Board of Directors
Mark Solon (Chairman of the Board) - 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.
Brian Birk (VCIR Fall Co-Chair) - 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.
Scott Caruso (National Outreach) - Flywheel Ventures
Scott has a decade of angel and venture investing experience and over 25 years of technology industry experience as a founder, builder, manager and advisor to over two dozen early-stage ventures in the Internet, Software and IT arenas. A seasoned tech entrepreneur and engineer, he has particular strengths in supporting company transitions from product development to sales-driven businesses and developing effective corporate infrastructure for scale.
Prior to Flywheel, Scott was an active angel investor from 1999 to 2003 investing in 12 start-up companies ranging from biotech to IT infrastructure. He founded and led two successful technology start-ups – as Founder/President HotSpare, a self-financed, profitable internet infrastructure services company and as co-Founder of Compute Intensive, a self-funded ISP services company to the SMB market (acquired by Verio and sold to NTT for $6 billion). Between 1989-1994, Scott was a Systems and Sales Support engineer at Sun Microsystems. Prior to Sun, he managed the computer operations group of New Mexico State University’s Computer Sciences Dept. and was responsible for connecting NMSU to the Arpanet (predecessor to today’s internet) and building the first campus-wide email system. Scott received a BS, with a minor in Computer Science from New Mexico State University in 1987.
Chris Cooper (Outreach) - UV Partners
Chris Cooper joined UV Partners in 2007. He focuses on investments in networking, Internet services, software, open source and digital media. Chris has over seventeen years of operational experience in the software industry and has held senior positions in sales management, field marketing, business development, and engineering. Most recently he was Director of Partner Engineering and Developer Services at Novell, Inc. In that role he was responsible for certifying Novell's large network of partners and working with them to support their technical integration with Novell's product lines. Mr. Cooper also served as General Manager of Novell's Strategic Alliances, in which role he was responsible for the company's relationships with global business partners such as Oracle, Sun Microsystems, EMC, and Cisco Systems.
Mr. Cooper served as both a business and technical adviser for Novell Ventures and managed relationships between the fund's portfolio companies and industry leaders. Mr. Cooper has been a key member of the Advisory Board for Novell's Open Source Technology Center (OSTC) where he evaluated start-ups in the open source space-assessing each company's business model, value proposition, and unique technology offering. Prior to joining Novell, Mr. Cooper served as East Coast Regional Sales Director for the WordPerfect Corporation. He studied at the University of Utah and the University of Phoenix.
Chris currently serves on the Board of DotNetNuke Corp, and as a board observer for Replay Solutions. Chris also works with several companies in the UV Partner portfolio including, Soasta, Infopia and OpenLogic.
Seth Levine (Marketing 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 Chair) - Montlake Capital
John O’Donnell is a partner with the Seattle based private equity firm Montlake Capital. With $100M assets under management Montlake invests in growth stage companies in the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountain States and the west coast. John covers the Rocky Mountain region for investing and heads the firms fund raising activities. In addition John serves as a part time Executive Director of the Bozeman, MT based TechRanch; founded in 2000 by O’Donnell TechRanch leads innovative business development for Montana based entrepreneurs. O’Donnell is also the Trustee for a group of large family trusts based in Colorado.
Prior to these roles John was in Seattle for 13 years. For the majority of these years he worked for Anderson Chamberlain the in house broker at Costco Wholesale’s corporate Headquarters. O’Donnell was a key person in the development and launch of Costco’s private label program and their service based offerings. After Costco O’Donnell was part of the start up team at Onvia (NASDQ: ONVI) that raised over $50M from VC and had a 2000 IPO. O’Donnell led Business Development at Onvia.
O’Donnell is on the boards of New West Media, Fresca Mexican Foods, Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, the KF Family Foundation, the CM Russell Foundation and the Montana State University College of Business.
John is a 5th generation Colorado native and a graduate from the University of Colorado (Econ 86); is married and has 3 children and lives in Bozeman, MT.
Chris Onan (Past 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.
Jeron Paul (Outreach) - vSpring
Jeron agrees with Joseph Schumpeter who said the fundamental impulse that keeps the capitalist engine in motion is the entrepreneur.
Before joining vSpring, Jeron was Director of Product Management for Thomson Financial. He accepted this position after convincing Thomson to invest $1.5M in an online business intelligence service for boards of directors called BoardLink which he created. From 1999 to 2002, Jeron worked as a consultant in Monitor Group’s Boston office where he advised clients on a range of strategic, operational, and organizational improvements. Jeron has also worked in corporate development at RSA (now EMC) and as a summer associate at vSpring.
Jeron received a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School and a BS with a dual concentration in Economics and Philosophy, cum laude, from Brigham Young University. Jeron currently serves as a director on the boards of Penguin Computing, Sybrant Technologies, Netaphor Software, Scalar Partners, and Vidmic. He is a formal board observer at Infusionsoft. Jeron also works with the boards of Voonami, XAware, NetVision, American Academy, Rhomobile, 7 Degrees, Public Engines, and Sparxent. Jeron previously assisted with LANDesk (sold to Avocent, NASDAQ: AVCT) and Soronti (sold to Avocent, NASDAQ: AVCT).
