Atiq Raza
Chairman & CEO, CALIENT Technologies Inc.
Atiq Raza is currently Chairman & CEO of CALIENT Technologies, a leading MEMS Photonic Optical Switch Manufacturer. He also serves as Chairman of the Board at Validity, a biometric solutions company and Chairman of eASIC, a structured ASIC company. Atiq is also on the board of Seeo, a next generation Li-ion battery company and serves on the Stanford University School of Engineering Advisory Board.
Mr. Raza is an industry veteran and has been working in engineering leadership and senior management positions for the past thirty-two years. He was Chairman and CEO of NexGen, the first company to challenge Intel in microprocessors. NexGen became a public company and subsequently was acquired by AMD for approximately $850 million in AMD stock. Atiq became the President and COO of AMD and served on its Board of Directors. At AMD, he laid the foundation of its processor business and brought the AMD-K6 and Athlon products to market and established the Opteron 64-bit instruction set architecture. Prior to NexGen, Atiq held various management positions at VLSI technology Incorporated, most notably the president of Technology Centers.
Post AMD, Atiq founded Raza Microelectronics Incorporated (RMI). RMI was acquired by NetLogic in October 2009. RMI as part of NetLogic is sampling the XLP Multi-issue Multi-threaded Processor, and is recognized by the Microprocessor Report as one of the most outstanding Processors in the industry today.
Atiq also serves as Chief Technology Advisor to NetLogic and has been on the boards of several successful start-ups including Mellanox (now a public company), SiByte (acquired by Broadcom for $2.2 billion), Siara (acquired by Redback for $4 billion), VxTel (acquired by Intel for $500 million) and Magma (now a public company).
He has several degrees, including his Bachelor’s degree with honors in Physics from Punjab University, with a double bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering with honors from the University of London, and his Master’s degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Stanford University.
Dr. John Bowers, Co-Founder
Co-founder Terabit (Ciena), AT&T Labs, Director at the Institute for Energy Efficiency at UC Santa Barbara
John Bowers holds the Fred Kavli Chair in Nanotechnology, and is the Director of the Institute for Energy Efficiency and a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSB. He is a cofounder of CALIENT Technologies. Dr. Bowers received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University and worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories and Honeywell before joining UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Bowers is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the IEEE, OSA and the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the OSA Holonyak Prize, the IEEE LEOS William Streifer Award and the South Coast Business and Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award. He has published eight book chapters, 450 journal papers, 700 conference papers and has received 52 patents. He and coworkers received the EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Most Promising Technology for the hybrid silicon laser in 2007.
Arjun Gupta, Vice-Chairman, Managing Partner and Founder, TeleSoft Partners
Funded 61 companies with 36 acquisitions and IPOs to date and on Forbes Midas List 2006-2009
Arjun Gupta is the Managing Partner and Founder of TeleSoft Partners, an international venture capital firm focused on high-tech startups. Over the last decade, he has overseen investing in and helping build 60+ private companies, resulting in 32 acquisitions and IPOs to date. At TeleSoft, he manages capital commitments of $625+ million and has established Corporate Partnerships in the US, Europe, and Israel Alltel, Bechtel, Deutsche Telekom and Comverserespectively. He serves on the Board of Directors of CALIENT Technologies, Education.com,Knowledge Adventure , LogLogic, Nexant, Validity, and the VoiceObjects.
He is also President of the Arjun Gupta Community Foundation, which supports community projects in education, medical research and the arts. Earlier in his career, Arjun was a Strategy Consultant for high-tech clients with McKinsey & Company, and a Software Engineer withTektronix, Inc. He is a,Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute holds an MS and BS, Phi Beta Kappa, in Computer Science from Washington State University, and an MBA from Stanford University.
Edgar Masri
CEO of 3Com (HP) and General Partner at Matrix
Edgar Masri is currently president and CEO of Qualtre, Inc., a Marlborough, MA startup, funded by Matrix Partners and Pilot House and focused on commercializing the next generation of motion sensors. From 2006 till April 2008, Mr. Masri was President and Chief Executive Officer of 3Com Corporation, a leading global data networking company. During his tenure, he negotiated, led the acquisition of, and chaired the board of H3C, the joint venture between 3Com and Huawei. He also brought 3Com to record revenue and gross margins and 6 consecutive quarters of profitability (non-GAAP) from the point 3Com started consolidating H3C results. 3Com moved during this period to 2nd or 3rd market share position in enterprise switching (ports sold) and enterprise routing (units). Mr Masri recommended and managed the go-private transaction with Bain Capital
From 2000 till 2006, Edgar was general partner at Matrix Partners, a leading high technology venture capital firm. He led the investment in and served on the board of a number of semiconductor and telecommunication equipment startups, including Sandburst (acquired by Broadcom Corporation), Redline Communications (TSX/AIM: RDL).
Mr. Masri holds a Diplome d’Ingenieur from Ecole Centrale de Paris, a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration with distinction (Arjay Miller Scholar) from Stanford University.
Mike Chandler
Former President of General Dynamics Information Technology and US Navy Commander
Mr. Michael Chandler is the former President of General Dynamics Information Technology. During his time at General Dynamics Information Technology, Mr. Chandler led a diverse organization of 16,000 professionals that provided systems integration, information technology, systems engineering and professional services to customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal civil and commercial sectors. Mr. Chandler has also served as President of General Dynamics Network Systems and President of General Dynamics Worldwide Telecommunications Systems.
