Prior to joining H.I.G., Fred was a Vice President in the technology investment banking group of J.P. Morgan H&Q, where he advised emerging growth clients on a variety of transactions and was responsible for identifying and executing several principal investments through H&Q’s various venture investing vehicles. Previously, Fred was with Robinson-Humphrey and Alex Brown & Sons, and had spent time with both the technology and business consulting groups of Andersen Consulting, where he gained significant experience in software architecture, design and development, as well as in business strategy and operations. Fred earned an MBA from Wharton where he was a Palmer Scholar and a BS degree in Mathematics from Furman University.
Jean-Yves Lagarde, Partner Boston Millennia Partners
Jean-Yves has expertise in the optical networking and communications industries. Prior to joining Millennia, Jean-Yves was a Regional Market Manager with Corning, the world’s leading fiber optic manufacturer. Prior to that, Jean-Yves worked as a Senior Analyst in a strategy role for Corning Communications executive leadership. Jean-Yves was previously a project leader at Elf Aquitaine, now TotalElfFina. He is involved with the French technical and scientific community in Boston and has been nominated by French government decree to serve as an active Foreign Trade Advisor for the New England region. Jean-Yves holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics from Lycée Pierre de Fermat, an M.S. in Engineering from ENSEEIHT, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs, at the Institut National Polytechnique in Toulouse, France, and an MBA from The Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Kenneth Minihan, Paladin Capital Group
Principal and Member of the Homeland Security Fund Investment Committee, Lt. General Minihan was the 14th Director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. During his military service at the national level, Lt. General Minihan demonstrated a long history of making new technologies operational and implementing leading edge services and products in a competitive environment where lives were often at risk. He has a history of exceeding expectations for performance and timeliness. During the last twenty years of the Cold War and the transition to the Information Age, he was instrumental in the definition and selection of technology solutions to solve the most difficult national security information needs. Throughout that time, Lt. General Minihan helped set the performance standards for information enterprise operations. Since leaving government service in 1999, he has served on a number of Boards and Associations at the national level. Lt. General Minihan is the Chairman and President of the Security Affairs Support Association, which focuses on shared government and industry national intelligence and technology challenges. He also is a member of the Air Force Association, the National Military Intelligence Association and other national organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors, the Board of Advisors and otherwise consults with a significant number of early stage technology, security and infrastructure service companies. Lt. General Minihan has substantial experience in capital raising, enterprise operations, business development and business readiness assurance. While at the National Security Agency, he was instrumental in the definition and implementation of the National Information Assurance Program. He devotes considerable attention to and consults on national security affairs. Lt. General Minihan has a B.A. Degree from Florida State University, a M.A. Degree from the Naval Postgraduate School, and has completed executive development programs at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Among his awards and decorations are the National Security Medal, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, and the Legion of Merit.
Professor Mark Clements, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Mark A. Clements received S.B., SM, E.E., and Sc.D. degrees in 1976, 1978, 1979, and 1982 respectively, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and all in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. During his graduate work, he was a National Institutes of Health fellow. Professor Clements came to the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982 as an Assistant Professor. He is currently Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Interactive Media Technology Center, an interdisciplinary center that takes ideas from conception all the way to demonstrable prototypes. He has served on the IEEE Speech Technical Committee and as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. He was also the Technical Program Chair of the 1996 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. In addition, Professor Clements taught and performed research for two years in France. Dr. Clements has been an active consultant to industry for over 25 years working for many start-ups as well as large companies. His current research interests involve digital processing of speech signals. In particular, he is interested in such problems as the application of digital speech technology to automatic recognition of speech in adverse conditions and sensory aids for the hearing impaired. Some of the interesting challenges arising from these applications include robust word-spotting, enhancement of speech in noise, formulation of robust perceptual distance measures, and real-time implementation. Dr. Clements also does work in efficient coding of speech signals, auditory modeling for improved speech analysis, speech production modeling, general digital signal processing, and pattern recognition. Professor Clements holds three patents, and has filed for five others. He has published over 100 scholarly papers and is author of two textbooks. He has successfully advised seventeen PhD dissertations, many of which have won awards.
John Willcutts, President & CEO
John joined Nexidia with an extensive background in technology and demonstrated leadership experience from having held executive positions for companies ranging from start-ups to publicly traded corporations. Prior to Nexidia, John was CEO of Orchestria the leading innovator of solutions designed to provide unprecedented levels of real-time visibility and control of all electronic communications, including e-mail, the Web and Instant Messaging. John has served twice as Entrepreneur in Residence for Benchmark Capital, a leading investor in enterprise software and services, communications & security, semiconductors, mobile computing, consumer services and financial services. John also served as CEO of Encompass Inc., a startup software company that delivered the default end-user Internet experience for users of new PC’s. Encompass was subsequently acquired by Yahoo in 1999, and as a result of this acquisition, John, was appointed VP and General Manager of Corporate Yahoo! John has also held positions with Global Village where he served as VP of Engineering and at Atlanta-based Sofnet where he was Chief Technical Officer.
