Leadership | Board of Directors

Nico Nierenberg

Chairman of the Board and Chief Architect, Actuate

Mr. Nierenberg has been a software entrepreneur and innovator for over 20 years. He founded Actuate in 1993 and served as CEO until August 2000. As Chairman of the Board and Chief Architect, Nico continues to guide Actuate’s technology direction.

 

Mr. Nierenberg is also a Venture Consultant with Accel Partners and serves on the Board of Awarepoint™ Corporation and Databeacon, Inc. Prior to Actuate, Nico co- and served as CEO, and later CTO, of Unify (Nasdaq: UNFY), a company that helped create the market for UNIX relational database systems. This success led to a role as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Accel Partners, a leading venture capital firm based in Palo Alto, California. Mr. Nierenberg started his career as a systems programmer and applications developer at SAIC.

 

Mr. Nierenberg attended the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, San Diego, where he studied economics and computer sciences.

 

 

 

 

Brandon Hull

General Partner, Cardinal Partners

Brandon is a co-founder of Cardinal Partners, a medical and life sciences venture capital partnership established in 1996. He entered the venture capital industry in 1991 as a principal of the Edison Venture Fund, where he directed Edison's healthcare investing activities and served on the boards of its healthcare portfolio companies. His extensive investment experience includes all facets of health care services, health care information systems, medical products & devices, and encompasses a variety of information technology sectors outside of health care.

 

Prior to his venture investing experience, Brandon spent seven years in health services operations. Brandon has served on the boards of numerous healthcare and medtech companies, and currently serves as a director of AthenaHealth, CardioOptics, Replication Medical, CodeRyte, Awarepoint, and is a board observer at AccentCare. Brandon received his BA in Philosophy and Literature from Wheaton College and his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

 

Brian Ascher

General Partner, Venrock

Brian Ascher joined Venrock in 1998 as a Kauffman Fellow, after holding marketing and product marketing positions at Intuit, Inc.  He had responsibility for launching several versions of the market-leading software product Quicken and the Quicken.com website.  The job led to a passion for the user experience for Brian, one that he continually applies to consumer ventures. 

 

He also brings strategic consulting knowledge gained at the Monitor Group and investment banking experience from Robertson, Stephens & Company to his portfolio companies.  He currently serves on the boards of Atrenta, Awarepoint, Intercasting, Martini Media, Retail Solutions, Shopflick and Vocera.  Brian earned his BA, magna cum laude from Princeton University and his MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

 

 

 

 

 

Edward J. Zander, Ph.D.

Director, Netezza Corporation

Edward J. Zander has spent more than 35 years in the technology sector.  He has played a key role in shaping some of the major paradigm shifts in technology that impact the world today.  Mr. Zander was most recently chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Motorola.  During his four-year tenure, he sharpened Motorola’s edge in technology innovation; delivered on 12 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, and the company doubled its revenue and achieved double digit earnings for the first time in over a decade.  Prior to Motorola, Mr. Zander was president and chief operating officer of Sun Microsystems until 2002.  During his 15 years at the company, he grew Sun to $18 billion in revenues; established the company as number one in the server market; and built it into the pre-eminent supplier of network software infrastructure with Solaris and Java. 

 

Before Sun, Mr. Zander worked at Apollo Computer as vice president of marketing and at Data General in a number of marketing and engineering positions.  He was also managing director at Silver Lake Partners, a leading private equity fund, in 2003, and has served on the board of directors for several technology companies.  Today he is a director of Netezza Corporation and also served as chairman of the Technology CEO Council in Washington D.C. and has been on a number of civic and philanthropic boards. Mr. Zander is a member of the Board of Trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the School of Management at Boston University. 

 

Mr. Zander received an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a master's degree in business administration as well as an honorary Ph.D. from Boston University. 

 

 

 

 

Harold M. Koenig, M.D.
Chairman and President, The Annapolis Center for Science Based Public Policy

He retired in 1998 as Surgeon General of the Navy and Chief, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery with the permanent rank of Vice Admiral after a 32-year Navy career. As Surgeon General he exercised day-to-day executive management and oversight of all Department of the Navy medical policies, programs, and activities.

 

Dr. Koenig is Chairman of the Board and President of The Annapolis Center for Science Based Public Policy; a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting responsible environmental, health and safety decision-making. He is a partner in Edward Martin & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm to the health care industry and health care information management and technology companies. He writes a monthly editorial column for U.S. Medicine, the voice of federal medicine. Dr. Koenig serves on several advisory boards including the National Environmental Health Center at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

During his career Dr. Koenig served in a variety of positions including general medical officer, residency-training program director, department chairman, Executive Officer of Naval Hospital Portsmouth, and Commanding Officer, of Naval Hospital, San Diego and the Naval Health Sciences Education and Training Command, Bethesda. After selection for promotion to Flag rank in 1988 he served in a variety of positions including Director, Health Care Operations in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and Deputy Surgeon General of the Navy.

 

A native of Salinas, California, he attended the U.S. Naval Academy, Brigham Young University and Baylor University College of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in general pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology, is a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives and received "The 1994 Federal Health Care Executive Award for Excellence" from the American Hospital Association.

 

 

 

Jason Howe
Chief Executive Officer

An acclaimed thought leader on solution selling methodology and a strategic visionary with more than 20 years of management experience, Jason Howe serves as the chief executive officer of Awarepoint. In his role as CEO, Howe drives the strategic vision for Awarepoint and manages all company operations focusing on new market development, revenue growth and profitability.

 

Prior to joining Awarepoint, Howe worked for more than 20 years in the high tech and healthcare industries focusing on strategic management, international sales and marketing. Howe served as CEO of CBS2 Consulting as a senior level advisor on a variety of go-to-market plans and developed innovative business strategies for key leaders in the high tech and healthcare industries. He has successfully initiated and managed revenue generation at five technology companies on four continents. Howe has also served as senior vice president for Creekpath Systems, Federation Software, Unibex and Edgix Corporation.

 

Howe currently has patented various sales process models (Campaigner Based Selling Model™ and forecast service offerings (AcuForecast™) and authored the book Fear and Greatness - True Solution Selling. Howe graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Colorado with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in marketing and operational management, and a minor in molecular and cellular Biology. Additionally, he holds an Executive MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.

 

 

 

 

Tom Mawhinney

JAFCO Ventures

Tom Mawhinney joined JAFCO Ventures in 2003 as a General Partner, bringing a 15-year background in the technology industry as both a venture capitalist (with Summit Partners and Canaan Partners) and an entrepreneur (having run North Systems for five years).  Having been in the “start-up world” for more than 20 years when he joined the AwarePoint Board of Directors, he brings a passion for helping to scale young, rapidly growing companies.  

 

Prior investment successes include AmeriPath (PATH), Brion Technoligies (ASML), DATAllegro (Microsoft), Infinera (INFN), IntelliQuest (IQST), Microbank Software (SunGard Data Systems), Mimosa Systems (Iron Mountain), Pediatrix Medical Group (PDX), PostPath (Cisco Systems), Powerwave Technologies (PWAV), Solidcore Systems (McAfee) and SteriGenics International (STER).  Current investments include The 41st Parameter, ClairMail, Groundwork Open Source, Hara Software, Voltage Security, Xambala and Yodle.

Tom received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College.