Board of Directors
Chris Onan (Chair) - Appian Ventures
Chris is a Managing Director with Appian Ventures. He has extensive venture capital experience and enjoys working with entrepreneurial management teams to help sharpen their product definition and their marketing and financial strategies. Chris represents Appian on the board of directors of Tendril and Auctionpay and is a board observer of Thought Equity Motion.
Previously, Chris spent five years as an associate with Wolf Ventures and Roser Ventures, where he had the privilege of working with companies such as: Broadbus Technologies (acquired by Motorola) and NextAction Corporation. Prior to locating to Colorado, he worked as an associate with LEK Consulting, an international strategy consulting boutique.
Chris speaks frequently on entrepreneurial finance at both Denver University’s Daniels College of Business and the Leeds College of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He also serves on the board of directors of the Colorado Venture Capital Association. In addition, Chris works actively with the When I Grow Up Foundation and is Northwestern University's alumni admissions council leader for Colorado.
Originally from Minnesota, Chris received a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Brian Birk (Marketing) - Sun Mountain Capital
Mr. Birk has over 20 years experience as an operating executive and investor. Prior to forming Sun Mountain Capital, Mr. Birk was a Vice President at Fort Washington Investment Advisors where he managed New Mexico Co-Investment Partners (a single limited partner, state sponsored Fund) and led 8 of the 9 investments originated by the Fund.
He also oversaw the New Mexico and Utah in-state Private Equity investment programs with investments in excess of $400 million. Mr. Birk was a founder or senior executive at several high profile start up companies including Applied Minds and BiosGroup. He was a Senior Manager at Boston Consulting Group and a Finance Manager at General Electric and GE Capital. Mr. Birk has an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management where he graduated first in his class and a BS in Economics from Carleton College.
Carl Ledbetter (Treasurer) - UV Partners
Carl Ledbetter is a General Partner in the private equity firm UV Partners, which makes high technology investments in computer hardware and software, networking, telecommunications, and life sciences. He has been on the boards of directors of four public and eleven private companies, and is currently serving on the boards of five networking and software companies. From 1999 until 2003 Carl was Senior Vice President, Engineering, Research & Development and Chief Technology Officer for Novell, Inc., where he was responsible Novell's entire product business, all of engineering, and Novell’s business development and venture fund activities.
Prior to Novell, his experience includes roles as president of AT&T’s $3B Consumer Products Division, as corporate vice president and General Manager of Sun Microsystems's PC networking business, as the director of IBM’s Kingston Laboratory, as CEO of ETA Systems, the Control Data Corporation supercomputer subsidiary, and as chairman and chief executive of Hybrid Networks, Inc., an innovator in the wireless broadband industry.
Before joining the computer industry, Carl taught mathematics as an instructor or assistant professor of mathematics at Wellesley College, Arizona State University, Northwestern University, Brandeis University, and Clark University, and was academic dean and professor of mathematics at California State University, Sonoma. He also served in the administration of Governor Jerry Brown of California as director of a scientific and public policy agency. He has served a term on the Advisory Committee to the Joint House Senate Committee on Science and Technology for the U.S. Congress, chaired the Governor’s Task Force on the Computer Industry for governors Rudy Perpich and Arne Carlson of Minnesota, and was a member of the East Coast Team of the Computer Bowl. Carl earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Clark University, his master's degree in mathematics from Brandeis University and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Redlands.
Seth Levine (VCIR Winter Event Chair) - Foundry Group
Seth’s career spans venture capital investing as well as operational, transactional and advisory roles at both public and private companies. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, Seth began his venture capital career at Mobius Venture Capital.
Prior to Mobius Venture Capital, Seth joined a restart of the data communications company, FirstWorld Communications. He was the third employee of a new management team with a goal to transition what had been a traditional competitive local exchange carrier (“CLEC”) into the data and Internet world. Seth was the corporate finance half of the CFO position where he started and led the finance, mergers and acquisitions and investor relations groups. Seth then led the IPO process for FirstWorld’s IPO in 2000 and negotiated simultaneous equity investments from Microsoft, SAIC and Lucent Technologies, eventually raising over $260 million from the IPO and these side-by-side equity transactions. When the company decided to focus on its data center and hosting business, Seth assumed operational control of the remainder of the business and led the Internet service provider, telephony and network integration portions of the company, representing in total approximately $40 million in revenue. He managed the sale of these lines of business in 2001.
