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Jeremy A. Woan, President and CEO
Jeremy Woan has joined CyraCom from the Bampton Group. Bampton is a venture capital
investment and advisory firm with offices in San Francisco and the UK that, for
the past ten years, has successfully invested in and worked with a wide range of
transatlantic and US technology companies. All companies in which Bampton has invested
have subsequently gone on to IPO or trade sale. Through his work, Mr. Woan has served
as a board member and chairman of various private and public companies in fields
including: enterprise software, cellular telephony, healthcare technology and services,
and media.
Previously, Mr. Woan successfully built two technology companies through to IPO,
one in high performance notebook computing and the other in electronic patient record
systems.
Prior to this, he worked for 8 years for several leading international investment
banking firms where he specialized in the international growth and financing of
small and medium technology companies and worked on a wide range of UK and international
IPO's.
Mr. Woan is a frequent panelist and speaker at US and European conferences on early
stage technology investing and especially on the issues of raising finance and building
a management team domestically and internationally. He holds graduate degrees from
Cambridge University in law and public international law and was a 2007 Entrepreneur
in Residence at the McGuire School of Entrepreneurship within the University of
Arizona's Eller College of Management.
Outside his work commitments, Mr. Woan is an international sailor and former member
of the British sailing team and has coached many high school and college athletes
in Northern California to medals in the Junior Olympics program. He chairs the Northern
California branch of the Cambridge Alumni and is a board member of the San Francisco
Branch of the English-Speaking Union, the Silicon Valley chapter of the British
American Business Council and the Development Board of Downing College, Cambridge.
Wayne Willis, Chairman
Wilco. Since 1996, Mr. Willis has served, directly or
through his consulting company Wilco, as an investor in, consultant to, or board
member of, a number of early-stage, rapid-growth, technology-based companies. Mr.
Willis sometimes takes short-term assignments as part of the active management of
the client companies. Recent engagements include:
- As Chairman and CEO of BeNotified Software, Mr. Willis led the capitalization and
re-launch of that company and the ultimate sale of the technology. (2003-4)
- As Executive Chairman of Cyracom International, Mr. Willis instituted operational
and marketing changes, restructured the balance sheet (debt to equity conversion)
and hired an experienced CEO to lead the now profitable company. (2001-2002)
- As CEO of Ditto.com, an Internet search engine, Mr. Willis redirected the corporate
strategy and successfully sold the company to Sorceron, Inc. for stock valued at
$20 million at closing (2000- 2001).
- As Vice-Chairman of FaxNet, Willis assisted management in the successful growth
and subsequent sale of the company to Critical Path, Inc., (NASDAQ: CPTH) for stock
valued at $200 million at closing (1999).
- As Acting CEO and Chairman of HealthScribe, Inc., a VC-backed, internet-based medical
transcription company, Mr. Willis successfully raised $10 million in the Series
B round of financing, recruited a veteran CEO to run the company and maintained
growth of revenues while cutting losses in half. (1999)
- As advisor to several small companies in the Bay Area, Mr. Willis has served on
Boards, assisted with growth, raised funds, positioned them for sale and represented
their interests during negotiations for all the above.
Voice-Tel. From 1991-1995, Mr. Willis served as President
and a Director of Voice-Tel Enterprises, Inc., a voice-messaging network and franchise
system. During his tenure there, system-wide sales grew from $3 million per year
to over $60 million per year, a digital network was deployed internationally, an
acquisition of a much larger competitor was successfully integrated and the Company
was positioned for successful merger with Premiere Technologies (NASDAQ: PTEK) in
1997. At the time of the merger, the Premiere stock issued to the Voice-Tel System
was valued at $216 million.
Hyatt Legal Services. From 1977 - 1990, Mr. Willis was
co-founder, Senior Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Hyatt Legal Services,
a nationwide chain of law offices serving the general public. During his tenure,
the firm grew to be the second largest law firm in the United States. It was successfully
sold to Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and the employee-lawyers of the firm
for significant sums subject to non-disclosure agreements.
Other. Mr. Willis earned a BS (1969) and MA (1974) in
Administrative Sciences from Yale and a law degree from Yale Law School (1975).
Between college and law school, he served as a New Haven policeman. Between law
school and founding Hyatt Legal Services, he clerked for a federal appeals court
(9th Circuit) and practiced law with Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, a large, San
Francisco-based, law firm.
