Advisory Board
Matt Blanton
Founder & CEO, STARTech Early Ventures
Matt Blanton has over 35 years of experience as a business executive in the telecommunications and computer industry. Prior to joining STARTech, Blanton was a Research and Development Lab Manager for Hewlett Packard’s High End Server Division, and prior to that, Vice President of Engineering at Convex Computer Corporation. He was President of Vadis, Inc., a venture capital based telecommunications start-up company. Prior to this, Blanton held various positions in Product Management, Marketing and Engineering at Siemens, IBM, Rolm, Data General and NASA manned Spacecraft Center at Houston. Blanton holds a Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.
Emil Bova
Partner, Jones Day
Emil Bova has significant experience representing private equity and venture capital firms, hedge funds, and public and private companies in a variety of transactions, including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, dispositions, venture capital financings, mergers and acquisitions, and public offerings. His practice also includes counseling clients on day-to-day corporate matters involving corporate governance and compliance, fiduciary duties, and general contract matters. From 2005 to 2006, Emil was seconded to the in-house legal department of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. in Iwata, Japan. Clients Emil has represented in recent years include: Maverick Capital, Patriarch Partners, Parallel Investment Partners, J.F. Lehman & Company, The Riverside Company, AMX, Arctic Glacier, and BenefitMall.
Amy Cockerham
Geode Partners
Amy Cockerham heads Geode Partners, Inc., a worldwide business consulting firm specializing inearly stage technology company strategy. Amy brings to the Advisory Board 19 years of experience in management of entrepreneurial interests in both small and large corporations. Her efforts have focused on large scale divestitures, go-to-market strategy, public offerings and private capital raises, technology pricing strategy, board creation, and growth strategies for software and services companies. She has held positions from floor plan engineer, budget manager, division vicepresident, general counsel, CFO, COO, and general manager. In 2001, she joined Geode Partners.
Amy currently serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas, is a partner in RiverRock Partners (an equity firm specializing in the acquisition and growth of technology companies), a judge and sponsor of the Texas Youth Entrepreneur Program, mentor for Menttium (the nation’s leader in workplace mentoring), a mentor for StarTech, and a Dallas Social Ventures partner. Amy received her Bachelor of Science from the Colorado Women’s College; Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver; and an Executive MBA from the University of Denver, Daniels School of Business and speaks regularly on emerging company issues.
Mark Denissen
Vice President, Worldwide Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments
Mark Denissen is Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Marketing. In this role, he is focused on incubating and building new businesses for Texas Instruments. The current focus of his organization includes technology development and market segmentation for Energy Efficiency, Medical, Security and other High Potential Markets.
Mark has been an employee of Texas Instruments for over 25 years. He has experience in Product Line Management, Technology Licensing & Acquisition, Sales & Marketing, and Strategic
Investments & Acquisitions.
Mark is a member of TI Kilby Labs Advisory Board, TI Ventures Advisory Board, InCube Labs Advisory Board, Texas Institute Advisory Board, TECH Fort Worth Board of Directors, North Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization, and University of Texas at Dallas Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Advisory Board.
Mark holds as B.S.E.E. degree from UCLA.
Charles W. (Chuck) Eisemann
Director, Bank of Texas
Chuck Eisemann is a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of Texas, He also serves on the Richardson Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the UTD President’s Development Advisory Board, the UTD Executive Education Advisory Council, the Stakeholder Advisory Board of STARTech, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Advisory Board, and Chairman of the Major Gifts Committee for the Eiseman Center for Performing Arts. He is a long time supporter of the arts in North Texas ans serves as a Principal Director on the Board of the Richardson Symphony and has organized, produced and directed the first three “Sounds of Freedom” patriotic Flag Day concerts in Richardson. Mr Eisemann was employed by Texas Instruments from 1966 to 1974. He founded Industrial Relations International, Inc., a management consulting firm and served as its Chairman and President from 1974-2000. He served on the Board of Canyon Creek National Bank from 1977-1999, and served as Chairman of the Board from 1986-1999, when the bank was acquired by the Bank of Texas.
