Board of Directors
Kathy Yates
Chief Executive Officer | Teachscape
Kathy joined Teachscape as president and chief operating officer in 2010 after successfully leading the turnaround of AllBusiness.com, an online resource center for small businesses, which she sold to Dun & Bradstreet. Before AllBusiness.com, Kathy was president and chief operating officer of CBS Marketwatch, a financial news and information enterprise that was acquired by Dow Jones in 2005. The earlier part of her career was spent in the newspaper business. In 1995, Kathy was recruited to join the corporate leadership of Knight Ridder as vice president, new media, a role that put her in charge of Internet strategy for all Knight Ridder papers. Kathy’s success and achievements throughout her career have earned her a reputation as a savvy operator in developing scalable business models for web–based media. She earned a B.A. from Trinity College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Phil Clough
Managing General Partner | ABS Capital
Phil is a managing general partner at ABS Capital Partners, whose investment interests and experience include business services companies. He currently represents ABS Capital on the boards of eFashionSolutions, LLC; Liquidity Services, Inc.; Payformance Corporation; Rosetta Stone, Inc.; Renew Data Corp.; and Restaurant Technologies, Inc. Phil also serves on the board of American Public Education, Inc., a former ABS portfolio company. He previously served on the boards of Advanced Disposal Services, Inc. and Rainmaker Systems, Inc.
Prior to joining ABS Capital in 2001, Phil gained operating experience from his years at SITEL Corporation, the global leader in providing outsourced call-center services to large corporations, where he was chief executive officer and president from 1998 to 2001. While at SITEL, Phil grew both revenues and EPS significantly, as well as established relationships with corporations such as GM, America Online, Siebel, and IBM. Most importantly, he learned the value of setting and clearly articulating goals and priorities for his team (and regularly measuring against them), something he routinely helps his companies with today. From 1990 to 1997, Phil was in the investment banking group at Alex Brown & Sons Incorporated, leading their business services efforts, where he advised clients on mergers and acquisitions transactions and equity and debt offerings. He served in the United States Army from 1983 to 1988, rising to the rank of Captain in 1987.
Paul Mariani
Principal | ABS Capital
Paul is a principal at ABS Capital whose investment interests and experience include business services, health care, and software companies. He currently represents ABS Capital on the board of Teachscape, Inc. and is a board observer of Pathology, Inc.; Skinit, Inc.; Source Medical Solutions, Inc.; and Superior Vision Services, Inc. Paul has worked with several prior ABS portfolio companies, including Cobalt Group, Inc. (acquired by Automatic Data Processing, Inc.) and Print, Inc. (acquired by Pitney Bowes Inc.). Prior to joining ABS Capital in 2003, Paul worked in the technology investment banking divisions of Robertson Stephens and Soundview Technology Group where he worked on numerous public offerings, M&A and capital raising transactions. Paul is a graduate of Stanford University.
Robert Finzi
General Partner | Sprout Group
Robert Finzi joined Sprout Group as a general partner in May 1991 when Sprout assumed management of two public venture capital funds originated by Merrill Lynch and became co–managing partner in November 2003. Bob joined Merrill Lynch Venture Capital, Inc. in 1984 and became a partner in 1985. He serves on the boards of Aurora Networks, Calix Networks, Inc., Cyoptics, Inc. and Trade Beam Holding Inc. Other Sprout investments include: Aspen Education Group (CRC Health Corp.), Concur Technologies (CNQR), CommVault (CVLT), Edison Schools, Inference, Intercept, Inc., Left Hand Networks, Inc., Network Equipment Technology, Photon Dynamics, Platinum Software (Epicor), Pyxis, Risk Data (HNC Software), Silicon Design Labs (Mentor Graphics), Teachscape Inc., U.S. Paging (Skytel), Watchfire (IBM). Previously, Bob was an associate with Menlo Ventures and served as a consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Bob attended Harvard Business School (MBA, Baker Scholar, Loeb Rhoades Fellow) and Lehigh University (BS, with highest honors; MS, Byllesby Fellow).
Marguerite W. Kondracke
President and CEO | America’s Promise
Marguerite is the president and CEO of the America’s Promise Alliance. America’s Promise was founded in 1997 by General Colin L. Powell to make children and youth a national priority, mobilizing all Americans to fulfill Five Promises for our nation’s young people: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, an effective education, and opportunities to help others. Currently, America's Promise is focused on addressing the nation’s high school dropout crisis.
During her 40–year career, Marguerite has been both an entrepreneur and a public servant, focusing on the needs of children and families. Prior to joining America's Promise, she served as special assistant to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander as well as staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families. She also served in the cabinet of then Tennessee Governor Alexander as commissioner of the Department of Human Services. Previously, Marguerite was co–founder and CEO of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the nation’s largest provider of employer–sponsored child care and one of Fortune’s "100 Best Companies to Work For." Today, she continues to serve on the company's board of directors. She is also a member of the board of directors of Saks Fifth Avenue (NYSE:SKS) and LifePoint Hospitals (NASDAQ: LPNT).
Marguerite serves as board member and secretary of Independent Sector. Throughout her career, Marguerite has received numerous awards and honors, including being named a Purpose Prize Fellow, awarded by Civic Ventures to those over 60 taking on society's biggest challenges. Most recently, Marguerite was named by The Non–Profit Times as one of the "Top 50 People of Power and Influence in 2008." She is an alumna and now a trustee of Duke University, where she co–chairs Duke Engage.