IT | Life Sciences | Semiconductor | Telecommunications | Venture Capital

We leverage the technical expertise and operating experience of our advisors to help inform our investment decisions and support our portfolio companies. Our advisors include:

    
Information Technology/Knowledge Management


Larry Weber
Chairman and CEO, Advanced Marketing Services, The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc., and Founder, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, has been on the forefront of technology and corporate communications for his entire career. more...


Ron Bohlin
Ron's career combines strategic consulting to the high-tech industry with entrepreneurship and senior corporate management, with a specialization in corporate knowledge management. more...


Michael Grandinetti
Mike Grandinetti has helped lead four venture-backed companies to successful exits for his investors. Currently, he is Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Virtual Iron Software, a leading provider of data center virtualization solutions for Global 2000 enterprises. more...


James Somes
Jim Somes is an entrepreneur with two successful start-ups to his credit. Twenty years ago, Jim, an architect, founded JSA, Inc., a Portsmouth-based architectural firm that has grown, prospered and received most of the industry's awards. more...


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Life Sciences
 
 
Ben Bronstein, M.D.
Dr. Ben Bronstein has more than a decade of experience as a biotech entrepreneur, corporate executive, and advisor to biomedical and scientific companies. Most recently, Ben was Managing Director at Zero Stage Capital, where he was responsible for life science investing and served as interim CEO of Spherics, a Zero Stage Capital portfolio company developing bioadhesive oral drug delivery systems. more...


T. Forcht Dagi, M.D.
Teo is a General Partner of HLM Venture Partners. Previously, Teo was Managing Partner of Cordova Ventures, an Atlanta-based venture firm and Principal and Director of Access Partners of Westport , CT. more...


Robert A. Dishman, Ph.D.
Bob Dishman is a scientist with a long history as a successful biotech operating executive and entrepreneur. In the course of his 30+ years of experience, Bob has become recognized as a leading expert in running biotech companies engaged in drug discovery based on bioseparation, purification, and combinatorial chemistry. more...


Thomas J. Gill, IV, M.D.
Tom Gill is an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School. more...


Professor Ian Hunter
While many universities actively try to "tear down the walls between disciplines" to find innovation, we do not know an academic who pursues innovation at the intersection of disciplines more explicitly than Professor Hunter. more...


H. Jeff Leighton, Ph.D.
Jeff's career in new drug development spans pharmacology in major corporations, management of and advising biotech start-ups, and serving on the scientific advisory boards of venture capital firms. more...


Anthony Lembo, M.D.
Dr. Lembo is an accomplished expert in afflictions of the gastrointestinal tract. Tony divides his time between clinical medicine and research at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, where he is currently the director of the Motility Center in the gastroenterology department, and academic medicine as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. more...


Stuart Randle
Stuart Randle has over 20 years of experience in health care products and services covering the range from sales engineering to CEO. more...


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Semiconductor


Frank Weigold
Frank brings to Echelon Ventures the perspective of 35 years of experience in manufacturing, marketing and sales management of high tech electronic equipment and components. more...


Goodloe Suttler
Goodloe was most recently a Corporate Officer and Corporate VP for Strategic Planning, Quality, and Marketing at Analog Devices, Inc., a $2 billion manufacturer of semiconductor devices, and the market leader in integrated circuits for signal processing applications. more...


W. David Lee
When searching for innovation at the intersection of technologies, it is very useful to have the assistance of someone who has developed new products across a broad range of technologies. more...


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Telecommunications
  

John C. Petrillo
John is a broadly and deeply seasoned global communications business leader with over 30 years of experience with AT&T, retiring recently as its most senior executive responsible for global corporate strategy and business development. more...


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Venture Capital


Thomas R. Armstrong
Tom brings a remarkable breadth and depth of venture investing and operating experience as an advisor to Echelon Ventures. more...


Charles J. Shea
Chuck Shea has worked closely with multiple financial sponsors, venture capital portfolio companies, start-ups and other early stage entities in the areas of strategy development, capital formation, identification of new business opportunities and maximization of shareholder value. more...


