Rick Bentley, Board Chairman
Mr. Bentley is intimately familiar with bringing new
technologies to market. Most recently he founded Televoke Inc.,
which raised eight figures of Venture Capital from some of
Silicon Valley's most respected funds; built a team that
includes former executives of Fortune 500 companies; created
novel technology with multiple patent awards; and established
partnerships with leading industry players, including billion
dollar companies.
Prior to Televoke Mr. Bentley Managed the "Portico" program for
General Magic, derivatives of which serve over a million
subscribers; was Director of Business Development for Machina, a
design and engineering house that developed consumer electronics
products, some of which sold as many as 10M units; and Director
of Product Development for Sensory Inc, which currently has the
largest installed base of speech recognition systems in the
world. Mr. Bentley is the author of multiple patents and patent
filings, and received his BA in Physics and MS in Engineering
from UC Berkeley.
Liz Fetter, Board Member
Elizabeth (Liz) Fetter was most recently President and Chief
Executive Officer of QRS Corporation from 2001-2004. She
successfully executed on a plan to return QRS to profitability
in 2002 and sold the company to Inovus at the end of 2004.
Before joining QRS, Ms. Fetter was President and Chief Executive
Officer of NorthPoint Communications (acquired by AT&T in 2001),
which was recognized as one of the largest and fastest-growing
DSL broadband service providers under her leadership. Prior to
NorthPoint, Ms. Fetter ran the $5 billion Consumer Services
Group at US West, where her responsibilities included
company-wide e-commerce programs. Her expertise in running
businesses in technology and information services originates
with Pacific Bell, now SBC Communications. Ms. Fetter has served
on corporate and not-for profit boards for the last 15 years,
and currently serves as a board member of Quantum, Symmetricom,
Berbee, Alliant International University and Junior Achievement
of Northern California.
Ms. Fetter has received numerous awards for her business
leadership and has received seven-time recognition as one of the
Top 100 Bay Area Businesswomen. She is a frequent speaker at
investor and industry conferences. She holds a B.A., high
honors, from Pennsylvania State University, and an M.S. with
highest distinction from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Ralph Eschenbach, Board Member
Ralph Eschenbach is the former Vice President and Chief
Technology Officer at Trimble Navigation Ltd. He held this
position from 6/94 to 6/06 and is still working for Trimble
part-time doing M&A activities. Before joining Trimble he was
Department Manager at Hewlett Packard labs, responsible for
research in several areas of communication protocols and
systems. It was at HP that he developed the first working GPS
receiver in 1976 that demonstrated the potential for addressing
a low cost market for a positioning sensor.
He has served on about 12 Corporate Boards and is currently on
the Board of Directors of deCarta, TailWind Solutions, PhatRat,
SurfNet, Inc. and Connexed. He is a Venture Partner with Osprey
Ventures and is on the Board of Directors of Sand Hill Angels.
He is a Former Chairman of the FAA R, E, & D Committee which
advises the FAA Administrator on the Research budget and a
member of the NASA R&D Advisory Committee. He remains an active
participant on the Air Traffic Management subcommittee of the
RE&D Committee.
He received his BSEE from UC Berkeley in 1968 and MSEE from
Stanford University in 1970. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and
was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Angela Paymard, Board Member
Angela Paymard comes to Connexed with 10 years of both Corporate
Finance & Corporate Development experience in the technology,
business services and consumer retail sectors.
Prior to Connexed, Mrs. Paymard was a Vice President and Partner
at Larrabee Ventures, Inc., where she sourced and executed
capital fundraising, mergers & acquisitions and management
consulting engagements. Prior to Larrabee Ventures, Mrs. Paymard
worked in Corporate Development for International Rectifier
(NYSE: IRF) and was responsible for mergers, acquisitions,
divestitures, joint ventures, licensing arrangements and
corporate investments. Mrs. Paymard currently serves on the
boards of Cardinal Link and Connexed and holds a BA from
California Lutheran University.
