RavenBrick LLC – Board of Advisors (BOA)
Member Bios
RavenBrick Board of Advisors (BOA)
Management assembled a robust and insightful Board of Advisors in April, 2008. It is important to note that the BOA members are also investors in the Company. The BOA meets monthly and is essential to RavenBrick’s strategic direction and execution. The BOA Members include: four principals of private equity groups, the co-owner of a major construction company, the SVP of a major aerospace firm, and the partner for patents at a major national law firm.
Dr. Carl Forest, Partner, Patton Boggs, LLP
Dr. Forest writes patent applications, particularly in the semiconductors and optics industries. His understanding of patent and trademark offices and record of success on appeal translate to particularly effective patent and trademark prosecution strategies. Having negotiated hundreds of agreements over thirty years in practice, Dr. Forest focuses on bringing new ideas into commercial reality.
Dr. Forest has extensive experience inside and outside large corporations, such as Black and Decker, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Matsushita (Panasonic), and Medtronic and as counsel to start-ups, such as Symetrix Corporation, Sundew Technologies, Inc., A4S Technologies, Inc., and HX LifeSpace, Inc.
Before becoming an attorney, he worked in theoretical physics at Michigan State University, built an electro-optics laboratory at the University of Idaho, and taught physics for non-scientists and graduate-level students. His first technical position was as an aerospace engineer for NASA. His life is about bringing new ideas into commercial reality.
Jim Griffey, Managing Partner, Chisos Capital, LLC
Jim Griffey is the managing partner of Chisos Capital, LLC, a family-funded private equity firm located in Boulder, Colorado. His 30 years of entrepreneurial experience spans the continuum between hard assets of oil & gas and commercial real estate through firm assets of private equity and commercial lending and following through to the soft asset side of training and coaching. He and his wife Heather have 2 children, 14 and 12, and enjoy spending time in the Canadian lake country.
Robert Fenwick-Smith, Principal, Aravaipa Venture Fund LLC
Robert Fenwick-Smith is a global entrepreneur, investor and executive. He currently serves as the Executive Chairman of SonicScrubbers LLC and is Vice-Chairman of AXIT AG (Germany), a leading European Supply Chain Management Software company.
Until 2006, he was a Managing Director of Tattile srl (Italy), a leader in Imaging Technology in the Industrial & Security Sectors. As the CEO of the Romaco Group from 1990 to 2002, he was instrumental in leading the growth of this roll-up in the pharmaceutical packaging and processing machinery sector from its inception to 170 million Euro in sales. He has a BA in Economics from HEC Lausanne (Switzerland) and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the Board of Legacy Land Trust in Fort Collins, CO.
John Keane, Founder King Hill Capital
John Keane, Jr. is the founder of King Hill Capital, a firm that invests capital and time to help private clean-tech companies become vibrant businesses. He founded King Hill Capital in 2007 to address two issues that concern him deeply: global climate change and energy independence.
Prior to founding King Hill Capital, he had been an executive in the software industry for nearly 20 years. Most recently, John was founder and CEO of ArcStream Solutions, a wireless systems integration firm. Prior to founding ArcStream, he held various leadership positions at Keane, Inc., supporting the company’s revenue growth from $60 million to $1.1 billion. John began his career in corporate finance at J.P. Morgan.
He currently serves on the board of Cleantech America, RavenBrick LLC, Solar Sentry, Purpose Energy, and Belmont Day School, and as a board observer of Greentech Media.
John graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
Byron Haselden, Co-Owner, Vice President Preconstruction, Haselden Construction LLC
Byron Haselden is the co-owner of Haselden Construction Inc. Serving the western United States for over 3 decades, Haselden Construction is a full service general contractor performing general contracting, construction management, design/build, and turnkey development services along with a comprehensive range of preconstruction services.
The company has annual revenues exceeding $300 million, and builds a diverse range of projects including health care, education, casino and gaming, mountain resort and hospitality projects, commercial, municipal and institutional facilities.
Byron has extensive experience in managing very large and sophisticated building programs for public and private entities. His background encompasses project executive, preconstruction manager, project manager, superintendent and project engineer.
Byron holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and completed graduate school coursework in construction management from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
