal.
Hossein is on the board of advisors for Conexant as well as board of
directors of the National Alliance of Business (NAB) and Wytec, and has
also served as an Advisory Council member at the John Hopkins University
Whiting School of Engineering. Hossein has been published in 18 technical
publications and is on the IEEE editorial board of the Journal of Network
and Systems Management. In September 1988, Hossein participated on The
President's Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities,
supporting their efforts to make information technology accessible to
people with disabilities.
Hossein graduated with highest honors from the University of California,
San Diego with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering, received his MS in Electrical
Engineering and PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Ori Sasson
Ori Sasson has experienced tremendous success leading start-ups and established
high technology companies in all stages of their business. He has chaired and
founded pioneering companies in wireless carrier services, global transportation
logistics and managed services. Ori co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of Scopus
Technology through a highly successful IPO and eventual merger with Siebel Systems.
Ori also served as president and CEO of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories and
managed the company's acquisition by Paris-based Alcatel.
Ori has co-authored four books on IBM WebSphere for Osborne
McGraw-Hill and published numerous articles on technology.
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.
Advisory Board
Andres Espinosa
Andres Espinosa is the co-founder and the CEO of SenTek
Americas. Andres has over 18 years of international experience
in the financial and banking industry, resulting in successful
projects for Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.
Andres has held executive positions at Visa International
as General Manager of Visa Venezuela and Ecuador. He
was also responsible for products and services as EVP
at Visa International for Latin America market. Andres
became president of Visa do Brasil and chairman of Visanet
do Brasil before co-founding SenTek Americas. Andres
holds a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and
a MBA in Finance.
Brad Kashani
Brad Kashani is Senior Vice President of Juniper Networks
Worldwide Services. Prior to Juniper, Brad was VP of Customer
Success and acting VP of sales at Procket Networks. Before
joining Procket, Brad was vice president of Global Technical
Services at Cisco systems. During his tenure at Cisco, Brad
lead the creation and evolution of Advanced Engineering Services
providing network life cycle consulting and support services
for Service Providers and Fortune 500 Enterprise building world's
first generation of IP networks. Brad also spent 10 years at
AT&T in product development and sales capacities. Brad holds a
MS in EE from University of Colorado and Executive MBA from UCLA.
Don Hollis
Don Hollis is president of DRH Strategic Consulting, Inc. which
assists clients in developing strategies for leveraging technology
as well as evaluating acquisitions. His clients have included NCR,
Tandem, Unisys, Cash Station, First National Bank of Chicago, S.W.I.F.T.,
SAIC and others. He was an executive vice president of First Chicago
Corporation responsible for its technology leadership and commercial
transaction processing businesses.
Don was a vice president and group executive of Chase Manhattan Bank.
He also served as a director, general manager and COO of Interactive
Data Corporation, a Chase subsidiary, and as a director of a number
of other technically-based Chase subsidiaries. He was frequently
involved in buying and selling IT companies.
Don serves on the executive committee of the Illinois Institute of
Technology's Board of Trustees and the Board of Trustees of Advocate
HealthSystem. He is a director of S2 Corporation, QuickStream Software,
and E.K.I., and graduated from Kent State University with a B.S. in
business administration.
James Koerlin, PhD
Jim Koerlin is the Dean of the School of Technology and
Industry (STI) at Golden Gate University. STI serves
over 1,500 current students and over 5,000 graduates.
He has consulted to business and government and has written
extensively on information technology and management
topics. Dr. Koerlin is also president and CEO of the
San Ramon Tri Valley Telecommunications Incubator.
Michael Mansouri
Michael Mansouri, currently president and CEO of Probix,
has more than 20 years experience in high tech software
and data communications industries serving U.S., European
and Asian markets. Michael was chairman, president and
CEO of iPass (NASDAQ: IPAS), a leading provider of global
remote connectivity services, which went public with
a market capitalization of approximately $1 billion.
Michael has held executive management positions in marketing,
engineering and operations at companies such as Teleglobe,
Sprint International (now Global One), Intermedia Communications
and ACSI/e.spire.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer
Science and Statistics from Utah State University, a Master
of Science degree in Management Sciences from George Washington
University and has completed the MIT Sloan School of Management
program in corporate strategy.
