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Larry P. Roches, Director & Chairman Laren Whiddon, Director, President & CEO Jim Goodwin, Director Dan McFarland, Director Bret Maxwell , Director David C. Schwab, Director Peter C. Wendell, Director Mark Somol, Director
Lawrence (Larry) Roches is a co-founder and the Chairman of DBS Communications Inc. He has served as a director and Chairman of DBS since its inception in August of 1998, and its CEO from 2001 until June of 2007. Prior to founding DBS, Mr. Roches served as President and Chief Executive Officer of EdGate.com, Inc., where he was responsible for its early stage development and market entry. Prior to EdGate, Mr. Roches was a director of WhittmanHart, Inc. (NASDAQ: formerly WHIT then MRCH), a large scale systems integration and consulting firm, reaching sales in excess of $1 billion annually, and System Software Associates (SSA, NASDAQ:SSAX).
Director, President & CEO Laren Whiddon is President & CEO of DBS Communications, Inc. Mr. Whiddon joined the Company in June of 2005, as Chief Operating Officer and assumed his current role in July of 2007. He is responsible for the Company’s overall business strategy, organizational development and capital formation. Mr. Whiddon has twenty years experience in the wireless industry, joining American Cellular Communications Corp., a BellSouth partnership, in 1987. Prior to joining DBS Communications, Mr. Whiddon was Vice President and General Manager of Cingular Wireless, where he was responsible for the Illinois and Wisconsin Region, one of the three largest within Cingular, with over $2B in revenues. He held similar positions in several other regions, including Kentucky, Louisiana, and Florida. Prior to his general management background, he held various executive finance roles including Chief Financial Officer of Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company, a $1B operating entity jointly held by AT&T Wireless and Bellsouth Cellular Corp. He began his career with Ernst & Young in 1984 as an audit and tax consultant. Laren received a BSBA with a major in accounting in 1984, from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is also a Certified Public Accountant. Jim Goodwin has served on the DBS board since March, 2003 and is the former Chairman and CEO of United Airlines. In addition to DBS Communications, Mr. Goodwin serves on the Boards of AAR Corporation, Labe Bank, the boards of trustees of Lewis University and Salem International University, and is a Board member of the Executive’s Club of Chicago, Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of Chicago. He is also a Chicago Symphony Orchestra trustee and a member of the Business Council. Daniel J. McFarland is a co-founder and the Senior Vice President of Research and Development for DBS Communications and has served in this role since August of 1998. Mr. McFarland draws from a wide variety of experiences prior to joining DBS Communications. As founder and president of DMAC Computer Consulting between 1987 and 1995, his clients included Guardian Packaging, a division of American National Can, Jefferson-Smurfit, a container and packaging products company in Schaumburg, Illinois and Willow Creek Community Church in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Bret Maxwell is a Managing General Partner of MK Capital. He is also the Managing General Partner on three of the Productivity Funds totaling $200 million in committed capital. Mr. Maxwell has been a decision-making partner in six other fully invested funds, representing over $300 million in committed capital. Prior to founding MK Capital, he was the co-Founder of First Analysis' venture capital practice in 1985, he has over 20 years of investment experience. Mr. Maxwell's areas of expertise include outsourced business services, telecom and internet infrastructure, and energy and power infrastructure. He is a graduate of The McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University and Kellogg's Graduate School of Business. He has served as the Chairman of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, and is a director on the boards of the American Brain Tumor Association and Mount Sinai Hospital and on the finance committee of the Jewish United Fund. David C. Schwab has served on the DBS board since December, 2004 and is a Managing Director of Sierra Ventures, a $1.1 billion venture fund. David serves on the boards of Micromuse (MUSE-NASD), Interact Commerce Corp. (IACT-NASD), and other private companies. David was a co-founder of Scopus Technology, Inc. where he served as Vice President of Sales from 1991-1996, and he was at Sun Microsystems from 1986-1991. David earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, his Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Stanford and his MBA from Harvard University. Peter C. Wendell has served on the DBS board since December 2004 and has been a Managing Director of Sierra Ventures, a $1.1 billion venture fund, since founding the firm in 1982. Prior to founding Sierra Ventures, he served as a marketing and sales executive in the Data Processing Division of IBM. He has served as a director and advisor to a variety of Sierra Ventures investments that have grown to be large publicly traded companies including AmeriGroup (AGP-NYSE), Centex Telemanagement, Inc. (CNTX-NASD, Acquired by MFS/Worldcom), Fatbrain.com, Inc. (FATB-NASD, Acquired by Barnes and Noble), Healtheon (HLTH-NASD), Intuit (INTU-NASD, maker of “Quicken” software), NovaMed (NOVA-NASD), On Assignment (ASGN-NASD), and Teradata (TDAT-NASD, purchased by ATT). Peter earned his undergraduate degree magna cum laude, from Princeton University and his Master’s in Business Administration, with distinction, from Harvard University. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University and as Chairman of the Board of Princeton University Investment Company (“PRINCO”), the organization responsible for investing Princeton’s $10 billion endowment. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Merck (NYSE-MRK). Mark Somol joined the DBS board in 2007, and is a Principal with NeoCarta Ventures, a technology and media-focused venture capital fund with $300 million under management. Mark has served as director, observer or advisor to multiple companies, including Handango, Massive, Sandburst, Imaging Automation and other private companies.
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