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Board of Directors
Click here for committee memberships at a glance.
Dennis J. Cagan
Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer & President
Mr. Cagan has served as a director since May 2005. He has been in the high technology industry as an active and successful entrepreneur for over 40 years, having founded over a dozen different companies. Dennis has been an investor, professional board member (over 43 boards) and consultant for over 30 years. He brings a broad perspective emphasizing sales, marketing and strategy to the management of a technology-based company.
Since 1984, usually as a member of the Board, Dennis has joined numerous company management teams full-time as CEO, COO, or Vice President of Sales & Marketing to name just a few. He has experience in both company turn-around and growth environments.
In May 2006 Dennis was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of TWL Corporation and its subsidiary TWL Knowledge Group, Inc. Dennis is currently actively engaged full-time in leading the company.
Prior to joining TWL Corporation, Dennis was the founder, Chairman and CEO of the Santa Barbara Technology Group, LLC, a small regional venture capital firm. Dennis oversaw all activities including monitoring portfolio investments, consulting to early-stage technology companies, and selecting new investments.
Santa Barbara Technology Group, LLC is a private investment and consulting firm engaged primarily in working with, and investing in early-stage technology companies. They provided world-class management assistance, strategic guidance, and valuable connections for entrepreneurs. They provided young companies access to financing and operational and technological infrastructure.
In 1979 Dennis was the keynote speaker at the first COMDEX Show, in Las Vegas. In 1976 he founded the David Jamison Carlyle Corp., one of the country’s largest distributors of computer peripherals, and took it public in 1981. Between 1981 and 2000 Dennis served as an investor, mentor and management consultant. Among the companies he has been involved with have been some of Southern California’s best-known technology enterprises including Wavefront Technologies (then Alias/Wavefront - NASDAQ, acquired by SGI), Software.com (NASDAQ, merged with Phone.com, now OpenWave: OPWV), Somera Communications (SMRA, founding investor only), Commission Junction (acquired by VLCK), and Bargain Network (acquired by VTRU).
Dennis was previously on the board of a number of other public technology firms including The David Jamison Carlyle Corp. (he was the founder), ISOCOR (acquired by Critical Path: CPTH), MessageMedia, Inc. (acquired by DoubleClick: DCLK, he was the interim CEO), Great Bear Technologies, StarPress and Sanctuary Woods Multimedia.
Dennis is currently on six Boards of Directors: Acorn Technologies, Inc.; InQ, Inc.; Nutricate Corp.; Truston, Inc. (ScamSafe); Noza, LLC; and TWL Corporation (TWLP.OB)
Douglas D. Cole
Vice Chairman of the Board, Director and Member of the Governance Committee
Mr. Cole has been a director of the Company since 2002. For the past 25 years, Mr. Cole has worked in the information technology industry, with a focus on sales and marketing. He has successfully completed numerous acquisitions and strategic partnerships for and among various companies. He served as a director of USA Broadband, Inc., a publicly-traded company specializing in delivery of digital video and television programming, from 2001 to 2003, and served as interim president of its operating subsidiary, Cable Concepts, Inc., from 2001 to 2002. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Cole served as a director of RateXchange Corporation and as a director of two of its subsidiaries, RateXchange I, Inc. and PolarCap, Inc. He served as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President and Principal Accounting Officer of RateXchange from 1999 to 2000. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of PolarCap, Inc. from its inception until 1998. Mr. Cole was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Great Bear Technology from its inception in 1992 until its merger with Graphic Zone Inc. in 1992.
William D. Jobe
Director and Member of the Audit and Compensation Committees
Mr. Jobe has been a director of the Company since 2002. He has been a private venture capitalist and a computer, communications and software industry advisor since 1991. Prior to that time, he worked in executive management for a number of firms in the computer, software and telecommunications industries including MIPS Technology Development, where he served as President, and Data General, where he was Vice President of North American Sales. Mr. Jobe has served as a director for a number of privately held and publicly held high technology companies including Qualix Group, Inc., Fulltime Software, Inc., Multimedia Access Corporation where he served as chairman of the board and director, Viewcast.com, GreatBear Technology Company, Tanisys Technology, Inc. and Interand Group.
Richard G. Thau
Director, Chairman of the Compensation Committee and Member of the Audit Committee
Mr. Thau has been a director of the Company since 2004. Mr. Thau is a self-employed consultant/mentor/advisor, and investor in early stage information technology companies and serves as an executive-in-residence at InterWest Partners. From 1990 to 1999, Mr. Thau served as Director, Chairman of the Board and CEO of FullTime Software (formerly Qualix Group), a provider of software for network-based computing. He also is the former CEO of Micro-MRP.
David Batstone, Ph.D.
Director, Chairman of the Governance Committee and Member of the Compensation Committee
Professor, Speaker, Consultant: David Batstone, Ph.D., is Professor of Ethics in the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. He received his B.A. with a major in Psychology from Westmont College in Santa Barbara. After studying for a year at the International Baptist Seminary in Ruschlikon Switzerland, he finished his M.Div. at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. He remained in Berkeley to complete the doctorate program at the Graduate Theological Union. Following graduation, he taught at the GTU for three years. He then took up a faculty post at USF in 1994. In 1998-1999 he was named National Endowment for the Humanities Chair at USF for his work in technology and ethics.
Batstone teaches the senior capstone course in ethics. He also serves as the co-professor of the Erasmus Program, a living-learning community that explores across a school year what justice means within the United States and globally.
