Richard Baron 

Rick Baron has 20 years experience in computer systems and software sales, marketing, and general management, and 10 years experience in management consulting. Mr. Baron is currently advising start-up companies developing software for Internet security, speech recognition and  telecom protocols. From 1990 to 1997 Mr. Baron served as  President of QD Systems, a clinical records software firm. Mr. Baron held the position of Director of Market Development for Gould SEL Computer Systems in the 1980's.

 Mr. Baron holds a MBA from the University of Chicago.

Michael Barton 

Michael Barton was most recently the Vice President of Sales at SigmaTel, Inc. Before SigmaTel, Mr. Barton served as the VP of Sales for Pixelworks, Inc., in Tualatin, OR. He has 30 years experience in semiconductor sales and technical sales management. His background includes 16 years with Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, where he held sales positions as Account Manager, Corporate Major Accounts Manager, District Sales Manager, and Regional Sales Manager. In these positions he was responsible for the business relationships with Intel's largest customers including Univac, DEC, HP, Ford Motor Co, GM, IBM, and many others. In addition to Intel, he was the VP of Sales for two successful IC start ups - Cyrix Corporation, Richardson, TX, a microprocessor company that achieved significant success in its IPO and subsequent sale, and Pixelworks, Inc., whose IPO and success in the digital display market has been outstanding.

Previous to his work at Intel Mr. Barton was  U.S.N Naval Aviator and a semiconductor materials Research Physicist at General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, Michigan.

 Mark Easley 

Mark Easley is currently the president of GoldHat Ventures in the RTP area of North Carolina. In addition to his angel investment activities, he has been on the executive board of the Atlantis Investment Group and is a member of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. Mr. Easley provides mentoring direction to startup firms and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of business planning, marketing strategies, investor presentations, and management systems.

Prior to GoldHat Ventures, Mr. Easley served as Vice President of Marketing for PLX Technology Inc, a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley.  Mr. Easley represented PLX on the board of directors of Sebring Networks, a startup semiconductor company developing network switch fabric chips.  Sebring was successfully acquired by PLX in 2000. Mr. Easley also worked in Asia Pacific Sales for Adaptec, Inc. in sales management and created the business plan and participated in the opening of the subsidiary Adaptec Japan Limited.  Mr. Easley has also held various engineering positions at Intel and Hewlett Packard.

 Mr. Easley holds a B.S. Degree in Computer Science from Purdue University.

 Scott Gibson 

Scott Gibson is currently the  CFO at Scintera, an advanced signal processing company. Scott has over 15 years of senior financial management experience with semiconductor or semiconductor related companies undergoing dynamic change. Most recently, he was CFO and Senior VP, Finance for Cradle Technologies.  Prior to that, Mr. Gibson was CFO of Soma Networks, a telecommunications infrastructure company and CFO of PLX Technology, a communications semiconductor company. While at PLX, Mr. Gibson took the company public, where it reached a market cap of over $750M. He also oversaw several company acquisitions. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Gibson was CFO of Prometrix a private semiconductor equipment company, which was later successfully merged with Tencor Instruments, where Mr. Gibson served as vice president of Customer Satisfaction. Mr. Gibson has also held senior financial roles at Stratacom and KLA Instruments. Mr. Gibson has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BS from Iowa State University.