Ryan J. Pollock (VCIR Winter Selection Chair) - Meritage Funds
Ryan Pollock’s professional career spans 16 years in the asset management and venture capital industries. He has lived and worked in South Africa, England and the United States and today serves as a Deal Partner at Meritage Funds, a Denver-based venture capital firm. Ryan is a director of Miniweb Technologies in London, and a board observer of Perlego Systems in Seattle. Before joining Meritage, Ryan worked in both investment and business development roles at Investec Asset Management in South Africa and England.
Ryan completed his undergraduate studies in finance and economics at the University of Cape Town and earned a post-graduate diploma with distinction from the University of Oxford, England. He received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated as a Venture Fellow.
Ryan is the founder and chairman of Starfish Greathearts Foundation USA, a charity dedicated to supporting AIDS orphans in South Africa. He also acts as an executive coach to students on the Executive MBA program at the Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. Ryan enjoys travelling with his wife, Amanda, playing guitar, cycling, golfing and surviving the occasional triathlon.
Lisa Reeves (Member Event Chair) - 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.
Peter Roshko (Treasurer) - Boulder Ventures
Peter Roshko, a General Partner with Boulder Ventures, has over 23 years of venture capital and investing expertise. Prior to joining Boulder Ventures in late 1998 Mr. Roshko was a General Partner at Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV) in Menlo Park, California for 9 years where he concentrated in software, medical devices and services. He was a Board member of Vantive Corporation for 9 years from its founding through its IPO and subsequent sale to PeopleSoft (NASDAQ: PSFT). Additionally, Mr. Roshko is currently a Board member of Trust Company of America (with Mr. Lefkoff), Xifin, Rally Software, ProStor, DatAvail, and Lijit.
Prior to joining MDV, Mr. Roshko was a Senior Consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co. in San Francisco where he planned, designed and implemented management information systems for a variety of client engagements.
Mr. Roshko holds an MBA from Harvard Business School (1984) and a Bachelor of Science degree (cum laude) in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University (1980).
Brian Smith (VCIR Fall Selection Chair) - Peninsula Ventures
Brian has been a Managing Member of Peninsula Ventures since 2005 and has extensive experience investing across a broad spectrum of technology companies. He has 20 years experience working as a venture capitalist and, prior to joining Peninsula Ventures, he was a Managing Member of Dominion Ventures and an Entrepreneurial Fellow at CID Equity Partners. Brian currently serves on the Board of Directors of several current portfolio companies including Communispace, Intesource, Response Analytics and BroadHop. A selection of some of his successful prior investments include Quality Care Solutions, PowerQuest, Efficient Networks, Coinstar, P-Com, Horizon Organic Dairy and Myriad Genetics. Brian helped co-found the Arizona Venture Capital Association and served as the Chairman in 2008-09. Brian holds a Master of Business Administration from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Brigham Young University.
Stephanie R. Spong (VCIR Fall Co-Chair) - 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.
Brian Wallace (VCIR Winter Chair) - Access Venture Partners
Brian Wallace is a Managing Director of Access Venture Partners, a venture capital fund investing in early stage technology companies. At Access, he leads fundraising and LP relations and interactive and digital media opportunities. Since 1992, Brian has worked extensively with early stage technology companies and in venture capital finance as an attorney, investor and venture capitalist. He has worked with the Access team since 1999, and joined Access Venture Partners in 2005.
Prior to joining Access Venture Partners, Brian was a partner with the law firm Fairfield and Woods in Denver, Colorado, where he chaired the firm’s corporate department and specialized in working with early stage companies in corporate and securities law and venture capital financings. Prior to embarking on his path of eternal enlightenment as a lawyer, Brian worked in corporate finance and accounting with Electronic Data Systems in Dallas, Texas and Frankfurt, Germany. Brian also had a brief stint in Washington, D.C., working on the Patent, Copyright and Trademark subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee for U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcinni from Arizona.
Brian serves on the Boards of Directors of Alces Technologies, Inc. (develops human-computer interface MEMS devices used in gaming, pico-projectors and computer detection/vision applications), Rebit, Inc. (back-up and restore software enabling local and cloud storage of information) and Trackvia, Inc. (a cloud application platform). Brian is a Board Observer (and was an original investor and legal counsel) at Thought Equity Motion, Inc. (the leading video content management and distribution platform). Brian was a Board Observer of Jabber, Inc. (IM and XMPP presence and communication platform), which was recently acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc. Brian also serves on the associate board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver. He received his law degree, magna cum laude, in 1992 from the University of Arizona and a B.S. degree in Business Finance, magna cum laude, in 1988 from the University of Arizona.
Brian is an avid golfer, fly-fisher and skier and excels against really bad squash players. In addition to constantly working on his deteriorating skills in these sports, he enjoys spending time with his family and coaching games he doesn’t understand like soccer.
