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List of Directors
Cleversafe has a seasoned team of directors:
Jim Dugan, OCA Ventures
Jim Dugan is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of OCA Ventures. Prior to co-founding OCA Ventures in 2001, Jim oversaw the OCA Ventures Pledge Fund which made direct venture capital investments for the O’Connor Partners Investment Office. Jim has board responsibilities for Techskills, EdMap, Home Preview Channel, Cleversafe, Midi, TJDM, and Base 2 Capital.
Jim has over 17 years of corporate finance, capital markets, and venture capital investment experience. Prior to forming OCA Ventures, Jim traded derivatives at the Chicago Board of Trade and worked in corporate finance with Continental Bank. While at Continental Bank, Jim participated in the structured financing of companies ranging in capital size from $10 million to several billion dollars and in the formation of a $150 million subsidiary to fund mezzanine debt and equity financings.
Jim received a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester and earned his MBA (MM) from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In addition to his responsibilities at OCA Ventures, Jim is a founding member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA), where he formerly served five years as Treasurer, Director and member of the Executive Committee. Prior to serving as Treasurer, Jim was the Chairman of the Legislative Committee for the IVCA, in which capacity he helped establish HB 3212 as Illinois law.
Jim is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist on venture capital at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Chicago GSB. Jim is also a board member of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC). Jim is Co-Founder and Treasurer of www.SmartBet.org.
Christopher Galvin, Harrison Street Capital LLC
Christopher Galvin is chairman and cofounder of Harrison Street Capital LLC; Chairman of NAVTEQ, a $4 billion market cap company and leading supplier of global digital mapping databases; and former chairman and CEO of Motorola Inc.
Christopher is a member of the Bechtel Corporation’s Board of Counselors, the Executive Committee of Northwestern University’s Board of Trustees; the American Enterprise Institute Board, the Legion D’honneur, Business Council (US), the American Society of Corporate Executives, an advisor to the City of Tianjin, China and to Hong Kong, and an advisor to the Searle Family Trusts and the Board of the Chicago Council of Global Affairs. Christopher is a former chairman of the US-China Business Council; a director of the Rand Corporation and a member of the US Department of Defense Science Board.
Christopher has also co-founded The Galvin Projects in 2004, a virtual global think tank; Harrison Street Real Estate Capital LLC in 2005, a $200m private equity fund established to invest in the specialty real estate categories of medical office buildings, parking, storage, student housing and senior housing in the U.S.; and Gore Creek Asset Management LLC in 2005, a large capital investment company, utilizing and managing global investment managers. Activities in early stage high technology ventures and the formation of a privately held multi-business conglomerate will be added in the 2007-2008 timeframe.
After serving the company for more than 36 years, Christopher retired from Motorola as chairman and CEO in 2004. In his later years at Motorola, he successfully lead the $27 billion revenue company through a grueling global restructuring process that reduced its break-even cost by +25 percentage points over 2.5 years, while at the same time investing heavily in new product development including the completion of the innovative design of Motorola's RAZR cellular phone, (a four-year development program). During Christopher’s tenure as an executive of Motorola and serving in the Office of the CEO, Motorola inspired or enabled the cable modem, the Nextel service, GPS Navigation plus Telematics and was China's largest foreign investor.
S. Christopher Gladwin, Chairman of the Board & CEO, Cleversafe
Read bio under management team.
Mike O'Dell, New Enterprise Associations
Mike joined NEA in 2002 as a Venture Partner.
His primary interest is the structure and behavioral dynamics of large,
complex systems. He works with NEA's technology team to identify early
stage information technology, communications, and energy opportunities.
He currently advises NEA portfolio companies Glacier Bay, Neutral
Tandem, and Vonage.
Mike came to NEA from UUNET Technologies where he
was Chief Scientist, responsible for network and product architecture
during the emergence of the Commercial Internet. Prior to UUNET, Mike
held positions at Bellcore (now Telcordia), a GaAs SPARC supercomputer
startup, and a US Government contractor. His first startup created a
revolutionary full-text search engine which was 20 years ahead of its
time. In the halcyon days of the ARPAnet, he was "Liaison" for IMP-34
at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and spearheaded the transition from NCP
to TCP/IP at Department of Energy National Laboratories.
Mike served for four years as Area Director for Operations and Management in the IETF, authored several IDs and RFCs, and helped birth RADIUS and SNMPv3. He was Founding Editor of Computing Systems, an international refereed scholarly journal. Mike received his BS and MS in Computer Science from the University of Oklahoma.
Dennis Roberson, Illinois Institute of Technology
Dennis is currently the Vice Provost for New Initiatives, Executive Director for the Institute of Business and Interprofessional Studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In this role, Dennis is responsible for providing dynamic vision and leadership for a new undergraduate business school and related programs, concentrating on entrepreneurial and technology related areas.
Previously, Dennis was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Motorola for five years. At Motorola, Dennis was responsible to the Office of the CEO for identifying, articulating and leading the strategic and visionary business-based technology advancements that served as the company’s foundation for future growth.
Dennis also worked at NCR Corporation as a Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer for two years, at AT&T as a Corporate Vice President and GM of the Computer Product Group for two years, at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) as the Vice President of Software for six years, and at IBM in a variety of roles for 17 years.
Dennis received a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. degree in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Washington State University.
Michael Seedman
Michael Seedman’s involvement in the micro-computer industry began in 1979. In 1982 he started Practical Peripherals, Inc, a start up with no revenue which was later sold to Hayes Microcomputer Products in 1989. After the sale, he continued with the company as its President until Spring 1993, growing revenues from startup to $65 million during his tenure.
Michael then joined US Robotics as the Vice President, General Manager of the Personal Communications Division. His responsibilities included overseeing all aspects of the division, reporting directly to the president of the company. During his tenure at US Robotics, his division grew from approximately $12 million per quarter with a sub-5% market share to the world’s leading market share holder, with revenue more than $400 million per quarter and greater than a 60% market share. US Robotics was sold to 3Com in the spring of 1997.
In 1998, Michael started and ultimately sold another Computer Peripheral company, Entrega Technologies to Xircom which was later purchased by Intel. From 1998 thru 2003, Michael participated in the location, analysis, acquisition and operational oversight of two technology platforms for the technology group of Ripplewood Holdings in New York.
Michael completed his Business and Accounting studies at the University of Southern California in 1979.
