Board of Directors
Dr. Boris E. Zibitsker
Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer, BEZ Systems
Boris Zibitsker is responsible for research and professional services. He has over 30 years of experience with performance evaluation, modeling and performance prediction of complex computer systems. Boris founded BEZ Systems and has served as Chairman and CTO since 2001. He emigrated to the US from Russia and has held performance management and capacity planning positions for the First National Bank of Chicago and CNA Insurance Company. Previously, he was a project leader at the Computer Systems Research and Development Institute in Minsk, where he managed development of software for automatic scheduling and workload management for IBM-compatible mainframes.
Boris has presented many papers throughout the world at international and regional conferences. He has taught seminars for the Kellogg Business School of Northwestern University and the Graduate School of Business of University of Chicago, served as an adjunct Associate Professor at DePaul University, and he continues to consult and teach performance management and capacity planning at seminars throughout the world. Boris has an MS degree in Computer Science and Automatic Control from the Radio Engineering Institute in Minsk, and his Doctorate work was focused on Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Complex Computer Systems.
F. Daniel Haley
BEZ President and Chief Executive Officer
Dan Haley joined BEZ from storage resource management vendor Astrum Software where he served as CEO. Astrum was sold to EMC Corporation 2004. Prior to Astrum, Dan was Executive Vice President of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendor Xchange Applications, where he was responsible for several business units and completed three M&A transactions. He was a member of the management team that completed an IPO that eventually led to a market capitalization of over $2 billion and he sourced, negotiated and closed many of the company's largest customer transactions.
Previously, Dan served as the founding President and CEO of applications performance management company Precise Software Solutions, where he led the company through its formative stages. He developed the company's value proposition for its performance management applications, focused development from five product lines to one, identified target markets, created distribution channels and developed the business model and organizational structure that led to an eventual IPO and a market capitalization in excess of $800 million. He has also served as a venture capital partner with Advent International and early in his career he held marketing, financial and product management positions with Digital Equipment Corporation. He holds an MBA from the University of Denver.
Christopher W. ("Walter") Dick
Managing Director of Ascent Venture Partners
Walter has helped build and finance successful New England-based technology and non-technology companies for over twenty years, including fourteen at Ascent. Prior to joining Ascent, Walter spent twelve years in a variety of executive positions in numerous subsidiaries of UST Corp., including President of its Venture Capital and Corporate Finance Subsidiaries. In addition to BEZ, Walter holds directorships with Akibia Group, eCopy, Inc., Nova Analytics and Whaleback Systems.
Walter is a former member and chairman of the Board of Governors of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies.
Siki Guinta
President and CEO of Managed Objects
Siki Guinta joined Managed Objects as President and Chief Executive Officer in 1999. She previously spent four years at Computer Associates (CA). She most recently served as Senior Vice President of the OS/390 business unit, with worldwide responsibility for the product strategy, marketing and technical support behind hundreds of offerings. She also spurred CA's development and marketing organizations to integrate traditional systems management products with the company's suite of systems management solutions for open environments. She is fluent in four languages and has lived in six different countries, holding key positions with international companies in Europe and the U.S. Siki joined CA when it acquired Legent Corporation, a software company where she oversaw global research and development initiatives. Siki holds degrees in literature and art history from De Vedruna College in Rome, along with a degree in French language and civilization from La Sorbonne in Paris.
Jeffrey Vogel
Managing Director of Velocity Equity Partners
Jeffrey Vogel has over 15 years experience in operating and financing high tech software companies. Prior to co-founding Velocity in 2000, Jeff was Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Research and Development for eBusiness Technologies, a leader in XML Content Management Systems. In 1989, Jeff co-founded Electronic Book Technologies (EBT), a pioneer in SGML and XML information systems. At EBT Jeff led R&D until 1996 when he helped sell the company to Inso, a publicly traded company. From 1996 to 1998, Jeff was Vice President of Engineering at Inso's Electronic Publishing Solutions business unit and was also very active in the company's corporate development activities where he helped acquire and integrate upwards of a half dozen acquisitions.
Jeff represents or has represented Velocity as a board member or board observer in a number of portfolio companies, including BEZ, WebDialogs, Nexaweb, Digital LightCircuits, and Collego.
Jeff is currently a Director of the Slater Center for Interactive Technology as well as Vice President and Executive Board member of the JCC of Rhode Island. He holds an A.B. in Computer Science and Economics from Brown University.