Board of Directors

Mark Byington
Mark Byington has served since 2003 as President of Cobalt Power Systems, Inc., a leading PV system installer in the San Francisco Bay Area and SunPower Premier Dealer™.  Prior to that, Mark spent 25 years in the telecommunications field, developing microwave radio and digital signal processing technology and products for wireless communications.  His experience includes positions as COO and Executive Vice President at Wireless Inc.; Senior Vice President of Engineering at WaveSpan Corporation; Vice President of Marketing at Netro Corporation; Vice President of Engineering at DMC Stratex Networks; and Senior Development Engineer at Harris Networks.  Mark holds a BSEE from Stanford University.

Bob MacDonald, Ph. D.
Bob has a proven track record of driving revenue growth, building market focus and optimizing operational efficiencies with emerging high-tech ventures. He led the product marketing program at SolFocus and prior to SolFocus, he co-founded and served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Onetta, a leading optical amplifier company. During his tenure, he secured funding from Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners. Earlier in his career, Bob started the telecom components division of New Focus, a division of Newport Corporation, a leader in photonics development and manufacturing, which enabled the company’s successful IPO and secondary offerings. He holds a BSEE from Brown University, MSEE from Stanford University, and MS and Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University.

Mark Perry
Mark joined NEA as a Consultant in 1995 and became a General Partner in 1996. He focuses on information technology investments. Present NEA portfolio companies include Alien Technology, Glacier Bay, ISGN Technologies, NewPath Ventures LLC, newScale, ProStor Systems, SmartTurn, TestMart, Think3, and TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO). Previous board memberships include Growth Networks (acquired by Cisco Systems), Hyperion Solutions (NASDAQ: HYSL), iManage (acquired by Interwoven), Magma Design Automation (NASDAQ: LAVA), Silicon Graphics (NASDAQ: SGI), Silicon Spice (acquired by Broadcom), and Trading Dynamics (acquired by Ariba). From April 1994 to December 1995, Mark served as President and Chief Executive Officer and then as Chairman of Viewstar Corporation. From 1985 to 1994, he was an executive with Silicon Graphics, Vice Chairman (1992-1994) responsible for worldwide field operations, Executive Vice President (1988-1991) responsible for the product divisions, and Vice President of Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer (1985-1987). Prior to this, Mark was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Sonoma Vineyards and a partner at Arthur Young & Company. He is a Certified Public Accountant in California. Mark received an MBA (with distinction) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a BA in Economics (cum laude) from Amherst College. He is also a member of the board of Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED).

Lars Podlowski
Dr. Lars Podlowski has spent more than a decade in solar industry technical and management roles and is currently a Management Board member and CTO at SOLON SE. He combines extensive technical expertise in the implementation of large scale solar products, systems and plants with an intimate knowledge of European markets, which will help Skyline Solar as the company looks to expand globally into markets like Italy, Spain, Greece, the Middle East and Africa.

For nearly two decades, Lars has been integral in the scientific development and innovation of solar modules and the realization of large-scale solar plants throughout Europe, making Europe the leader in solar power capacity. Today, he is CTO for a company that has expanding business and supply chain operations in North America. Lars founded SolarWerk GmbH (Teltow) which was acquired by SOLON SE in 1999.

Tom Rohrs: CEO and Chairman of the Board
Tom Rohrs is a 30 year veteran in the high technology industry. He presently serves on the Boards of Intevac, Magma Design Automation, Inc., Electroglas and several private companies. Tom spent five years with Applied Materials Inc., most recently as Senior Vice President, Global Operations, and was also a member of that company's Executive Committee. Immediately prior to that he was Vice President of Worldwide Operations for Silicon Graphics, Inc., and previously was with MIPS Computer Systems, Inc., as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Customer Service. He also served as Group Operations Manager for Hewlett-Packard's Personal Computer Group.

Tom earned his BSME from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from Harvard University. He currently serves on the advisory council for the School of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Ravi Viswanathan
Ravi joined NEA in February 2004 as a Principal and became a Partner in December 2004. He focuses on information technology investments with special emphasis in energy, India-related and growth equity investments. Ravi is on the board of Availink, Deeya Energy, ISGN Technologies, Jentro Technologies, Liquidia, Solar Junction, Suniva and ViXS and works closely with GlobalLogic, OANDA, ProtoStar, and NEA's energy portfolio companies. Prior investments include Tele Atlas. Prior to joining NEA, he worked at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he was co-head of the technology practice in their private equity group and led direct, fund, and secondary investments in the areas of information technology and life sciences. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Ravi worked for McKinsey & Company and advised clients in the software, communications, and pharmaceutical sectors on strategy, acquisitions and new business building. Previously, he worked for Raychem Corporation in the Corporate Technology Division where he focused on research and product development in semiconductors, liquid crystals, and other materials systems.

Ravi received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara where he focused his research on materials science applications in molecular electronics, biomaterials, and nanotechnology. Prior to graduate school, he received a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.