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Information Technology/Knowledge Management


Larry Weber
Chairman and CEO, Advanced Marketing Services, The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc., and Founder, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, has been on the forefront of technology and corporate communications for his entire career. The Weber Group, which Larry started in Cambridge in 1987, quickly became recognized for its unique focus on technology. By building strong relationships with technology visionaries and leaders and clients, Larry built The Weber Group into the largest and most established technology public relations firm. In 1996, the Interpublic Group of Companies purchased The Weber Group and he was named Chairman and CEO of new Interpublic's new PR entity, Weber Public Relations Worldwide. In March 2000, Larry assumed his current position and oversees Interpublic's public relations, research and analysis, and consulting holdings. In the summer of 2001, he engineered the merger of Weber Shandwick and BSMG Worldwide to form the world's largest public relations firm. Larry serves as founder of Weber Shandwick, while continuing in his Interpublic role. Larry has been involved with new technology from many perspectives. Stemming from his intense personal interest in technology, Larry imparts a philosophy upon his own companies to aggressively adopt technology to drive the improvement of communications. He is also an experienced private investor, having made many successful investments in venture stage technology companies such as Critical Path and Softricity. Larry co-founded and is Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council (MIMC), the largest interactive advocacy organization in the world. Larry also serves on the board of several technology-related and nonprofit organizations, including Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation, Modem Media, EchoMail, The Museum of Science, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, and The Council on Competitiveness.


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Ron Bohlin
Ron's career combines strategic consulting to the high-tech industry with entrepreneurship and senior corporate management, with a specialization in corporate knowledge management. The majority of Mr. Bohlin's management consulting experience was gained from eleven years with McKinsey & Company, where he was a Partner, leader of the Computer Industry consulting practice, and instrumental in establishing and building McKinsey's Boston office. As an entrepreneur, Ron was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Nextera Enterprises, a multi-disciplined management and IT consulting firm. Prior to Nextera, he was SVP Marketing and Practice Development at Renaissance Solutions, where he was a key member of the executive team through a successful IPO and two secondary offerings prior to the firm being acquired by a larger professional services firm. In addition, Ron has senior-level operating management experience with Analog Devices, Digital Equipment and AT&T. Ron earned his MBA from Harvard University's Graduate School of Business, and his B.Sc. in Management from WPI. Ron represents Echelon Ventures as a member of the Board of SiteScape, Inc.


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Michael Grandinetti
Mike Grandinetti has helped lead four venture-backed companies to successful exits for his investors. Currently, he is Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Virtual Iron Software, a leading provider of data center virtualization solutions for Global 2000 enterprises.

Most recently, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Yantra Corp., a leading provider of supply chain management solutions. At Yantra, Mike was responsible for industry marketing, corporate marketing, product marketing and management and market development. He was part of the executive leadership team responsible for selling Yantra to SBC for $170M, approximately 6X trailing revenues. Other companies that Mike has helped lead to a successful exit include Viewlogic (IPO, subsequent acquisition for roughly $500M), Raptor Systems (IPO, subsequent acquisition for roughly $250M), and Connected Corp (acquisition for $120M.)

While serving as Chief Marketing Officer at Raptor Systems, Mike created a new, integrated enterprise network security category and subsequently co-led a highly successful IPO. At Connected Corporation, he successfully re-defined the product and re-launched the Company, creating a new category within the enterprise data storage industry. At Viewlogic, Mike created the system design solution group that quickly grew to become the Company’s largest business and contributed to its successful IPO. Early in his career, he served as a management consultant with McKinsey, where he consulted with senior executives on a broad range of strategic marketing, sales, pricing and market entry engagements. He began his career at Hewlett Packard, where he successfully managed a national major account sales team selling into General Electric.

Mr. Grandinetti is very active in the New England business, academic and non-profit communities. In addition to his advisory role to Echelon Ventures, Mike holds a long-standing appointment as a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he teaches in the MBA and Executive Education programs. He is a veteran judge in the MIT $50K global entrepreneurship competition and has also served as a judge in both the Yale-Goldman Sachs Foundation for Non-Profit Ventures and the Springboard business plan competitions. He is a member of Board of Directors of WGBH Public Television and Radio, where he serves as co-chair of the Business Development Committee. Published and quoted in hundreds of technical and business journals, Mike holds both US and international product patents.

Mr. Grandinetti received his BS in Engineering, magna cum laude, from Rutgers, where he was elected to the National Engineering Honor Society and his MBA from the Yale School of Management, where he was named the Jess Morrow Johns Memorial Scholar and was the recipient of the Procter and Gamble Marketing Leadership Award.


