Jonathan Aberman
Managing Director, Amplifier
Ventures
Jonathan is the founder of and
Managing Director of Amplifier
Ventures. He possesses substantial
venture capital, financial and
managerial expertise, gained over a
19 year career in law and investment
banking. Since his relocation
Washington, DC in 1998, Jonathan has
been legal counsel of choice for
many emerging companies and the
venture capital funds that invest in
them. He has focused on technology
company building activities in the
region and, as a partner in
well-known technology law firms
(Fenwick & West, Fish & Richardson
and Pillsbury Winthrop), has
mentored the formation and growth of
about 60 promising emerging
technology companies, represented
approximately 15 venture capital
funds in their investing activities,
and has handled various financing
and other business transactions with
an aggregate value in excess of $1
billion.
Jonathan received his undergraduate
degree in Political Science and
Economics with honors from The
George Washington University where
he was Phi Beta Kappa. He holds a
Masters in International Economics
with Distinction from The London
School of Economics. Mr. Aberman is
the recipient of Law degrees from
both Cambridge University and New
York University School of Law.
Bill Phelan
Co-Founder & Chief Executive
Officer
With over 20 years of operating,
managing, and technical and
financial experience, Bill Phelan is
an accomplished entrepreneur and
leader. Mr. Phelan was founder and
CEO of OneMade, Inc., a venture
financed firm that operated an "eBay
like" e-commerce marketplace
exchange, which was successfully
sold to America Online (NYSE: TWX)
in May 2003.
Prior to that, Mr. Phelan led the
acquisition of Florists Transworld
Delivery, Inc., and served as the
Chief Strategist and COO of the
firm's technology and network
services business. FTDnull is the
world's largest floral technology
services organization in the world
connecting over 20,000 domestic
florists and over 40,000
international florists through an
e-commerce floral order exchange,
the Mercury Network™. FTD™ also
operates the most popular consumer
facing e-commerce system to route
floral orders directly to
participants in the Mercury Network™
through FTD.com. FTD™ was sold to
Leonard Green and Associates in
February 2004 and subsequently taken
public (NYSE:FTD).
Don Rainey
Partner, InterSouth Partners
Don is a serial entrepreneur who has
been part of and built many
successful businesses in the
networking and online marketplaces.
Don was the founder and CEO of Total
SumParts, an Internet application
development firm located in Reston,
Virginia. He also has served as a
founding board member for Accipiter
through its acquisition by CMGI
while he was president of Attitude
Network Inc. He was previously COO
of DaVinci Systems, a Research
Triangle-based software company,
which was later sold to ON
Technology, enabling a combined
entity IPO four months later.
Don, part of the investment team at
Intersouth, identifies and evaluates
information technology and life
science investment opportunities
within the mid-atlantic
entrepreneurial corridor. Don has
held senior executive positions with
Novell and IBM. At Novell, he was
responsible for all reseller
programs and channel distribution.
With IBM, he managed channel
distribution and brand marketing for
the $2 billion Network Hardware
Division, where he established and
managed product marketing and
distribution in 50 countries. Don
received his B.B.A. from James
Madison University.
Robert Smith
Co-Founder, Chairman & Chief
Strategist
Bob has over 20 years experience
creating and managing interactive
community and commerce businesses.
He started his first directory
publishing company in 1984. He
became a member of AOL management
team in 1992, where his first
assignment was helping large media
companies such as the New York
Times, Tribune Company and Hachette
Filipacchi Magazines create their
first online community ventures. He
went on to serve as General Manager
of all of AOLs community programming
operations. He was founder of AOLs
Digital City, the first nation-wide
city guide service, growing that
business to over $100 million in
sales.
After leaving AOL, he started one of
the first business incubators for
internet businesses in the nation,
Vector Development, LLC. Vector
specialized in building companies
focused on organizing supply chain
participants into industry-wide
trading communities.
He has spent the last few years
working directly with internet-based
startup companies as both a
strategic advisor and investor. He
helped found and guide companies in
e-government (ezgov; US operations
sold in 2004), e-commerce (OneMade,
where he served as Chairman; sold to
AOL in 2003), identity monitoring
and management (PromiseMark and
Privista; sold to ConsumerInfo and
Equifax respectively) and
community-based self-service mapping
(The Map Network, where he served as
Chairman). In addition to his
experience in the internet industry,
Bob also has extensive experience in
print media including directory,
newsletter, magazine, and wire
syndication publishing including
over six years as a senior executive
of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. Bob
has an MBA in marketing from George
Washington University and a BA in
political science from the
University of Southern California as
well as six years of service as an
officer in the US Navy.
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