Trellia | Board of Directors

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Giovanni is a successful entrepreneur in the IT and telecommunications industry with an extensive track record ranging from leading new ventures to senior management positions in established organizations. Prior to co-founding Trellia, he was a co-founder & VP Product Management of Avantas Networks which was successfully sold to EXFO for $100M in 2001 and currently operating as EXFO Protocol. In his role at Avantas, Giovanni was responsible for overall strategic product directions, sales & marketing and helped raise over $40M in financing to scale the to over 120 employees. Prior to this he was Director of Product Management at Positron Fiber Systems (PFS) where he was responsible for product direction, which helped to contribute achieving over $100M in revenues for the SONET/SDH product lines. PFS successfully IPO’d, acquired by Reltec Corp for $200 million US and subsequently acquired Marconi PLC. Giovanni started his career at Nortel where he spent 16 years in progressively senior roles in engineering, product management & marketing. At Nortel his focus was always on introducing and marketing new technologies to Nortel’s diverse customer base. Giovanni holds an Executive MBA from Duke University Fuqua School of Business and MIT Sloan School of Management – EDP Program.

Eric Falardeau: CTO & co-founder

Eric brings 16+ years of IT networking and telecommunication solutions development expertise to Trellia. Prior to co-founding the company Eric held a variety of management positions in Marconi’s Network Management group. Over eight years he grew a development team to fifty five individuals, designed a product which was nominated for Product of the Year at SuperCom and provided expert advice to management on network strategy. Prior to Marconi, Eric spent over eight years as a software developer with a focus on large GUI systems, distributed architectures and expert systems. He delivered innovative UI projects to Novasys, CCRIT/CWARC and the Quebec Ministry of Transport.

Andy Katz: General Partner, Skypoint Capital

Andrew co-founded Skypoint. He has been President since the company was launched and a principal of Fund I and Fund II. Prior to Skypoint, Andrew was Chief Operating Officer and CFO of a public technology company, where he was responsible for research and development, manufacturing, finance, and IT. From 1989 until 1996, he was a Partner with Deloitte & Touche, where he worked primarily with technology companies and focused his energies on emerging start-ups. Andy was one of the first professionals in Canada to focus on the technology sector as an area of practice and as a result he has broad experience in all aspects of growing and nurturing technology companies. Since founding Skypoint, Andy has been involved in funding more than 25 companies. Andrew is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Carleton University.

Peter Charbonneau: General Partner, Skypoint Capital

Peter joined Skypoint in 2001 and is a principal of Fund II. Prior to Skypoint, Peter was a senior executive with Newbridge, where he played a key role during the company’s period of extraordinary growth and success. He joined Newbridge in its early days as chief financial officer and over the next 13 years was promoted to the positions of Executive Vice-President, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Vice-Chairman. He was also a member of the company’s board of directors from 1996 until 2000. As the CFO of Newbridge, he led the company’s successful cross-border IPO in 1989 and its second cross-border offering three years later. As Vice-Chairman, he focused on enhancing the company's relations with key external stakeholders. He also worked closely with the chairman and management team to chart the company's strategic direction. While at Newbridge, Peter was instrumental in establishing the company’s Affiliates Program and was involved in the funding of more than 40 affiliate companies. He represented Newbridge as a board member for many of these affiliates. Peter is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. In June 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute in recognition of his outstanding career achievements and leadership contributions to the community and his profession. Peter holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Ottawa and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.

Martin Latreille, Portfolio Manager, FTQ

Joined the Fonds de solidarite FTQ in 2001, Martin Latreille has acquired 15 years of experience in telecommunications, including four in telecom business financing. Before joining the Fund, Martin was a financial analyst at a securities firm whose client base included Nortel, JDS and Exfo. He was one of the founding members and network technologies director of Look Communications. He also supervised major telecom projects at Téléglobe, Bell Canada and Hydro-Québec. Martin holds a Bachelor of Engineering with a major in telecommunications from École Polytechnique de Montréal and a finance MBA from Université de Sherbrooke. He is a member of several Boards of Directors.