Directors
	Chairman
	David G. Kronen | Senior Vice President and Manager Bank of the West David Kronen oversees all commercial banking activities for Bank of the West in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura Counties from the bank’s National Banking Office in downtown Santa Barbara. He has spent 20 years with Bank of the West and its predecessor, all in Santa Barbara. In 2002, Kronen moved into his current position as Senior Vice President and Manager of commercial lending in the Tri-Counties. Kronen has spent a total of 24 years in local commercial banking, having worked for Wells Fargo Bank prior to joining Bank of the West. Kronen and his team’s major clients are growing public and private middle-market companies, high net worth individuals, and emerging market companies. He and his team directly manage full banking relationships and have strong experience leading syndicated transactions as well as international trade, foreign exchange, interest rate hedging and cash management. Kronen is involved in numerous board and fund-raising activities for nonprofit organizations in the region. He graduated with honors from the prestigious Pacific Coast Banking School in Seattle Washington in 2000. He received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1984. Kronen has lived in Santa Barbara his entire life and has a wife and three boys.
	John Celmins | Yardi Systems  John Celmins is a Data Management Specialist at Yardi Systems, Inc., a provider of high-performance software solutions and services for the real estate industry. Previously, John worked at Moss Motors, automotive aftermarket company, as a program manager and product development engineer. He has also worked for Sun Microsystems as an operations research associate, and for General Motors as an advanced powertrain engineer and concept vehicle engineer. He has been a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and American Society of Mechanical Engineers for more than a decade, and is active in the Santa Barbara Young Professionals Club and Santa Barbara Rental Property Association. John has an MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also holds a Master of Engineering in Automotive Engineering from the University of Michigan, and a BSME from Kettering University (formerly GMI).
	Chris Hill | Riviera Insurance Services, LLC. Christopher Hill is the founder and President of Riviera Insurance Services, LLC. With over 26 years of experience in the insurance industry, Chris has proven himself as a competent leader, gaining the respect of his customers and employees within the community. In his previous corporate position, as President of Ogilvy-Hill Insurance, Christopher organized and led a team that produced a remarkable 340 percent growth during his 11 year tenure. After graduating from Santa Clara University, Chris began his career with Fireman's Fund. This early start provided Chris with a solid base for understanding the pricing and underwriting concerns that impact business and individuals. In addition, The American Institute for Property and Liability Underwriters has conferred upon Chris the designation of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (C.P.C.U.).
	Susan Block | Block, Bowman and Associates, LLC Co-founder of Block, Bowman and Associates, LLC, an investment banking firm. Susan Block has over 15 years experience as an investment banker specializing in mergers and acquisitions - previously in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Montgomery Securities and as a Vice President at Mercantile Capital Corporation. While at Montgomery Securities, Ms. Block worked on merger assignments across all industries and was responsible for the sale of Safeway's Liquor Barn operations by Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts. As a principal of Block, Bowman and Associates, LLC, Ms. Block works primarily with software, high tech and healthcare firms. Ms. Block earned her MBA at the University of Wisconsin.
	Daniel Brooks | MWH Americas Dan Brooks is a project engineer for Montgomery Watson Harza, a large engineering and environmental consulting company. With a background in environmental engineering and microbiology, Dan's professional interests lie in the commercialization of clean technologies. Prior to working at MWH, Dan worked for Arthur D. Little and Marine Research Specialists as a consultant to the oil, gas, and power generation industries. Dan also co-founded a Santa Barbara restaurant delivery company in 2000. Dan has a BS in environmental engineering from MIT and an MS in mechanical and environmental engineering from UCSB. He was a semifinalist and finalist in his respective schools' business plan competitions.
	Tom Burk | Nasif, Hicks, Harris, and Company, LLP Tom Burk serves a large number of individual, corporate, and partnership clients. He helps his clients create and maintain wealth by providing complex tax planning and return preparation, IRS representation, entity choice planning, financial statement compilations, business consulting, and retirement planning. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1992, Tom began his accounting career as an accounting supervisor with Circon Corporation. Tom began his career in public accounting in 1996 and has been with Nasif, Hicks, Harris, and Company, LLP since 1997, being promoted to partner in 2005.
