Sam Mathan

Mr. Mathan serves as Matisse's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Most recently as President and CEO of Amber Networks, he developed the company into the leader in fault tolerant routing, resulting in the sale of Amber to Nokia for $421M in July of 2001.

Previously, as Senior Vice President of Telco Marketing & Sales, Mr. Mathan helped establish Ascend Communications as the dominant supplier of dial access, frame and cell switching equipment. Subsequent to the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent Technologies he steered the merger of the two sales forces and served as senior vice president, Telco marketing and sales of the resulting Lucent Technologies Internetworking Systems division. Prior to Ascend, he directed the product management and marketing team responsible for Pacific Bell’s first series of network integration products and services.

Mr. Mathan has a B.Sc. and B.E. from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, a MSEE from North Carolina State University, and a MBA from Southern Methodist University. Born in Hyderabad, India, Sam moved to the USA in 1970.

Claude Hamou

With over 20 years of experience in various management roles, Mr. Hamou brings a wealth of experience from a variety of backgrounds. In addition to having founded Matisse, Mr. Hamou is currently responsible for all engineering and operational activities for the company. Previously, Mr. Hamou was Executive VP and General Manager of Terayon Communications' Data Cable Division. Prior to Terayon, he was VP of Engineering and Operation at Apache Systems and Director of Engineering with Adaptec.

Mr. Hamou holds a BSc. from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and MS in Management from Santa Clara University, California.

Ross Ireland

Mr. Ireland served as Senior Executive Vice President of Services and Chief Technology Officer for SBC Communications (now AT&T). In this capacity, he was responsible for Network Planning and Engineering, SBC Laboratories, Procurement, Real Estate, the Network Staff Groups and IT.  In addition, six of the company’s National Businesses also reported to Mr. Ireland, including SBC Long Distance, SBC Paging, SBC Operator Services, SBC Public Communications, SBC Video Services, and SBC Messaging. He retired from SBC in May of 2004 after 38 years of service.

Mr. Ireland was also the Chairman of the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, which oversees the T1 U.S. Telecommunications Standards Group. Mr. Ireland studied engineering at City College of San Francisco and is a graduate of the Stanford Executive Program.

John Jarve

Mr. Jarve is a Managing Director of Menlo Ventures, one of Silicon Valley’s oldest venture capital partnerships with over $2.7 billion under management. Prior to joining Menlo Ventures in 1985, he worked in marketing at Intel Corporation. John focuses primarily on early-stage communications, storage, semiconductor, and financial technology investments. His recent investments and board seats include: Cavium Networks, Centrality Communications, Finaplex, Idetic, Maranti Networks, NetContinuum, and VhaYu Technologies. Additionally, he is a former director of Digital Insight (DGIN), iBasis (IBAS), SpectraLink (SLNK) and UUNET Technologies (UUNT, now part of MCI).

Mr. Jarve is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering) and the Stanford University Graduate School of Business (M.B.A.). He is a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Management Board, a trustee of the Crystal Springs Uplands School, and is a former trustee of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Andrew Kau

Mr. Kau joined Walden International in 1994. Prior to WI, he was President of Chemical Technologies Ventures. Mr. Kau was also a management consultant at Strategic Planning Associates and Booz, Allen and Hamilton. Earlier in his career he was a research scientist at Systems Planning Corporation and a VLSI semiconductor engineer at IBM.

Mr. Kau holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Brown University and an MBA from the University of Virginia.

Vincent M. Occhipinti

Vince co-founded Woodside Fund in 1983, and has been intimately involved in the management and success of the Fund and its portfolio companies. Mr. Occhipinti has chaired the Early Stage Venture Capital Alliance (ESVCA) since 1990. The ESVCA conferences bring together general partners in seed and early stage funds to discuss issues of mutual interest. Mr. Occhipinti is a leader in the early stage venture community and has also chaired several other major early stage venture capital conferences, including the IBF Early Stage Investing Conference and the SRI Private Equity Roundup.

Vince has a wealth of operating experience in both small and large companies in the technology industry. He founded Logisticon, Inc. which he led as President and CEO, and pioneered enterprise process and factory automation software. Earlier in his career, Vince served as VP, Marketing for Mobility Systems, and while at Levi Strauss and Company, had profit and loss responsibility for the Stretch Levis Division. He has a BA from Stanford University, and attended the Graduate School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, while an undergraduate.