Bob Lentz Digital Reef President & CEO
Bob Lentz brings extensive executive management experience to his role at Digital Reef. Prior to joining Digital Reef, he served as CEO and president of PermissionTV, an innovative online video platform company. Bob held the position of senior vice president, operations at OATSystems, Inc.; the recognized leader in radio-frequency identification (RFID) frameworks, now part of Checkpoint; and at eRoom Technology; a Web-based collaborative workspace that enables distributed teams to work together more efficiently; sold to Documentum Inc. and now part of EMC Corp.
Bob was a member of the management team responsible for the turnaround at Xionics Document Technologies, which became the leading provider of digital page processing software and technology for the office market and sold to Oak Technology. His experience also includes senior management positions at Individual Inc., an Internet information services company that merged with Desktop Data to become NewsEdge Corporation, and Appex Corporation, a software company serving the cellular telephone industry that was sold to Electronic Data Systems.
Bob is a member of the board of directors of Monotype Imaging Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYPE), Woburn, MA, eCopy, Inc., Nashua, NH, and Lumigent Technologies, Acton, MA. He holds an MBA from Babson College and a BS in Business from Northeastern University.
Steve Akers Digital Reef Founder & CTO
Steve Akers is the founder of Digital Reef. A highly successful entrepreneur, Steve has spent his career designing cutting-edge technology solutions that solve complicated and very large scale business problems.
As chief technology officer in the Lucent Technologies Inc. "Wireline" business unit, Steve worked closely with Bell Laboratories to deliver large-scale technologies for integrating data, optical, and wireless networking across a common set of IP technologies. Steve came to Lucent from Spring Tide Networks, a company he co-founded in 1998. During Steve's tenure, Spring Tide became the premier provider of "IP Service Intelligent" switches for enhanced data services over IP networks. Steve and his team architected and designed the wireless, wire line, and broadband platform that inspired the purchase of Spring Tide by Lucent in 2000. As chief technology officer and key architect at Shiva Corporation, a maker of remote access and virtual private networking equipment, Steve partnered with Nortel networks to deliver remote access server and carrier-based VPN technologies. Steve's networking, storage, distributed file systems, and security experience also includes key positions at Stratus Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and Apollo Computer.
Steve holds a Master of Science in Computer Science degree from Boston University, a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University.
Jim Baum Netezza, President & CEO
As President and CEO, Baum is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company, as well as overseeing its day-to-day operations, global product development, sales and marketing. As an integral part of the leadership team in his previous role as COO, Baum worked to take Netezza public in 2007, as well as drive the company to profitability earlier this fiscal year. Baum brings to Netezza over 20 years of leadership experience with fast-growing companies.
Prior to Netezza, Jim Baum was president and CEO of Endeca. During his five year tenure, he led Endeca's rise from an innovative start-up to the leading provider of innovative information access and delivery software solutions to the Global 2000, building the customer base to more than 270.
Previously, as executive vice president and general manager at Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), Baum helped drive the Company's growth to more than $1 billion in revenues during his 11-year tenure. Overseeing PTC's Windchill Business Unit, he was responsible for all aspects of the business, including product strategy, product development, marketing, operations and services.
Jim holds an M.S. in Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is a member of WPI’s Department of Computer Science Advisory Board. Baum is an avid flyer and a member of Angel Flight.
Rob L. Soni Matrix Partners, General Partner
Rob Soni is a General Partner in the Waltham office. Prior to Matrix, Rob was Managing Partner of Bessemer Venture Partners where he led their investments in Aptis Communications (acquired by Nortel), Maker Communications (NASDAQ: MAKR before being acquired by Conexant Systems), NBX Corporation (acquired by 3COM), Castle Networks (acquired by Siemens), Omnia Communications (acquired by Ciena), Sahara Networks (acquired by Lucent/Cascade Communications), C-Port Corporation (acquired by Motorola), Altiga Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems), Element-14 (acquired by Broadcom), Sirocco Systems (acquired by Sycamore Networks), Pirus Networks (acquired by Sun MicroSystems), Ocular Networks (acquired by Tellabs), WaveSmith Networks (acquired by Ciena), Catena Networks (acquired by Ciena), Telica (acquired by Lucent), PowerTel (NASDAQ: PTEL before being acquired by T-Mobile), ITC Deltacom (NASDAQ: ITCD), MindSpring (NASDAQ: MSPG before being acquired by Earthlink), Knology (NASDAQ: KNOL), Systems Management Arts (acquired by EMC), BladeLogic (NASDAQ: BLOG before being acquired by BMC Software), Ellacoya Networks (acquired by Arbor Networks), Broadsoft, Hatteras Networks, ClearPoint Metrics and Netuitive. Rob remains Chairman of Intersect Software Corporation which he Co-Founded in 1999. Before joining Bessemer, Rob worked in the Boston office of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Rob is on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and is a past Executive Committee Member, is a Board and a Founding Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), and is a past Board member of the Global Semiconductor Alliance.
Rob graduated from Harvard College.
Stephen Van Beaver Pilot House Ventures, General Partner
Stephen Van Beaver has broad management experience in the technology industry as an entrepreneur, manager, active investor and advisor for emerging information technology and telecommunications companies for more than two decades. He has led hardware and software products and services companies and divisions, working across many functional areas including technology and engineering management; operations; and sales and marketing strategy.
Prior to joining Pilot House, Stephen was co-founder and Senior Vice President of Operations for Road Runner, the high-speed data joint venture between MediaOne (now Comcast), Time Warner (now AOL Time Warner), Compaq (now HP) and Microsoft. In this role, he grew numerous operational functions, as well as other areas of the business including deployment, program management, quality assurance, customer care, and regional operations. He also served as Vice President of Operations and Technology for MediaOne Internet Services, as well as for Continental Cablevision.
Before joining Continental Cablevision, Stephen was General Manager of the AT&T Interchange Online Network division. Stephen also held senior positions at Shiva and Index Technology, within the marketing, operations, and technology functions.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Camiant, Copanion, Mazu Networks, PeerApp, and Stoke.
Stephen holds a Masters of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hartford.