Dr. Hughes serves as Professor of Management and Information Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was the Vice Provost of Information Technology at Rensselaer from its formation in January 1998 to October 1999. He received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer in 1967 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton in 1972.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Hughes is interested in Information Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining the faculty of Rensselaer, Dr. Hughes spent 26 years at AT&T and its successor Lucent Technologies. He served in many capacities, most notably as Vice President for International Services and Program Management, President of the Transmission Systems Business, President of the Network Cable Systems Business and Vice President of the Microelectronics Interconnection Business.

His experience spans a number of business and functional areas including R&D, manufacturing, marketing, professional services and program management. During AT&T's globalization, Mr. Hughes led Network Systems businesses in over 25 countries. Dr. Hughes received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award from President Bush in 1992 as President of AT&T's Transmission Systems Business.

He served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer from 1990-1997, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Raritan, Inc.

Mike Marvin is an esteemed Tech Valley leader. His broad capabilities have been instrumental in assisting emerging companies grow to their maximum potential. Mike is a Founder and Chairman Emeritus and was the first CEO of MapInfo Corporation, a NASDAQ listed company dedicated to enabling corporations and public entities make business decisions where location matters.

Simultaneous to his MapInfo tenure, Mike was a founding partner of Exponential Business Development Company, a venture fund dedicated to growing technology companies in Upstate New York.

Mike has also held various positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, most recently as the Business Director for Manufacturing and Technology Transfer, a Principal in Marvin Associates, a business consulting firm serving US Federal and State entities and large and small businesses to provide cost-effective improvements to their business practices; a manager at Westinghouse and a programmer for the NASA Apollo project while at Sperry Univac.

Mike has been an active member of many Boards most recently: Geac, Inc., a publicly traded company for business performance management; Vicarious Visions, Inc., a privately held independent game development company; ReQuest Multimedia, a privately held developer of products dedicated to the storage and retrieval of digital multimedia; LogicalNet, Corp, a privately held Internet service provider and competitive local exchange carrier; Business and Higher Education Round Table, an organization co-founded with the President of the University of Albany, of all regional presidents of colleges and universities and many CEOs of Tech Valley companies focused on providing leadership for economic growth of the region; University of Albany Foundation Board, an organization dedicated to the advancement of the university; and WMHT, the Hudson and Mohawk Valley Public Broadcasting Station.
He continues to stay active on several of these boards.

Mike's former Board service has included the following: MapInfo Corporation, from its founding in 1986 and was Chairman from 1992-2002; MRO Software Inc, as a founding member of its introduction as a publicly traded company; Business Council of NY State; RPI School of Management Advisory Board; IA Systems, a loan origination software company; LearnLinc, a distance learning company; PowerOne, an Internet solution for major newspaper chains; and many others.

Mike has been the recipient of many awards, including: The Capital District Business Hall of Fame, 2002; Tech Valley MIKE Aware (Mentoring, Inspiration, Knowledge and Entrepreneurship), 2002; Hudson Mohawk Association of Colleges and Universities' Community Service Award, 2002; Tech Valley Software Alliance Award, 2001; Center for Economic Growth Vision Award, 1993; and Rensselaer Alumni Association Alumni Key Award for Outstanding Service, 1993.
Mike received his Bachelor of Science at the University of Maryland and his Master of Science from the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Joseph Raiti and several colleagues joined together with CEO Richard Barnett to found Blue Slate Solutions in 2000. Since Blue Slate's start, Joe has been the leader of the information technology team. He is an enterprise system architect with over 20 years experience in designing, implementing and maintaining financial control applications and decision support systems.

As Managing Director for Blue Slate, Joe combines his leadership skills with his technical acumen to ensure success with client solutions. He often works as a part of project teams while also leading development efforts. His greatest strength lies in his talent for communicating even the most complex technical strategies in a simple, concise way to clients and team members alike.
Joe has led many projects at Blue Slate. For an enterprise data warehouse, he led a team engaged in designing a complex metadata repository for a Fortune 10 company. His solution included a Web-based multi-layer information mapping tool to centralize, reuse, and support data and intellectual property assets. Joe has also served clients in development and design of desktop-based business process management solutions and countless data-intensive business intelligence solutions.

With another client, Joe developed a knowledge management strategy that incorporated business rules, document management, workflow and reporting components to provide powerful end user applications under a set of common master files. Joe has been a technical search report analyst and designer in the migration of a major PegaWorks application, including the transparent retirement of the PegaSEARCH archive, for a large financial services organization. His responsibilities included requirements analysis, solution design, build and test, and defect management along with performance analysis and optimization of both the PegaWorks application and Java SOAP services.

