Board of Directors

Mark Granahan
President/CEO/Chairman

Mr. Granahan is a founder and CEO of CICLON Semiconductor Device Corp. Prior to starting CICLON, Mr. Granahan held a variety of Business Management positions at Lucent Microelectronics (now Agere Systems). He was responsible for the creation of the Analog Products Division (APD) which generated over $250M in revenue growth in less than three years. He led the $150M acquisition of VTC HDD Preamp business solidifying Lucent’s position as the number one supplier of HDD components. While at Texas Instruments, Mr. Granahan was responsible for the global expansion of its Standard Linear Business which contributed over $200M in revenue growth for TI from 1987 to 1993.

Mr. Granahan has over 20 years of experience in the Semiconductor industry. Through the years, Mr. Granahan has held a variety of Engineering, Product Line Management, Product Marketing, Business Development and Executive Management positions. Though his technical expertise was initially focused on Analog and Mixed Signals, his business management expertise includes Optical Components, Processors, and large digital System on Chip [SOC] solutions for the Communications market.

Mr. Granahan received a B.S. in Materials Science from Penn State University and a M.S. in Management Science from the University of Texas.

Mike Burns
Director

Mr. Burns is a Managing Director of Guggenheim Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm that focuses on the Mid Atlantic, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest regions within the communications market. He was a founder of several start-up companies including Traffic.com (NASDAQ: TRFC) and a network processor pioneer at Agere Systems, Inc.

Mr. Burns has worked with technology start-ups as an operating executive and a venture capitalist for more than 10 years.  He previously served as a Managing Director of TL Ventures and Program Manager for electronics and systems integration programs with Lockheed Martin. 

Mr. Burns was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and received his degrees from the Wharton School and the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. 

Mark J. DeNino
Director

Mr. DeNino has been a Managing Director at TL Ventures since 1994. Mr. DeNino’s venture capital experience began in 1981, when he helped launch Biological Energy Corp. (technology developed at the University of Pennsylvania), a venture backed by General Electric’s Venture Capital Group (now Canaan Partners). He later joined Ecogen, a Princeton-based microbial pesticide venture funded by Domain and Vista Ventures which later became a public company.

Mr. DeNino’s investment expertise is quite extensive and includes the software, communications and energy industries, as well as various business services. Recognizing more than a decade ago that the energy and utility industries were ripe for early stage investing, and capable of generating high capital returns, Mr. DeNino set about to establish an affiliated private equity activity targeting those markets specifically. This effort culminated with the formation of EnerTech Capital in 1996.

Mr. DeNino received his B.S. degree from Boston College and his M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Dick Koeltl
Director

Mr. Koeltl has more than 35 years of leadership experience as President, COO and CEO of several corporations within the Semiconductor and Optical industries focused on the Communication, PC, Consumer, and Industrial markets. Mr. Koeltl served as President/ COO for AT&T Microelectronics’ Semiconductor Group where he was credited with commercializing Bell Labs technology and setting up the tremendous growth of the Semiconductor Group. Mr. Koeltl then joined Sierra Semiconductor as COO and was responsible for the companies’ turnaround and market-driven focus to becoming the leading Communications IC supplier. Mr. Koeltl led the Sierra Semiconductor’s return to profitability and acquisition of PMC, to become PMC-Sierra.

Mr. Koeltl received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College.

Tony Sun
Director

Mr. Sun joined Venrock in 1979, has been a General Partner since 1980, and a Managing General Partner since 1997. He is based in Venrocks Menlo Park office and focuses on investments in information technology, especially communications and internet infrastructure. Mr. Sun is a Director of Cognex Corporation, Phoenix Technologies, Ltd., and a number of private companies, including AccessLine Communications, ANDA Networks, Inc.; Bivio Networks, Inc.; Canesta, Inc., Future Dial, Inc., Infinera, Inc., Inrix Corporation and a la Mobile, Inc. He previously served on the boards of Lightera Networks, Inc. (acquired by Ciena Corporation), Ramp Networks, Inc. (acquired by Nokia, Inc.), StrataCom, Inc. (acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.), TransMedia Communications, Inc. (acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc.), and XLNT Designs, Inc. (acquired by Intel Corporation).

Mr. Sun is a member of the Corporation and a Trustee of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serving on the investment committee and visiting committees of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Department of Material Science. He is also a member of the International Resource Panel for the Government of Singapore and on the venture advisory board of the US Navy. Mr. Sun previously held positions at Caere Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, and TRW, Inc.

Mr. Sun received his B.S., M.S., and Advanced Engineer degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Laurence G. Walker
Director

Mr. Walker co-founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of C-Port Corporation, a pioneer in the network processor industry, which was acquired by Motorola in 2000. Following the acquisition, Mr. Walker served as Vice President of Strategy for Motorola’s Network and Computing Systems Group and then as Vice President and General Manager of the Network and Computing Systems Group.

Prior to C- Port, Mr. Walker served as Chief Executive Officer of CertCo, a digital certification supplier. Mr. Walker also held several management positions, including Vice President and General Manager, Network Products Business Unit at Digital Equipment Corporation.

Mr. Walker currently serves as a Director at McDATA Corporation, a provider of multi-capable storage networking solutions; at Silicon Laboratories, a leading designer of high- performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal integrated circuits; and at Autocell Networks and Mintera Corporation.

Mr. Walker received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and a M.S. and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.