Board of Directors
David Brunel, Chairman
Mr. Brunel has been an investor and in management of numerous software and biotech companies. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of several software companies, including Xitec Software PLC and Anark, Corp., the leading provider of next generation interactive media for the web. He was most recently President and CEO of SomaLogic, Inc., a Boulder, CO. based company that provides tools for the high-throughput quantification of proteins supporting the post-genomic revolution in the biological sciences and in clinical diagnostics.
Before joining SomaLogic, Brunel was the CEO of Los Angeles-based Cinebase Software, a provider of software for managing digital media. Mr. Brunel guided Cinebase into a merger with PNI, Ltd. to form eMotion, Inc. where he served as Chairman.
Before Cinebase, Brunel was the COO of Ardent Software, a leading provider of enterprise software for data management, application development, data warehousing, and data marts. Ardent was subsequently acquired by Informix Software which, after the $1B sale of the data management business to IBM, is now focused on data warehousing under the Ascential name (NASDAQ: ASCL). Ardent was formed by the merger of Vmark Software and Unidata, Inc. (where Brunel was a founder and CEO).
During 20 years of managing, Brunel has overseen rapidly growing software companies where he was responsible for strategy, operations, and financing. He has extensive experience in growing companies, managing direct and indirect sales channels, building successful strategic relationships with major corporations, and consistently delivering shareholder value.
Stephen Collins, President and CEO, Director
Stephen Collins is a co-founder of Anark and an 18 year industry veteran within the high-tech, entertainment, and enterprise 3D market sectors. He has extensive sales, marketing, business development and private equity financing experience.
Stephen has guided Anark through its evolution from innovative 3D game development studio to an emerging market leader with advanced and practical 3D and data management solutions that enable customers to cost effectively realize the full potential of their CAD design data and other 3D graphics assets via a wide variety of collaboration, communication and visualization applications.
Prior to founding Anark, Stephen worked for market leaders such as Xerox, Tandy’s Business Systems Division, and Microage, where he consistently exceeded sales goals and company expectations.
Stephen earned his BA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1989, where he majored in History and minored in Marketing.
Mark Sawyer, Director
Mark is currently an Entrepreneur in Residence at Borealis Ventures. Prior to working with Borealis, Mark was president and CEO of @Last Software in Boulder, Colorado, where he lead the merger between @Last and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in March 2006.
Before @Last, Mark was vice president of worldwide field operations for design software maker Graphisoft (BET: GRAPHI) headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. And from 1993 to 2000 he was with software industry leader Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) of San Rafael, California, finally serving as the company’s vice president of the AEC division. Mr. Sawyer has also served as the president of ManagedOps of Bedford, New Hampshire, a venture-funded application services provider now part of Navisite, Inc. (NASDAQ: NAVI).
Mark received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.
Kevin B Allen, Director
Kevin Allen is the Managing Member of 5280 Partners, LLC, a Denver-based venture capital firm specializing in early stage technology and communications industry investing. Mr. Allen has served as a Director of numerous early stage companies and currently serves as a Director of CustomerLink Systems, an outsourced marketing services provider.
From 1996 through 2000, Mr. Allen was an executive officer of Rifkin & Associates, Inc., a privately held owner and operator of US based cable television systems. He ultimately served as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. As CEO, Mr. Allen was responsible for overseeing all business activities of Rifkin & Associates, including all corporate development activities. In addition, Mr. Allen directed all of Rifkin & Associates’ capital formation and merger and acquisition efforts, raised well over $1 billion of debt and equity capital and negotiated the terms of ten separate acquisitions of cable television system groups involving over 250,000 customers.
Before joining Rifkin & Associates, Mr. Allen spent eight years as an investment banker for BT Securities Corporation (an affiliate of Bankers Trust Company) and Prudential-Bache Capital Funding. Mr. Allen’s investment banking clients included communications satellite owners and operators; international wireless communications services providers; and several cable television system operators, including Rifkin & Associates, Inc.
Mr. Allen received his Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado. Mr. Allen serves as a Director and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Colorado UpLIFT, a Denver-based charitable organization serving at-risk youth in the Denver community.
Ed Perry, Director
Ed Perry joined Murphree Venture Partners in 2003 and is a General Partner in the Austin, Texas office.
In his work experience, Ed has served as both a developer and an enterprise customer of 3D visualization and simulation software. After 11 years in the design, construction and operations of petrochemical plants, offshore platforms, power plants and waste treatment facilities, Ed devoted 17 years as a successful entrepreneur. He was the founder, CEO or Managing Partner of four successful high-growth companies which netted his investors many times their invested capital.
Ed worked for several years as an investment professional at Austin Ventures and Koch Ventures before joining MVP in 2003. As a Master Teacher at the Acton MBA in Entrepreneurship, Ed has won several awards as Teacher of the Year. He guest teaches at other MBA schools in the South.
Ed received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Chemical Engineering from Rice University.
Chris Kerr, Director
Chris Kerr is the Managing Partner of Humane Capital, LLC, a New York-based social venture capital firm created by the Humane Society of the U.S. Prior to this, Chris served as the Director of Private Equities for the HSUS, assisting senior staff with diverse internal business development projects.
Chris has served as CEO of Abele Kerr Investments, a New York-based investment holding company. In 1997 he co-founded and was President of SteriLogic Corporation (which became a portfolio company of AKI), a New York medical waste management firm and medical device manufacturer. Chris merged SteriLogic into MedSolutions, Inc., which was sold to Stericycle (NASDAQ: SRCL) in 2007.
In 2003, Chris created and was the CEO of Oxus Environmental, a Maine healthcare services company wholly owned by AKI. Today Oxus is Maine’s premier medical waste management company, controlling over 95% of the medical waste generated in Maine and operating the state’s sole biomedical waste processing plant.
From 1989 to 1996 Chris was Co-Founder and CEO of Gurney Kerr, a construction management firm; an Inc. 500 company and one of Philadelphia Business Journal’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies.
In addition to serving as a director of Anark, Chris serves as a director of Oxus Environmental and Pitcairn Financial Group, a $4 billion AUM wealth management firm. He has played pivotal roles in non-profit initiatives and as a staunch animal advocate is active with several regional and national animal organizations. Chris is a director of HumaneUSA PAC.
Chris received his BS summa cum laude in management from Babson College. He is an alumnus of the NVCA Venture Capital Institute.
Michael Block, Director
Michael Block is the Manager of Holden Capital LLC, the general partner of a series of early stage venture capital partnerships. Active in the venture capital industry since 1988, the partnerships managed by Mr. Block have actively invested in dozens of seed and early stage companies in technology, life sciences, retail and business services.
Prior to forming Holden and its predecessor partnership in 1990, Michael worked in the family office of an active private equity investor developing their early stage strategy. He served as Director of Corporate Development at GD Searle & CO where he negotiated a host of corporate acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures in the United States, Europe, Australia and South America. From 1974 until 1980, Michael worked in the tax and law departments at several Fortune 100 companies.
Michael earned a J.D from the DePaul College of Law, and a Masters Degree in taxation from DePaul University’s Graduate School of Business. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from the University of Illinois.