	Michael Daoud | Visus LLC Michael is the founder of Visus LLC an enterprise software development firm focused on developing customized business applications that help companies improve their bottom line and be more competitive in the marketplace. Michael is passionate about entrepreneurship, leadership, and technology. Michael is a graduate of UCSB and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with Honors in Electrical Engineering. Michael is also a graduate of UCLA’s Anderson School of Management where he completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs program. This rigorous program helped Michael learn the latest theory and practice in the areas of business strategy, marketing, finance, and management. Michael has served on several non-profit boards in Santa Barbara and currently is serving on the MIT Enterprise Forum's board of directors. Michael speaks four languages and enjoys spending time with his family and friends, exercising, listening to music, reading, and traveling to new places.
	Henry Dubroff | Editor and Publisher | Pacific Coast Business Times Henry Dubroff is editor and publisher of Pacific Coast Business Times. He is the president and majority owner of the newspaper's parent company, Pacific Coast Business Times Inc., which he founded in 1999. Among financial journalists, Dubroff is known as one of the nation's leading experts in local business news operations. He was business editor of The Denver Post from 1988 until 1995 and he served as part of a management team that rescued The Post from near bankruptcy in one of the most successful turnarounds in the newspaper industry. From 1995 until 1999 he was editor of The Denver Business Journal, a weekly newspaper that covers business in Colorado's fast-growing economy. Dubroff is a past president of SABEW and he co-chaired a successful effort to raise $1.1 million for an endowed chair in business journalism at the University of Missouri. He also serves as publisher of "The Business Journalist," SABEWs professional journal. He was graduated from Lafayette College (1972) holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism (1982). He is active in a number of professional and community organizations including Junior Achievement, the Central Coast Venture Forum, Ventura County Economic Development Association, UCSB Economic Forecast Project, Technology Advisory Board of California State University Channel Islands.
	Leslie Edwards | Director of Corporate Business Development | Science and Engineering, UC Santa Barbara Leslie Edwards is currently the Director of Corporate Business Development for Science and Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. Previously she was the Manager of the Technology Management Program at UC Santa Barbara, a program that helps develop intreprenuers and entrepreneurs for the technology sector. She received a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from U.C. Davis and a B.S. in pharmacology from U.C. Santa Barbara. Leslie has been a consultant in the field of regulatory toxicology, worked as a manager of regulatory toxicology at two start-up companies, Miravant and Remedyne, and worked in research at Amgen when there were less than 150 employees. She has an extensive background in the field of drug development and has taught classical and molecular pharmacology at U. C. Santa Barbara, as well as courses in developing FDA approved therapeutics within the biotechnology industry.
	Jacques Habra | First Click SEO Jacques Habra launched his professional career during his senior year at the University of Michigan. Although Habra graduated in the disciplines of English and Philosophy with Honors, he formed a technology company that later became one of the nation's leading web and Application development firms. The ability to link the gap between technology and business communications became Habra's forte' which translated into the successful deployment of over 100 Web site and Web application projects. Habra's leadership as company founder and CEO from 1996 - 2002 led to several prestigious awards including the Anderson Young Information Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001, 3 finalist nods as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for consecutive years in 2000, 2001, and 2002, 3 GLIMA awards, and 3 Fast Track Awards. The growing press coverage during this period recognized Web Elite's innovation, unique team building, and impressive financial growth. Following the sale of Web Elite in 2002, Habra founded Noospheric, LLC to provide a complete cadre' of consulting and development services for emerging companies. Since moving to Santa Barbara in late 2006, Habra has been an active participant in community organizations including acting as a board member on the Santa Barbara Riviera Association, participating as committee member with the Arthritis Foundation, and mentoring through Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Santa Barbara. Today, Jacques Habra continues to lead Noospheric with the same creativity and entrepreneurial passion. The recent success by Noospheric portfolio SEO agency, FirstClickSEO, has been recognized and awarded by regional organizations in 2007 and 2008.