Douglas S. Glen
Senior Vice President - MetroPCS , Corporate Development
Doug Glen joined the company as Senior Vice President, Corporate Operations in June 2006. He leads various corporate operations departments including product management, handset logistics, customer service, and business development. Prior to joining the company, Doug served as the Vice President of Wireless Solutions and Business Development at BearCom. He led the initiative at BearCom to launch new wireless broadband enterprise solutions through a national direct sales force. Before joining BearCom in 2004, Doug served WebLink Wireless(formally PageMart, Inc.) as Senior Vice President and COO directing numerous operations of the company including sales, business development, network services, information technology, distribution, customer service, and marketing departments.
Doug received his BA in economics and psychology from Stanford University and MBA from the University of Texas, Austin.
Sydney Smith Hicks
Consultant and Professional Director
Sydney Smith Hicks is a consultant and professional director. She is Chairman of the Board of DeviceFidelity, a payment software and services company, and serves on the board of Smart Start, Inc, an ignition interlock company. Prior to her current focus, she was CEO of VECTORsgi, Inc. and Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, for Metavante Corporation. VECTORsgi is a financial technology software and services company which Hicks sold to Metavante in November 2004. Its products and services are sold primarily to the top 125 banks in the U.S. Metavante is a $1.6B company delivering banking and payments technologies to financial services firms and businesses worldwide.
Kingdon R. Hughes
President and CEO, Hughes Ventures
Hughes Ventures is an early stage investment firm with diverse investments
in oil and gas and technology-based ventures. Mr. Hughes started out in the
oil and gas business in the 1950s as a trainee in the department of the Stanolind Oil & Gas Company (now BP Amoco) in Fort Worth. In 1960, he became an independent oil and gas land man and broker, putting oil and gas drilling deals together to sell to investors. In 1962, he cofounded The Subsurface Library which he now owns entirely. The library is a geological data center that collects the key subsurface data that geologists, petroleum engineers and land men use to find oil and gas. It is the largest library of its kind in the country.
In 1988, Mr. Hughes acquired a cellular telephone license located on the New Jersey shore through an FCC lottery. He subsequently moved to Toms River, NJ to build and operate the system and eventually sold it to Comcast/AT&T. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Richardson, Texas so he and his son Brad could better manage their other various wireless licenses. One of those was a nationwide 220 MHz license which he ultimately sold to the railroad industry which is now deployed all across the country.
Patrick Humm
Chairman of the Board and President, HIE Electronics
Hie Electronics President and Founder, Patrick Humm held numerous operational and senior management roles within Texas Instruments during his 30 years of career experience. Roles included international business startups, turnarounds, strategy and process development, acquisitions, and divestitures. Mr. Humm has managed joint venture relationships with international commercial partners in development of silicon wafer fabrication facilities, product portfolios, new technology transitions, capital expansions, and board of director governance. As program manager, he supervised three of the largest systems reengineering and capital expenditure projects in TI history. Mr. Humm has a B.S. degree in Engineering Design and Economic Evaluation from The University of Colorado Boulder and an MBA from The University of Texas at Dallas. He has also done Extended Executive Education through the McCombs Business School at the University of Texas Austin and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Humm is a member of the Advisory Board of The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas and a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. Mr. Humm is a member of the Advisory Board of The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas.
