Team Bios

Management Team  |  Board of Directors  |  Investors

Management Team

Kevin Walker, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Prior to co-founding SimpleTuition, Kevin was Vice President at Cole Management, a Russia-focused venture fund, where he sought and evaluated investment opportunities in Russia's high-tech, consumer internet and financial services sectors. While at Cole Management, Kevin worked closely with the Chairman of Yandex (www.yandex.ru), Russia's leading search engine.

Previously, Kevin was an early employee of the First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE: FMD), where he held executive roles in the firm's product management, sales, and marketing areas over nine years and two tours of duty. Prior to the company's IPO, Kevin established and headed First Marblehead's marketing department, beginning the firm's testing of new media for direct-to-consumer marketing of private student loans.

Kevin also served as a Principal at the management consulting firm, the Parthenon Group (www.parthenon.com). At Parthenon, Kevin advised CEOs of global Fortune 500 manufacturing, publishing and financial services companies on general business strategy. At the start of his career, Kevin founded and sold the School of Russian Studies, a Russian language and cultural school, based in Russia. (www.sras.org).

Kevin serves on the Board of Trustees of the Tower School (www.towerschool.org). Kevin was a 2009 Finalist from New England for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Kevin holds a BA in Russian from Amherst and an MBA from Harvard.

Patrick Kandianis, Co-Founder, EVP & Chief Sales Officer
Patrick has worked in different sectors serving the higher education market for the past 21 years, including education finance, systems/software and travel. Most recently, as VP of Business Development for First Marblehead Corp, Patrick led the company’s sales efforts in the Midwest and Western regions and helped formulate product strategy and development before and after the company’s IPO. Previously, Patrick had a role as Director of Business Development for Jenzabar, a startup which became a leading systems provider for colleges and universities. Earlier on, Pat was one of the original principals of Student Travel Services and Suncoast Vacations, leading student tour companies where, as VP of Sales and Operations, he led business development, marketing and advertising efforts nationwide. Pat holds a BA from Cornell.

Doug Lowenstein, EVP Strategy
Doug brings 14 years of consumer financial services experience to SimpleTuition. He was most recently an SVP at Capital One Financial where he played a leadership role in building and managing the company's Corporate Strategy team. While at Capital One, Doug led the strategy development for many of Capital One's diversification moves beyond its core credit card business, including its entry into the traditional banking market. Doug also led the strategy development for several of Capital One's acquisitions and investments, including transactions in the banking, auto-finance, and home equity spaces. Through his role at Capital One, Doug also developed strong market expertise in the student loan space. Doug also has substantial experience working with start-ups, as while at Capital One, he spent two years working directly with North Hill Ventures, Capital One's venture capital division. Doug also spent three years working for Advent International, a leading private equity firm, where he assisted venture-capital backed technology companies find strategic equity investors. Doug has also participated on the Board at two different venture-backed financial services companies, including DealerTrack which went public in 2005. Prior to Capital One, Doug worked for Corporate Decisions, Inc. (now part of Oliver Wyman) where he worked on growth strategy projects in diverse industries such as financial services, technology, and chemicals. Doug has a BA from Brown University, and an MBA with distinction from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Greg Lutz, VP of Engineering, Chief Architect
Greg has more than 17 years experience in the software industry including seven years at Lotus Development Corporation. For the past 10 years he has focused on developing high-performance, high-traffic web sites. He joined the SimpleTuition team in 2006. Greg volunteers his time teaching robotics at a local middle school and enjoys flying airplanes in his spare time. Greg is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and holds a BS from San Diego State University.

Larry Rausch, VP of Sales
Larry has been working in the Financial Services Industry since 1988. For the past 15 years he was with CUNA Mutual Group, the leading provider of financial services to credit unions and their members worldwide. In his role as Account Vice President, Larry worked closely with credit union leaders to drive consumer lending growth and maximize the sales of lending related products. Larry holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts.

Daniel Towvim, VP of Marketing
Dan has over 15 years of marketing experience at startup and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, he was Director of Marketing & Physician Retention at Sermo, where he led marketing and outreach for an online community of over 100,000 physicians. Prior to that he was VP, Loyalty at Eons where he designed a membership program and helped develop products that enabled the company to become the leading social network for baby boomers. As Sr. Director of Marketing at BuyerZone, Dan increased repeat activity among small business customers, positioning the company to be acquired by Reed Business Information. Previously, Dan led retention marketing at WorldWinner, where he managed over 3 million online gamers and developed WorldWinner Rewards, the company's first player loyalty program. Dan began his career at Accenture and Digitas where he consulted with Fortune 500 companies on technology and marketing strategy. Dan holds a BA from Connecticut College.