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James Somes
Jim Somes is an entrepreneur with two successful start-ups to his credit. Twenty years ago, Jim, an architect, founded JSA, Inc., a Portsmouth-based architectural firm that has grown, prospered and received most of the industry's awards. A few years ago, Jim recognized that the architecture industry was not taking advantage of the new Internet technology. In response, he developed a business plan, recruited a professional team, and founded EVOLV, Inc., an extranet collaboration company serving the architectural project market. In June 1999, EVOLV was acquired by Brics.net, concurrently with Brics.net's IPO on the EASDAQ exchange in Belgium. Jim's experience as an entrepreneur, especially one who has successfully managed technological change, is a great benefit for Echelon to evaluate and support portfolio companies. Jim holds degrees in both Science and Architecture from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.


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Life Sciences


Ben Bronstein, M.D.
Dr. Ben Bronstein has more than a decade of experience as a biotech entrepreneur, corporate executive, and advisor to biomedical and scientific companies. Most recently, Ben was Managing Director at Zero Stage Capital, where he was responsible for life science investing and served as interim CEO of Spherics, a Zero Stage Capital portfolio company developing bioadhesive oral drug delivery systems. Dr. Bronstein was also co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of Peptimmune, Inc., a venture capital financed biotechnology company developing immunotherapeutics, which was acquired by Genzyme in 1999. Prior to Peptimmune, he was Executive Vice President at Seaflower Associates, where he provided private equity advisory services to emerging life science companies and companies applying biotechnology to non-medical markets. Previously, Dr. Bronstein served as vice president of medical affairs and medical director of BioSurface Technology, Inc., which was acquired by Genzyme after an initial public offering. Dr. Bronstein began his career on the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital and was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School.

Currently, Dr. Bronstein serves on the board of directors of BioTrove, Inc., a privately held medical technology company and the board of directors of the Enterprise Development Resource Center, a not-for-profit subsidiary of MassMEDIC.

Dr. Bronstein received an A.B. in biology (magna cum laude), an MD degree, and an MBA (with high honors) all from Boston University.


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T. Forcht Dagi
Teo is a General Partner of HLM Venture Partners. Previously, Teo was Managing Partner of Cordova Ventures, an Atlanta-based venture firm and Principal and Director of Access Partners of Westport , CT. Teo was a practicing neurosurgeon and successful innovator in medical devices and health care services. He has regulatory and clinical trials experience and faculty appointments at MIT, Harvard University , Brown University and the National Institutes of Health. Teo is a director of Atherogenics, Inc., a member of the advisory board of Vengrowth, Inc. and Chair of the Life Sciences International Advisory Panel for Northern Ireland.

Teo is experienced in neuro-oncology, spinal reconstruction, brain stimulation, trauma and pain and has developed innovative devices for epilepsy, bone fusion, and drug delivery systems. He has consulted on drugs and devices to the FDA and the Office of Technology Assessment of the Congress of the United States , and in clinical and development strategies to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries in the U.S. and abroad. Teo was a former Director of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is an author or co-author of over 150 articles and chapters and editor or co-author of five books. Teo was elected to the College of Critical Care Medicine in recognition of clinical and research contributions to the field.

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Robert A. Dishman, Ph.D.
Bob Dishman is a scientist with a long history as a successful biotech operating executive and entrepreneur. In the course of his 30+ years of experience, Bob has become recognized as a leading expert in running biotech companies engaged in drug discovery based on bioseparation, purification, and combinatorial chemistry. Bob is perhaps best known as COO of Sepracor, Inc., managing its work in the “pure isomer” form of major pharmaceuticals, and as the founder and CEO of Arqule, Inc., one of the early combinatorial chemistry companies, both of which went public and achieved multimillion dollar valuations. In addition, Bob was the President and Founder of the Milligen Division of Millipore, focused on DNA and peptide synthesizers and sequencers for analysis and synthesis of biological molecules, and CEO of Biotage, Inc., a company he helped re-direct and take public as Dyax Corp. More recently, Bob has been CEO, Chairman or Board member of four other biotech companies both public and private. Dr. Dishman holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, a MS in Chemistry, both from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a BS from the University of New Hampshire, Durham.