Paul Klocek
General Manager - Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technology
Paul Klocek is the General Manager of ELCAN Optical Technologies, a Raytheon company. In 1999, Mr. Klocek transformed the former Texas Instruments optical engineering and manufacturing assets into a business unit within Raytheon now known as ELCAN in Richardson, Texas whose consistent growth has more than tripled its size. With this business in Texas, and others in Canada and Spain, ELCAN is an electro-optical product contract design and manufacturing solutions partner serving OEM customers in defense, homeland security, business & entertainment, industrial, telecom and medical markets. ELCAN also develops and markets its own branded products such as rugged digital displays, thermal imaging sights and binoculars, and digital hunting scopes (DigitalHunterTM). Prior to ELCAN, Mr. Klocek served in management and technical positions at Texas Instruments, Barnes Engineering and American Hospital Supply Company. He was also a co-founder of a fiber optics startup company. Mr. Klocek holds a BS in Engineering Science and a MS in Physics. He is a graduate of the WhartonSchool’s Advanced Management Program. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Metroplex Technology Business Council in Richardson, Texas and served on the Board of Directors of SPIE, the International Society of Optical Engineering. Mr. Klocek has authored/edited 12 books, published over 40 technical papers and has been granted 24 patents.
Jim Lafferty
President, Genesis Biosystems
Jim Lafferty is Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Genesis Biosystems, a medical device manufacturing and distribution company serving the plastic surgery, dermatology and aesthetic medicine markets, and is a Director of LingualCare, a specialty orthodontic manufacturing and distribution company. Mr. Lafferty co-founded Osteomed Corporation in 1989. Osteomed, which manufactures and distributes small bone reconstruction implants and electro-mechanical instrumentation used in the operating room was sold to The Marmon Group in 1999. Mr. Lafferty is an active investor and a member of the Eyes of Texas Partners, a group of 14 private investors from Dallas, Houston and Austin. The EOTP invests in a broad range of companies, including companies in the medical technology sector. Mr. Lafferty is a graduate of Gannon University, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1982. He holds four U.S. patents.
George Michael
Consultant, Michael Partners
George Michael is an independent consultant, assisting companies in corporate strategy and business development. Previously, George worked on the agency side of the advertising and public relations business. George founded Michael & Partners, a public relations agency, in 1998. The agency grew to be among the top ten in D/FW before he sold it to the employees in 2004; it now operates under the name HCK2. Before that, George started MBRK, growing that agency to be among the top ten in D/FW advertising with more than 50 people, and selling the company in 1997. MBRK is now part of Publicis, the third largest agency in the world. Prior to MBRK, he held the position of General Manager at Temerlin-McClain (then Bozell & Jacobs).
George has experience working with leading companies spanning numerous industries, including Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, American Airlines, Dr Pepper, EDS, Ernst & Young, Frito-Lay, Johnson & Johnson, Nationwide Insurance, NEC, Neiman Marcus, Strasburger & Price and Zale Corporation.
George has served as adjunct professor at Loyola and Southern Methodist Universities, and review editor of the Journal of Marketing Research. He has been a contributor to the Handbook of Modern Marketing and published a number of articles in management and marketing journals. George holds a doctorate and a master's degree in marketing and a bachelor's degree in engineering, all from Northwestern University.
Julie M. Nickols
Haynes and Boone, LLP
Ms. Nickols is a member of Haynes and Boone, LLP’s Intellectual Property practice group. She concentrates her practice in the area of intellectual property law, including providing guidance to clients in a variety of technical fields such as medical devices, telecommunications, semiconductors, and computer software. She is involved with the preparation, prosecution, and enforcement of patents and trademarks for domestic and international portfolios.
Dan Owen
Managing General Partner of HO2 Partners
Dan Owen is Managing General Partner of HO2 Partners, a Dallas venture capital firm, and Chairman of White Space Ventures, a Web 2.0 business development partnership.
Dan joined Spectradyne in 1975 during its startup phase and led its growth into the world’s largest hotel in-room movie system, serving as Chief Operating Officer until the company’s sale in 1989. In 1992 he founded Focus Networks and built a satellite-delivered sales training network for the department store industry, which he sold to Fairchild Publications in 1995. In 1998 he co-founded HO2 Partners and raised a venture capital fund which provided early-stage capital for GlobeRanger, Ignite Technologies, InnerWireless, Traq-Wireless (merged with Tangoe Inc.) and Voyence (sold to EMC Corp.).
