Board of Directors
The Spoke Software Board of Directors is comprised of some of the most talented business strategists and technology leaders in the world. Together, their significant practical experience in building world-class organizations provides Spoke with uncompromising vision and inspired leadership.
Frank Vaculin
President and CEO
Frank is a 20-year veteran of Silicon Valley and brings a unique blend of experience, including CRM, hosted applications, knowledge management and search, to Spoke. With a proven track record building successful software companies, Vaculin has been responsible for up to $141 million in annual revenue, managing organizations from 50 to 400 employees, and aggressively driving annual revenue growth of over 350 percent. Prior to joining Spoke, Frank was CEO of Tealeaf Technologies where he directed the turn around of the company, taking them from pre-revenue to $4.5 million in sales and raising over $12 million in top-tier venture capital funding. Prior to Tealeaf, Frank was executive vice president at Ask Jeeves, where he launched Ask Jeeves Business Solutions, which accounted for half of the company's revenues. He also was a member of the executive team that led the company's successful initial public offering, raising $120 million. Vaculin has also held senior operations, marketing, and sales management positions at Borland International, Electronics for Imaging (EFI), and Software Publishing Corporation. Frank holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of San Francisco.
Philippe Cases
Venture Partner, Partech International
Philippe joined Partech in 1997 and focuses on software. He has 17 years of experience in private equity in Europe and the U.S., with 12 years specifically focused on early stage investing. Prior to joining Partech, Philippe was a Partner with Sofinnova in Paris. He has been a Director of Egide and BVRP (both listed on the French market) and Adknowledge (acq. by CMGI). In addition, he was involved with Flamel Technologies (FLML) and Rightpoint Software (acq. by E.piphany). Philippe currently sits on the board of directors of Jaspersoft, Spoke Software and VUE Technology and board advisor to InQuira.
He attended the Engineering School of Mines in Nancy, France and is a Sloan Fellow from Stanford Business School.
Tim Guleri
Managing Director, Sierra Ventures
Mr. Guleri is a General Partner with Sierra Ventures. Previously, he was Vice Chairman and Executive Vice President of Business Development at E.piphany. Before joining E.piphany, Mr. Guleri was a co-founder and CEO of Octane Software, where he achieved an annual growth rate of 300 percent. He also led Octane's merger with E.piphany in March 2000, a deal valued at $3.2 billion. Mr. Guleri has held key management positions at Scopus Technology as Vice President of Technical Field Operations and Vice President of Product Marketing. During his tenure, Scopus emerged as the leading vendor in the Customer Relationship Management market (CRM). Mr. Guleri is a noted visionary, an accomplished author and a frequent speaker within the CRM industry. He holds a Master's in Robotics and Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College.
Jeff Miller
Chairman of the Board, Documentum & Venture Partner, Redpoint Ventures
Prior to joining Redpoint, Mr. Miller was CEO of Documentum, Inc. (DCTM). Under Mr. Miller's leadership, Documentum has become one of the fastest growing technology companies in the country with year 2000 revenues of approximately $200 million. As CEO, from 1993 to July 2001, he was responsible for day-to-day operations in addition to strategic planning and direction. Now, as Chairman of the Board, Mr. Miller focuses on strategic planning and leadership development. He has more than 28 years of high tech experience, having started his career at Intel and holding senior marketing and general management executive positions at Cadence Design Systems and Adaptec. Mr. Miller holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Santa Clara.
Carl Amdahl (Board Observer)
General Partner, DCM
With a focus on systems, software and components, Carl Amdahl works with DCM portfolio companies to optimize technology development strategies, create strong management teams and build strategic partnerships. Carl has twenty-five years of experience as a senior executive in the IT industry. During this period, he was a founder of three publicly-traded companies and actively participated in raising more than $300M in private and public funding. Carl's technical background is broad, encompassing systems architecture, networking, semiconductors and software. He is a prolific inventor and named on twenty-three issued United States Patents.
Carl led DCM's investments in Arroyo Video Solutions (acquired by Cisco) as well as Swan Labs (acquired by F5 Networks).
Prior to joining DCM, Carl was the CTO and Board Member of F5 Networks (NASD: FFIV). F5 was one of the top-performing IPOs in 1999. Prior to joining F5, Carl operated Amdahl Associates, an independent consulting firm serving Intel, Novell and Tandem Computers.
Carl also was a founder of NetFRAME Systems and served as Chairman as well as in various operating roles including CTO and CEO. Carl defined the "superserver" market segment and established key technical relationships with Intel, Microsoft and Novell. NetFRAME grew to a peak of $90M in annual revenue, went public in 1992 (NASD:NETF) and was acquired by Micron Electronics (NASD:MUEI) in 1997.
Previously, Carl was a co-founder of Trilogy Systems Ltd. (NASD: TRILF) and served as Vice-Chairman and Director. Trilogy engaged in the design and development of large-scale IBM System 370 compatible mainframe computers and sophisticated wafer-scale integrated circuit technology. Carl was also a co-founder of Magnuson Computer Systems Inc. (NASD: MCSI) and served as Executive Vice President of Engineering and Director. He was the principal system architect and central processor design engineer for two generations of IBM System 370 compatible mainframe computers.
Nicolas El Baze (Board Observer)
General Partner, Partech International
Nicolas joined Partech in 2000 and had been a Partech venture partner since 1998. He was a co-founder of Softway International, Softway Systems (acquired by Microsoft), and ISDnet (acquired by Cable & Wireless). Nicolas has been a director of several start-up companies including Bidcom, Bigstep.com, MultiMania (MULM.PA, acquired by Lycos Europe), and Workspeed. He holds an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (Paris), and a graduate degree in International Management from UC Berkeley and the University of Cologne, Germany.
Ben T. Smith, IV (Board Observer and Co-founder)
Chairman and Co-Founder, MerchantCircle
Ben Smith is the Co-Founder and Chairman of MerchantCircle, and is an Executive in Residence at Rustic Canyon Partners, one of the investors in MerchantCircle. Ben began his career at A.T. Kearney. While a Partner at A.T Kearney, Ben was selected as one of the most influential consultants in the world in 2002. He was one of the youngest partners in the firm's history, and helped spearhead EDS and Kearney's venture development efforts. While on leave from EDS and A.T. Kearney after 9/11, Ben was honored to have the opportunity to serve the Bush Administration as the Senior Advisor for Strategy and Planning, to the Secretary of Transportation. Thereafter, Ben co-founded Spoke Software with US Venture Partners, Chris Tolles (who also serves on MerchantCircle's advisory board), and a couple of other great entrepreneurs, in 2002. Ben has been actively involved in advising a number of Fortune 500 and emerging technology companies on strategy, marketing, and business models. Recently, he successfully spun off CodeGear, a Borland company, as their first CEO. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business and received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.