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Thomas J. Gill, IV, M.D.
Tom Gill is an orthopedic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Harvard Medical School. Tom also serves as Associate Team Physician for the New England Patriots, the Boston Bruins, and the New England Revolution Soccer Club. His research focuses in two main areas - biomechanics of the knee and shoulder, and biologic treatments for osteoarthritis. Tom received his A.B. in Biology and his M.D. from Harvard University, earning academic honors that include magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, John Harvard Scholar and Harvard College Scholar, while still finding time to be a National Rowing Champion. Tom is a source of valuable, practical advice for any new medical device for orthopedics and related areas.


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Professor Ian Hunter
While many universities actively try to "tear down the walls between disciplines" to find innovation, we do not know an academic who pursues innovation at the intersection of disciplines more explicitly than Professor Hunter. Ian is the Hatsopoulos Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. But he is best known as the Founder and Director of MIT's BioInstrumentation Laboratory, which combines the disciplines of Biology, Optics, Mechanics, Mathematics, Electronics, and Chemistry in the pursuit of new technologies. Included among the many cross-disciplinary inventions to come out of the Lab are the products produced by BioTrove, an Echelon Ventures portfolio company. Dr. Hunter, who holds a bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D., all from Auckland University, New Zealand, has published over 250 scientific papers.


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H. Jeff Leighton, Ph.D.
Jeff's career in new drug development spans pharmacology in major corporations, management of and advising biotech start-ups, and serving on the scientific advisory boards of venture capital firms. He started his career at Burroughs, Wellcome Company, where he served as Senior Scientist, Group Leader and Principal Scientist pursuing drug discovery in broad therapeutic areas including respiratory, cardiovascular (CV), central nervous system (CNS), gastrointestinal, and ocular pharmacology. Moving to Glaxo, Jeff was Group Director for Cardiovascular and Metabolic disease and served as Chief Pharmacologist for Glaxo Clinical Exploratory Development Committee that was responsible for all drug development through Phase II clinicals. While at Glaxo, Jeff developed focused programs in congestive heart failure, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, antiarrhythmics, and peripheral vascular disease. After leaving Glaxo, Jeff became a serial healthcare/biotech entrepreneur, acting as either co-founder, CEO, advisor, or director of eight early stage companies. Included among these are ICAgen, the world leader in ion channel biology of which he is Founder and Chairman, and Inspire, a public biotech company of which he is Founder and Director. Jeff now lives and works in Boston, where he runs his consulting company, BioDesign, Inc. Dr. Leighton earned a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics and an M.S. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of North Carolina, and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Jeff's broad gauged background is a most valuable asset to help Echelon evaluate biotechnology-related investment opportunities.


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Anthony Lembo
Dr. Lembo is an accomplished expert in afflictions of the gastrointestinal tract. Tony divides his time between clinical medicine and research at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, where he is currently the director of the Motility Center in the gastroenterology department, and academic medicine as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lembo has authored several original research articles and served on editorial and review boards for several publications, including The American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastroenterology, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, American Journal of Family Practice and Current Opinion in Gastroenterology. Dr. Lembo is a graduate of Amherst College, earned his M.D. from Tufts, and completed residency and fellowship at UCLA Medical Center. Tony advises Echelon on LumeRx.


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Stuart Randle
Stuart Randle has over 20 years of experience in health care products and services covering the range from sales engineering to CEO. Stuart began his career at Ingersoll-Rand, where, for several years as a sales and application engineer as well as a distribution manager, he learned the industrial ropes. After returning to school to earn his MBA, Stuart switched to the health care industry, joining Baxter Healthcare Corp. as a Group Marketing Manager for the Renal Division. Over the next seven years, Stu took on positions of increasing responsibility including VP Sales, IV Therapy, General Manager, Anesthesia Division, and President, Northeast Region, managing a $150 million business. When Allegiance Corp., a $5 billion medical products manufacturing and distribution company, spun out from Baxter in 1996, Stu became Corporate VP and President Northeast Region, managing a $700 million business. From 1998 until it was merged with MedSource Technologies, Inc. in 2001, Stuart was President and CEO of ACT Medical, a $26 million company providing outsourcing services to the medical device, biotech, and diagnostic industries, specializing in introduction of complex disposable products. Stuart received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell and his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.


