Glenn Falcao

Glenn Falcao is currently a partner with FA Investments, an investment firm he founded in 2001. Before founding FA Investments, Glenn was a partner with Bessemer Venture Partners in their Boston office. Prior to joining Bessemer, he was the Executive Vice President of Corvis Corporation, an optical networking company that he helped take public in one of the most successful IPOs in 1999. Before joining Corvis, Mr. Falcao held various executive management positions at Nortel Networks. He was instrumental in the launch of Nortel’s Optical business, and subsequently as President of their Internet access business, Mr. Falcao helped reposition the company to take advantage of the growth in the Internet. Mr. Falcao has been involved in the Communications industry for over 20 years and is an active member on a number of boards, as well as the chairman of the Howard County Incubator.

Don Avery

Don Avery brings nearly thirty years of sustained leadership in high-technology product development, corporate operations and building effective teams. He has a proven record of accomplishment for “getting the job done,” taking numerous products and processes from design concept, through manufacturing to successful deployment. He is the former Vice President of Engineering and Product Development for Ciena Corporation’s Transport Products Division.  Mr. Avery was specifically recruited, due to customer concerns, to strengthen and head Ciena’s next generation transport product development effort. Under his direction, Ciena’s state of-the-art DWDM transport system was successfully designed, field tested, and deployed, ultimately generating over $1B in revenue. Prior to his tenure at Ciena, Mr. Avery successfully lead product development for an early stage fiber optic startup, from the due diligence phase of funding, through production, and finally acquisition. Mr. Avery has evaluated scores of companies as potential acquisitions or development partners, directly supported worldwide sales and marketing, and is a hands-on technologist. He has additionally served as corporate CFO and CIO, while managing a technical services team.

Prior to entering the private sector, Mr. Avery was a Navy Cryptologist, specializing in tactical cryptologic system development, engineering, operational field-testing, and combat-ready deployment.  Mr. Avery holds a bachelors degree in meteorology (minor: mathematics) from Purdue University, as well as a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Navy’s Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA. He is certified as an Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Specialist, and a graduate executive coach.  He is a published author and currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Chesapeake Therapeutic Riding, Inc., a regional charity utilizing horses for healing.