Get Acquainted with a Few of Our Members
Dennis Adler has 30+ years of experience in technology-related businesses including MetaJure and Microsoft. He currently sits on a variety of boards and advises startups both informally and as a board member. Dennis is active in his management consulting practice.
Robin Elenga is CEO of Revel Body, an AoA funded startup based in Seattle. Revel Body is his fourth startup. Previously, Robin was a consultant to a variety of Fortune 500 companies with ETS, Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group, Andersen Consulting and EDS. Robin is an active angel investor with investments in 12+ startups. He is an active startup advisor and former board member for several companies.
Gary Gigot is a private investor with a background in advertising, software marketing, venture capital and most currently, SaaS and cloud based early stage, vertical market companies. Gigot’s SaaS involvement spans the dental, vacation rental, and business process markets. He was VP, Marketing of Microsoft and then, CMO at Visio. Gigot led Frazier Technology’s investments in Aprimo and Docusign. Prior to Microsoft, Gigot held key positions with Ogilvy and Mather.
Joe Heinrich, CPA has spent 33 years in various finance related positions with KPMG and Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. where he held the positions of Vice President – Internal Audit, Vice President of Finance for the France Business Unit, Vice President of Finance of the European Group, Vice President – Chief Accounting Officer and finally Vice President – Global Finance Projects.
Loretta Little, managing director at WRF Capital, concentrates on healthcare, advanced materials and consumer technology. Loretta currently serves as investment manager for GlobeImmune, Targeted Growth, Clarisonic, Accium Bioscience, and Amnis. Additionally, Loretta is a board observer at Modumetal, Mirador Biomedical, Mobisante and Cardiac Insight. She serves on the boards of the Washington Medical Technology Angel Network (WINGS) and the Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) at the University of Washington. She also does committee work for the Alliance of Angels, the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association, and the Washington Global Health Nexus Working Group.
Will Poole is an angel investor, strategy consultant, and philanthropist. He serves as co-chairman of NComputing Inc. and on the boards of four other startups. In addition Will co-chairs Pengala Learning and Volt Boats, is a lead partner at Social Venture Partners and serves on non-profit boards of UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, VillageReach, and Global Washington. Previously, Will spent 12 years at Microsoft. Will co-founded eShop, developed and marketed workstations at Sun Microsystems, and founded two start-ups at the dawn of the PC industry.
Charlie Kindel is a founder and CTO of a stealthy Seattle startup, and an active angel investor, mentor and advisor in the Seattle startup community. He was formerly the General Manager for the Windows Phone Developer Ecosystem at Microsoft. During his 21 year tenure at Microsoft, Charlie worked on Internet Explorer, ActiveX, Windows NT, home networking, Windows Media Center, Windows Home Server, and Windows Phone 7.
Steve Loeb, former president of Alaska Distributors Co., currently serves on the boards of the Museum of Glass (Chair), the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle (Vice-Chair), KCTS-9, The Rainier Club Heritage Fund and Pomona College (ex-officio) where he also serves as the National Annual Giving Chair. He also serves on the Boards of TC Global, Washington Roundtable and Enterprise Washington. He is past president of Jewish Family Service and past board member of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, Temple de Hirsch Sinai, and the Columbia Tower Club. Loeb has been an active early stage and operating company investor since 2009.
Dr. Charles Sidman retired after a full career in biomedical research and teaching as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology at the College of Medicine of the University of Cincinnati. He now devotes his efforts full-time to the early-stage startup ecosystem, as a member of Angel groups nationwide, manager of a globally active and vertically integrated investment fund, and member of numerous professional organizations in the fields of science, education, business and finance.
Mark Taylor is a private investor with an engineering background in telecommunications, network architecture, system design, modeling and development. His professional experience includes AT&T Bell Laboratories, United Airlines, Motorola, McCaw Cellular, AT&T Wireless and Teledesic. He has lead technical teams in the design and development of data networks, network management systems and wireless data technologies; he led the team that created the technical standards for Cellular Digital Packet Date (CDPD), the first deployed IP-based wireless WAN on behalf of the North American cellular industry.
Rick Tomfohrde has 30 years of experience with several high tech industrial control device manufacturers. His experience spans manufacturing, industrial controls, electrical/mechanical hardware, and wholesaling for Fortune 500 level industrial end user customers. Rick founded a startup tech company focused on new industrial display and touchscreen technology. He managed all aspects of in house design, manufacturing, operations, finance, and growth leading to a successful exit by acquisition. Currently Rick is involved with the AoA and other start up enterprises.
Cory Van Arsdale has been a technology and new media executive and legal counselor since 1985. He is currently VP, Strategic Business Development, at Intellectual Ventures. He is also co-principal at Van Arsdale Yeager LLC and an advisor to multiple start-ups and a consultant in the areas of online media, gaming, and mobile applications. While at Microsoft, Cory was CEO of the Massive subsidiary, GM for Emerging Media, GM of business development and partnerships for MSN/Online Services, and senior corporate attorney supporting Windows 9x, IE, and the Digital Media division. Prior to Microsoft, Cory was an executive and legal counsel at Sun, Apple, and Be, Inc.
Vijay Vashee is a 19-year Microsoft veteran credited with setting up many firsts: Registered databases, Demo Days tours, Windows seminars and the ISV program. Vijay successfully ran an India Hedge fund for 4 years and was an investor in 4 Tony Award winning Broadway shows and NBC serial movies.
Daniel Weise is a recovering computer science researcher (MIT PhD, Asst. Professor, Stanford University, Senior Researcher, Microsoft Research). Today he spends most of his technical time trying to convince himself that humankind hasn’t really, truly completely screwed itself by digging so much carbon out of the ground and combusting it into the atmosphere. If you have a technology that can change human nature, he would be an eager investor.
