Three Execs on New Board to Offer Leadership and Insight on Future of the Technology Industry

The Technology Council of Southern California (TCOSC), a chapter of the Software & Services Division of SIIA, today announced three new Directors to the Council’s Board. Made up of executives from TCOSC member companies, the Board represents the voice of the full-member firms of the council.

In their role as board members, these executives will come together to provide the region’s technology, media and ecommerce industries with leadership, advocacy and critical market information in the months and years ahead. As representatives of the TCOSC member firms, all of the newly elected executives will develop and prioritize the Council’s initiatives and determine the projects, activities and events to be undertaken by TCOSC.

I am these influential leaders are joining the TCOSC Board of Directors. Together we can ensure that TCOSC continues to provide valued tools and services to our member organizations. This work can only be achieved through the collective efforts of leaders like these who are committed to advancing the technology, media and ecommerce industries.

Newly appointed board members:

Mike Andrews, Managing Director, NovaStor Corp.

Mike Andrews took on the title of Managing Director in 2007. He is responsible for running NovaStor’s US organization. Mike has received several industry innovation rewards and was recently awarded with a patent based on a revolutionary approach to file restoration.

Prior to NovaStor, in 1990, he managed a Canadian government inventory tracking and security initiative for 7 years leading to hundreds of millions in cost avoidance and savings.

In 1997, he then became the Executive Vice President of Sales at Authentex Software, acting as the North American Distribution for ThunderByte Anti-Virus and a worldwide distributor for the award winning DataSafe Encryption Software solution.

Mike is a 20-year veteran of the data security industry, is co-founder of a system integration and services company, has invested in several companies including NovaStor and Iotum – a provider of telephone and meeting management applications and services. Mike currently sits on several boards, including his role of Vice President for the Technology Council of Southern California.

Jon Kraft, Managing Partner, LiftOff

Jon has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur in software and consumer digital media, and is currently Managing Partner at LiftOff, a Los Angeles-based start-up studio and accelerator, and an advisor for several early stage companies.  He is also Chairman of Thrively, a strength-based online platform to help kids discover their passion in life.  He is the former Chief Operating Officer and a member of the founding team at UberMedia, Idealab’s prominent Internet start-up which he helped build into the world’s leading independent developer of mobile social apps.  Before that, he was Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., an advanced avatar platform company recognized by Forbes in 2009 as one of America’s 20 Most Promising Companies, and sold to Image Metrix (IMGX:OTC) in 2010. Jon previously served as Co-founder and CEO of Pandora Media, the largest and fastest growing online radio product in the world with over 150M registered users in the U.S. (NYSE: P).  Jon’s first entrepreneurial venture was as a Co-founder of Stanford Technology Group in 1993, an innovator in the relational OLAP market, funded by Sequoia and Hummer Winblad, and acquired by Informix Corporation in 1995.  Jon holds a B.A. from Stanford University. 

Jon Zuk, Principal, Waterstone Management Group

John specializes in cultivating innovation at the intersection of business strategy and technology product development. His skillset has been honed during his 20+ years of experience as a systems engineer, management consultant, and executive across a range of technology-centric companies. While at Waterstone, John has led the definition and launch of a big data strategy for a life sciences diagnostics company. The scope of the initiative includes platform architecture, ecosystem definition, selection, and adoption as well as offering roadmaps and pricing strategy. He was also a member of the Waterstone team responsible for crafting a business case and subsequent operational plan in support of a radical new microprocessor for an IT infrastructure provider. Most recently, John has been applying his innovation management experience to expand and deepen Waterstone’s capabilities in customer experience.

John was formerly VP of Marketing and Business Strategy for Tanner EDA, a software provider in the semiconductor design industry. Previously, John was a Director at boutique open innovation consultancy 4iNNO.  At 4iNNO, John applied new innovation models to improve the effectiveness of nitrogen-based fertilizers for Sub-Sahara Africa. Before that, John was with IBM, where he held management and consulting roles.  As an Associate Partner in IBM’s Business Consulting Services division, John delivered transformative product and service development engagements at Motorola, Ingersoll-Rand, and Honda. Earlier in his career, John merged his technological and operations know-how with his interest in antiques and collectibles: he founded Collector Technologies, Inc. and launched abacoin.com, an internet-based virtual bourse for rare and collectible coins. John started his career as a systems engineer at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ.

John holds an MS in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Union College.

They join fellow board members:

Uri Blackman, CEO, GIDEON Informatics

Feyzi Fatehi, CEO, Corent Technology

Darcy Gassel, North American Ecosystem Leader, Digital Business Group, IBM

Richard Neff, Founder, Neff Law Firm

Rick Sharga, CMO, Ten-X

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.