Directors

Leadership Team

• Jeff Allen

  Managing Director, Rocket Ventures

  Jeff Allen is a managing director of Rocket Ventures and serves on the boards of eBoomerang, Hipbone, and FullAudio. Previously, Allen co-founded Greenfield Technology Ventures, a small seed fund and venture catalyst focused on enterprise software companies, where he specialized in investing in and providing interim management assistance to seed stage companies. Allen has extensive software development, market strategy and partnering experience. He was previously a senior technology manager with Andersen Consulting’s strategic technology practices in Chicago and Sophia Antipolis, France, where he led the development of cutting-edge business solutions around Microsoft and multi-media technologies. Allen holds a BSEE from the University of Michigan.

• Sean Foote

  Chairman and Partner, Labrador Ventures

  Sean Foote is a venture capitalist investing in early stage companies. He is active on the boards of directors of Eoplex Technologies, Everyone.net, ezboard and Green Border Technologies. Prior to venture investing, Foote was a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group, working in a wide range of industries including telecom, computers, healthcare, banking and automotive on topics ranging from strategic alliances to Internet strategies. Foote also worked as a systems engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories, developing artificial intelligence systems for testing the most complicated telecommunications circuits.

  Foote is a lecturer in entrepreneurship at the University of California's Haas School of Business and also has taught classes on entrepreneurship and venture capital funding at the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia and the University of Pennsylvania. Foote holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri Rolla and an MBA from the University of Virginia, where he received the Shermett Award granted to the top three percent of students.

• Edward C. Grady

  President and CEO, Brooks Automation

  Ed Grady is the president and chief executive officer of Brooks Automation. During his 30 years in the industry, Grady has held a number of responsibilities that included engineering, sales, product marketing, strategic marketing and management of profit and loss operations.

  Prior to joining Brooks in February 2003, Grady successfully ran several divisions at KLA-Tencor, helping grow the business to a level in excess of $1 billion in revenues. He has also served as president and CEO of Hoya Micro Mask, driving restructuring and cost reduction initiatives to transform the business from a loss to a profit in a two-year period. Grady started his career as an engineer for Monsanto/MEMC, and over 14 years, rose to the position of vice president of worldwide sales for the EPI division in MEMC. He holds a B.S. degree in engineering from Southern Illinois University and an MBA from the University of Houston.

• Barbara Grant

  Partner, American River Ventures

  Dr. Barbara Grant joined American River Ventures in 2004 with over three decades’ experience in management, operational and technology development in both start-up companies and major corporations. Grant was most recently CEO of Siros Technologies, a Silicon Valley start-up that developed innovative optical components and subsystems for the storage and communications markets. Prior to joining Siros, Grant held several executive positions at IBM over 21 years, including vice president and general manager in the data storage division.

  Grant has developed more than 50 new products and holds eight patents. In 1996, Grant was elected to the inaugural group of the Women in Technology Hall of Fame.

  Grant’s current board memberships include Agoura Technologies and Triformix. She is a member of the Research Advisory Board for the University of California, Davis and the board of the Sacramento Area Region Technology Alliance (SARTA). Grant holds a B.S. in chemistry from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University.

• Jean-Marc Pandraud

  Senior Advisor to the leadership team, Entegris Inc

  Jean-Marc Pandraud is a Senior Advisor to the leadership team at Entegris Inc (Billerica, MA, USA) since July 2008 and a member of the board of directors of IMI Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA). Prior to this role and starting in August 2005, Jean-Marc Pandraud was Entegris' Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Entegris Inc. Jean-Marc was previously Mykrolis’ President and Chief Operating Officer from January 2001 to August 2005 and held prior leadership positions with the Microelectronics Division and the Laboratory water division of Millipore. His areas of expertise focus on the high tech, instrumentation and high value added consumable products sectors and water purification. He has a broad-based experience in Microelectronics, Life Sciences, and Pharmaceutical industries. Between 1997 and 1999 he was the Latin America General Manager for Millipore Corporation. Jean-Marc holds an engineering degree in chemistry and polymer science from the INSA de Lyon, France and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.

• Daniel I. Rubin

  Partner, Alloy Ventures

  Dan Rubin joined Alloy Ventures in 1999. Rubin currently serves as a board director of CiraNova, Ensenda, Molecular Imprints, Nexsil and Gradient and a board observer at Ellie Mae. In 1991, Rubin was a co-founder of Artisan Components and the initial vice president of sales and marketing. He was the vice president of business development through its initial public offering in 1998. Prior to Artisan Components, Rubin worked at Ultratech Stepper in many roles including director of product marketing and managing director of Asian operations. Rubin holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Pomona College.