The company you keep.
I have been fortunate to have been involved in some great companies, as an executive, adviser, board member or investor (my venture capital investments were made while at Bulldog Capital Management, now part of Monitor Delloitte).
There’s history behind many of these. Have a tale to share about one of them? Feel free to drop me a line.
OPERATIONAL ROLES
Borland (now part of Micro Focus) was a breakthrough compiler company, and where I started my career as a channel development executive in 1987.
The impact of starting my nascent career at Borland cannot be understated. The company was a pioneer in so much that we take for granted today – a fanatic customer-centric philosophy, the first simplified license agreement, a direct b2b frictionless sales model, and so much more. (Channel Development)
For some, this logo will bring back a lot of memories. Back in the day, Aegis was the developer of killer software for the Mac and Commodore Amiga platforms. We were young, brash and, sometimes, incredibly stupid. But we made some really, really cool software. (Go to market team)
I spent 7 years at Quarterdeck, starting prior to the company’s IPO and then through all the good and bad years. Back in the 90s, Quarterdeck was a very well-known developer of PC utilities and operating environments, with peak sales over $200 million. We had a number of successful spin-offs, including WebEx. The company was acquired by Symantec in 1997. I started as a marketing manager, then worked in product management, ran the Windows Tools business unit and was ultimately the company’s CMO. (VP Windows Tools, CMO)
Mijenix developed next-generation tools for Windows. After very rapid growth, the company was acquired by Ontrack. At Mijenix, I was EVP and a founding member of the senior management team. (Executive VP)
Ontrack Data is the leading company in the data recovery space. (VP)
Bulldog Capital Management was a technology crossover investment fund, with peak assets of $1.4 billion. At Bulldog, I ran the firms non-public investments. We were acquired by Monitor, now Monitor Delloite. (Managing Director)
Sunbelt Software was a successful enterprise security software company, and was acquired by GFI Software and subsequently spun-out as a new entity, ThreatTrack Security. As CEO, I built the company’s software business over an eight-year period. (CEO)
GFI is a developer of a broad range of IT systems management solutions. Subsequent to the acquisition of Sunbelt Software, I became GFI’s president of its security business unit. (President, Sec BU)
Meros was a full-stack company dedicated to DevOps. A few friends and I developed the product over a six-month period and, while still in beta, the technology was acquired by DXC Technology – HP Enterprise. (Co-Founder and CEO)
AutoLoop (merged with Affinitiv) is one of the leading automotive tech players in the areas of CRM, equity mining, service lane technology and automotive owner retention programs. (President and COO)
SELECTED ADVISER AND BOARD POSITIONS
Malwarebytes is the #1 solution for consumer and enterprise malware remediation, with over 1 billion downloads. (Board member)
KnowBe4, the provider of the world’s most popular integrated new school security awareness training and simulated phishing platform, is used by more than 9,000 organizations worldwide. (Board member)
(Acquired by Microsoft.) BlueStripe makes enterprise Application Performance Management (APM) software. (Board Member)
Runaware is a SaaS-based solution to web-enable leagacy apps. (Non Executive Chairman)
StopBadware, originally a joint effort between Google and the Berkman Center at Harvard, is key clearinghouse for web security information. (Past Board member)
Vmray GMBH is a third-generation malware analysis tool. (Adviser)
The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) is an international non-profit association that focuses on addressing the global need for improvement in the objectivity, quality and relevance of anti-malware testing methodologies. (Adviser)
BeyondTv (Hotel Internet Services) liberates travelers by allowing them to connect their own devices to hotel systems. (Adviser)
Zero Vulnerability Labs created zero-day exploit prevention software. Acquired by Malwarebytes (Advisor).
Cybermedia was a leading PC tools company that had a successful IPO and was then acquired by McAfee. (Early adviser)
Condusiv develops server optimization software, including the well-known DiskKeeper line. (Adviser)
TransientX is created the next generation of zero-trust network access products. (Adviser)
Prevasio is bringing security to DevSecOps by creating a sandboxing environment for Docker, engineering for today’s CI/CD environments. (Advisor)
AutoLoop (merged with Affinitiv) is one of the leading automotive tech players in the areas of CRM, equity mining, service lane technology and automotive owner retention programs. (President and COO)
INVESTMENTS
YouCentric was one of the first web-based CRM platforms, and was acquired by JD Edwards (now Oracle).
Vina developed broadband access communications equipment and was acquired by Larscom/Verilink)
Acta made next-generation data extraction to aggregate ERP data, and was acquired by Business Objects (now SAP).
Achex was an early pioneer in using the ACH system to deliver money through the internet. The company was acquired by First Data.