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Semiconductor


Frank Weigold
Frank brings to Echelon Ventures the perspective of 35 years of experience in manufacturing, marketing and sales management of high tech electronic equipment and components. Currently Frank is Vice President & General Manager, Micromachined Products Division at Analog Devices. Frank's division is widely regarded as the world leader in an emerging technology referred to as Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) that produces silicon computer chips that also have micro mechanical devices built right into the chip. Before joining Analog Devices in 1992, Frank held general management positions in which his mandate included increasing responsibilities in combinations of design, development, manufacture, marketing and sales with such companies as Westinghouse, TRW, and American Standard, culminating in his position immediately prior to Analog as President and COO of Unitrode Corp. Frank earned his BSEE from Michigan Technological University, and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. Frank advises Echelon on Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies, Inc.


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Goodloe Suttler
Goodloe was most recently a Corporate Officer and Corporate VP for Strategic Planning, Quality, and Marketing at Analog Devices, Inc., a $2 billion manufacturer of semiconductor devices, and the market leader in integrated circuits for signal processing applications. Over his 23 years at Analog Devices, Goodloe began as a Systems and Strategy Analyst, was a Product Marketing Engineer, a Product Line Director, the General Manager of the largest division, then became a Corporate Vice President with responsibilities for worldwide marketing and corporate-wide strategy formulation. Goodloe left Analog Devices in January 2000 to pursue a new career as advisor and mentor to early stage technology companies. Goodloe earned his MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1976 and received his BSEE from Lehigh University in 1974.


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W. David Lee
When searching for innovation at the intersection of technologies, it is very useful to have the assistance of someone who has developed new products across a broad range of technologies. Over the course of 25 years at Arthur D. Little, where he served as Senior Vice President and managing director of the Technology and Product Development, David led the development of hundreds of new aerospace, electronic, cryogenic, biomedical, consumer and energy products. Subsequently, he consulted for Analog Devices in the development of MEMS technology and Carrier Corporation in improvement of the world wide manufacturing operations. Currently, David is CEO of Caveo Technology, which he founded in Dec 1999. Caveo develops and licenses proprietary motion based technology for security and location awareness. Mr. Lee received his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering with honors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.


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Telecommunications



John C. Petrillo
John is a broadly and deeply seasoned global communications business leader with over 30 years of experience with AT&T, retiring recently as its most senior executive responsible for global corporate strategy and business development. His experiences in all aspects of the industry include: successful large line operational P&L assignments in the global business communications services market, domestic and international public and private board positions, and sophisticated technical, business strategy development, investment and partnership negotiation experiences in the wireless, cable, Internet and global business communications sectors. Through these experiences he has developed a wide and comprehensive base of knowledge. In addition, he has interacted with many people in the larger technology and electronic services marketplace as well as the banking and financial sector. As a result, he has developed an extensive network of professional relationships and a reputation for high quality, integrity based business conduct.

The range of his experience, scope of his knowledge and continued interaction with industry participants has enabled him to develop and continually advance a unique perspective on the structural dynamics and evolutionary forces shaping the global communications and information services marketplace. His grasp is fulsome, with an integrated understanding of: the disruptive potential for value creating change presented by emerging technologies as they can be incorporated into the communications and information services infrastructures, equipment and devices, the economics of distribution, service delivery and customer support, the ultimate value impact on end user customers, and the associated competitive and non-competitive industry dynamics influenced by the varied nation-state regulatory contexts of the global marketplace.


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Venture Capital

  
Thomas R. Armstrong
Tom brings a remarkable breadth and depth of venture investing and operating experience as a Senior Advisor to Echelon Ventures. In 1983, Tom was a founding partner of the private equity firm, Advent International, with Peter Brooke. At Advent he served as Executive Vice President and COO through June 1998, responsible for operations of the firm and its growth to 15 offices in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia, 200+ professionals and over $3 billion in committed capital. As a foundation for his venture work, Tom was Vice President- International for the Allen Group, managed a $60 million business for Olin Corporation, and held engineering positions with Boeing and Sperry Rand Corp. Tom holds a BSE degree from Princeton University, a Master of Engineering degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a Director of several venture backed companies and a director/officer of several foundations and educational institutions.


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