Prior to joining FirstWorld, Seth joined the business development group of ICG Communications, a Colorado-based CLEC where he led their mergers and acquisitions practice and worked on strategic partnerships. Previously, he was an investment banker in Morgan Stanley’s telecommunications corporate finance practice, where Seth completed numerous equity, debt, restructurings, mergers and acquisitions assignments.
Previous investment successes in which Seth has been involved include Dante Group (acq. by WEBM), FeedBurner (acq. by GOOG), Feld Group (acq. by EDS) and ServiceMagic (acq. by IAC).
Seth is a summa cum laude graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is active throughout the entrepreneurial community in Colorado. Seth is a member of the board of CU Denver’s Bard Center for Entrepreneurship, chair of the award committee for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce ESPRIT Awards, and a member of the advisory board of High Country Ventures, a fund hired by the State of Colorado to invest money generated from certain tax credits in early stage companies across the state. Seth was previously a member of the board of the Denver chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth.
Seth is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys spending his free time mountain biking, snowboarding and mountaineering, as well as spending time with his family. He writes a blog on technology, investing and living in Colorado at www.sethlevine.com.
John O'Donnell (Membership) - Buerk Dale Victor
John is a Venture Partner with Buerk Dale Victor where he is focused on deal sourcing and capital raising in the rocky mountain region. John is the founder and Executive Director of TechRanch; founder of the Bridger Private Capital Network (BPCN); founding Chair and current board member of the Montana BioScience Alliance; board member of CM Russell Museum; and Montana State University College of Business advisory board member. He is also active in the Montana Ambassadors.
John has 20 years of experience in business development, sales, marketing and operations in fast-paced, entrepreneurial environments. Under his leadership, TechRanch developed a varied portfolio of 60 new technology ventures in Internet/software, media and life sciences and medical devices. TechRanch is nationally recognized as the leader in high-tech business development in rural, underserved markets and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, NPR and many regional newspapers. Prior to TechRanch, John was the director of business development at Seattle-based Onvia where he helped raise $90 million in private equity and assisted in a February 2000 IPO. He was a co-founder of a Seattle-based software company and ran a sales and marketing agency that worked exclusively with Costco Wholesale.
John began his career in investment banking with Drexel Burnham after graduating from the University of Colorado in 1986.
Dinesh C. Patel, Ph.D. (VCIR Fall Chair) - vSpring Capital
Dr. Patel is a Managing Director and Founding Partner of vSpring Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund with $260 million under management.
Dr. Patel was the Founder, Chairman, President & CEO of Ashni Naturaceuticals, Inc., a company that specializes in the research, development and marketing of clinically tested and patent-protected naturaceutical products from 1999 to 2004. In 1999, Dr. Patel co-founded and was the Chairman of Salus Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the research and development of nucleic acid-based therapeutics, including antisense and gene therapy drugs. From 1985 – 1999, Dr. Patel served as Co-founder, Chairman of The Board of Directors, President & CEO of TheraTech, Inc., a Salt Lake City, Utah based company that has been a pioneer in the development and manufacturing of innovative drug delivery products.
Born and raised in Zambia, Africa, Dr. Patel got his undergraduate degree from India and his doctorate degree from University of Michigan. Dr. Patel along with his wife Kalpana and children, Ashish and Avni, reside in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dr. Patel is active in the Indian and local community serving on several boards and is an active donor for various charitable causes.
Mark Solon (VICR Fall Selection Chair) - Highway 12 Ventures
Mark Solon is the founder and Managing Partner of Highway 12 Ventures. Highway 12 Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in the most promising high-growth, entrepreneurial companies in the Intermountain West states of Idaho, Colorado, Utah and Montana. With over $100 million under management, Highway 12 is Idaho's largest venture capital firm. Prior to Highway 12 Ventures, Mark was a General Partner at Atlantic Capital Group, a private equity firm in Boston.
Mark is a director of multiple Highway 12 portfolio companies. Active in the Boise community, he is on the advisory board of the College of Engineering at Boise State University and is formerly President of the Board of Directors of the Discovery Center of Idaho, a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy of Idaho, and currently serves on The Idaho Business Coalition for Education Excellence.