	L. Robert Johnson | Founders Capital Partners Bob is the Managing Partner of Founders Capital Partners, a venture capital angel group focusing on early-stage technology-based businesses in the central coast region. Prior to establishing Founders, Bob was CEO of Angenics, Inc., a biotechnology-based diagnostics company he co-founded in 1981. Before founding Angenics, Bob was the Managing Partner of the Sprout Capital Group, the venture capital arm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. He was involved in research, private equity and venture capital investing with DLJ from 1969 to 1981, and with Kidder Peabody from 1966 to 1969. Bob is currently a member of the board of West Pharmaceutical Services (NYSE). He was a director of Indigo Systems Corporation until its acquisition by FLIR Systems, and a director of Genetic MicroSystems before its acquisition by Affymetrix. Bob has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies in connection with his venture activities. He is also a former Director of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and a former Governor of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC). Bob earned a BS in physics from MIT in 1963 and an MBA with Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1965. He is a director of the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara and a Life Member of the MIT Corporation.
	Brian Johnson | Sales Associate for Radius Group Commercial Real Estate For over four years, Brian Johnson has specialized in the leasing and sales of Office, Industrial and Retail properties, in Santa Barbara , Goleta and Carpinteria. With over nine years of total real estate experience, Brian brings energy to the industry that is seen through his high volume of transactions. In just the last two years, Brian has completed over 100 leasing and sales transactions ranging from 1,000 SF to over 20,000 SF. In addition to the large number of transactions completed every year, Brian utilizes his background in Economics to constantly analyze the market. This makes him an integral part of South Coast Commercial Vacancy report Radius Group produces for their clients each quarter. Prior to moving to Santa Barbara, Brian worked for several major wireless phone companies. He managed projects resulting in the leasing, permitting and construction of over 1,000 cell sites around the country. Brian graduated from Auburn University in 1993 with a degree in Economics. Since joining Radius Group, Brian has served as coauthor of the South Coast Vacancy Update and contributed to the California Economic Forecast as coauthor of the biannual Commercial/Industrial Real Estate section. He has also been a guest speaker at the Southern California Chapter of the Appraisal Institute - Santa Barbara/Ventura Market Trends Seminar and a guest lecturer at Santa Barbara City College's Adult Education program. Brian and his wife live in Santa Barbara with their two children.
	David E. Lafitte | Stradling Yocca Carlson and Rauth David E. Lafitte is a shareholder in the Santa Barbara office of Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth. He holds a J.D., cum laude, from Tulane University Law School and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado. His law background includes corporate and securities, venture capital financings, IPOs and other public offerings, public and private mergers and acquisitions, and technology licensing. He represents clients involved in a diverse range of businesses including high technology, medical device and healthcare services, consumer product companies and other emerging growth companies. David is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Bar Association, and the U.S. Supreme Court Society. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Entrepreneurship & Engineering Management, College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.
	Rusty Reed | Strategy, Principal Mr. Reed is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Great Pacific Capital. Most recently he served in a senior finance capacity at ValueClick focusing on one of its largest subsidiaries, Commission Junction. Prior to his position with ValueClick, Mr. Reed was the Director of Corporate Development at Fastclick. At Fastclick he facilitated the $75M private-equity recapitalization, the Company’s Initial Public Offering and, ultimately, the sale of the Company to ValueClick. Before arriving at Fastclick, he was in the Corporate Development group at Homestore.com (now Move.com), where his team closed over $180M in acquisitions. Initially, Mr. Reed began his career on the Corporate Finance side of the Investment Banking business where he focused on capital raising for technology companies. Mr. Reed holds degrees in Psychology and Business Administration from Vanderbilt University. Mr. Reed has extensive experience in corporate valuation work for capital raising and M&A, capital structure analysis, stock option plan administration as well as financial forecast modeling.
