Bruce Simpson
President and Chief Executive Officer
Bruce leads the corporate strategy and growth of Novarra. He brings 25 years of executive leadership in growing and selling telecom infrastructure and service companies. Previously, Bruce was president and CEO of Tigon, a provider of voicemail messaging services for telecoms and enterprises, which became the market leader, until its acquisition by Octel. Bruce continued to grow the business globally at Octel Network Systems until its acquisition by Lucent. As president of Lucent Netcare Services, Bruce expanded the business through global strategic partnerships including IBM, EDS and AT&T, as well as key telecom and global enterprise account sales. During the period from Tigon through Lucent, he led the growth of the companies from 150 people and $12 million in revenue to 1,200 people and $350 million in revenue. Bruce also served as the chief executive officer for AppGenesys. Bruce holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Northern Illinois University.

Charles T. Medhurst
Chief Financial Officer
As chief financial officer, Charles “Chuck” Medhurst oversees Novarra’s finance, information technology, human resources, legal and facilities departments. With more than 15 years of accounting and financial-services experience, Medhurst brings extensive skills in capital growth to Novarra. Prior to joining Novarra, Chuck directed the planning, analysis and corporate reporting for Cimlinc, Inc., a venture-financed software developer. Medhurst earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from DePaul University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Jayanthi Rangarajan
Chief Operating Officer and Board Advisor
Jayanthi’s experience at Motorola and Andersen Consulting encompasses customer relations, marketing, product positioning, business development and global commercial product deployment. At Motorola she worked in its Internet and Networking Group, where she helped spearhead technology strategy and development for products ranging from wireless and the Internet to mobile devices, paging networks and cellular phones.

Randy Cavaiani
Vice President, Marketing
Randy is responsible for global marketing where he brings 25 years of telecommunications leadership experience. Previously, Randy led marketing, sales, and product development for First International Digital (FID), a Motorola Ventures company, where he developed and marketed client/server solutions for mobile multimedia. At National Semiconductor, Randy built and managed a telecom strategic business unit with customers including Motorola, Qualcomm, Cisco, IBM, and HP. Randy holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Illinois Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Tech University.

Joe Woods
Vice President, Business Development
Joe is responsible for Novarra’s business development. Prior to Novarra, Joe was a key player in the spin-off of AirTouch Communications, and the start up of PrimeCo Personal Communications, a joint venture between Bell Atlantic and Airtouch. Previously, Joe led the North American product portfolio for Motorola and ran the sales and marketing at Fastmobile. Joe holds a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  

Tim Johnson
Vice President, North American Sales
Tim is responsible for executing sales strategies in North America. He has 20+ years of international marketing and sales experience. Prior to Novarra, Tim was U.S. vice president of sales for ZTE. Previously, as vice president of sales for Nokia, he secured multi-million dollar agreements with Orange, Cable & Wireless, TELUS and T-Mobile US. Other experience includes various marketing and sales executive roles at Northern Telecom and Ericsson. Tim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Catholic University of America and is a decorated veteran of Desert Storm.

Ian McWilliams
Managing Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa
Ian executes the sales and marketing strategy for EMEA with 30 years of telecommunications experience. Previously, Ian was Motorola’s regional director selling radio networks. He was also Lucent Technologies’ vice president of sales for networks. As vice president for Cap Gemini, Ernst & Young, Ian was responsible for the development of the UK telco and media sector, serving customers such as Vodafone, O2, Orange, BSKYB and Carlton Television. At Cibernet Pic, Ian was managing director and global vice president of marketing where he managed $3.5 billion in sales annually for 130+ clients.

Simon Hunt
Vice President, Product Management
Simon is responsible for driving roadmap, architecture and strategic direction for Novarra. He has over 20 years of technology experience. Simon joined Novarra at inception and heads product management. He also creates and establishes Novarra’s IPR. Prior to Novarra, he designed and developed client/server enterprise and middleware systems for Motient, deployed as applications for RIM handhelds. Previously, Simon held lead engineering positions to architect, design and develop GUI based systems and CAD software. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of Sydney (Australia).

Mike Mitchell
Vice President, Engineering
Mike is responsible for product development, roadmap and solution delivery. He brings 25 years of engineering experience to Novarra. Previously, Mike led Motorola system architecture and software development teams deploying the first digital cellular system and the first commercial CDMA system. At Tellabs, he developed and deployed digital cross-connects. Mike led the embedded engineering group for digital local-loop termination equipment at Advanced Fibre Communications, now Tellabs. At Bally, Mike developed video applications utilizing security techniques and graphical user interfaces. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.  