In 2004 Dan and Match.com founder Will Bunker formed White Space Ventures. They built Cookbookwiki.com, the largest collection of cooking recipes on the web, and sold it to Wikia in May 2008. In February 2008 they launched YoYoBrain.com, a free online flashcard learning platform serving college students, high school teachers, adult learners and the enterprise training sector.
Paul Pandian
President, Tech Mahindra (R&D Services), Inc.
Paul Pandian holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Annamalai University, a Master of Engineering degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He was employed by Rockwell International for 12 years, most recently as Director of Strategic Planning for Electronics Operations at Dallas, Texas.
In 1990, he founded Axes Technologies, a provider of telecommunications products and services for multinational companies and telecom service providers. In 2005, he merged Axes with Tech Mahindra, an Indian joint venture between Tech Mahindra and British Telecom. He also founded Transglobal Technologies, a holding company with investments in telecom, media and international trading activities and has established a joint venture with Government of Tamilnadu and Venture Lighting in Cleveland to manufacture Metal Halide Lamps in Chennai. Paul Pandian is very active in national and local community organizations. He serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management. He is currently the President of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur), an organization founded in 1999 for promoting entrepreneurship. He also serves on the Board of Greater Dallas Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
Scott Ticer
Co-Founder, Lone Star Angels
CEO, Blunp, Inc.
Scott Ticer is co-founder and CEO of Blunp Inc., a digital media startup in stealth. He is seasoned communications and digital media executive with extensive new business creation, development and operations expertise. He has served in key roles at Dow Jones, Computer Sciences, BellSouth, McGraw Hill, and as an entrepreneur at successful startups VentureWire and Covad, and airBand Communications and Tieless Communications, where he was a co-founder.
Ticer is a director on the board of Home Health Care Services in Dallas. He advises startups, and co-founded a non-profit angel capital association called Lone Star Angels to connect investors with startup opportunities in north Texas.
Ticer began his career as a reporter and editor after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin’s Plan II honors program, working for Times Mirror, Tribune Co. and McGraw Hill’s Business Week magazine.
Jeff Williams, Managing Director
Covera Ventures
Jeff Williams is a managing director of Covera Ventures and has more than 10 years experience investing in early and late stage companies. He also brings operational experience to Covera Ventures as a result of managing and ultimately divesting several companies in the commercial finance, property and casualty insurance and technology industries.
As a managing director for Covera Ventures, Jeff employs his unique experiences to investment opportunities in software, internet content and media and wireless communications. Prior to working in venture capital, he was a successful investor, providing growth capital to middle market companies in the southwest U.S.
His most notable investments include Sychip (sold to Murata), Softricity (sold to Microsoft), FastScale (sold to EMC), and Collocation Solutions (sold to ViaWest). He currently serves on the boards of directors for AppTrigger, MetaCarta and RipCode.
He received a BS in finance and economics from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also a board member of the Texas Venture Capital Association, the North Texas Enterprise Center and Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business Venture Fund.
James F. (Jim) Young
Chairman, Teleportec
Jim Young is a consultant and speaker, and serves as Chairman of Teleportec, the world's leader in human-centered distance communication. His focus is on business effectiveness and improvement and his areas of expertise include change, creativity, technology and leadership. He is Chairman of The Margate Group and a past member of the National Speakers Association.
After five years with IBM, Mr. Young joined EDS in 1965 as the company’s 40th employee. During his tenure, he worked in sales and marketing, managed corporate communications, managed strategic planning, and led numerous special projects for the corporation. He spent more than twelve years as Executive Assistant to the Chairman of EDS, and retired in 1999 after a thirty-four year career at the company. Mr.Young holds a BS in mathematics from Mississippi State University was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from Central Michigan University in 1998. He serves on the boards, advisory councils and/or executive councils of multiple organizations.
Jim Young serves or has served on the boards, advisory councils, and/or executive committees of nearly twenty organizations including the UT Southwestern Medical Center President’s Research Council, the Garvin School of International Management at Thunderbird, the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at SMU, the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, and the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.