David Friend
Mr. Friend is President and CEO of Carbonite, Inc., a leading provider of online
PC backup service for the consumer market. He has been a successful entrepreneur
and angel investor in the technology and communications industries for over 25 years.
Mr. Friend co-founded Sonexis, Inc., in 1999 and was Chairman, President and CEO
until 2003. Sonexis is a leading manufacturer of teleconferencing and web conferencing
equipment. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Friend was CEO, co-founder and Chairman of FaxNet
Corporation, a leading supplier of messaging services to the telecommunications
industry. FaxNet was selected by Upside magazine as one of the "Hot 100" private
U.S. companies in 1999 and was sold in 1999 for approximately $240 million.
From 1984 to 1994, Mr. Friend was Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Pilot Software,
Inc., which was sold in 1995 to Dun & Bradstreet Corporation. Pilot pioneered executive
information systems ("EIS") and multi-dimensional databases, a technology that allowed
large retail chains to analyze sales data in new ways.
Prior to co-founding Pilot, Mr. Friend was Chairman and co-founder of Computer Pictures
Corporation, whose "Trend-Spotter" software was among the first to apply computer
graphics to business data. Computer Pictures was bought by Cullinet Corporation
(now part of Computer Associates).
Prior to Computer Pictures, Mr. Friend was President and co-founder of ARP Instruments,
a popular synthesizer used by leading rock bands like the Who, Stevie Wonder, Led
Zeppelin, and many others. Mr. Friend is recognized as one of the most influential
figures in the development of the electronic keyboard industry.
Mr. Friend holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from Yale University, and attended
the Princeton University Graduate School of Engineering, where Mr. Friend was a
David Sarnoff Fellow. Mr. Friend has been featured in USA Today, Tech Capital, The
Boston Globe, Mass HiTech, Fortune, Forbes and Tom Peter's best-selling management
book, The Pursuit of Wow! He has been a trustee of the New England Conservatory,
Berklee College of Music, and the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
Alexander (Lex) Sears
Lex Sears was born in Vancouver, Canada, in July 1942 and lived there until 1970
when he moved to Tucson, where he has since resided. He graduated from the University
of British Columbia in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and did his postgraduate
work in Economics at Simon Framer University.
Lex has been in the real estate business in Tucson, Arizona since 1971. His company,
Sears Financial Corporation, is involved in real estate development, consulting,
investment and management.
Sears Financial has been involved in creating numerous residential communities.
In addition, his company has been and is involved in developing office parks and
shopping centers. One of his company's current projects, Eagle Crest Ranch, is a
mixed-use community that will contain 1,000 single family homes and over 500,000
square feet of commercial and hi-tech industrial.
In addition, Sears is involved in land bank financing of major builders, and numerous
other ventures in Canada and overseas.
Lex was a major stockholder and on the Board of Directors of Long Realty Co., southern
Arizona's largest real estate company. He also served on the Community Board of
Directors of Commercial Federal Savings Bank, Mission Management and Trust Co.,
and Stewart Title and Trust of Tucson. Currently, he serves on the board of Harbob
Western Developments Canada Ltd., as well as CyraCom International, Inc.
Lex is involved with numerous community boards in various capacities. He is a member
of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Arizona Homebuilders' Association,
and is the founder and past co-chair of the Real Estate and Allied Professionals
organization. He is also past President of the Tucson Jewish Community Center, the
Desert Caucus and Ventana Canyon Golf Club. He has been listed in Who's Who in the
World Jewish Directory.
Gerald Tumarkin
Mr. Tumarkin is an accomplished businessman. After earning his degree in accounting,
Mr. Tumarkin was a corporate officer and entrepreneur. His varied talents and skills
helped three different companies achieve their corporate goals.
He started his career with Griffiths Electronics as a business manager and became
President of that organization where he increased sales from $5,000,000 to $17,000,000.
Mr. Tumarkin founded Southwest Vacuum Devices, Inc. and sold it to Video Display
Corporation (VDC) as a profitable six million-dollar corporation. As CEO of international
operations for VDC, he built his division into a $24,000,000 profit center.
Since leaving VDC, Mr. Tumarkin has worked in the world of investment consulting
and real estate development. He served as Chairman of the Board at CyraCom International
from 1998 to 2003.
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