About Us

Roy Vallee

Chairman of the Board

Mr. Vallee was executive chairman of Avnet, one of the world's largest global distributors of electronic parts, enterprise computing and storage products and embedded subsystems, from July 2011 to November 2012. Mr. Vallee was Avnet’s chairman and chief executive officer from 1998 to 2011. He is a member of the boards of directors of Teradyne and Synopsys.

Michael Taglich

Director

Mr. Taglich, is Chairman of the Board and President of Taglich Brothers, Inc., a New York City based securities firm. He brings a broad depth and breadth of capital and business background to our Board of Directors, with extensive experience in exit strategies. Mr. Taglich is also currently Chairman of the Board of Air Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of precision aerospace components, as well as the Chairman of Mare island LLC, a shipyard in Northern California, and the Vice Chairman of Bioventrix Inc, a medical technology company with a recently approved treatment for Congestive Heart Failure. He also serves as a Director of Bridgeline Digital, Inc., Decisionpoint Systems inc and Icagen, Inc. Mr. Taglich holds a B.S. degree in General and International Business from New York University and holds Series 27 and Series 7 security licenses.

Vincent Palmieri

Director

Mr. Palmieri is currently a Vice President of Taglich Brothers, Inc. He has worked with many public and private companies in the past and is currently focused on acquisition sourcing, evaluating and executing as well as monitoring existing investments. Mr. Palmieri is a Director of Icagen, Inc., Simkar Inc, and Basin Environmental Services Technologies, LLC. He received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.

Francisco A. Gracia

Director

Mr. Garcia is Executive Partner of the Easton Capital Investment Group. He currently serves on the boards of a number of Easton portfolio companies. Prior to joining Easton, Mr. Garcia headed Corporate Finance at Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, LLC, a fund management and private equity firm currently forming part of Wilmington Trust. Mr. Garcia was previously the founder of the Neptune funds, private funds investing in special situations; a senior executive at other private funds investing in special situations; a Vice President in Corporate Finance at Kidder, Peabody & Co.; and an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell. Mr. Garcia received a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and an AB degree from Harvard College.

Jock Holliman

Director

Jock Holliman formed Valley Ventures in 1993 and has served as a General Partner in four private venture capital partnerships aggregating approximately $94 million in committed capital. Valley’s investment strategy has been early stage information technology and life science in the Southwestern United States with a focus in Arizona. Jock holds undergraduate and Masters business degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, as well as a Masters degree in International Management from the Thunderbird School of International Management in Phoenix. Jock has served on the boards of directors of approximately 45 private and public companies.

Pat Sullivan

Director

Pat Sullivan has been building software for over 30 years. Along the way, he was named one of the “80 Most Influential People in Sales and Marketing History” along side Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Jack Welch and Bill Gates by Sales and Marketing Management. He was also twice named Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” for both ACT! and SalesLogix software.

It’s easy to look back and think, “Wow, where did the time go?” Yet today Pat is still driven by the energy to do something really hard with a team of talented people that never, never, never quit!

Recently the Arizona Technology Council awarded to Pat a lifetime achievement award. That award, along with writing the e-book, “10 Keys To Entrepreneurial Success”, made Pat reflect on his career and share lessons learned that seemed important enough to pass on.

While being fortunate to have been a part of some great ventures, Pat’s response was, “that’s really nice BUT I’M NOT DONE YET!!” These past thoughts and lessons along with new ideas drives Pat and the new development efforts at Ryver.

The legacy of Pat Sullivan is embodied within these reminders. “Innovation occurs when you take a chance you might be wrong. When you set out to do something new there is simply no way to know if you’re right or wrong. You have no idea if you will succeed or fail. Refuse to quit, keep it simple, and keep innovating!”

Steve Torok

Director

Mr. Torok has considerable senior management, operating, and strategic experience developed during a 30-year career at DaimlerChrysler, and more recently as a senior advisor to Booz Allen Hamilton in their global automotive consulting practice. While at DaimlerChrysler, Mr. Torok served in a wide-ranging number of roles over time including, General Manager of the Chrysler Plymouth Division, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, and Senior Vice President of Strategic Assessment. In 2000, Mr. Torok was elected to the board of Mitsubishi Motors and spent four years in Japan as an executive head of Mitsubishi International with responsibility for Asia, Europe, and North America. He also served as a Vice President in the merger integration team during the Mercedes Benz, Chrysler merger.

Mr. Torok is a graduate of Wesleyan University where he earned a B.A. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.