Prior to his work in the private sector, Mr. Chandler served 20 years in the United States Navy, retiring with the rank of Commander. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University and a Master of Science in Management from the Naval Postgraduate School. He is also a graduate of the Stanford University Executive Program. He and his wife Susie reside in Virginia and have a second home in Pebble Beach, California.
Mr. Chandler currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association and the Information Technology Association of America. He is also the Vice President of the Board of Trustees for the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation.
Scott Alcott
EVP of Belgacom and prior executive positions at AT&T, AT&T Wireless, Ameritech and SBC
Scott Alcott is Executive Vice President in charge of operations for the Belgacom Group and a member of the group executive committee. Belgacom is a $9 billion communications company and the leading provider in Belgium of fixed and mobile telecommunication services, including telephony, Internet, data, IT services and digital television services. Scott oversees all technical infrastructure and operations for the group as well as wholesale activity.
Previously Mr. Alcott has held senior marketing and product management roles with AT&T and Ameritech/SBC. Mr. Alcott is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dick Moley
SNR VP and BOD Cisco, Chairman & CEO of StrataCom (Cisco), ROLM (IBM) and HP
Dick Moley, originally educated in England, has deep and broad experience in high tech; both with startups and a who’s who list of successful giants. He is a Founding Venture Partner of Storm Ventures and serves on the boards of CALIENT Technologies, Echelon, and Linear Technology.
Dick started his career in England in the computer industry and came to California in 1966 to join Hewlett Packard at the start of their computer business, working in software development and then marketing. In 1973, he joined ROLM Corporation where he developed the business plan for the very successful telecommunications business which was acquired by IBM in 1984. After two years with IBM, he joined the startup company Stratacom as Chairman, CEO and President leading the company in the pioneering of ATM and Frame Relay technology, and a successful IPO in 1992. He served as a Senior VP and Board Member of Cisco Systems following their acquisition of Stratacom in 1996.
Dick received a BSEE from Manchester University, England, a MSEE from Stanford University and a MBA from Santa Clara University. He is also on the Board of Trustees for Santa Clara University.
George Schmitt, Managing Director, TeleSoft Partners
Chairman & CEO of e.spire, Omnipoint, AirTouch, Pacific Telesis and AT&T
George Schmitt has over 40 years of broad telecom experience in wireless and wireline companies. He is a Managing Director & SBIC Director at TeleSoft Partners and serves on the boards of CALIENT Networks, VoiceObjects, SOFA, PlumbInTime, Ready Jet Go Airlines, Tele Atlas NV, and Teleworx.
George’s experience includes leadership and management of Fortune 100 and startup firms, public and private companies, international and domestic operations. Some of the more recognizable firms include e.spire Communications, Omnipoint, LHS Group, Objective Systems Integrators, PCS PrimeCo, AirTouch Communications, Mannesmann Mobilfunk (Germany), Pacific Telesis, Pacific Telephone, and AT&T. Most recently, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of e.spire Communications, a provider of voice, data and Internet services to markets throughout the U.S.
George received an M.S. in Management from Stanford University, where he was a Sloan Fellow, and a B.A. in Political Science from Saint Mary’s College.
Victoria Katsov
Partner Wall Street Technology Partners, prior Director at Dresdner, Kleinwort, Wasserstein Private Equity
Victoria Katsov is a partner in Wall Street Technology Partners LP (“WSTP”). Previously she was a Director of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Private Equity Group which seeded WSTP. She has experience in originating, structuring and monitoring venture capital transactions.
Ms. Katsov has worked with, and made investments in, a number of enterprise software, wireless technologies, security, storage and retail companies. She is also an active board member and observer of a number of technology companies and was actively involved in structuring and negotiating investments in Apriso, Avexus, Avista Labs., ClearCube, iWitness (acquired by Zantaz Inc.), MetaStorm, Peppercoin, SilverCarrot and Saqqara.
Prior to joining Dresdner Kleinwort Capital, Ms. Katsov was with a Los Angeles-based venture capital/incubator firm focused in the emerging technology, Internet, and biotech fields. Earlier, she worked in the investment banking division of Salomon Brothers in New York, where she participated in M&A advisory assignments and capital raising for commercial banks and finance companies.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Katsov did cancer related research at the National Institutes of Health. Her research was published in well-respected science magazines.
Ms. Katsov received a B.A. in economics and biochemistry, Summa Cum Laude, from Washington University, winning both a Florence Moog Academic Science Scholarship and a Mabel Blake Academic Science Scholarship.
Chris Smith, Advisor
Partner, Circumference Group, prior EVP Alltel Network Services (Verizon)
Chris Smith is currently a partner at the Circumference Group. Prior to Circumference Mr. Smith was the Executive Vice President of Network Services of Alltel Corporation, the fifth largest wireless company in the U.S. Prior to it’s acquisition by Verizon in January 2009, Alltel served over 14 million customers with revenues of approximately $9 billion.
As the EVP of Network, Chris was responsible for short- and long-term network planning, engineering, operations, LD network planning and operations, capital budgeting and management for the entire company, and wholesale roaming contracts and budgeting.
Chris joined Alltel in 1991 in a management role within sales and marketing. He subsequently served as a General Manager of Operations in two of Alltel’s largest markets. In 1997, when Alltel merged their wireless and wireline companies, Chris became President of the Southeast Region. In this capacity, Chris was responsible for all aspects of market operations. He was promoted to the EVP of Network Services in 2000. Prior to Alltel, Chris worked within marketing at Dillard’s headquarters and at Acxiom’ s headquarters, both located in Little Rock. Chris is a graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock with a degree in Business Management.