	Richard J. Tico | Bank of the West Rick is a Vice President and Commercial Banking Relationship Manager with Bank of the West in Santa Barbara. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from San Francisco State University, and an M.B.A. in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago. His experience in the financial services, securities and corporate finance arenas include ten-years as a Chicago Board of Trade based floor broker structuring and executing interest rate derivatives transactions for Nomura Securities International's trading desk and institutional clients; two-years with Smith Barney where he initiated the corporate finance relationship with Valueclick, Inc. that ultimately led to Smith Barney's co-lead of VCLK's March 2000 IPO; and two-years with Santa Barbara based investment banking firm Streamline Capital where he worked on engagements in the wireless spectrum, sports broadcast production, environmental services and consumer products markets. Rick is a native Santa Barbarian, and seventh generation Californian that traces his roots to the 1792 arrival of Catalan Volunteer Jose Tico at Presidio San Francisco.
	Adam Jones | Office of Technology Transfer , University of California Santa Barbara Adam Jones is the Associate Director of Licensing and Business Development and a founding member of the University of California, Santa Barbara Office of Technology Transfer, where he works with companies and researchers to help facilitate the commercialization of technology developed at UCSB. Adam has experience evaluating early stage technologies, assessing new venture opportunities, and negotiating intellectual property transactions. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs, investors, attorneys, and corporate executives to successfully bring new inventions from the lab to the marketplace. Prior to joining UCSB, Adam was a corporate attorney specializing in counseling companies on matters relating to venture capital financing, mergers and acquisitions, securities regulations, intellectual property, and startup issues. Adam earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.S. in Biological Sciences from UCSB. Adam is a member of the State Bar of California, the Licensing Executives Society, and the Association of University Technology Managers.
	John Petote John Petote is the CEO and founder of CIO Solutions Inc. located in Santa Barbara, California. CIO Solutions designs, implements, and supports customized information technology and voice communication solutions. CIO Solutions (formerly The Computer Network) was founded in 1986 with $8,000 in startup capital. The company has since evolved to become one of the leading high-end IT/Voice solution providers within the Central Coast of California, generating $7,000,000 in annual revenues. John is primarily responsible for formulating strategic vision; key client business development; executive recruiting; and inspiring the CIO Solutions' team. John previously held various technical and sales-related positions in a myriad of industries. These positions included: business development manager with ComDesign Inc., NASA space shuttle Master Console Operator with Grumman Industries, Computer Operations with Westinghouse Corp., and Computer Programmer with Three Rivers Bank. In 1979, he graduated with honors from the Institute of Computer Management in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John is an active Angel Investor and has co-funded over 40 start-up companies. He serves on the Board of Directors for TeraMatrix Media, Inc., the MIT Forum, and the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. John is also an active member of the Santa Barbara Rotary Club.
	Reed A. Sheard | Westmont College Reed Sheard is the Vice President for College Advancement and Chief Information Officer at Westmont College, a private Christian Liberal Arts College in Santa Barbara. Prior to joining Westmont College Reed served at Spring Arbor University in Michigan as Vice President and CIO for five years and at George Fox University in Oregon as an Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies. Prior to Reed’s time in Higher Education he worked at General Electric, Apple, Inc., Informix Software and helped start Consonus, Inc. which was the fastest growing IT company in Oregon 1999 and 2000. Reed has served on numerous customer boards for various software and technology companies. Reed and Westmont College were awarded the InfoWorld 100 Top IT Projects in the Cloud Computing Initiative category for 2009. Reed earned his BA from the University of Sioux Falls, a Master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and a Doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Seattle University.