Pat Howard
Pat Howard capped 25 years of CEO-level leadership of technology
companies selling venture-owned QuantumShift after joining as its
CEO. While there, he increased the company’s telecom management
hosted services business and reduced the company’s dependence on
telecom services reselling.
During his company-leading career, Pat focused on developing
profitable and uniquely valuable products, services and companies
in the converged voice and data applications space. As CEO of
VMX, he led this voice messaging company from startup to a
position of global leadership, strong profitability and over
$120mm in sales. In his three years as CEO of Mosaix, a Call
Center software and systems company, its sales doubled and
earnings-per-share tripled.
His recent past or current independent consulting or directorship
roles include Banter (intelligent email response automation),
Straight Source (call center and related employment recruiting services)
, Circa (IP telephone development, sold to PolyCom), Sťance
(presence-based communications integration), LiteScape (IP applications
platform), AVST (unified enterprise communications) and Angel Flight
(charitable aviation organization). Pat is a graduate of San Diego State
University and the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive
Marketing Program.
Robert Noakes
Robert Noakes has 40 years experience in business and technology
starting with working on the NORAD system in the 1960’s. He has
a broad background that includes experience with computers,
communications systems and business organization and management.
Bob has spent the past ten years working with large and small
corporations assisting in the defining of their business architecture,
developing and re-engineering business processes, developing and
writing documentation to support business processes. Currently much
of Bob’s work focuses on developing procedures and documentation
to comply with mandates such as HIPAA and Sarbanes Oxley.
Bob’s past employment history includes Burroughs Corporation,
Singer-Friden Company, Crowley Maritime Corporation, Syntex
Pharmaceuticals, DHL Systems, Sybase, and PG&E Corporation.
Tahn-Joo Chin, Ms
Tahn-Joo CHIN (Ms) is a Managing Director of the Hina Group
(www.hinagroup.com) , which is a cross border China focused
investment banking firm providing financial advices and M&A
transactions in TMT (Telecommunications, Media and Technology) sectors.
Hina has offices in Palo Alto in United States, Beijing and Shanghai
in China, and in Singapore. Hina was founded in 2003 and transaction
value of companies advised by Hina has exceeded US$500 million.
Hina made its first venture investment in Framedia in China, which
was acquired by Nasdaq listed Focus Media for US $183 million.
Chin has been a venture capitalist since 1996. She was a
founding Partner of Venture TDF headquartered in Singapore, and
WIIG-TDF Partners LLC based in the Silicon Valley in US. She has
managed three venture capital funds, namely TFI, TFII and WIIG-TDF
Partners, with a total of $120 million under management. She has
invested globally in US, China, Singapore, Israel, Germany and France.
Chin has spent 15 years in information technology development and
management. She was the co-founder and subsequently CEO of the Information
Technology Institute (ITI), which she has grown to 150 persons with more
than 40 industry collaborations. ITI has spun off more than twelve technology
companies with venture capital funding, which included Mediaring, listed
in Singapore Exchange. She was the Singapore national program director
for ISO 9001 IT certification program.
Prior to becoming a VC, Chin was Senior Director with the Singapore
National Science and Technology Board, where she initiated the framework
for Technopreneurship program which led to the set up of a US $1 billion
Technopreneurship Investment Fund (TIF). She also founded and was a board
of director of the Singapore Israel Industrial R&D (SIIRD) Fund with the
Office of the Chief Scientist in Israel.
Chin has been Advisor to Singapore Defence Science and Technology
Agency’s Innovation Fund - Cap Vista (www.capvista.com). Chin was an
Adjunct Professor with the Enterprise Center of the National University
of Singapore.
Chin holds a Master degree in Computer Science Computer Engineering
from the Stanford University, US; a Master degree in Industrial Engineering
and Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) with first class honors from the
University of Singapore; and a Diploma in Management Studies from the Graduate
School of Business, University of Chicago. She was a Loke Scholar.
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