Key People

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Management

Robert Currie, CEO

Robert Currie has more than 15 years of experience leading early-stage tech companies in Silicon Valley including TiVo-acquired Strangeberry, a company whose technology enables TiVo to provide unique content to its set-top boxes. Rob's experience covers a range of markets including consumer products, enterprise and digital-media production. Prior to his role at Strangeberry, Rob co-founded wireless mobile software company Airgomo where he led product development for emerging 2.5G mobile technologies. He previously served as Marimba's vice president of engineering and Digidesign/Avid's vice president of software engineering, each from early stage through IPO. Rob holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley and a MBA from the University of Chicago. He is also a member of the board of the Stanford Jazz Workshop and Funambol Inc., an open-source mobile software company.

Ken Kershner, SVP, Engineering

For nearly 20 years, Ken Kershner has held key engineering roles in the digital media field with a focus on product innovation and customer experience. Prior to joining Dash, Ken spent seven years at TiVo serving in a number of engineering leadership positions including Vice President of Service Engineering. In this position, Ken was charged with building the division focused on developing products for satellite and cable providers. Before TiVo, Ken was the Engineering Vice President of TenTV.com, a streaming media educational services firm. For more than eight years, Ken held engineering and program management positions at Silicon Graphics, Inc., focusing on digital media and web applications. Earlier in his career, Ken worked in product management at Hewlett Packard and sales engineering at Texas Instruments. Ken holds a BSEE degree from Duke University and an MBA from M.I.T.'s Sloan School.

Jim Gelson, SVP, Business Development

For more than 15 years, Jim Geison has been driving licensing and advertising sales for technology and media organizations. Prior to joining Dash, Jim spent seven years at DivX, a digital media company enabling high quality video, serving in a number of sales and business leadership positions including Vice President of Worldwide Sales and most recently Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Licensing. In these positions, Jim was charged with starting up and growing the DivX consumer electronics licensing business with responsibility for $85 million in annual revenue. Before DivX, Jim held sales positions with Infospace and the Meredith Broadcasting Group. Jim holds a Bachelor of Arts from Drake University and a Master of Arts in Broadcast Management from Indiana University.

Board of Directors

Wayne Cantwell

As a core member of the Crescendo Ventures investment team, Wayne Cantwell offers his technical expertise to companies including Arteris, eASIC, Next I/O, and Quorum. He joined the firm in 2003, following a career spanning two decades in the semiconductor and software industries. Prior to his current tenure with Crescendo, Wayne served as president and CEO of inSilicon Corporation. There, he led the company through its initial public offering and several successful acquisitions. Prior to his role at inSilicon, Wayne oversaw Phoenix Technologies' worldwide field operations and grew the organization to over 400 people and $125 million in globally distributed business. His operational expertise also extends overseas, having managed programs in Japan, Taiwan and Europe. Wayne has previously held positions with Intel Corporation and NEC Corporation. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the DeVry Institute of Technology.

Mike Farmwald

Mike Farmwald is a serial entrepreneur with one of the most successful track records in Silicon Valley. As one half of the investing team behind Skymoon Ventures, Mike sits on the boards of companies such as Rambus and Matrix Semiconductor. To date, he has founded six companies, five of which were financed in part by Benchmark Capital, where he was a venture partner. Mike is best known for founding Rambus, where he served as vice president and chief scientist, overseeing the development of several key innovations, including the 1992 introduction of the world's first 4 Mbit RDRAM. Other companies Mike has founded include Matrix Semiconductor, Chromatic Research (acquired by ATI), Epigram (acquired by Broadcom), and FTL(merged with MIPS). Mike holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University.

Jim Goetz

Jim Goetz is a Partner at Sequoia Capital focusing on enterprise systems, mobile software and enterprise and consumer technology enabled services investments. Jim currently serves on the board of Admob, Appirio, Clearwell Systems, Dash Navigation, Data Connection, Jive Software, Palo Alto Networks and Widgetbox. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2004, Jim served as a General Partner at Accel Partners where he led the investments in Entrisphere (ERIC), Peribit (JNPR), RGB, and Rhapsody (BRCD) and was part of the team responsible for BroadJump (MOTV), Timetra (ALA) and Topspin (CSCO). Earlier, Jim was a Founder of VitalSigns (LU) where he went on to serve as VP/GM of the VitalSoft division of Lucent. Prior to VitalSigns, Jim was the Vice President of Network Management for Bay Networks. Prior to Bay and Synoptics, he held various product and marketing positions at AT&T, AT&T Bell Labs, and Digital Equipment. Jim has a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.