Board of Directors

Mark Byington
Mark Byington has served since 2003 as President of Cobalt Power Systems, Inc., a 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 products for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communications. His experience includes positions as COO at Wireless, Inc.; VP of Engineering at Stratex Networks; and Senior Development Engineer at Harris Farinon. Mark holds a BSEE degree from Stanford University.

Bill Keating: Executive Chairman
Bill is an executive consultant in clean tech, digital media, and biotech and is currently or has recently served on several boards including SolFocus, ZVUE, SunModular, Tiara Pharma and others. He is a founding member of Nekei, a venture-catalyst consulting company formed in 2002, and is a 30-year veteran of the technology industry. Bill has held senior executive positions at Vyyo/Xtend (NASDAQ: VYYO), MOXI , Microsoft, WebTV, General Magic, Rational Software, and Sun Microsystems. As a seasoned and recognized leader, he is able to bring a unique depth of understanding and insight to the solar space, and continues to be a key driver in the emergence of the clean tech industry. A number of business ventures for which Bill was an executive or consultant have either gone public or been acquired. These include Moxi Digital (acquired by Digeo), WebTV (sold to Microsoft in 1997), and several others.

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, Inc., brand of Bookham, Inc., a leader in developing, manufacturing photonics, which enabled the company’s successful IPO and secondary offerings. He holds a B.S.E.E. from Brown University, M.S.E.E. from Stanford University, and M.S. 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 a Masters in Business Administration (with distinction) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (cum laude) from Amherst College. He is also a member of the board of Northern California Public Broadcasting (KQED).

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 a master's degree in Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD 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.