Batstone is widely published in both the academy and in the popular press. His five books address ethical issues at the crossroads of politics, economy, and spirituality. His most recent book, Saving the Corporate Soul & (Who Knows?) Maybe Your Own, won the Nautilus Award for "2004 Best Business Book." Due to his work in business ethics, USA (Today) Weekend called Batstone "one of the country's leading authorities on ethics in the business world."
In 1997, Batstone was a member of the founding team that launched Business 2.0 magazine. The magazine burst on the national scene with the National Magazine Awards "Best New Magazine" in the USA. Time-Warner acquired the magazine in 2001.
Today, Batstone serves as Executive Editor of Sojourners magazine, which Folio awarded in both 2003 and 2004 as the "Best Religious/Spiritual Magazine" in the United States. In addition to his part in the leadership team, Batstone initiated and directs SojoMail, an online news and perspective that is delivered weekly to over 200,000 subscribers.
Batstone also serves at present as Senior Editor of a business magazine, Worthwhile. He writes a column for the print edition and puts out a weekly e-letter, the WAG, that gives commentary on business news through the same lens as Saving the Corporate Soul
Laird Q. Cagan
Director and Member of the Compensation Committee
Mr. Cagan is a co-founder, and since 2001, has been Managing Director, of Cagan McAfee Capital Partners, LLC (“CMCP”), a merchant bank located in Cupertino, California. He also currently serves as: the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Evolution Petroleum, Inc. (AMEX: EPM); a member of the board of directors of American Ethanol, Inc., an international biofuels company; a member of the board of directors of Pacific Asia Petroleum, Inc., a publicly traded energy company with operations in China; and a member of the board of directors of WorldSage, Inc., a publicly traded international education company.
Mr. Cagan has been involved over the past 25 years as a venture capitalist, investment banker and principal, in a wide variety of financings, mergers, acquisitions and investments of high growth companies in a wide variety of industries. At Goldman Sachs and Drexel Burnham Lambert Mr. Cagan was involved in over $14 billion worth of transactions. Mr. Cagan attended M.I.T. and received a BS and an MS degree in engineering, and an MBA, all from Stanford University.
He is a member of the Stanford University Athletic Board of Directors as well as Chairman of the SF Bay Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization. Mr. Cagan is also a registered representative and principal of Chadbourn Securities, Inc., the NASD licensed broker-dealer engaged by TWL.
Phyllis Farragut
Director and Chairperson of the Audit Committee
Ms. Farragut began her career in finance in 1969 after graduating from Mississippi State University with a BA in Accounting.
From 1969 to 1975 Ms. Farragut was Business Manager for several Westcott automobile dealerships located in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
In 1975 she founded Farragut & Caver, CPA, a general accounting practice. She sold the company in 1987 prior to relocating to Texas.
From 1987 to 1996 Ms. Farragut served as Executive Vice President and CFO of Westcott Communications, Inc., the company that later became TWL Corporation. During her nine years with Westcott revenues grew from $8 million to $100 million per year. Ms. Farragut served on the Board of Directors as Secretary. In 1991 Ms. Farragut oversaw Westcott’s IPO, and in 1996 she was instrumental in the company’s sale to PRIMEDIA for $450 million.
Ms. Farragut is currently President and CEO of Admiral Communications/AV which she founded in 1997. Admiral Communications/AV provides specialty trade construction design, sales and installation of structured cabling, access control, CCTV, audiovisual equipment and security.
Prior to founding Admiral Communications/AV, Ms. Farragut was COO and CFO of Claim Services Resources Group, Inc., a national outsourcing company that specializes in temporary personnel staffing for the healthcare industry. In December 2001 Ms. Farragut negotiated the sale of the company to Perot Systems for $60 million.
Ms. Farragut serves on the Boards of Directors of the American Heart Association Dallas Affiliate, as Treasurer of the American Heart Association South Central Affiliate that includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico, and is a Board Alum of the Dallas Women’s Foundation.
Ms. Farragut is also a member of Executive Women’s Roundtable of Dallas and was selected as one of twelve International Women’s Forum Leadership Foundation Fellows.
Danny Hammett
Senior Vice President and President, Global Simulation Group
Danny Hammett has had a long and successful career in the gaming/simulation software industry. Starting as a competitive motorcycle-racer and becoming a Top 20 AMA Outdoor National Competitor and Top Ten World Gran Prix Racer, he eventually became a Technical Consultant and navigated a career change that has projected him to a CEO level, where he became an important decision maker of the now largest gaming/simulation software publishing company in the world.
In a number of earlier executive management positions, Mr. Hammett has contributed his talents to the growth and profitability of Lasersoft Corporation, Caere Corporation, and Insight Marketing. Mr. Hammett eventually joined Activision after its acquisition of Head Games Publishing (he was Founder, President and CEO) in June 1998. He served as President of Activision Value and Executive Vice President of Activision until 2003. At that time Activision was the #3 worldwide electronic sports and outdoor leisure action games/simulation entertainment publisher and producer, generating over $800-million plus in revenues with $1.6-billion-dollar market cap.
At Activision Danny managed a $695-million-dollar global publishing operation with 3 operating divisions, and 25-person executive management team overseeing 6 worldwide offices. As a start up, Danny pioneered, developed, marketed, and presold Headgames products, and drove the company to $3.5 million in sales before its inception and business launch in its first year. Head Games was the 6th leading PC games company in unit sales in America with annual revenues of over $35 million prior to the acquisition of his company by Activision. After leaving Activision, Danny joined Vivendi Universal Games as Executive Vice President where he created the Value/Casual Games Division managing all console, PC, and online product management, acquisitions, budgeting, and legal affairs. He departed Vivendi in 2006 to found Divergent Entertainment, Inc; Danny earned his Bachelors Degree at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
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