Steven Smith, Board Co-Chairman
President and Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, GCommerce
Prior to founding GCommerce, Mr. Smith worked as an executive for 15 years in market leading global sales and marketing organizations, such as Dorian Drake International, McQuay-Norris World Trade Corporation and Iowa Export division of Ruan Corporation. For more than 10 years, Mr. Smith has been an active Angel investor in New York and the Upper Midwest, both as direct investor and Angel investment aggregator. He also actively participates in numerous board advisory positions for early stage technology companies, especially those targeting supply chain efficiencies.Mr. Smith remains active in numerous trade associations such as the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) as well as the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) as a technology and supply chain expert.
Laurence Hootnick, Co-chairman
Managing Partner, Acuity Ventures
Larry has served as a director of GCommerce since 2001. Larry is a highly successful Silicon Valley executive with over 35 years of experience in leading high-growth private and public enterprises. Larry currently serves as Managing Partner of Acuity Ventures, a family of venture capital funds that is the Company’s largest equity holder. Larry previously held positions at Intel Corporation as Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, and President of the Embedded Control and Memory Group. He also served as President and CEO of Maxtor Corporation, which he sold to Hyundai, and Consilium Corporation, which he sold to Applied Materials. In these positions, he oversaw up to 10,000 employees and managed operations with over $1 billion in revenues. Larry received a B.S. in Industrial Management from M.I.T. and an MBA from University of Maryland.
Ed Reitler, Director
Managing Partner, Reitler Brown
Former attorney at Cravath, Swain & Moore and Howard, Darby & Levin.
Ed has represented dozens of merchant banks and buy out and venture funds and their portfolio companies in these matters including UBS, PaineWebber, American Securities, Wexford Capital, Lightyear Capital, Edison Ventures, Spark Capital, Milestone Ventures, Greenhill SAVP, New Spring Capital, Osage Venture Partners, SJF Ventures, Innovation Ventures, Cammeby's Capital, SAS Investors, Hudson Ventures, Walden Capital, Libertyview Capital, Ovation Capital, Carrot Capital, GlobalNet Management, Zon Capital, and Himalaya Capital. Ed has also served on the Board of Trustees of the Harvard Law School Alumni Association of New York. He is a frequent speaker and panelist on issues affecting the private equity and venture capital markets and is a regular guest lecturer at Columbia Business School.
Ken Kaplan, Director
Ken Kaplan is Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder of Cellencor, Inc., Ames, Iowa. Cellencor provides advanced microwave processing technology to the renewable energy industry. Ken founded and then served as President and CEO of Microware Systems Corporation, a developer of software for embedded microprocessor based products. Ken played an important role in the development of many groundbreaking new products in the areas of industrial automation, consumer electronics, scientific and medical electronics, and telecommunications. In April 1996 Microware concluded a successful IPO and was listed on NASDAQ. In 2001 Microware was acquired by Radisys Corporation (NASDAQ:RSYS), Portland OR. He then became Vice President and General Manager, Microware Division of Radisys until his retirement in 2002. Ken holds a number of patents related to wireless communications and digital TV technology.
Adam S. Claypool
Managing Director, DeWaay Investment Banking
Mr. Claypool provides a strong investment banking and private equity background and is an experienced business adviser. He has specialized in assisting small and lower-middle market companies for more than 12 years completing M&A and private financing transactions. He has extensive history working with entrepreneurs, developers, family-owned businesses, venture capital backed companies, and private equity/venture capital firms. Through DeWaay Investment Partners I, LLLP, Mr. Claypool co-manages a $10 million venture capital fund that targets investments in high growth, capital efficient companies. As an affiliate of DeWaay Capital Management, Mr. Claypool and his colleagues oversee the selection and monitoring of private company investments for a $640 million portfolio.