John Yee, VP of Finance
John brings 20 years of finance and accounting experience with both publicly-traded companies and privately-held companies. Prior to joining SimpleTuition in 2008, John served as Corporate Controller of Watchfire which was acquired by IBM in July 2007. During his tenure at Watchfire, he played a major role in supporting the acquisition and post-merger integration initiatives. Previously, John held senior financial roles at a wide variety of companies including Praecis Pharmaceuticals, Salary.com, Decision Resources, OneSource Information Services and Tenor Networks. John began his career with the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche. He is a Certified Public Accountant and holds a BS in Accounting from Bentley University.

Board of Directors

Jeffrey Bussgang, General Partner, Flybridge Capital Partners
Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners whose investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in consumer, Internet commerce, marketing services, software and wireless start-ups.

Jeff currently represents the firm on the boards of BzzAgent, Click Tactics, go2 Media, i4cp, InnerWireless, Mall Networks, SimpleTuition, and Transpera and was previously a director at Brontes Technologies (acquired by 3M) and PanGo Networks (merged with InnerWireless)

Jeff's popular blog on helping demystify the venture business for entrepreneurs, "Seeing Both Sides", can be found at www.bostonvcblog.com. Jeff was named to the Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" list in 2006.

Prior to joining the firm in January 2003, Jeff co-founded Upromise (acquired by Sallie Mae), a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that currently manages $20 billion in college savings assets, where he served as President, Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. Prior to Upromise, Jeff was an executive at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996 and grew to nearly $100 million in revenues. During his five-year tenure, he served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group, and served on the executive team of Athena Design, an object-oriented software start-up.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Jeff Fagnan, Partner, Atlas Venture
Jeff Fagnan is a Partner in the technology group at Atlas Venture, and focuses on very early stage projects in enterprise and Internet infrastructure.

Before joining Atlas Venture, Jeff was a Partner with Seed Capital Partners. While at Seed Capital, Jeff was the lead and founding investor in several companies including DataPower (acquired by IBM) and Polychromix (acquired by ThermoFisher). Before venture, Jeff worked for Booz Allen & Hamilton and Nortel Networks.

Jeff currently serves on the Boards of Atlas portfolio companies AEB, Bit9, DataXu, Displaylink, Grockit, Keas, SimpleTuition, Songbird and Veracode.

Jeff is a founder of TUGG (Technology Underwriting Greater Good), a non-profit foundation harnessing "Crowd-sourced Philanthropy" to catalyze social innovation in New England. Jeff was also a founder of Koffee for Kids, a non-profit company in Rochester, New York.

Jeff received his M.B.A. with distinction from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business at the University of Rochester and a B.S. from the University of Alaska.

Ralph James, Independent Board Member
Ralph James is Executive Director of Executive Education at Harvard Business School. From 1996 to 2005 he served in various roles at the First Marblehead Corporation (NYSE: FMD), including Vice Chairman, President, COO and EVP. From 1994 to 1996, Ralph was Associate Dean and Senior Executive Officer of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. From 1993 to 1994, Ralph served as Director of Major Gifts for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. From 1982 to 1993, Ralph served in various administrative capacities in executive education and fundraising for the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Ralph received a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Scott Savitz, Independent Board Member
Scott Savitz is founder and CEO of Shoebuy.com, the largest retailer on the Internet focused on all categories of footwear and related apparel. Shoebuy.com is now a subsidiary of IAC/Interactive Corp. (Nasdaq: IACI). Prior to founding Shoebuy.com, Scott was a director at BancBoston Robertson Stephens, and a loan originator with Advantage Mortgage. Prior to that, Scott developed and managed a full service marketing company specializing in direct mail, telemarketing, and list maintenance.

Kevin Walker, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, SimpleTuition
See above

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Investors

Atlas Venture
Atlas Venture is a leading early-stage venture capital firm that invests in technology and life sciences companies. Since inception in 1980, its partners have helped build over 350 companies in more than 16 different countries. The firm is currently investing in its eighth fund and manages over $2 billion in committed capital. For more information, please visit www.atlasventure.com.

Flybridge Capital Partners
Flybridge Capital Partners is an early-stage venture capital firm whose mission is to assist entrepreneurs in growing innovative, global companies. With $560 million under management, the firm is focused on investing in consumer, healthcare and information technology markets and is led by a team with domain expertise and more than half a century of combined experience in venture capital. For more information, visit www.flybridge.com.

North Hill Ventures
Founded in 1999, North Hill Ventures specializes in early-stage financial technology and marketing technology companies. Through our experience as investors, advisors, and operating managers, we have developed strong networks of industry contacts, a deep understanding of our target markets, and the skills to help our portfolio companies grow and prosper.

Our operating philosophy is simple. We approach every new investment opportunity in a pragmatic, results-oriented fashion. We communicate clearly and directly with prospective entrepreneurs and co-investors. And once we make the decision to invest, we devote our time, energy, and considerable resources to do whatever it takes to help our portfolio companies succeed.

We also believe that close, productive relationships among the key players are a significant component in the success of any venture. That's why we work hard to establish cooperative working relationships with our entrepreneurs, management teams, and co-investors. At any time, we're ready to share ideas, lend our support, or simply act as a sounding board.

For more information, visit North Hill Ventures.

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