abi Innovation Hub
Board Member Roster
David H. Bellman, G.G., Treasurer
Owner of Bellman Jewelers
David is the President and co-founder of Bellman Jewelers, Inc Established in 1981. Bellman’s is one of New England largest retailing/manufacturing jewelers. In addition to its retail sales, Bellman’s is the largest jewelry Replacement Company for over 40 of New England insurance companies. Bellman’s is also co-owners of a diamond-cutting factory located in Ramat-Gan, Israel. David is also the inventor of the AuquaSonic Jewelry Cleaner and the President and Founder of Black Diamond Industries, distributor of the AuquaSonic Jewelry Cleaner.
Dan Cook
Polaris Ventures
Dan Cook is an associate in our Boston office. He focuses primarily on later stage growth equity investments and buyout opportunities across all industries. Prior to joining Polaris, Dan worked as an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in San Francisco, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions in the Internet, Software and Semiconductor sectors. Dan also has experience with the University Venture Fund, a student run venture fund that invested in early stage Technology, Health Care and Alternative Energy companies. Dan received his BS from Brigham Young University where he double majored in Economics and Accounting.
John A. Jackman, CCIM
President, Jackman Commercial Realty, Inc.
JACKMAN COMMERCIAL REALTY, INC. is a New Hampshire based corporation established in 1995. John A. Jackman, CCIM and President has been in the commercial brokerage business for almost 23 years and has sold and leased numerous projects throughout the New Hampshire and Massachusetts region. He has been providing quality and professional real estate services to individuals, corporations (large and small), banks, FDIC and many other institutions and companies. JACKMAN is a full-service commercial real estate company with experience in brokerage (sales and leasing), consulting and property management licensed in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
George Kassas
A Quad-lingual Entrepreneur and a Seasoned Executive in telecommunications, carrier grade technologies and applications. Currently, Founder and CEO of Bireme Systems LLC. A boutique consulting firm that advises service providers, equipment manufacturers, municipalities and Private Equity firms on a multitude of management, architectural, acquisitions and entrepreneurial based initiatives to establish uniqueness and growth capabilities. Concurrently, Mr. Kassas serves as Entrepreneur in Residence and faculty member at the University of Massachusetts – College of Management. Formerly, Mr. Kassas was Founder and COO of Cedar Point Communications. A NH based startup that was voted by Inc. 5000 Magazine as the fastest growing privately held company in the US between 2005 -2007. The company was acquired in January 2011.
Prior to Cedar Point Communications, Mr. Kassas served as Vice President of Business & Market Management at Lucent Technologies – Bell Laboratories.
Mr. Kassas served on the Board of the New Hampshire High Technology Council (NHHTC) where he founded the Product of the Year Award.
Mr. Kassas voted NH Entrepreneur of the year in 2006.
Bill Hoeker
Boston Partners Group LLC
Bill is a member of the senior staff team at Boston Partners Group working primarily in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Strategic Consulting divisions. He has extensive experience in high-tech manufacturing, operations management and finance. He was the VP of Operations at PH Precision Products and has held executive level positions at major U.S. manufacturers. He has also consulted with various companies in both the USA as well as in Europe. Bill holds a Bachelors Degree in Industrial Engineering, an MBA as well as a Masters in Finance from the McCallum Business School at Bentley University.
Peter C. Lachance, C.P.A.
Howe, Riley & Howe PLLC
Pete is a CPA with Howe, Riley & Howe, PLLC one of the largest and oldest accounting firms in New Hampshire. We are uniquely positioned to service small and medium sized businesses and organizations that don’t receive the attention they need from the Big 4 and large regional accounting firms. Leveraging a staff of nearly fifty people, we provide tax, audit and consulting services to a wide range of industries including startup to mature technology, real estate, manufacturing, non-profit and professional service companies. Pete has a MS in Taxation from Bentley University, an MBA from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and a BS in Actuarial Mathematics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Pete’s current and past volunteer activities include the MYPN NH Startup Challenge, Entrepreneurs Foundation of NH, and the NH Society of CPAs charity golf tournament.
Angela Martin
Attorney, Devine Millimet
Angela Martin is an attorney with the law firm of Devine Millimet in Manchester. Her practice focuses on general corporate law and mergers and acquisitions. Angela’s clients hail from a variety of industries, including financial services, retail, high tech, manufacturing, and hospitality. She is the co-founder of a new small business practice at Devine Millimet which focuses on the needs of new and emerging businesses in New Hampshire. Angela is very active in the Manchester business community as a presenter to local business and entrepreneur groups. She lectures to small business owners about the very critical start-up phase, advising them on their choice of business entity, contracts, buy-sell agreements, liability exposure, business succession planning, and exit strategies. Angela is a member of the Amoskeag Business Incubator’s Business Support Committee, the Manchester Rotary, and a former graduate of Leadership Greater Manchester. She is a former member of the board of directors for the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters, and she participates in the Corporation, Banking, and Business Law section of the New Hampshire Bar Association. She is a frequent author, most recently penning an article on ESOPs for the New Hampshire CPA Society. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame College and a Juris Doctor degree from Northeastern University. Angela has been actively involved with the American Heart Association for the past four years raising more than $48,000 through Special Appeal Events that she has chaired at Devine Millimet.
