Robert F. Patten – Director
Rob Patten is co-founder and President/CEO of Northridge Systems. Mr. Patten is responsible for the sales and marketing operations of the company and works closely with company division leaders to craft the long-term strategy for the firm. After starting Northridge Systems with Jeremey Zela in 1999, Mr. Patten led the effort to further fund the company and successfully raised angel financing as well as convertible debt. Mr. Patten has been integral in driving consistent double-digit annual revenue growth and Northridge Systems today is debt-free, profitable, growing rapidly and continuing to establish itself as the premier Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the southeast region.

Prior to starting Northridge Systems, Mr. Patten held senior Information Technology positions with American Card Technology, MCI Telecommunications, and Wang Laboratories. Mr. Patten is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer and has over 15 years of professional software engineering and consulting experience.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. In his time away from the office, Rob enjoys time with his family, playing golf, and watching Washington Redskins football. Rob and his wife Cindi currently live in Alpharetta, GA and have two young children.

Jeremey Zela – Director
Jeremey Zela is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Northridge Systems. Mr. Zela focuses his attention on operations, delivery methodology, and technology best practices. Mr. Zela is continually involved with researching emerging technologies in order to forge the technical direction of the company. Jeremey oversees all technology-related endeavors of the business including practice line development, best practices, thought leadership, software engineering, and systems design and architecture.

While at Northridge Systems, Mr. Zela has led the design and architecture of the firm's robust Microsoft.NET-based class library which allows the company's web and software development teams to deliver reliable software within a reasonable timeframe and budget. In addition, Mr. Zela was the chief architect on the Northridge Systems Content Management System which is a full content management suite providing security, workflow, authoring, publishing, and site management.

Mr. Zela has over ten years of professional technology experience including consulting, technical architecture, and software engineering. Jeremey has held senior technology roles with several leading firms including IBM, MCI Telecommunications, and Wang Laboratories. Mr. Zela is regarded as an industry expert in the areas of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 development, COM/ActiveX design, SQL Server 2005, ASP.NET, XML/XSL, and software engineering best practices.

Matt Newton – Advisory Board Member
Matt Newton is a Partner with Columbia Capital, a premier venture capital firm outside of Washington, DC with over $2 billion currently under management. Mr. Newton joined Columbia Capital in 1996 and focuses on investments in the wireless communications and IT services sectors. Matt is currently a member of the Board of Directors of CCTV Wireless, ExteNet Systems, MindSHIFT Technologies, Optasite, Revol Wireless, and TriStar Investors. Previous investments that Matt has led or co-led on behalf of Columbia Capital include Adjoined Technologies (acquired by Kanbay International), Affinity Internet (acquired by Hostway), WCS Wireless (acquired by Nextwave Wireless), and WNP Communications (acquired by XO Communications).

Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Matt spent several years in the corporate finance department of Dean Witter Reynolds where he focused on private market financings for industrial manufacturing and services companies. Matt received his B.S. in Business Administration from Washington & Lee University.

Cliff Chapman – Advisory Board Member
Cliff Chapman is well regarded as a private investor who has solid credentials in technology-focused markets. In addition to working with Andersen Consulting and Booz Allen & Hamilton, Mr. Chapman has also played key leadership roles in two high profile successes.

Most recently he was the CEO and investor in the turnaround of mindSHIFT Technologies, a managed services provider focused on IT outsourcing for small and medium enterprises. From June 2002 through October 2003 he restructured the sales process, cut costs and acquired three companies to take mindSHIFT to profitability. He then raised $11 million in fresh capital from two highly respected U.S. venture capitalists before recruiting a new management team to drive the next stage of the company's growth.

Prior to MindSHIFT, Mr. Chapman was the VP of Business Integration for AppNet, a full-service Internet professional service and managed hosting company that he helped take public in 1999 before being sold in a $2 billion transaction in late 2000. During his tenure, he was responsible for the integration of a dozen mergers. Prior to AppNet, Mr. Chapman co-founded NMP, a full-service consulting business and managed hosting company. He has also worked with numerous start-up businesses. He holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University.

Michael Kardash – Advisory Board Member
Experienced in corporate development, Michael Kardash brings more than 15 years of legal experience to the Northridge Systems advisory board. Mr. Kardash is currently Executive Vice President with Westec Interactive, a video surveillance and monitoring company. At Westec, Mr. Kardash works directly with the CEO and President to develop and manage corporate relationships as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. Kardash has held a number of senior legal and advisory positions both in nationally recognized law firms and as in-house counsel. Most recently, he held the position of Executive Vice President & General Counsel for Vento Management, LLC. In this role, Mr. Kardash identified and pursued a variety of investment and management opportunities. Prior to that he managed the legal department for TeleCorp PCS, Inc., were he played a key role in negotiating and closing the sale of TeleCorp to AT&T Wireless and several other billion dollar plus acquisitions, mergers and financings. Before joining TeleCorp, he was an associate at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC, with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital finance and commercial transactions.

Brian McGowan – Advisory Board Member
Brian McGowan is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Peracon, Inc. and a member of the Board of Directors. McGowan has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate and information technology fields, and is a recognized expert in business process management (BPM) applications within the real estate capital markets. At Peracon, he has pioneered systems to facilitate more efficient investment processes, increase trading velocity, and improve asset liquidity. Under his leadership, Peracon has facilitated over $150 billion (USD) in aggregate investment transactions and is the de facto standard for processing institutional real estate transactions in the United States. A serial entrepreneur and former real estate broker, McGowan was previously a partner or founder of four real estate and information technology companies. He studied liberal arts at Ealing College in London.