NetSocket's Board of Directors
Mark Floyd
Chairman
Mark A. Floyd – Chairman. Mark A. Floyd joined the NetSocket Board of Directors as Chairman in May 2011. Most recently, Mr. Floyd served as CEO of SafeNet, Inc., a global leader in information security protecting communications, digital identities and intellectual properties. Prior to SafeNet, Floyd was president and CEO of Enterisphere from August 2002 until April 2007 when the company was acquired by Ericsson. Prior to Entrisphere, Mr. Floyd was president and CEO of Siemens Information and Communications Networks U.S. until February 2002. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Floyd was Chairman, president and CEO of Efficient Networks, Inc., which he co-founded and went public in 1999, and then was acquired by Siemens ICN for $1.7 billions in 2001. Prior to Efficient Networks, Mr. Floyd has held executive positions at Networth, Inc., Interphase Corporation and Scott Instruments, Inc.
Mr. Floyd currently serves on the board of Riverbed Technologies, Inc. and Cyan Optics, Inc. He has served as a venture partner at El Dorado Ventures and Crosspoint Ventures and is on the Industry Advisory Board for Azure Capital Partners. Mr. Floyd has also served on the boards of Carrier Access Corp., Occam, Inc., Ripcode, Inc., Siemens ICN, U.S., Sonoma Systems, Inc., Strix, Systems, Inc., SyChip, Inc., and Tekelec, Inc. Floyd was the recipient of the 2001 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year award for the Southwest region and received a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jon Bayless, Ph.D.
General Partner, Sevin Rosen Funds
Jon Bayless, Ph.D., has served as Chairman of both Landmark Graphics Corporation and CIENA Corporation, two public companies funded by Sevin Rosen Funds. Dr. Bayless has taken a lead role in nurturing several SRF portfolio companies, including CIENA Corporation, a pioneer in the optical transmission market, which went public in a 1995 IPO. He currently serves on the boards of AirWalk, AppTrigger, Extenet , GENBAND, NetSocket, Vidyo, WaveBender, and Xtera Communications.
From his perspective, hands-on experience is essential to being a good venture capitalist.
Joel Fontenot
Managing Partner, Trailblazer Capital
Joel Fontenot has amassed many years of banking, investing, and early-stage technology company operating experience. He was a Director of Business Development for Cisco Systems, Inc., joining Cisco in June 2006 through the acquisition of Metreos Corp., a voice technology company at which he was a founder and CEO. Fontenot previously co-founded Netrake Corp. and served as the President of the company, which created a unique, patented IP network processing system capable of recognizing, remembering, and responding in real time to network traffic on a session basis.
Prior to founding Netrake, Fontenot incubated the company through his activities as a Founding Partner and Managing Director of Arkoma Venture Partners, where he made and managed seed-stage and early-round investments in technology companies focused on telecommunications, Internet infrastructure, and enterprise software. Before Arkoma, he had nearly 10 years of commercial and corporate banking experience.
Fontenot holds a B.A. degree in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He is a member of the executive board of the Bobby Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University, and he serves on the advisory board of Silver Creek Ventures and on the school board of Cistercian Preparatory School.
Michael Segrest
General Partner, Silver Creek Ventures
Since joining Silver Creek Ventures in 1991, Michael Segrest has worked actively with more than 25 portfolio companies, helping them realize their goals of becoming successful startup companies. As General Partner for Silver Creek Ventures, Segrest has focused his investment activities on information technologies, particularly in the areas of security, networking, and services. Prior to Silver Creek, Segrest served as a Principal for a merchant banking firm specializing in the communications industries.
He received his bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas in the ERB (Engineering Route to Business) program, electrical engineering option, and his MBA in finance from The University of Texas.
John White
President and CEO
Appointed Chief Executive Officer of NetSocket in March 2011, John White brings significant experience as an executive and leader in the telecommunications industry. Skilled in operations and sales management at both successful startups and large high-tech enterprises, White is responsible for directing NetSocket's strategic direction and growth with large enterprises and cloud service providers, delivering value to customers through the implementation of NetSocket’s real-time service assurance (RISA), next-generation service-level agreement (SLA) management, and business intelligence offers.
Previously, White held executive positions with IBM and AT&T/Avaya Communications. His key experiences in executive sales leadership include responsibility for organizations exceeding $600 million in revenue, as well as leading large infrastructure outsourcing transactions valued from $50 million to $1.5 billion. He also has held executive positions and driven growth at successful startups such as airBand Communications and Contact Software International.
White holds a B.S., with a dual major in computer science and philosophy, from Duke University and an MBA, with a concentration in marketing and corporate finance, from Southern Methodist University.
Ken Lewis
Founder, COO
As chief operating officer, Ken Lewis focuses on achieving NetSocket’s overarching goal of improving the quality of emerging real-time voice and video network services such as they are transported over the Internet, by providing session level visibility both within and outside the IP cloud. Prior to co-founding NetSocket, Lewis was President and CEO of Chiaro Networks, Ltd., a Richardson, Texas-based start-up that developed and marketed a high-capacity core router for the service provider industry. Chiaro achieved several industry firsts in improving the reliability of core routers.
Before Chiaro, Lewis served in a variety of progressive management roles over a 20–year period at Alcatel USA, including Senior Vice President of the Transmission Products division. In that role, Lewis was responsible for the complete transmission product line of the merged Alcatel Network Systems and DSC businesses. He oversaw a team of more than 1,500 members with annual sales in excess of $1 billion. He also held management positions in product planning, product line management, and strategic planning at Alcatel.
Lewis holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Alabama and an M.S. in business from the University of Texas at Dallas. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2000.
Fletcher Hamilton
Vice President, Acme Packet Inc.
Fletcher Hamilton is a seasoned communications industry executive whose 30-year career has resulted in extensive experience, deep industry knowledge, and a proved track record in sales, business/new market development, and complex technical environments worldwide. He currently serves as Vice President, Enterprise Sales, North America, and a founding member of the enterprise sales team for Acme Packet Inc., the leader in session border control solutions.