Stephanie R. Spong (Outreach) - EPIC Ventures
Ms. Spong heads up the New Mexico office of EPIC Ventures, where she evaluates investment opportunities in Southwestern/Rocky Mountain region. She brings experience in strategic management consulting, new product development and commercialization, energy, internet services and investment banking. Prior to joining EPIC Ventures, Ms. Spong consulted with startups and corporate R&D groups on high technology innovation and commercialization projects through her consulting firm Greystone Management Consulting. Other experience includes running the Los Angeles office of Razorfish, serving energy and financial services clients as an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, improving operations for Citibank in Mexico and working as a business analyst with Monitor Company in Tokyo and as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs.
She was awarded an M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business and received her B.A. degree from Brigham Young University, cum laude, in Economics and Asian studies with minors in Physics and Japanese. She currently serves as the President of the New Mexico Venture Capital Association and serves on the boards of the New Mexico Venture Capital Association, the New Mexico Angels, the Santa Fe Business Incubator and the ASU Technopolis Board of Advisors. She also chaired the 2008 Selection Committee for the Phoenix-based InvestSouthwest conference and is chairman-elect for the 2010 InvestSouthwest conference.
Lisa Reeves (Marketing) - Vista Ventures
Lisa is a General Partners at Vista Ventures, a venture capital firm targeting early-stage investments in companies in the software, digital media, and network sectors. Vista is based in Boulder, Colorado and primarily invests in the Rocky Mountain region with select investments outside the region. Lisa leads investments in software and business services for the team. Currently, she sits on the board of directors for Newsgator Technologies and Rally Software. Lisa brings significant experience in technology, sales, consulting and business development to her portfolio companies. She previously led SAP Ventures, the corporate venture investing arm of SAP AG. In this role she led the overall team and strategic direction for the organization, as well as executing on direct investments. Her responsibilities spanned multiple geographies, encompassing both direct company and fund investments. She was previously an investor in MySQL (acquired by Sun Microsystems), Sistina (acquired by Red Hat), FactoryLogic (acquired by SAP AG), Ping Identity, Sonoa Systems, Datria Systems, and Selero. Prior to SAP Ventures she spent 9 years in senior operational roles at SAP America. She began her career in the automotive industry.
Lisa holds a BA from Kalamazoo College and a MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. Lisa serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association (RMVCA). She is also a board member of Community Food Share and The Boulder Country Day School.
Overview - Vista Ventures
Vista Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Boulder, Colorado that leverages the deep operation backgrounds of its principals to invest in the software, digital media and network sectors. Vista, founded in 2000, has built a strong investment platform and developed an excellent brand and reputation for investing in early-stage deals sourced primarily from the Rocky Mountain region and selectively, from outside the region.
Stephanie Smeltzer McCoy (VCIR Winter Selection Chair) - Meritage Funds
Stephanie is a managing director at Meritage Funds, a venture capital firm with over $600 million under management. In this capacity Stephanie serves on the boards of directors of Meritage portfolio companies and also facilitates strategic planning for the entire portfolio. Stephanie has more than 18 years of venture capital, strategy, international finance, investment banking and accounting experience. Prior to joining Meritage, Stephanie co-founded the corporate finance practice of Arthur Andersen in Moscow, Russia where she lived for 4 years. Stephanie also specialized in M&A work with The Wallach Company, an investment banking firm in Denver. She earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School with high distinction as a George F. Baker Scholar. Stephanie is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, serves on the executive board of the Communications Technology Professionals, and is an officer of the HBS Alumni Club of Colorado.
Christopher Wand (Outreach)
Chris is a former managing director and co-founder of Foundry Group, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on making investments in the information technology sector. He has over a dozen years of experience in venture capital investing and technology startups. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, Chris started his venture capital career with Mobius Venture Capital.
Before joining Mobius Venture Capital, he was in charge of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development at MessageMedia (formerly known as First Virtual Holdings). At MessageMedia, Chris was an integral part of the company’s initial business planning, private equity fundraising efforts, successful IPO, acquisition of four private companies and SEC compliance. Chris was also instrumental in the transformation of the business from the first secure Internet payment system to a leader in the email messaging services industry.
Prior to MessageMedia, Chris was a management consultant at LEK Consulting, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisement and general strategy consulting to Fortune 500 clients in a variety of industries including high-tech, media and entertainment, communications, OEM electronics, industrial products and agri-business.
Chris holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University. He also serves on the board and executive committee of the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