Matt Toy
Dyn, VP of Client Services
As the Director of Marketing at Dyn, Matt Toy quickly became responsible for not only the day-to-day marketing efforts but also Dyn’s ever growing lead generation, Ecommerce and User Experience efforts. In early 2012, Matt was promoted to VP of Client Services where he’ll champion Dyn’s rapidly expanding client base via satisfaction, retention and relationship growth.
Prior to joining Dyn, Matt spent 7 years at Bedford, NH-based WhippleHill Communications reaching the position of Director of Client Services. Matt entered the technology industry with an extensive background in financial services, having worked for such companies as Hutchens Investment Management, Mascoma Savings Bank and Fidelity Investments. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from New England College in Henniker, NH.
Matt is on the Board of Advisors of the abi Innovation Hub in Manchester, NH as well as the New England College Alumni Board of Directors. Within his local community, Matt is very involved with the town of Amherst, NH recreation.
Matt lives with his wife, Tilea, and their two children, Lilly and Oliver. Nights and weekends Matt can be found coaching his kids’ sports teams, enjoying his in-laws’ boats or just about anything that gets him out of doing yard work.
Kyle York
Dyn
As Chief Revenue Officer, Kyle leads the overall sales, business development, client service and marketing efforts for the company. He oversees a growing team of talented and driven professionals and is responsible for the corporate strategy and positioning behind Dyn’s rapid and aggressive expansion into the enterprise marketplace and e-commerce revenue growth. Anyone client facing or anything revenue impacting falls under Kyle’s purview.
Kyle brings a background in direct sales, sales management, lead generation, opportunity and partnership acquisition, external marketing and public relations to Dyn. For six years prior to joining Dyn, he worked as a Regional Director of Biz Dev at WhippleHill, a leader in Web communication and data management systems for the private education sector. Kyle holds a BS in Marketing from Bentley University.
Matt Rightmire
Borealis Ventures
Matt uses the contacts and insights he gained from a decade of building internet companies in the Silicon Valley to lead Borealis Ventures investments in internet services and mobile content. He is currently a director on the board of Borealis’s portfolio company Handmark, and an observer on the Makeover Solutions and Wingu boards. He previously served on the board of Borealis portfolio companies Flurry, Foodbuzz, go2 Media and Icovia. Matt joined Borealis full-time in 2005 after serving as an advisor to the firm from its inception.
Before Borealis, Matt was COO of Efficient Frontier (acquired by ADBE), a venture-funded marking services company that applies portfolio optimization techniques from financial markets to the marketplace of online advertising. Matt began his internet career as an early member of the team at Yahoo!, which he joined in 1995 when the company was still pre-revenue and a team of 10 individuals. Over the next seven years, he held a variety of product development and business development positions and played a critical role as the company grew to more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Matt concluded his tenure with Yahoo! In 2002 as the vice president and general manager of media and entertainment, one of the three business units at the company.
Matt earned his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College where he received the Julia Stell Award for leadership. He also received his B.S. in industrial engineering from Stanford University.
Tom “TK” Kuegler
Wasabi Ventures
Tom “TK” Kuegler is the co-founder and general partner of Wasabi Ventures. Wasabi Ventures is an venture capital, incubator, and consulting firm that specializes in building and advising early stage technology companies. In the last 10 years, Wasabi Ventures has built, financed, and advised some wildly successful ventures like PBworks, Ustream, and Etherpad.
Prior to starting Wasabi Ventures, TK led the sales efforts at MedAptus (a handheld healthcare charge capture solution) and at Amicore (an EMR company founded by Microsoft, Pfizer, and IBM) where he was instrumental in formulating and creating the sales processes. He has also held senior positions at ClickRebates (an online advertising software company) and RightNow Technologies, a Web-based CRM company.
TK is the author of all three editions of the highly acclaimed book Web Advertising and Marketing. He has authored dozens of articles about the Internet and been published in leading publications like inc.com and ClickZ. TK spends a great deal of time lecturing at colleges, seminars, companies, and conferences about the corporate benefits of utilizing interactive technologies. He currently sits on the Board of Sponsors of Sellinger School of Business at Loyola University Maryland. He has presented at hundreds of events on a wide array of topics about economics, entrepreneurism, technology, and management.
