BOARD OF DIRECTORS BIOGRAPHIES

David Epstein

Mr. Epstein, currently the Chief Operating Officer of VT MÄK, a leader in training and simulation software, has more than 25 years of extensive technical and management experience taking innovative ideas from conception to successful deployment and growth. He has employed his expertise provide solutions in the healthcare, government/defense and media industry in start-ups through Fortune 100s.  He is the holder of 11 US patents, the author of 16 peer-reviewed technical articles and the recipient of 11 major IBM awards for outstanding contributions and technical excellence.

During the course of his career his contributions have fundamentally changed the nature of training in the US military, created a world-renowned, global XML research organization, driven the US health IT agenda, enabled the development of a $1.6 billion sales pipeline and slashed a start-ups development costs by 70%.

In his twenty year tenure with IBM’s Software Group and TJ Watson Research Center, Mr. Epstein held several leadership roles including Director of Energy & Environment Solutions and the Director of Public Sector Solutions.  Initially recruited to IBM Research to develop real-time graphics architectures and algorithms, Mr. Epstein and his team developed novel, user-customizable editing, compositing, conforming and digital effects software used in the production of Apollo 13, Cliffhanger and 90210 by Digital Domain, Boss Films, Laser Pacific, R/GA and others.

Mr. Epstein has been a consultant in the venture capital and media industries. He helped build Vastvideo, a media start-up that syndicated professionally-produced digital video through an extensive affiliate network. In these roles he has performed technology review, market analysis, strategic planning, fundraising, restructuring and team building.

Mr. Epstein holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School, a BA and MS in Computer Science from Harvard University and was a PhD candidate at NYU’s Courant Institute before returning to industry.  He is an advisor and mentor to Columbia’s Lang Fund companies and an active member of the Harvard Schools Committee. He serves as the acting CTO for The State of the USA, a Washington-based 501(c)(3) that provides a comprehensive set of key national indicators, drawn from trusted sources, and tools for understanding, assessing and measuring the progress of the United States in a host of critical areas.

Jamal Mazhar

Jamal Mazhar possesses more than 15 years of experience in technology, engineering and consulting with a range of Fortune 500 companies including General Electric Capital and ING U.S. Financial Services. Prior to starting Kaavo, he established technology infrastructure and product development operations in India for a Canadian business analytics startup.

Previously, Mr. Mazhar managed integration, development and continual improvements to IT assets while working at ING. He established ING’s “Center of Excellence for B2B” which streamlined $2 billion per month in electronic money transfer operations. As Lead Architect at GE Capital e-Business team, Mr. Mazhar directed analysis and implementation efforts and improved the performance of the website generating  more than $1 billion in annual lease revenues. At Trilogy Software, an innovative technology company, Mr. Mazhar provided technical and managerial expertise for several large scale e-business implementation projects for companies such as Boeing, NCR, Gartner, British Airways, Quantas Airways and Alltel.

Mr. Mazhar earned his BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Zia Zaman

Zia is Chief Strategy Officer for LG Electronics, North America.  LG is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics.  Zia is actively involved in Kaavo's market strategy and business development activities, bringing a tremendous amount of executive-level business experience, leadership, industry contacts and marketing and strategy expertise to Kaavo.

Prior to LG Electronics Zia successfully guided his former company, FAST, to a $1.2 billion exit via an acquisition by Microsoft. As Chief Marketing Officer of FAST, he led a team of over 40 professionals across product marketing, corporate marketing, field marketing, channel marketing, and strategy. Zia played an instrumental role in the company's revenue growth (doubling in 2 years), strategic review (double-digit cost reductions), and successful marketing and positioning (most visionary enterprise search company). Zia played an integral part in the acquisition and integration planning efforts, leading the Marketing and Communications streams and playing a senior role in the leadership committee with Microsoft.

Before FAST, Zia was a Managing Partner at Gartner leading the North American strategy consulting practice, increasing revenues by 50 percent in his first year. He was also the lead author on two Gartner research reports regarding M&A and Asian vendors.  Prior to Gartner, Zia worked for over five years at Sun Microsystems, Inc. in corporate development and business development functions. As part of the M&A team, Zia led or co-led eight acquisitions and six venture investments. Zia also brings extensive experience from a leading management consulting firm.

Zia earned a MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and Master of Science in operations research, both from MIT.