Board of Directors

Alex Knight

Chairman, Board of Directors & CEO, EDGE Labs

Alex Knight is CEO of EDGE Labs, a strategic advisory firm with a focus on media and technology. Prior to founding EDGE, he was a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, a venture capital firm with over $1 billion under management. Knight has served on the boards of Classmates Online, Dantz Software and ImproveNet. He also helped start several companies including About.com, NETBot and Throw. Previously, he held executive positions with News Corporation, Microsoft, Corbis and Apple Computer. He holds a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

Ron Faith

President & CEO

Ron leads Datacastle’s strategy and business operations. He has 16 years of experience in senior operations, business development and marketing positions in software and services businesses. Prior to Datacastle, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Clonefone, a provider of web-based mobile network operators and OEMs. He spent over 8 years at Qpass where he held senior leadership positions in sales, business development and product management during the company’s growth from start-up to the market leader in mobile commerce infrastructure.

Gary Sumner

Founder & CTO

Gary is the technology visionary and founder of Datacastle Corporation. He has 20 years of experience in the design, development, and implementation of technology solutions across multiple industries. Prior to Datacastle, he spent 10 years in numerous roles at Microsoft, including Technical Architect for the Communications Sector hosting solutions, and as Product Unit Manager for one of Microsoft’s “Live” services. Previously, Gary spent two years as Chief Software Architect at Peakhour in Australia, and five years at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Mark Gill

Partner, CM Capital Investments

Mark is an experienced entrepreneur with 23 years of experience in the technology sector. He joined CM Capital in 2006 and is involved in all aspects of IT and Telecom investments. Over the past 16 years Mark has acted in General Management, Chief Executive, and Global Sales/Marketing capacities. With experience in developing, selling and delivering complex systems to over 30 countries and managing globally diverse technology companies, Mark has been involved in the many challenges facing entrepreneurs in this sector, including capital raising on several continents. Before joining CM Capital, Mark was the CEO of Pacific Star Technologies and held  senior executive roles in several public and private organizations.

Tony Gandel

CEO & Founder, The Gandel Group

Tony, the former Managing Director of The Gandel Group and one of Australia's leading business executives, lead the Seed round of investment in Datacastle through his investment holding company. After the successful sale of The Gandel Groups retail property business in 2006, Tony has been quietly making strategic investments in key technology companies in Australia and the US. The Gandel family is regarded as one of Australia's top family business empires with over $3.5B in asset backing.

 Advisory Board

Michelle Deaker, PhD

Managing Partner, Andover Venture Partners

Dr. Michelle Deaker is the Managing Partner of Andover Venture Partners formed through their merger of her venture capital firm OneVentures with Andover Group, a boutique investment bank with offices in Sydney and Washigton DC. She is a successful entrepreneur with 10 years experience in IT, including having founded and then sold her stored value technology company, E Com Industries, to UK company Retail Decisions PLC in Dec 2005. Prior to that, she spent 10 years working with universities and leading research organizations in both R&D and corporate public affairs. She has extensive experience in both the development of early stage companies and in international business expansion. Michelle has been awarded a BSc (1st Class Honours) and, as a recipient of a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award and a CSIRO Research Award, both an MSc from the University of Sydney, and a PhD from University of Canberra.  She is a regular speaker on entrepreneurship and venture-backed business, and has authored numerous scientific publications and filed patents globally.

Stu Gavurin

CEO, Mission Data, LLC, & Managing Partner, Boundless Ventures, LLC

Stuart L. Gavurin has more than twenty-five years of experience in building consulting and outsourcing businesses with particular emphasis in business strategy, infrastructure technology outsourcing and systems integration. Before embarking on his current role, he was responsible for the global IT Outsourcing line of business at Unisys, developing an integrated end-to-end portfolio and a globally consistent delivery model that resulted in growth rates that were nearly double the market standard for both revenues and orders ($1.266 billion in revenues and $1.515 billion in orders). Prior to Unisys, Stu held executive level positions at Cap Gemini, and Ernst & Young.

Stu is a writer and speaker on IT strategy, outsourcing, and other business and technology topics. His articles have appeared in such publications as Business Communications Review, Network World, and The Journal of Systems Management.   Stu has a BS in Applied Mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University and an MS in Computer Science and Information Systems from American University.