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Board of Directors

Oren Michels

@michels

Mashery's co-founder and CEO has a record of success in a variety of executive positions spanning multiple industries. Oren co-founded and managed WiFinder, an international provider of directory services for public access wi-fi hotspots. He has served as president for two companies: Colt HR, a leading provider of mid-market benefits administration software and services; and Winebid.com, a leading online wine auction service. He also served as president and CEO of The Groundlings, a Hollywood-based entertainment production company, and has held COO positions at manufacturing companies. Prior to joining Mashery, Oren worked as vice president of business development at Feedster, where he managed the company's activities in China and negotiated partnerships with AOL, Real Networks, and Mitsui. Oren began his career as a software designer for Hughes Aircraft. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurial studies from UCLA's Anderson School.

Scott Rafer

@rafer

Scott Rafer runs Omniar, which makes the mobile experience more human, starting with pedestrian navigation and location. He is also co-founder and director at Mashery and PercentMobile. Omniar was preceded by Lookery, one of the first ad networks on Facebook, portions of which were sold to Adknowledge in 2008; and MyBlogLog, a social network of bloggers, which Yahoo! acquired in 2007.

That's the start of a long list. Rafer has been helping Internet publishers and users develop the 'next big thing' since 1995. Before 1995, Rafer headed-up the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking at Needham & Company, and graduated from the management of technology program at the University of Pennsylvania.

Clint Chao

@clintchao

Prior to co-founding Formative Ventures, Clint served as vice president of marketing, sales, and business development at SkyStream Networks (acquired by Tandberg TV), a leading provider of video routing equipment. Under his leadership, SkyStream formed partnerships with industry leaders such as AOL Time Warner, HP, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Lucent Technologies, Mitsubishi, and Philips. Clint has also served as senior director of marketing at C-Cube Microsystems and held numerous sales and sales management positions at Motorola Semiconductor. Clint Chao is a founding general partner at Formative Ventures. Clint invests in emerging technologies start-ups in areas such as communications, wireless, and next-generation Internet solutions. Clint is an experienced technology executive who brings more than 20 years of start-up operating experience including marketing, sales and business development to Formative Ventures. Clint earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Scott Maxwell

@scottsnews

Scott has been a Venture Capitalist since 2000, first as a senior Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners, and then as the founder of OpenView Venture Partners. He has worked with numerous companies to help them craft and realize their visions. At OpenView, and previously at Insight, Scott worked to develop and communicate the vision that an institutionalized venture capital firm can — and should — offer meaningful value beyond the capital that it invests. He has spent over a decade iterating on that approach, which includes the development of OpenView's investment focus and team, the OpenView Labs team, and our content sites for executives. Scott led the team that founded OpenView in 2006 to continue developing his model for investing in and adding meaningful value to expansion stage technology companies. Since OpenView’s inception, Scott has served on the board of directors or worked in some fashion with most of the OpenView portfolio companies.

Before founding OpenView, Scott joined Insight Venture Partners in 2000 as the Chief Operating Officer. At Insight, Scott led the effort to institutionalize the investment process, outbound program, value-add program, and finance, legal, and administration departments. After institutionalizing the investment strategy and infrastructure, Scott started leading deal work in 2001 and was the partner responsible for investing in eight of Insight’s portfolio companies. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist in 2000, Scott spent the 1990s primarily working with financial services companies. Scott was a partner at Putnam Investments, where he was Managing Director, Corporate Development, and was appointed to run Putnam’s alternative asset management program. Prior to Putnam Investments, he was Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers, where he was the Chief Financial Officer of the Global Equity Division and a member of the Global Equities Executive Committee. Before Lehman, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he focused primarily on financial institutions.

Scott spent the 1980s as a technology designer and developer, and was responsible for designing and developing automation systems at two California-based start-up companies. During that time, he also lectured at California State University, Sacramento. Scott graduated from M.I.T. with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management. He also has a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.