Joe's background prior to Blue Slate includes entrepreneurial start-ups like Integrated Partners- and large, international conglomerates such as Phillip Morris. As an Enterprise Data Manager for GE Energy and GE Corporate, he correlated, centralized, and disseminated business and technical data. Joe started his career as a lead developer for a venture capitalist backed PC software company.
Joe earned his Master's in the Mathematical Component of Computer Science at Binghamton University and his Bachelor's in Computer Science and Math at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

At A Glance

Skills

• Project Leadership
• Expertise in all phases of the software engineering life cycle
• Expertise in a broad range of technologies
• Data Management
  • Data Warehousing
  • Business Intillegence
  • Decision Support Systems
  • Reporting
• PegaRULES Process Commander application knowledge

Degrees / Certifications

• Bachelor of Arts, State University of New York at Potsdam
• Master of Arts, State University of New York at Binghamton

Projects

• Creation of an entity management data model for an international Fortune 10 company.
• Development of a knowledge management strategy for a client.
• Led a data warehouse team to provide a Web-based multi-layer information mapping tool.
• Development of functional requirements for Web-based wellness team challenge applications that promote nutrition, body mass reduction and exercise.
• The lead systems analysis for a system designed to support the management and control of intellectual property assets.
• Migration of a major PegaWORKS application, including the transparent retirement of the PegaSEARCH archive, for a large financial services organization.

Dirk E. Sonneborn is the Director of Operations at The Gifford Foundation a private foundation in Syracuse, New York. He is formerly the Vice President for Marketing and Development at the Central New York Community Foundation, Inc., a $100 million public foundation. He is the former President of Exponential Business Development Company, Inc. (Exponential), Manager of two regional venture capital funds. Exponential is a wholly owned subsidiary of Newtek Business Services, Inc (NASDAQ: NKBS). He has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1980. He graduated from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in public accountancy.

Mr. Sonneborn was employed by Coopers & Lybrand, an international 'Big Six' public accounting firm, for 12 years. As a senior manager in the firm's Emerging Business Service Group, he advised clients in an array of business matters including: corporate planning, accounting, finances, tax, and human resources.

He has been an adjunct instructor in the Syracuse University Martin J. Whitman School of Management's Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprise since 1997. He has been on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Upstate Venture Association of New York as well as a Member of the Entrepreneurial Council of the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Sonneborn is active in several Central New York community organizations. He is or has been a member of the Board of Hospice of Central New York and the Hospice Foundation; Thursday Morning Roundtable and its advisory board; the CASE Center at Syracuse University Advisory Board; the Board of Trustees, Finance Committee and Executive Committee at Manlius Pebble Hill School; the Board of Directors of the Central New York Community Foundation, its Executive and Finance Committees; as well as several other health/human service, business, economic development, and civic organizations. He is married, the father of three and lives in Syracuse New York.

Tim Welles is currently a General Partner of Pine Street Capital Partners LLC, a mezzanine fund focusing on investments in smaller middle market companies. Mr. Welles has over 20 years experience of executive positions in public and private companies, including senior positions with investment banking and investment responsibilities.

Mr. Welles was CFO and co-head of the Equity Capital Markets Group at First Albany Companies as well as Managing Director of Investment Banking at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and at Advest, Inc.

In addition, Mr. Welles is a Special Limited Partner in FA Technology Ventures LP. In these positions, he was involved in sourcing and/or leading the execution of over 150 middle market acquisitions, recapitalizations, IPO's, take privates, leveraged buyouts and sale transactions. Mr. Welles also has experience in operational management, including COO of Insight First, a venture-backed web analytics company, and COO of Colonial Data Technologies, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of caller-ID equipment. Mr. Welles holds a B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany, and a J.D. from Albany Law School.

David Wood is a Managing Partner of NextRidge Capital, a Micro Cap Private Equity Firm. Mr. Wood has been a Managing Director of Highbridge Group, the forerunner of NextRidge, where he provided merchant banking and financial advisory services to companies in NextRidge's target space. Prior to Highbridge, he co-founded Blue Slate Solutions, a business and technology consulting firm specializing in the implementation of business process reorganization.

Prior to Blue Slate, Mr. Wood was the Managing Director of First Albany Enterprise Funding, the merchant banking arm of First Albany Capital, an investment bank. At First Albany, Mr. Wood founded FAEF, and was part of a team that over five years grew $4 million in principal funds to over $100 million in market value.

Mr. Wood began his career with Design Union & Holmes County Chair Company, his family's retail and manufacturing business. Mr. Wood is currently the Chairman of Blue Slate Solutions. Mr. Wood's brings experience in sourcing, negotiation and structuring of deals, providing merchant banking services, along with his experience managing private equity investments and operating firms in the micro cap marketplace.

Mr. Wood will focus on deal flow, investment management and harvesting of the firm's investments. Mr. Wood received both his Bachelors of Science and Masters of Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.