Board of Directors
John W. Baumstark
Chairman, CEO
John’s Board and Corporate governance role follows his experience as an Operating Partner at H.I.G. Ventures. Prior to his role at H.I.G., he was CEO of DWL, which was sold to IBM in 2005. Before DWL, John had served as COO of Tradex Corporation, which was later acquired by Ariba in one of the largest transactions ever in the software industry ($5.6B ). Prior to Tradex, John helped take Software 2000 public, which became Infinium. He began his career at MSA software. He also served on the Boards of Procuri and St. Martin's Episcopal School.
Ajeet Rohatgi, Ph.D.
Founder, CTO
Professor Rohatgi is a Regents' Professor and holds the Georgia Power Distinguished Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is also the Director, since 1992 of the University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaics, a DoE-funded center. Ajeet began his career in 1977 at Westinghouse’s Research and Development Center, before moving to Georgia Tech in 1985. Ajeet also sits on the Board of GT Solar.
Harry Weller
Director
Harry is a Partner at NEA, joining the firm in 2002. He focuses on technology investments and co-leads NEA’s activities in China. Harry’s other current board memberships include Availink, Echo Global, Informance, Leadtone, LianLian and Realtime Worlds. His past board seats include SourceFire (NASDAQ: FIRE) and Vonage (NYSE: VG). Harry’s other investments include GlobalLogic, Innerworkings (NASDAQ: INWK), MediaBank, Thumbplay and Vertica. Harry’s investments outside of NEA include webMethods (NASDAQ: WEBM, acquired by Software AG) and Riverbed Technologies (acquired by Aether Systems).
Prior to joining NEA, Harry was a Partner at FBR Technology Venture Partners where he worked with several successful startup teams. Early in his career, Harry managed strategy and technology initiatives in the financial, energy, and telecommunications industries for the Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte & Touche Management Consulting. Prior to his business career, Harry served as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Harry received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his bachelor’s degree in Physics from Duke University.
Harry serves on the board of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA), is a past Chairman of MAVA Capital Connection, and co-founded the Young Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (YAVA). Network Magazine named Harry one of the 50 Most Powerful People in Networking. Harry was recently honored in Forbes magazine’s “Midas List” as one of the most successful venture capitalists in America.
Jon Sakoda
Director
Jon joined NEA in 2006 as a Principal focusing on information technology investments and the firm's venture growth equity practice. Jon is actively involved with Channel Advisor, Cyveillance, Dexterra, JobFox, Thumbplay, and Vertica. Prior to joining NEA, Jon was Senior Director of Product Management for Enterprise Message Management at Symantec Corporation, a position he assumed following Symantec’s acquisition of IMlogic, Inc. Jon was co-founder of IMlogic and served as its Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Products, responsible for the company’s product strategy, marketing operations and strategic alliances. Prior to IMlogic, Jon worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he focused on venture capital investments in communications and enterprise software for their Private Equity Group. Jon is also the founder of the Harvard Center for Enterprise, an organization which supports business initiatives and entrepreneurship by Harvard undergraduates. Jon earned his A.B. degree at Harvard University in Chemistry and Chemical Biology.
Ravi Viswanathan, Ph.D.
Director
Ravi joined NEA in February 2004 as a Principal and became a Partner in December 2004. He focuses on information technology investments with special emphasis in hardware, energy, wireless, and growth equity investments. Ravi is on the board of Availink, ISGN Technologies, Jentro Technologies, Liquidia, and ViXS and works closely with ProtoStar, Tele Atlas, GlobalLogic and our energy portfolio companies.
Prior to joining NEA, Ravi worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he was co-head of the technology practice in their private equity group and led direct, fund, and secondary investments in the areas of information technology and life sciences. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ravi worked for McKinsey & Company and advised clients in the software, communications, and pharmaceutical sectors on strategy, acquisitions and new business building. Previously, Ravi worked for Raychem Corporation in the Corporate Technology Division where he focused on research and product development in semiconductors, liquid crystals, and other materials systems.
Ravi received a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he focused his research on materials science applications in molecular electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology. Prior to graduate school, Ravi received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Kedar P. Gupta, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Kedar P. Gupta is a co-founder of GT Equipment Tecnologies, Inc., now called GT Solar. He was its CEO and Chairman until December 31, 2006. A well-respected global leader, GT Solar won the SBA’s Award for Exporter of the Year for 2002, and it is projected that over 80% of GT Solar business will continue to be exported.
Dr. Gupta is well-recognized for his entrepreneurship. In 1998, he received both the New Hampshire High Tech Council Entrepreneur of the Year Award and was a New England finalist for the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In addition, under the leadership of Dr. Gupta, GTi was ranked by Business NH Magazine in 1998 as the fastest growing privately-held company in New Hampshire. In 2000 GTi won awards in both the New England Technology Fast 50 and the Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technologies in New England and the 500 fastest growing technologies in the U.S., respectively.
He recently founded a new company, Advanced Renewable Energy Company, which will be involved in developing new technologies related to alternative energy segments. ARC-Energy is currently working on prospects to make wind energy distributed and usable by home owners as well as for special applications.
P.M. Pai
Director
Mr. Pai joined Suniva's board of directors in March, 2009. Mr. Pai has more than 30 years of manufacturing and mass production experience in a range of industries. Pai is the former Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SunPower where he was responsible for strategic planning, production expansion and supply chain development on a worldwide basis. Prior to SunPower, Pai served four years as president of Moser Baer India Ltd., the world's second largest manufacturer of optical storage media (CDs, DVDs, etc.).
Chansoo Joung
Director
Mr. Chansoo Joung is a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus. He focuses on the private equity firm's investment activities in the energy sector. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus in 2005, Mr. Joung was head of the Americas Natural Resources Group in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs. He also held positions in the Corporate Finance and Mergers & Acquisitions departments, and also founded and led the European Energy Group. Mr. Joung attended Dartmouth College where he received an A.B. in physics and an M.B.A. with High Distinction from the Amos Tuck School of Business, where he was an Edward Tuck Scholar. He is also a director of Broad Oak Energy, Sheridan Production Partners, Ceres, Inc., Targa Resources Inc. and Targa Resources Partners LP.
Henry Kressel, Ph.D.
Director
Dr. Henry Kressel became a director of Suniva, Inc. effective April 2009. Dr. Kressel is a managing director of Warburg Pincus which he joined in 1983 from the RCA Corporation where he was a vice president in charge of solid state device research and development at the David Sarnoff Research Center. Since joining Warburg Pincus, Dr. Kressel has been responsible for many of the firm's investments in high technology companies in the fields of information technology services, semiconductor devices, industrial and consumer software and communication systems and services. He is a director of RMI Corporation, SRI International, Sarnoff Corporation and Telcordia Technologies.
