Joe Catalfamo

Summerhill Venture Partners

Mr. Catalfamo brings over 16 years of venture capital investing and a wealth of experience in the areas of business planning, financings, negotiations, IPOs and acquisitions.  His diverse and extensive experience allows him to play an integral role in the structure, strategic direction, and overall growth and business development of emerging companies. Prior to joining Summerhill Venture Partners in June 2004, Mr. Catalfamo served as EVP, CFO and Director of Whitecastle Investments, a leading Canadian private investment company, and Managing Director of its venture practice, Whitecap Venture Partners. As one of the venture practice founders, Mr. Catalfamo was instrumental in shaping the vision and investment strategy of Whitecap.  He was a core element of the senior team that brought a number of high-grossing investments to fruition.  

Mr. Catalfamo’s past successes include investments in Broadband Networks Inc. (acquired by Nortel, NYSE: NT), Positron Fiber Systems (NASDAQ IPO and acquired by RELTEC, NYSE: RLT), Loran International Technologies (acquired by Peregrine Systems, NASDAQ: PRGN), Electrophotonics (acquired by ETEC, NASDAQ: ETEC), PC Docs Group International (NASDAQ IPO, and acquired by Hummingbird, TSE: HUM & NASDAQ: HUMC) and ImagicTV (NASDAQ IPO, and acquired by ALCATEL, NYSE: ALA).  He is a board member of Third Brigade, Vantrix, Trust Digital and Radian6.

Mr. Catalfamo is a Gold Medal graduate from the University of Waterloo’s Master of Accounting program, and holds CA and CMA designations in Canada. 

Ali Shadman

JK&B Capital

Mr. Shadman has over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. During the 13 years prior to joining JK&B, he was with Ameritech with a variety of responsibilities. Immediately prior to joining JK&B, Mr. Shadman was the President of Ameritech New Media, which provided competitive broadband cable services to over 250,000 subscribers. He was also Ameritech's designee on the board of Americast, a joint venture between Ameritech, Walt Disney, GTE, Bell South, and SNET. Prior to that, Mr. Shadman was the Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Ameritech responsible for developing long-term business strategies. In this capacity, he led the negotiations for the merger between Ameritech and SBC. Prior to that, Mr. Shadman was the Vice President of Operations and Business Development where he had full technical, operational and budgeting responsibility for implementing the technical infrastructure for delivery of broadband consumer products. He was also the General Manager of Network Services and Technology Planning, Assistant Vice President Network Platforms, and Executive Director of Data Networking. Before joining Ameritech, Mr. Shadman was with MCI Telecommunications where he was the Director of Technology Development and with INTELSAT where he was a member of the technical staff.

Mr. Shadman earned a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, an MSEE and a BSEE from Oregon State University.

Frédéric Veyssière

Innovacom

Mr. Veyssière joined Innovacom in 2000 and is based in San Francisco. Prior to joining Innovacom in 2000, he worked with TeleSoft Partners, a San Mateo–based venture capital fund, as a consultant in charge of business development for Europe. From 1992 to 1999, Mr. Veyssière was Director, then Vice President of Business Development & Operations with France Telecom North America in New York, heading several key projects including the implementation of the company’s Internet backbone in the US, the investment of France Telecom in Sprint PCS, and the business planning and implementation in the U.S. of the first gateway allowing seamless roaming between GSM-900 and DCS-1900 networks. Prior to joining France Telecom in 1992, Mr. Veyssière was an associate in the M&A Group of La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild in Paris focusing on telecom and IT transactions.

Mr. Veyssière is a board member with Actelis Networks, Atrica (acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks), Mobile Complete, PixSense, Radioframe Networks and Vantrix, and an observer with Bitfone (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Bytemobile and Meeting One.

Mr. Veyssière holds an MS in physics from Paris Science University, Magna Cum Laude; an MS in telecommunications engineering from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris; and an MBA from the Columbia Graduate School of Business.

John Major

Independent Director

Mr. Major currently serves as a Director of four public companies: Lennox International, Inc., Littelfuse Inc., ORBCOMM Inc. and he has served as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Broadcom since May 2008, having joined the company as an Independent Director in 2003. In January 2003 Mr. Major founded MTSG, a strategic consulting and investment company. From August 2000 until January 2003, he served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Novatel Wireless, Inc., a wireless data access solutions company. Prior to August 2000, he was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Wireless Internet Solutions Group, a strategic consulting firm. From November 1998 to November 1999, Mr. Major was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Wireless Knowledge, a joint venture of Qualcomm Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation. From May 1997 until November 1998, he served as President of the Wireless Infrastructure Division of Qualcomm. Prior to that, for approximately 18 years, he held various positions at Motorola, Inc., the most recent of which was Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

Mr. Major received a BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Rochester, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois, an MBA from Northwestern University and a JD from Loyola University.

Gary Donahee

Independent Director

Mr. Donahee has over 30 years telecommunications industry experience and spent 16 years in senior management positions around the world at Nortel Networks, most recently as Executive Vice-President and President of the Americas from 1999 to 2003. He served as Senior Vice-President and President, Carrier Networks for Nortel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa and in a similar capacity for the Caribbean and Latin America region. Mr. Donahee also served as Senior Vice-President, Corporate Human Resources for Nortel from 1989-93 and was responsible for 60,000 employees in 42 countries. In addition to Nortel Networks, he held senior executive positions in human resources at Northern Telecom and Bell-Northern Research Corporation.

Mr. Donahee is past Chairman of the Board of Voice Mobility International in Vancouver and currently serves on the Boards of Vantrix in Montreal, Alaska Communications Network, in Anchorage, and on the Advisory Board of Tech Radium in Houston, Texas. In addition, he currently serves on The Board of Governors of The University of New Brunswick.

Mr. Donahee received his undergraduate education from The University of New Brunswick and did his graduate work at The University of Western Ontario and Stanford University.

Allan Benchetrit

Mr. Benchetrit is the President and CEO of Vantrix. He has over 20 years of experience in the Information, Communication and Technology industry. Mr. Benchetrit began his career in 1987 as an account manager for Dun & Bradstreet before receiving a graduate degree in business. He went on to hold sales, marketing, and executive management positions at HP, Oracle, and Wysdom, and is co-founder of Vantrix.

Mr. Benchetrit holds a BA in Political Science from Concordia University and an MBA from the John Molson School of Business in Montreal.

Jean Mayrand

Mr. Mayrand is the CTO and Co-Founder of Vantrix and has over 20 years of experience working in the field of telecommunications and venture capital. He began his career as a Professional Instructor at the École Polytechnique of Montreal and at the Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montreal. Mr. Mayrand has held technical and executive management positions at Bell Canada, Telsoft Ventures, Evolucom (later acquired by Wysdom Inc.), and is co-founder of Vantrix.

Mr. Mayrand holds a B.Eng in Software and Hardware Engineering and an MScA in Software Engineering, both from the École Polytechnique in Montreal.