	Kyle Ashby | ZOS Communications Kyle Ashby is the Director of Marketing for ZOS Communications a company that has developed a location based platform for the mobile industry and the location communication tool zhiing. Kyle has been involved in marketing, product and project management for a number of companies including roles as the Manager of New Media for Forms+Surfaces, Web Manager for Serbin Communications and Project Manager at Yardi Systems. Kyle has also developed online strategy and web marketing initiatives for a number of business clients. His most recent independent venture, Kaldera Consulting, offers online and traditional marketing services and business strategy development. He is also an adjunct professor at Antioch University. Kyle has a MBA in Entrepreneurship and Global Management from Babson College and two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Film Studies and Geography from UC Santa Barbara. He is also a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) and certified Project Management Professional (PMP). In his free time he enjoys traveling, surfing, outdoor activities, playing music, spending time with family and continuing to learn.
	Peter Hartman | Vice President Peter Hartman is a licensed California Insurance Agent and Financial Advisor with over 10 years experience helping affluent clients with their Business and Estate Planning needs. His specialty is developing customized, multi-disciplinary financial strategies that provide planning alternatives and innovative solutions to his clients. He is currently the Vice President of Anderson Financial Solutions in Santa Barbara, a firm specializing in Private Financial and Life Insurance Planning for affluent people needing to address monetary, lifestyle, taxes, legacy and financial efficiency issues. AFS also offers Employee Benefits for local small to medium sized companies, emphasizing creative, cost-effective benefits which bring value to employers and security to the employees. Peter has over 30 years of sales and marketing experience with small and medium sized businesses. He has held management and executive positions in several hi-tech companies both in the US and abroad in a variety of industries. Peter has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and is a graduate Systems Engineer of the Merchant Marine Institute of Sweden. He is an active member of the Planned Giving Round Table of Southern California (PGRT-SC) Pepperdine Network (PEPNET), and serves on the Executive Board of several business organizations in Southern California. He is also an active member of the US Coast Guard AUX. Peter grew up in Sweden and enjoys the outdoors with biking, hiking and sailing as his main interests.
	William (Bill) Benjamin William (Bill) Benjamin founded six different companies centered around the business media, publishing and software industries that were acquired by companies such as McGraw-Hill, Thomson Reuters, Pearson, ASK and Microwarehouse. He has also served as an acquisition consultant to EBSCO, Nielson, SSI, Governet, Harper, and Wedbush-Morgan. Bill was the editor and co-publisher with Thomson Texere of the seven-volume series, "Business Research Solutions Series," as well as the author of "The European Directory of Business Information Sources and Services." He also designed and produced with Jim Rutt the two internationally known financial research services, First Call and Investext, both of which were acquired by Thomson Financial. Benjamin’s most recent book, SUCCESSFUL STARTUPS: An Essential Guide to Business Venture Analysis and Development, has been favorably reviewed and recommended to entrepreneurs and investors by business school faculty, venture capital and angel investors, and veteran entrepreneurs (see www.venturecritical.com). Bill Benjamin has been heavily involved with the venture industry in California since 1983, serving as the Executive Director of the Central Coast Venture Forum, and on the business plan evaluation panel for both the UCLA Anderson School and the UCSB business plan contest. He is a panelist and Board Member of the MIT Venture Forum and has served as a Director and Board member of seven for-profit companies and four non-profit groups.
	Guy Smith Guy Smith is the Dean of Educational Programs at Santa Barbara City College and is responsible for the administration of the Business Division, the Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the School of Media Arts which includes new media applications, game design, animation, film & television and journalism. For the past twenty-five years, Mr. Smith has been at the forefront of emerging information and communication technologies. Actively involved with the online information industry since its inception, he established Infomart Research, the first online information brokerage in California. As co-founder of Intellimation, a multimedia publishing company, he worked with software developers, publishers and content providers to distribute multimedia applications. For the past 15 years, Mr. Smith has managed and developed projects focusing on new media production, e-commerce and distribution, mobile media, and the use of game technologies in providing training and education. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation and the Economic and Workforce Development program from the State of California. He received his B.A. & M.A from San Diego State University before completing doctoral coursework in rhetoric and linguistics at the University of Southern California. His role in the project will be to serve as the Principal Investigator conducting project management, coordination of project participants, and the integration of the project goals within SBCC’s current educational programs. He is married to Carola for twenty years with two children, Justin and Britta.