About UsDirectors and Advisors

Dr. Carolina Cruz-Neira

Dr. Carolina Cruz is the Executive Director and Chief Scientist at the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (LITE) and holds an Endowed Professorship in the Computer Engineering department of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is also one of the founders of Infiscape Corporation and is its current VP for Business Development.

Dr. Cruz-Neira's work in VR started with her Ph.D. dissertation, which was the design and development of the CAVE™ Virtual Reality Environment, the CAVE™ Library software specifications and implementation, and preliminary research on CAVE™-Supercomputing integration. Since then, her research has been driven by providing applicability and simplicity to VR technology focusing on software engineering for VR, applications of VR technology in science, engineering, and art, as well as usability studies of practical virtual environments.

Mark L. Walsh

Mark L. Walsh is the managing partner of Ruxton Ventures, LLC, a private equity and investment firm he founded in early 2001. Ruxton has made investments in a number of technology and service companies, including Blackboard (NASDAQ:BBBB), Half.com (Acquired by eBay), Day Corporation (SWX:DAYN), IndustryBrains, Transactis , Visual Systems Group, Inc., Phocuswright and many others. He served as Chairman of the VerticalNet NASDAQ:VERT) Board of Directors from July 2000, until February 2002. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer from August 1997, to July 2000. Before joining VerticalNet, he was a Senior Vice President and corporate officer at America Online, Inc. where he founded and managed AOL Enterprise, the business-to-business division of AOL. Previously, he was the President of GEnie, General Electric's online service. He has been active in many political causes: as CEO and co-founder of Air America Radio in early 2004; as head of internet operations for the John Kerry Presidential Campaign in 2003; and as Chief Technology Advisor to the Democratic National Committee in 2002. He was named man of the year by the Maryland State Democratic Party in 2001 He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Union College, where he serves as a trustee.

David Weiss

David Weiss — David is the President and CEO of Numara Software, a global provider of help desk and asset management solutions. Numara Track-It! has helped IT professionals at more than 45,000 customer sites track 14 million assets worldwide. Mr. Weiss joined Numara (formerly Blue Ocean Software) in 2002 as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to Numara, he served as Vice President of Marketing for Citrix Systems, where he was responsible for the company’s overall marketing strategy. During his 7-year tenure at Citrix, annual revenue increased from $15 million to over $650 million. Mr. Weiss earned his BS in computer science and economics from Duke University.

Dan Moore

Dan Moore serves as the Managing Partner of Longstreet and has over 20 years experience in managing private and public companies, arranging financing transactions and negotiating business arrangements and investments.

Mr. Moore's experience includes the co-founding and management of the region's first early stage venture capital firm, Venture America, in 1984. Mr. Moore worked with and managed various portfolio companies of Venture America and successor companies. In addition, Mr. Moore has provided merger and acquisition consultative services to both private and public technology companies. These activities have resulted in successful liquidity events or major financings for over a dozen companies, including PriceInteractive, Media 4, Direct Broadcast Satellite Corporation, SSE Telecom, Viar & Company and Meridian Corporation. Mr. Moore has worked with companies including Discovery Communications, Echostar Communications, Alcatel and DynCorp, several of which have been acquirers or investors in companies that he has worked with or managed.

In 1999, Mr. Moore joined Price Interactive, a communication services business. As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Moore repositioned the company, and grew it to over 150 employees before leading the sale of the business in 2001 at a valuation in excess of $100 million. Prior to that, Mr. Moore served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of SSE Telecom, a publicly traded satellite earth station systems business.Back to top

Asher Epstein

Asher Epstein - Managing Director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, Robert H. Smith School, University of Maryland. Mr. Epstein joined the Dingman Center full time during the summer of 2004. Mr. Epstein began his career working for American Management Systems, a billion dollar information technology consulting firm, where Epstein was responsible for the implementation of a proprietary software to manage delinquent customers for a variety of credit products. His clients included AT&T, the Bank of Montreal, Bezeq Ltd. and Chevy Chase Bank. Following that, Epstein took a position as the Director of Business Operations for Exit1, a local e-commerce and web development startup, and subsequently co-founded SilentFrog, an internet marketplace to that facilitated the "microservices' market. Mr. Epstein has an undergraduate degree in English and History as well as an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of business.

Jim Hunt

Jim Hunt is currently a managing partner of both the MITA Group, a public affairs and business strategy consultancy based in Washington, DC, and The Nucleus Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Giuliani Partners of New York, NY. His previous positions included that of president, Cap Gemini Technologies, LLC, founder, president, and CEO of Ernst & Young Technologies, managing director for system integration at Price Waterhouse, and 11 years as a scientist for the U.S. Government.

Arik Nir

Arik Nir is currently Chief Operating Officer at Athlone Global Security. With over 10 years of service in the Israel Defense Forces and the Israeli Security Agency as well as a subsequent 10 years in private-sector security and defense management, Arik Nir contributes invaluable managerial skills and industry expertise to Athlone Global Security. His wide network of colleagues throughout the Israeli homeland security community gives AGS a strategic advantage.