Board of Directors

Kodiak Networks® is funded by leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Redpoint Ventures and inOvate Communications, each of whom is represented on Kodiak Networks’ Board of Directors.


Jeff Brody
Founding Partner
Redpoint Ventures

Jeff Brody is a founding partner of Redpoint Ventures. Jeff is focused on investments in technology companies spanning both enterprise and consumer customers. He currently serves on the board of directors of HomeAway, JumpTap, Kodiak Networks, LifeSize Communications and MobiTV.

Portfolio
Jeff was an early investor and director of Danger (acquired by Microsoft), Fraud Sciences (acquired by eBay), Concur Technologies (CNQR), Loopnet (LOOP), ZING Systems (acquired by Dell), GetThere (GTHR), mySimon (acquired by CNET), NextCard (NXCD), Onebox (acquired by OpenWave), ViaVideo (acquired by Polycom), and WebTV (acquired by Microsoft).

Before co-founding Redpoint, Jeff was a general partner with Brentwood Venture Capital, a firm he joined in 1994. Prior to Brentwood, Jeff was at Comdisco Ventures and Crosspoint Venture Partners. Early in his career, Jeff co-founded a mobile telecommunications company and worked as a field engineer for Schlumberger Ltd. in Europe and Africa. Jeff received a B.S. in Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.


Kevin Compton
General Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Kevin Compton joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1990. Since joining KPCB, Kevin's investments have focused on enterprise software and the telecommunications industry. This emphasis on software and communications has him serving on the boards on two public companies, Citrix Systems and VeriSign.

Portfolio
Kevin also serves on several private company boards including, KnowNow, Volterra, Intersperse (formerly Yellowshirt). Other investments he has led for the partnership are Audible, Inc., Cable Services Group, Mobile Telecommunications Corporation (SkyTel), and Teloquent Communications.

Prior to joining KPCB, he was Vice President and General Manager of the Network Systems Team at Businessland (now Siemens). While in this role the company's sales increased from under $70 million to over $1.4 billion, and the company was recognized as the number one supplier in worldwide Local Area Networks for three straight years.


Stewart Gollmer
Director
Lehman Brothers

Stewart Gollmer focuses on communications equipment investments for Lehman Brothers Venture Partners. Prior to joining Lehman Brother Venture Partners in 2001, he was a member of Lehman Brother's Technology Investment Banking Group where he was responsible for public and private equity offerings, as well as strategic advisory assignments. Prior ro joining Lehman Brothers in 1998, Stewart was a corporate attorney. He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a J.D from Brigham Young University and a B.A. from the Johns Hopkins University.


John Vice
President and CEO
Kodiak Networks, Inc.

Industry veteran and former Nortel senior executive, John Vice brings more than 25 years of telecommunications experience to Kodiak Networks. His extensive background includes working in a variety of functional areas which make him particularly suited to leading the Kodiak team. John brings a unique, broad understanding of the mobile communications industry, as well as, extensive hands-on experience in the development and deployment of mobile solutions.

Before joining Kodiak, John had been a strategic management and investment consultant to companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 size corporations. He also served as CEO for Geyser Networks, Inc., a privately held supplier of optical network systems in Sunnyvale, Calif.  John also had a distinguished, 19-year career at Nortel Networks, where he advanced to President and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, in Richardson, Texas.

Career Highlights

  • Presided as CEO of leading optical network systems company, Geyser Networks based in Sunnyvale, CA
  • Managed a 2,600-person organization that expanded sales of CDMA, GSM, and TDMA platforms to network operators in 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
  • Served as a key member of the leadership team that drove Nortel’s annual wireless revenues from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion over a three-year period in the late 1990s.

John holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a master’s degree in business administration with a marketing concentration from McMaster University.

F. Craig Farrill
Co-Founder
Kodiak Networks, Inc.

Craig Farrill has spent 28 years creating and leading high growth, wireless telecommunications businesses. Regarded as a technology visionary, his background in wireless technology is extensive and he has led a number of wireless industry initiatives to accelerate business growth and technological change. Craig serves on the board of Conexant Systems, a publicly-held semiconductor company and as an advisor to several wireless start-up companies.

