Investors

Frank Mendicino III, Managing Director Access Venture Partners

Frank is co-founder and Managing Director of Access Venture Partners, an early stage, high technology venture capital fund. Mr. Mendicino has 15 years of experience in venture capital which includes successfully investing in, growing and exiting growth companies.

Through his work with early stage companies, he has built a large network of deal referral sources and value added resources for portfolio companies. Mr. Mendicino was a founding board member of The Contra Costa County Incubator in San Francisco. He is former board member of the Colorado Venture Capital Association. Mr. Mendicino has a deep understanding of product development and sales and marketing processes which allows him to accelerate the growth of the companies in which Access Venture Partners invests.

Prior to co-founding Access Venture Partners, Mr. Mendicino worked for Woodside Fund, a Silicon Valley venture fund, for 10 years where he helped build and exit a successful portfolio of 29 early stage companies.

Mr. Mendicino is on the Board of Directors of several private companies. He received his B.A. in Political Science from The University of California at Berkeley in 1989. Mr. Mendicino is located in Denver, Colorado.

Joe Zell, General Partner Grotech Ventures

Joe Zell joined Grotech Ventures as a General Partner in 2002. At Grotech Ventures, Joe focuses on investment opportunities in the communications, networking, software and outsourcing sectors. Joe currently serves or has served on several portfolio company boards including Aztek Networks, BroadSoft, buySAFE, Collective Intellect, Hatteras Networks, HiveLive, SkyeTek, Rebit, Logrhythm and USinternetworking.

Prior to joining Grotech Ventures, Joe built an extensive, 20-year operating background in communications and data networking, including nine years with US West Communications (which is now Qwest Communications), where he was instrumental in building US West’s Data Networking Division from startup to $2.5 billion in revenue and was the President of the division for four years. While at US West, Joe was also responsible for managing a $30 million strategic investment fund. It was in this capacity that he began his relationship with Grotech Ventures as a result of US West’s investment and his board seat at a Grotech Ventures portfolio company, USinternetworking. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Convergent Communications. Prior to US West, he held a variety of management positions at WilTel, LDXNet, United Technologies Communications, MCI Communications and Xerox Corporation.

Joe graduated Magna Cum Laude from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is an active member of the Washington DC metro chapter of the YPO (Young Presidents Organization).

Advisors

Sherri Leopard

Sherri has been recognized as both an entrepreneur and a woman executive. She is a passionate business-to-business marketer whose strategic storytelling skills haveresulted in successful positioning, demand creation and sales enablement efforts for multi-national as well as start-up companies in technology, telecommunications and higher education.

Sherri founded Leopard Communications in 1985. Among her firms clients are IBM, SAP, JD Edwards, Siemens, Motorola,CDW, Covidien, and Intrado. Sherri sold Leopard to OgilvyOne, a division of WPP in 2006.

Anne McCarthy

Anne has earned her stripes leading large, global, complex projects for Fortune 500 companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. Her corporate communications roles have involved significant engagement with the not-for-profit sector, while addressing the interests of key stakeholders – from the C-suite, to investors, employees, community leaders, elected officials and customers. Most recently, she has led the repositioning of the Western Union Foundation and its award winning, “Or World Our Family” platform, which helped transform the company from a transactional concern to a company with a human face and voice. In addition, she has held leadership positions at SAP, DuPont, Polaroid, IBM and Sara Lee Corporation.

Anne currently serves as a trustee of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. She participated in the 2009 Summit on the Global Agenda (World Economic Forum), the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival and was named one of the Business 100 by “Irish America” magazine. Anne is a graduate of Michigan State University and completed executive education programs at The Wharton School at INSEAD.

Jeff W. Pryor, Ed.D

Jeff Pryor is Executive Director, Anschutz Family Foundation (human, community and economic development). He is also an adjunct faculty with Regis University’s Masters of Nonprofit Management, the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Public Affairs and the University of Stellenbosch Business School — South Africa. He consults internationally to nonprofits and NGOs on impact, metrics, leadership and governance.

Recognitions include: Outstanding Professional in Philanthropy, the Trailblazer Award — Colorado Rural Development, Outstanding Volunteer Firefighter of the Year, Outstanding Teaching — Regis University, Community Resource Center “Legends,” and the Century Award – Rocky Mountain Farmers Union commemorating its 100th Anniversary. In 2009, he received the Steve Graham Award for Building Capacity from the Colorado Nonprofit Association.

Rob Kaufman

Rob Kaufman is a co-Founder of Q Advisors, a Denver-based investment banking boutique. He has over 25 years of experience raising and investing capital as both agent and principal, and representing clients in mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to Q Advisors, Rob was President and CEO of netLibrary, Inc., where he was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a 2002 Technology Pioneer, a distinction awarded to only 69 CEOs worldwide. Before moving to Colorado, Rob was Managing Partner of a Boston-based investment partnership, and a Vice President with Goldman Sachs in London. He holds an undergraduate degree from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Ginger Sayor

Ginger most recent was vice president of product management at First Data. There she used her experiences in early stage product development and marketing to deliver payment solutions for a newly formed Mobile Commerce division. These solutions provided ‘tap and go’ payment capabilities via cell phones. This award-winning product set was featured at many industry events, including the 2008 Democratic National Convention. During her five year tenure at First Data, she also managed product marketing for an alliance with Wells Fargo Bank, and with First Data’s card issuing division.

She is presently consulting with early stage technology companies and not-for-profit organizations. She is a Board member for the Denver Dumb Friends League, an industry leading animal shelter and rescue organization that placed more than 19,000 unwanted pets in homes last year. Ginger holds an MBA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelors of Journalism degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She is accredited by the Product Development and Management Association.

Thor Hauge

Thor Hauge is the head of Western Union’s Mobile Transactions global sales team. Hauge, who joined Western Union in mid-2009, is responsible for engaging and enrolling Mobile Network Operators around the globe in Western Union’s Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) service.

Prior to joining Western Union, Hauge served as principal at Nokia Ventures, where he was responsible for co-creating a unique innovation model. Through seed-stage investments in startup companies, Hauge was able to accelerate innovation at Nokia, creating strategic growth options. Hauge also has held roles on enterprise and government sales teams at the first GSM Mobile Network Operator in the United States.

Casey Carey

With more than 25 years spent helping global, multi-channel organizations leverage consumer information and transactional data to drive market strategies. As vice president of products at Webtrends, Casey Carey is responsible for determining and executing the overall Webtrends product strategy, including the identification and development of technology and partner integration opportunities for Webtrends leading web analytics and marketing optimization solutions.

Prior to joining Webtrends, Carey served as senior vice president of product management at Abacus, creators of the world’s first and largest cooperative database. While there, Carey was responsible for conceiving, developing and executing product and go-to-market strategies for solutions designed to provide multi-channel transactional data to catalog, retail and business-to-business merchants. He has also held senior positions at other top consumer data and marketing companies, including Customer Insight Company, Experian, ROI Direct and MatchLogic. Carey holds an MBA from Regis University and a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from DeVry University.

Kevin Cawley

Chief thing maker @ mandelbrot project, ex-newsgator mobile builder, author tiny twitter & wait there’s more… http://kcbigring.tumblr.com/