ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Kamyar Kaviani (Chariman)
Mr. Kaviani currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Application Corporation. He is focused on raising capital, business development, and sales strategy. Prior to founding Application Corporation, Mr. Kaviani co-founded HTR, a local system integrator and served as chairman and CEO.
Under the leadership of Mr. Kaviani, HTR shifted its focus to a national training, consulting, and publishing company serving IT professionals in the latest technologies. Mr. Kaviani was instrumental in the transition.
In 1997, Mr. Kaviani merged HTR into Vcampus, a publicly traded application service provider providing online content. In 1998 Mr. Kaviani served as Executive Vice President of Business Development focusing in the public sector market at Vcampus. In addition, Mr. Kaviani also co-founded Saba, a human capital development software company that is publicly traded on NASDAQ. Mr. Kaviani received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Maryland.
Bob Bennett
Bob, an Invoice Cloud founder, created the initial vision for Invoice Cloud as the leading web based provider of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Processing partnerships.Prior to Invoice Cloud, Bob served as President of Sage Payment Solutions, a multifaceted electronic payment company with over $300 million in annual billings. He spent nearly seven years as a senior manager of Sage Payment Solutions and its predecessor companies (Verus Financial Management and Network 1 Financial). Under Bob's leadership the company sustained strong growth in revenue and earnings while augmenting its indirect selling channel with a direct sales force that spans the country.
Prior to joining NET1, Bob was President of MIC, Inc. a systems integration company based in Arlington, VA. Before MIC, he was a founder and CEO of MicroFridge, Inc., an Inc. 500 award-winning, business-to-business entity with primary markets of College, Military, Hospitality and Senior living environments.
Bob has been awarded two US patents and is part of an inventing team awaiting review on another. He has a Masters degree in Engineering from Northeastern University, a Bachelors degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maine and has completed the Harvard Business School Owner President Management (OPM) program.
Michael Canzian
Mr. Canzian has responsibility for all aspects of iLumen's strategic and operational direction and management. Before joining iLumen in 2008, Michael was Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Services Group responsible for all aspects of the holding company's reformation and growth strategy for its parking and transportation operations.
Prior to ASG, Michael was President and CEO of UMG Financial, Inc., a high growth financial services holding company with divisions in mortgage banking, wealth management, securities and private investments.
Prior to founding Capital Mobility Ventures, a corporate turn around and buyout firm, Mr. Canzian held various senior positions within BAE SYSTEMS and British Aerospace, most recently serving as President and Senior Vice President & GM of global subsidiary companies Jet Acceptance Corporation and Regional Aircraft, Inc. with annualized revenue of $500m. He has a MBA from Georgetown University, a BS degree from Purdue University, and is active on various boards.
Kim Cooke
Prior to the founding of Blue Water Capital, Mr. Cooke was an attorney with over 14 years of commercial and legal experience in domestic and international transactions and private equity financings. He has worked with credit, insurance and financial services companies in the United States, Europe and Latin America to create innovative solutions to finance and investment challenges for companies in all stages of the growth process.
He was an original investor in and serves on the Board of Directors of Skyway Communications, Inc., of San Jose, California, a growing "bricks and clicks" retailer of wireless data communication products under the registered trade name "ephones." Mr. Cooke received his Juris Doctor from the Detroit College of Law and LLM from the American University, Washington College of Law with highest honors.
He is admitted to practice law in the State of Michigan, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Mr. Cooke serves on the boards of Tech Enterprises, Inc., ICC, and FedBid, Inc.
Mr. Cooke is a Managing Director for Blue Water Strategic Fund I, Blue Water Venture Fund II, and Blue Water Venture Fund III
Nate Davis
Nate Davis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of XM Satellite Radio. Prior to that he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the company since 2006. Davis also serves on XM's Board of Directors, to which he was appointed in 1999. Davis was President and COO of XO Communications from late 1999 through early 2003.
During his tenure, XO became a $1.38 billion integrated communications provider offering voice, data, internet access, and web hosting services to all segments of the business market. At Nextel Communications, Davis was the Executive Vice President of all technical operations, which included engineering, operations, procurement, and IT.
Davis also served as CFO of MCI Telecommunications, President and COO of MCImetro, and in a host of roles at MCI and AT&T earlier in his career. He most recently served as Executive In Residence at the venture capital firm Columbia Capital.
Shervin Pishevar
Named "Bill Gates' Worst Nightmare" by the Financial Times, Shervin is a visionary technology entrepreneur, published researcher and technology incubation expert. Shervin has raised nearly $40m in venture funding for his start ups.
Shervin is the founder and CEO of SGN, one of the leading social and mobile gaming companies, and over 11 million installs on the iPhone and tens of millions of users on Facebook with title such as iBowl, iBasketball and (fluff)friends. SGN games are on over 30% of all iPhones and iPod Touches. Shervin raised a $15m Series A for SGN from such investors as Greylock Capital, Founders Fund, Bezos Expeditions, Columbia Capital and Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Shervin was founding President and COO of Webs (formerly Freewebs), one of the largest social publishing communities in the world with over 30 million members and adding 1 million members every 60 days. Shervin raised $12m for Webs from Novak Biddle and Columbia Capital.
Shervin currently serves on the Board of Directors of both SGN and Webs. Shervin has co-founded such companies as Hotprints to revolutionize the personal printing and direct marketing world and Hyperoffice, a leading SAAS provider for small businesses.
Ron Verni
Ron Verni was most recently CEO of Corrigo, Inc., a leading Software as a Service (SAAS) company focused on the service sector. Before that he was President & CEO of Sage Software, Inc, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Sage Group, plc. Under his leadership, the company grew from less than $160 million in revenue to over $1 billion, from under 1,000 employees to over 5,000, and from 1 million business customers to over 2.5 million.
Ron also engineered over 20 acquisitions and oversaw their successful integration into the company. Prior to Sage Software, Ron was President and CEO of Peachtree Software, Inc., a leading pioneer in business management solutions for small to medium size businesses.
Ron also was a Vice President of Marketing with Automatic Data Processing, President and CEO of NEBS Software, Inc., and the founder and CEO of ASTEC Software. Ron has a B.S. from Clarkson University.