Brent Dafforn
Vice President, Operations
Brent is responsible for customer services at Novarra which includes new and existing customer deployments. He brings 20+ years of software background and 15 in telecom and internet technologies. Before joining Novarra, Brent held several positions at Motorola in international engineering management, program management, and project management. While at Motorola he was program manager for the first CDMA deployment. Prior to Motorola, Brent held engineering positions in construction and defense companies. Brent earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from Tri-State University.  

Kevin Wallace
Chief Technology Officer
Kevin drives the product direction and defines market strategy and positioning for Novarra products. Previously, at Motorola Kevin led the architecture of the GSM/EDGE Voice-over-IP platform, interfacing with various internet and telecom standards organizations. In the NSS advanced technology group, he created the operations and management platform for the ASPIRA Voice-over-IP system. Also at Motorola, Kevin developed CDMA & analog solutions for cellular carriers built around the EMX telecommunications switching platform. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from Boston University.  

Board of Directors

Mark Achler
Kettle Partners, Founding Principal
Mr. Achler focuses on investing in and advising wireless infrastructure, software and marketing-driven companies. He has founded, built and sold numerous successful organizations that were among the first to capitalize on a wide array of market defining trends including: Kinesoft Development, Imagination Pilots, Inc., The Whitewater Group, and Computers, Etc. Mr. Achler is also currently the President of Rightfield Solutions.

David Kronfeld
JK&B Capital, Chairman
Mr. Kronfeld founded JK&B in 1996. Prior to forming JK&B, Mr. Kronfeld was a General Partner at Boston Capital Ventures (”BCV”) where he focused on making venture capital investments in companies in the telecommunications and software industries. Before joining BCV, Mr. Kronfeld was with Ameritech where he was the Vice President of Acquisitions and Venture Investments responsible for directing Ameritech’s venture capital investments in a broad array of telecommunications-related companies and all of Ameritech’s mergers and acquisitions activities. In addition, Mr. Kronfeld was a Senior Manager at Booz Allen & Hamilton and a Systems Analyst at Electronic Data Systems (E.D.S.).

Tasha Seitz
JK&B Capital, Partner
Ms. Seitz joined JK&B Capital in 1997 and has focused on the software sector, working with companies such as Interwoven, Andromedia and Synchrologic.  Prior to joining JK&B, Ms. Seitz was an information technology industry analyst at Gartner Group advising Fortune 500 and Global 1000 clients in their implementation of technology over a five-year strategic planning horizon. She worked in the areas of Local Area Communications and Applications Development & Management before founding Gartner’s Multimedia service in 1993. While at Gartner, Ms. Seitz advised on electronic publishing and led efforts to deliver research to Gartner’s clients in multimedia.

Chuck Parrish
Mr. Parrish is a private investor and advisor to several technology companies. Previously, he was a co-founder and executive vice president of Phone.com (PHCM) now Openwave Systems, Inc. (OPWV). Before co-founding Openwave, Mr. Parrish was vice president of marketing and general manager of Mobile Data for GTE Mobile Communications now Verizon (VZ). Prior to that, he was senior vice president of operations at Contel Cellular, Inc. and co-founder and CEO of AmeriCom Corporation in Atlanta. Mr. Parrish also served as chief of staff in the Department of Interior during the Carter administration and as a division director in the Georgia Department of Natural Resources under Governors Jimmy Carter and George Busbee.

Allan Thygesen
Mr. Thygesen is co-founder of Metric Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm. He was partner and managing director of Carlyle Group’s US venture and growth capital funds from 2001-2008, and led investments in Air2Web, Archetype Solutions, Canesta, Indigo Systems (sold to NASDAQ: FLIR), Rhythm New Media, SMaL Camera (sold to NYSE: CY), TradeBeam and Viator. Prior to Carlyle, Mr. Thygesen was executive vice president, sales and business development at Wink Communications (NASDAQ: WINK). Earlier, Mr. Thygesen served in a variety of sales, marketing, customer service and finance management roles at Gold Disk (acquired by Pinnacle), Media Vision Technologies, Pellucid (acquired by Media Vision), Everex Systems and Radiometer A/S. Mr. Thygesen currently serves on the boards of Canesta, Novarra and Rhythm New Media as an independent director.