Management Team

Mark Jaffe, Chief Executive Officer Mark Jaffe is a serial software entrepreneur who has been instrumental in the success of numerous software companies. Over his 23 years high tech experience Mark has held roles in product marketing, software sales and executive management. Most recently, as Worldwide VP of Firewall and Behavioral Analysis Sales at McAfee, Mark was instrumental in integrating products into the McAfee solution portfolio, ramping sales, growing the sales organization and re-invigorating this $120M business. Prior to McAfee, Mark built and led sales organizations at software startups Securify, Axentis, OnLink and JYACC, consistently growing revenues 30-100% year on year. At OnLink Technologies, Mark grew revenues from 0 to $20M in under 2 years, leading to the acquisition of OnLink by Siebel Systems for $609M.

Stephen Dodson, Ph.D, Chief Technical Officer As a founding member of the Riversoft engineering team, Steve led the design of the topology driven root-cause analysis technology used today within IBM Tivoli Netcool, HP OpenView and Cisco management tools. Following IPO and subsequent acquisition of RiverSoft by Micromuse, Steve joined the founding team of Njini, where as CTO he led the design of their innovative storage management technology. Njini's technology was acquired by Riverbed in 2008. Prior to software development, Steve worked in the Computational Mechanics group at Imperial College, London where he delivered key contributions to the field, resolving scalability issues using a novel approach to solving Maxwell's equations which allowed it to become a practical technique used today by major companies. Steve holds MEng in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Computational Methods from Imperial College, London alongside a CES from École Centrale de Lyon.

Kevin Conklin, VP of Marketing Kevin has contributed to the success of a number of IT management startups. As Vice President of Marketing for VKernel, Kevin redefined product packaging plans increasing users from 5,000 to over 15,000. As VP of Marketing for Mazu, Kevin led the effort to reposition the company as an application delivery management company, increasing revenues over 50% and leading to the acquisition by Riverbed Technologies. As Chief Marketing Officer at SMARTS, Kevin led the effort to develop a highly repeatable sales model and expand the partner and channel programs doubling the installed base in 1 year and accelerating revenue growth. Through successive executive positions leading marketing and business development, Kevin was instrumental in Concord Communications growth from just over $1 million in revenues to an IPO, a leadership position in the performance management market and eventual growth to over $90 million in revenues.

Scott Kessler, Director of Sales Scott has over 20 years experience in the technology industry including key sales positions with such leading enterprise software companies as Computer Associates, Hewlett Packard and Mercury Interactive. Scott's background in large company sales organizations is complemented by having played a key role in the launch and growth of startups such as MarketSoft. In addition to leading Prelert's sales efforts, Scott directs Prelert's Collaborative Program designed to understand the benefits and foster the adoption of artificial intelligence in IT. Scott earned his BA in Economics from Williams College consistently ranked among the leading colleges in the US.

Board Members

Buck French, Promethyan Labs Buck French is a serial CEO and business management entrepreneur. Buck has led several technology companies to commercial success including: OnLink Technologies where as CEO and co-founder he managed the sale to Siebel Systems for $609M, and Securify, where as CEO and Chairman he grew the company into one of the leading security vendors and led the sale of the company to Secure Computing. Buck has been a Partner at technology venture firm JPMorgan Partners, and held the role of Vice President and General Manager of the Interactive Selling business unit at Siebel. Buck holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BS in Economics and General Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Dave Schwab, Sierra Ventures Dave is managing director of the enterprise software and consumer software investments at Sierra Ventures. He has led the firm's investments in 360Commerce, Inc. (acquired by Oracle), CrossLogix (acquired by BEA Systems, Inc.), Interact Commerce Corp. (IACT-NASD), Knova (Merger of Kanisa and Service Ware), Micromuse (MUSE-NASD), Motiva (acquired by Siebel Systems), and Onlink Technologies (acquired by Siebel Systems). With a masters degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University, Dave is truly a rocket scientist. Combined with his MBA from Harvard University, he merges a strong technical background with a solid financial acumen that challenges entrepreneurs' thinking. Dave currently serves on the boards of the following private companies: Corrigo, CSS SlashSupport, Flypaper, Parature, Revionics and Zoom Systems.

Rick Grinnell, Fairhaven Capital Rick co-founded TD Capital Ventures in 2001 and Fairhaven Capital Partners in 2007. He has invested in and served on the boards of companies including: Brabeion (acquired by Archer Technologies/EMC), Bridgeport Networks (acquired by Counterpath), Dataupia, EqualLogic (acquired by Dell) and Prelert. Rick held senior marketing positions within the Content Bridge Division of Adero (acquired by Inktomi) and ClearOne Communications (acquired by Gentner Communications and rebranded ClearOne), and held senior engineering and marketing positions at PictureTel (acquired by Polycom.) He has also worked for General Electric, at its Corporate Research and Development Center, and Fidelity Ventures. Rick earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is a Charter Member of TiE, and holds a United States patent. Rick is active with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay and Boston Medical Center.