Board of Directors
Roger Novak, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
Loren Burnett, President and CEO
Matthew McCooe, Chart Venture Partners
Roger Novak, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
Roger Novak is General Partner with Novak Biddle Venture Partners (NBVP). He brings to the company over 25 years of experience as a venture capitalist, "angel" investor and operating principal. NBVP is a premier early stage venture capital firm that is backed by some of the country's most prestigious investors. Each of NBVP's first three funds is ranked in the top quartile of all venture funds for returns.
During his career, Novak has served on many private, public and civic boards. In addition to StackSafe, Novak currently serves on the boards of Blackboard, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), where he is Lead Director; Spectrum K12; Synchris; Trusted Computer Solutions; and Digital Signal Corporations. He also serves on the advisory boards of several venture funds, the Department of Homeland Security PREDICT (Protected Repository for the Defense of Infrastructure Against Cyber Threats) Advisory Board, and is a member of the Office of Secretary of Defense DeVenCI program. Additionally, Novak is a board member of the National Venture Capital Association and a trustee of the Walters Art Museum.
Loren Burnett, President and CEO
Loren Burnett founded StackSafe in December of 2005. As President and CEO, he is responsible for leadership, day-to-day corporate operations, establishing the organization's strategic direction and investor relations.
Burnett brings over 28 years of management experience to the position. Before he founded StackSafe, Burnett was the COO and CFO of Astral Brands, a consumer brand management company. During his tenure, he oversaw the explosive growth of Astral's revenue base, which increased in excess of 100 percent during a 15-month period. Prior to joining Astral, Burnett served as the President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Celcorp, a provider of enterprise application integration software and services.
Burnett also served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Riptech, Inc., a leading provider of managed security services. He was instrumental in the cash sale of the firm to Symantec, Inc. for $145 million in August of 2002. Shareholder profits from this transaction exceeded $100 million.
Burnett's entrepreneurial experiences include his co-founding of FutureNext Consulting, an organization that grew to more than $72 million in annualized revenues. Burnett also has a track record of returning value to investors. He served as CFO at The Hunter Group, where he led their IPO initiative. Subsequently, Renaissance Worldwide, Inc. acquired Hunter, resulting in profits to the company's shareholders in excess of $150 million.
Additionally, Burnett has held senior management positions with NTS, MAXM Systems Corp., MCI, and Coopers & Lybrand. He served as Treasurer of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic, and has served on its Board of Directors.
Matthew McCooe, Chart Venture Partners
Matthew McCooe is the Managing Partner of Chart Venture Partners. Most recently, he managed Columbia University Science and Technology Venture's (STV) portfolio of spinout companies. He also managed the deployment of STV's highly profitable pre-seed fund. During his tenure, 11 of Columbia's portfolio companies went public or were acquired by publicly traded companies.
Prior to joining STV, McCooe led several rapid-growth technology operations, three of which he started from the business planning stage. Today, these businesses generate annual revenues up to $100 million. In 1998, he co-founded Eureka Networks, a New York, NY-based communications and software application organization. Earlier in his career, McCooe managed product development, sales and marketing, and new product rollouts for two Fortune 500 companies—Becton Dickinson and MCI. As a national sales leader at MCI, he rose to become product and marketing manager, launching MCI's flagship voice and data products as part of the company's start-up joint venture in Latin America.