Prior to founding Kodiak in 2001, Craig was Managing Director at inOvate Communications Group, an early stage venture capital firm focusing on investments in the wireless space. Previously, Craig served as Chief Technology Officer for Vodafone AirTouch Plc, where he developed and deployed an integrated global technology strategy across Vodafone’s 27 national operations serving 100 million customers. In the 1990’s as CTO, Craig expanded PacTel’s wireless businesses from California to 13 countries internationally and led the $1.8 Billion IPO of AirTouch Communications in 1994. Craig began his career in telecommunications systems engineering in the mid 1970’s at Rockwell International's Collins Radio Group and began working in a cellular start-up in 1980.

Career Highlights

  • Promoted GSM since its inception in the early ‘90’s, leading AirTouch’s national network design and license wins for D2 in Germany and Telecel in Portugal
  • Founded the CDMA Development Group (CDG), an international industry association furthering the development of next generation wideband digital cellular technology (1993)
  • Promoted application of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology to digital cellular networks, the first CTO in the wireless industry to do so (1989)
  • Launched the first commercial CDMA system in a major U.S. market (1996)
  • Founded the Joint Initiative toward Mobile Multimedia (JIMM), an association of the top ten multi-national wireless operators fostering the global development of third generation mobile multimedia services (1999)
  • Founded the Operators Harmonization Group (OHG) in 1997, bringing together GSM, cdmaOne and PDC operators to converge global 3G standards
  • Launched the cellular business at Communications Industries (CI) in 1980

Craig received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from the University of Oklahoma in 1974, and a Masters degree in Business (MBA) in 1979 from the University of Dallas. Craig is a Registered Professional Engineer and holds several U.S. patents in the telecommunications field.


Kris Patel
Co-Founder and CTO
Kodiak Networks, Inc.

Kris Patel has more than 17 years of experience and thought leadership in wireless, VoIP, broadband and voice networks. Kris has led the design, development and deployment of carrier class systems around the world. His extensive qualifications stem from all facets of project lifecycle development, from initial feasibility analysis and conceptual design through documentation, implementation, user training and enhancements. Kris is a proven organizational leader, team builder and project manager.

Prior to Kodiak, Kris was Vice President of Engineering at XYBridge Technologies Inc. Kris has delivered systems to NTT DoCoMo and Verizon Wireless and is well-versed in leading teams across two continents.

Career Highlights

  • Co-led development of Integrated Digital Enhancement Networks (iDEN) for Motorola
  • Architected Data Over Cable technology (DOCSIS) for 3Com
  • Guided conception of XYbridge’s next generation all IP core product strategy
  • Differentiated XYbridge’s position and architecture in the next generation 3G wireless and converged broadband markets (class 5/4 replacement)
  • Played lead role in selling XYBridge to Zhone Technologies

Kris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics from B.V.M. in V.V. Nagar, India and a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.


Bruce Lawler
Co-Founder and CMO
Kodiak Networks, Inc.

Bruce Lawler brings over 15 years of telecommunications experience in fixed wireless, satellite, and terrestrial local and wide area networks. Bruce was a founding partner of inOvate Communications Group, and led the company’s investments in Danger, Rosum Corporation and Kodiak Networks. In addition, he served as the Network Operations Center (NOC) program manager for AT&T Wireless Services where he gained intimate knowledge of carrier operations.

Career Highlights

  • Drove development and production of the MPEG2 encoding technology used by Hughes DirecTV and Thomson Consumer Electronics while serving as
  • Director of Product Engineering for Compression Labs
    Served as a founding executive of iBEAM Broadcasting (NASDAQ:IBEM), the leading provider of streaming media services over the Internet
  • Led joint development of digital video set top boxes with Philips Consumer Electronics.
  • In addition, Bruce has held engineering and management positions at Motorola, GE, and Eastman Kodak

Bruce received his Bachelors of Science in Engineering degree from Purdue University and holds Masters degrees in Engineering and Business from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.