Jon Hopper
Chief Executive Officer
Jon Hopper became President and Chief Executive Officer of Xtera in February 2004.
Prior to Xtera, Jon spent 15 years as the Chief Executive of several capital equipment companies. Those companies include Dynamotion Corp. (merged with ESI, NASDAQ ESIO) and IRSI (merged with Photon Dynamics, NASDAQ PHTN). Jon has also held senior management positions at Photon Dynamics and ESI. Jon has a very successful track record taking emerging companies with innovative products and building them into profitable global commercial enterprises capable of supporting multi-national customers.
Dr. Jon Bayless
Chairman, Xtera Communications
Dr. Jon Bayless has been associated with Sevin Rosen Funds since 1981, where he focused on developing business opportunities in the fields of telecommunications infrastructure and services created by the technology transition to photonics. He typically acted as the lead investor and often invested at the incubation stage. Jon's investments at Sevin Rosen included more than 30 telecommunications infrastructure companies, including Ciena, Lightspeed, and Monterey Networks.
Cliff Higgerson, ComVentures
Cliff Higgerson's 25 years of active involvement in the communications field include research, consulting, planning, investment banking, and venture capital. Prior to forming ComVentures, Mr. Higgerson was a General Partner of Vanguard Venture Partners where he is still involved and responsible for several portfolio companies in the communications area.
Mr. Higgerson co-founded ComVentures in 1987 and was a partner at Hambrecht & Quist Venture Partners from 1985 to 1987. From 1984 to 1985 he was a special limited partner with L.F. Rothschild, Unterberg, Towbin and was Director of its Communications Group. Earlier, Mr. Higgerson worked at Hambrecht & Quist for nine years, including serving as Managing Partner and Director of Research.
After receiving his M.B.A., Mr. Higgerson joined FMC Corporation as a Planning Analyst. He also served as a project engineer in both manufacturing and engineering at Allis-Chalmers.
Cliff has a B.S. from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. In addition, Mr. Higgerson co-authored the book "Your Future in a Changing World," which involved the forecasting of technical developments and their effects on career opportunities.
Clinton Bybee
Clinton Bybee is a co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. Mr. Bybee concentrates primarily on advanced materials, electronics, semiconductors, photonics, and infrastructure businesses.
Mr. Bybee has helped organize and finance numerous companies including MicroOptical Devices (acquired by EMCORE), Cambrios Technologies, Aveso, Innovalight, Intelligent Reasoning Systems (acquired by Photon Dynamics), Semprius, Nanosys, and Xtera Communications.
He is a board member of Impinj, Innovalight, Cambrios Technologies, Xtera Communications, Nitronex and Aveso. Mr. Bybee is an organizing member of the Texas Venture Capital Association and currently serves as its first President.
Previously, Mr. Bybee worked with ARCH Development Corporation. He also managed a venture investment fund for the State of Illinois and was a production engineer with Amoco Corporation. Mr. Bybee holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Engineering from Texas A&M University.
John McLaren
John McLaren is Chairman of the Barchester Group. He began his career as a diplomat, both in the Foreign Office in London and in the British Embassy in Tokyo. He then worked in investment banking, where he was a director of Barings, and in venture capital, where he was a General Partner with Hambrecht and Quist Venture Partners in San Francisco. During his subsequent time successively as a Director of Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank and Barchester, he has advised a wide range of companies on major merger and acquisition transactions, including DaimlerChrysler, BMW, Nissan, BBA and Siemens.
In 1997, he published his first novel, 'Press Send', which was followed by 'Seventh Sense' (1998), 'Black Cabs' (1999), and 'Running Rings' (2001). His latest novel, 'Blind Eye', was published in March 2004. The novels have been published in many languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. He is the founder and Chairman of Masterprize www.masterprize.com, the world's leading competition for symphonic composition, in which the partners are EMI, Classic FM, The London Symphony Orchestra, Gramophone Magazine, and National Public Radio of the U.S. He is a non-executive director of Macallan Distillers Limited, Morrison Bowmore Distillers Limited, and Xtera Communications Inc., and serves on the London Symphony Orchestra Advisory Board.
John is a director of Barchester Group Limited.
Kevin Martin
Kevin Martin is one of today's leading experts in telecommunications and technology policy with over 15 years experience as a lawyer and central policymaker in the field. Martin served as Chairman of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from March 2005 to January 2009 during a critical time when the industry was undergoing unprecedented change as a result of rapid growth and innovation. Under Martin, the FCC created a regulatory environment that led to exponential growth in technological innovation, wireless infrastructure, and coverage for Americans.
Under Martin’s leadership, the FCC conducted the two most successful and profitable auctions of spectrum in U.S. history, raising nearly $20 billion in 2008 alone.
During Chairman Martin’s tenure, the FCC removed legacy regulations that had discouraged infrastructure investment and slowed deployment, leading to increased broadband investment and competition. The number of broadband lines available in the United States more than doubled to over 100 million.
Martin also championed innovative technologies, like using blank television channels or so called “white spaces” to improve wireless connectivity and inspire new Internet-based products and services for consumers.
At Chairman Martin’s initiative, the FCC dedicated more than $400 million to the construction of broadband networks for state-wide and regional healthcare networks reaching over 6,000 healthcare facilities.
Chairman Martin guided the FCC through one of the most massive projects the agency has faced, that of preparing consumers for the nationwide transition from analog to digital broadcasting. Martin effectively enforced the FCC’s rules, issuing over $150 million in fines for violations, the most ever under any Chairman.
While at the FCC, Martin represented the United States in dozens of bilateral negotiations and addressed numerous international conferences as a global leader on telecommunications and technology policy.
Prior to joining the FCC as a Commissioner in 2001, Martin served at the White House as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and on the staff of the National Economic Council. In that capacity, he focused primarily on commerce and technology policy issues. He also served as the official U.S. government representative to the G-8’s Digital Opportunity Task Force, a government, non-profit, and private sector task force created to identify ways to use technology to increase opportunities for developing countries.
Martin previously served as the Deputy General Counsel on the 2000 Bush for President Campaign and a counsel to a Commissioner at the FCC. Before serving in government, Martin worked for several years in private practice at the Washington, DC, law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding.
Martin graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was student body president, with honors and distinction. He also holds a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Barry Fromberg
Barry Fromberg is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of diversified experience in a variety of industries. He has an extensive expertise in strategy, M&A, accounting and finance, information technology, corporate governance, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, risk management and operations. Barry is Chief Financial Officer of Goodman Networks, Inc, a privately held telecom services company. He currently serves on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Constellation Brands, Inc (NYSE: STZ), a global Fortune 500 Company, and is a member of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Audit Committee of Xtera Communications, Inc., a privately held telecommunications equipment manufacturer. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of Celeritas Management, a private equity portfolio management company.
Barry previously served for eight years as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Dean Foods Company (NYSE: DF), a $10 Billion, Fortune 200 food and beverage company. Prior to Dean Foods, Barry held leadership positions at Paging Network, Inc, (PageNet) a publicly held wireless communications company. Prior to PageNet, Barry spent 13 years in the cable television industry, first with Comcast Corporation as a mergers and acquisition specialist, then as Chief Financial Officer for a venture capital financed, privately-held cable television company.
He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant at Coopers and Lybrand, a Big 8 public accounting firm. Barry received his Bachelors degree in Accounting and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with Distinction from the Wharton Executive MBA Program. He is also a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is active in a number of local charities in the Dallas area.