Backers
Dave Baggett is currently Founder and President of Arcode which is producing Inky to make email smart, simple, and safe. Prior to Arcode, Dave cofounded ITA in 1998 and served as their COO and on their board prior to returning to Bethesda, Maryland in 2008. ITA was sold to Google in 2011. Prior to ITA, Dave was a Vice President of Naughty Dog, where he co-developed the Crash Bandicoot series of videogames that sold 50 million copies. Dave graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in computer science and linguistics and from MIT with a masters in computer science with a focus on computational linguistics.
Bill McLucas is one of the most sought-after advisors to public companies, boards of directors, audit committees and special committees dealing with corporate crises and related issues. Bill joined Wilmer Hale in 1998 and is the chair of the firm’s Securities Department and a member of the Securities Enforcement Practice Group. He represents public companies, investment banks, accounting firms and advisors to mutual funds facing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business describes Mr. McLucas as “the preeminent SEC enforcement lawyer in the country.” In 1977, Bill joined the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement, where he rose through the Division to serve as Director of Enforcement for eight years—longer than any other Enforcement Division Director in Commission history. Bill led the Division’s Staff in numerous high-profile investigations and landmark enforcement actions, including settlement of the SEC’s cases against Michael Milken, hundreds of insider trading cases and numerous inquiries involving public companies, accounting firms and investment banks. Bill graduated from Penn State with a B.A. and from Temple University Beasley School of Law with a J.D.
Tom Spahr has a 20 year record of leadership in the development of software technology and in growing companies. He was a co-founder of MicroStrategy and became its Vice President of Information Systems and Chief Information Officer. In 2001, he began making independent investments in early stage companies. He is currently President of Libra Ventures, LLC, a start-up web applications design company and also serves as Vice President of Jex Technologies which is focused on automating health care logistics. Since 2006, Tom has served on the Board of Directors of MicroStrategy (MSTR). In 2007, Tom agreed to lead the seed round of CrossMine, Inc. to help the company build out its vision of creating a directory of technology companies based on advanced search, geographic mapping, social networking, database, and textmining technologies. Tom graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an S.B. degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Jim Hunt is a seasoned veteran of the technology industry who has founded and run four successful technology companies over the past twenty years. Jim cofounded MITA Group, which provides a unique blend of business, technology, government policy, and political expertise to their clients, in 2006, and currently serves as a Partner specializing in federal sales acceleration for early stage companies with products and services to sell to government. Previously, Jim founded and served as President and CEO of Ernst & Young Technologies, Inc., leading it to $75 million in profitable sales after just three years of operation. Jim then orchestrated the sale of EYT in late 2000 to Cap Gemini and served as President of the newly created Cap Gemini Technologies. Prior to his work at EYT and Cap Gemini, Jim ran a number of firms including BDS, Inc., a systems integrator focused on sales to the federal government. In addition to his primary responsibilities as a line executive, he has helped launch and advise over a dozen companies in the high technology sector, with particular focus on software for federal and commercial markets. Much of Jim’s expertise has been directed at federal government market penetration for software application companies, system integrators, and IT service firms.
Jim Rutt is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Santa Fe Institute; Principal of JPR Ventures, which provides private equity investments; and Director of the Proteus Foundation. Previously he was Chairman of Analog Design Automation, CEO of Network Solutions, and Chief Technology Officer of The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson-Reuters). He has also started or advised many early stage information and software companies. Jim received his B.S. degree in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975. His other interests include: hunting, fishing, hiking, pyrotechnics, four wheeling, digital photography, war games, and computer based conferencing.