Sam Smookler

Sam Smookler is a co-founder, CEO and President of EBCC. Sam has over 30 years of proven leadership in technology businesses, most recently as CEO of P-Com, Inc and shortly before that as CEO of DMC Stratex (NASDAQ: STXN), an industry leader in medium and high capacity point to point wireless transmission systems. He has international experience managing new product development, operations, sales channels and customer relations and has dealt with the financial and investment communities. While at DMC Stratex, Smookler led the development and introduction of the industry's first 155Mbps wireless access and backhaul product combining ultra-high capacity, high bandwidth efficiency and fiber-level performance in a single radio platform. Previously Mr. Smookler served as president and COO of Signal Technology Corp., Danvers, MA, vice president and general manager of the Interconnection Productions Division of Augat Corp., North Attleboro, MA, and vice president and general manager of the RF Components and Millimeter Wave Systems group for M/A COM Corp., Lowell, MA. His career has included senior management positions in product management, marketing, sales and engineering. He holds an engineering degree from C.W. Post College, Long Island University.

Joe Markee

Joe Markee is a founding Partner of Express Ventures, San Diego based Venture Capital fund. Joe Markee has significant experience in early stage company formation, raising capital, corporate management, and public and private corporate governance. Most recently Joe was founding CEO of Figure 8 Wireless - a company developing ad hoc mesh networking software for wireless devices using Zigbee standard. The company was sold to Chipcon and subsequently to Texas Instruments in January of 2006. Prior to Figure 8, Joe was founding CEO, CTO and Chairman of Copper Mountain Networks. Copper Mountain produced subscriber access (DSL) and broadband remote access server solutions for facilities-based carrier networks. The company went public in May 1999 with annual revenues approximately $100M and the market capitalization in excess of $1B. From 1988 to 1995, Joe was co-founder at Primary Access, a remote access server company which was sold to 3Com Corporation in 1994. In addition to initial product development, Joe held senior management positions as VP Operations and VP Quality and Support.

Bo Hedfors

Bo Hedfors was Executive Vice President of Motorola and President of its global wireless infrastructure business based in Chicago. He came to Motorola in 1998 from Ericsson, where he spent 30 years in different management positions. Among them, president of Honeywell Ericsson Development Co. in Anaheim, California 1984-1986; Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of LM Ericsson in Stockholm, Sweden 1990-1993; President and CEO of Ericsson, Inc. in Dallas, Texas 1994-1998. In addition to E-Band, Bo is member of the board of the following public companies: Tellabs in Illinois and Openwave in California. He is also on the board of two private companies: Silicon Valley based Kineto Wireless and Firetide, Inc. Bo has served as advisor to Sun, Compaq and HP and is currently engaged as advisor to both small private and large public communications companies worldwide. Bo is a former long-term member of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA). He has served on several university boards and is currently Chairman of US Friends of Chalmers University of Technology, Inc. Also, Bo is on the board of CommNexus San Diego, a network of communications companies and he is a board member of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce in San Diego. Bo holds a Master of Electrical Engineering degree from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and he is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Manuel A. Henriquez 

Since October 2003, Manuel A. Henriquez has been the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (NASDAQ: HTGC), a leading debt and equity growth capital provider to technology and life science companies. Prior to co-founding Hercules, Mr. Henriquez was a partner at VantagePoint Venture Partners, a $2.5 billion multi-stage venture capital firm, where he was an active equity investor and board member of many leading communications and software companies. From 1997 to March 2000, Mr. Henriquez was at Comdisco Ventures, where he was the president and chief investment officer, along with other senior level positions. While at Comdisco Ventures, he co-headed the investment activities for more than $2 billion in investments to venture backed companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Henriquez was a vice president at Robertson Stephens & Co.'s late stage equity venture fund, CrossLink Capital (fka Omega Ventures). From 1987 to early 1991, Mr. Henriquez was a vice president at BancBoston Ventures, the Bank of Boston's early stage venture capital fund. He also was in the Bank of Boston's specialized High Technology Lending Group.

In addition to his extensive debt and equity investment experience, Mr. Henriquez has held various senior executive level operating positions at companies, including ON Technology (NASDAQ: ONTC), a Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture backed software company acquired by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC). He was also the founder of various technology companies including HealthyPets, acquired by Petopia.com. Mr. Henriquez earned his B.S. in Business Administration and Finance from Northeastern University. 

Mr. Henriquez has also served on the board of directors of many technology companies, including Alopa Networks (acquired by C-Cor: CCBL), Asiner, S.A. (Mexico City), eAssist Solutions (acquired by Talisma), New Channel (acquired by LivePerson: LPSN), Qiva (acquired by TradeBeam). Savvion, STSN, and Think Engines (acquired by Cognitronics: CGN).

Stephen L. Tomlin

Steve Tomlin has been an entrepreneur, senior executive and investor in wireless technology, biotechnology and Internet industries for over 15 years. He joined Avalon in 2001 to lead Avalon's wireless technology investment activities.

From 1994 to 1998, he was a co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of PersonaLogic, Inc., a Web-based e-commerce navigation company which was acquired by America Online, Inc. in November 1998. He remained with America Online through 2000. During 1993 and 1994, Mr. Tomlin was Vice-President and General Manager of QVC Interactive for QVC, Inc., where he reported directly to QVC's Chairman and CEO, Barry Diller, and was responsible for all aspects of creating and managing QVC's interactive shopping business. From 1991 to 1993, he was the Director of New Business Development for Walt Disney Computer Software.

Mr. Tomlin's previous work experience includes investment banking at Shearson Lehman Brothers, Inc., strategic planning and business development for Castle & Cooke, Inc. and several new business start-ups. He earned his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University.

Mr. Tomlin is active and well known in San Diego's high technology and telecommunications community. He was Chairman of the San Diego Telecom Council's CEO Roundtable and a member of the Board of Directors of CommNexus (formerly the San Diego Telecom Council) and is a member of the San Diego Venture Group. He is on the Springboard Executive Committee of CONNECT, the most significant early-stage technology industry group in San Diego and serves on the final judging panel for CONNECT's annual Most Innovative Product awards. Mr. Tomlin is the Chairman and acting CEO of Chumby Industries, a Director of Intercasting Corporation and Awarepoint Corporation, and a Board Observer at Ortiva Wireless and Vocera Communications. 

Douglas Downs

Douglas Downs is a Member and Chief Financial Officer of Avalon Ventures.  Doug possesses over 20 years of senior financial and operational experience in both public and private technology organizations. Doug has direct experience as a board member and audit committee chair and as CFO has led multiple public offerings, venture financings and has financed growth through domestic and international debt placements. In addition to the CFO role at Avalon Ventures, Doug plays an active role in several of the Avalon portfolio's early stage companies.

Prior to Avalon Ventures, Doug provided part-time CFO services to a variety of high technology companies.  Prior to starting his CFO services business, Doug was the CFO and VP of Operations for Extensis, Inc., a venture-backed, graphics Software Company that for several years was Oregon's fastest growing enterprise. Additionally, Doug was the CFO of NASDAQ-listed GTI Corporation, a supplier of networking components and network access equipment to OEMs in the local, wide-area and telecommunications industries.

Doug began his career in financial planning and analysis for a Fortune 500 company. He has a B.S. in Accounting from San Diego State University.