Advisors
David Lemont
John Lynch
Larry Nuttall
R. Drew Ogden
David Lemont
Dave is the chief executive officer of Currensee, the first social network dedicated to foreign exchange trading. Currensee combines social networking with real trade collaboration to make investing decisions based on trust and transparency.
Dave has over two decades of experience helping early stage companies quickly achieve real business traction in the marketplace. Throughout his distinguished career, Dave has successfully launched, grown, and guided software companies from inception through initial public offering and successful exits to some of the largest system and software companies in the world.
Before Currensee, Dave Lemont was the CEO of AppIQ, the leader in Storage Management Software. AppIQ was acquired by HP, creating over a 6X returns for the investors. AppIQ developed a unique go-to-market strategy that focused on developing industry giants Hitachi Data Systems, HP, Sun, SGI, Engenio, and Bull into OEM’s of AppIQ’s StorageAuthority Suite, thereby helping AppIQ to become the defacto standard in the industry. In two years, the company grew to an annualized run rate of over $30 million and acquired over 300 enterprise customers.
Prior to joining AppIQ, Dave was CEO of Revit Technology, where he led the company through its successful 2002 acquisition by Autodesk, the world’s leading design software and digital content company. At Revit, an innovative pay-as-you-use subscription business model was invented and delivered to the marketplace through an aggressive one-to-one web-based marketing and telesales organization.
Earlier Dave was chief operating officer at Concentra Corporation, the leading provider of CRM solutions for product configuration, which he led to an IPO in 1996 and ultimately a sale of the company to Oracle Corporation, where Dave managed Oracle’s Product Configuration division.
Dave is a graduate of Bucknell University where he majored in Education and English.
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John Lynch
John has over 30 years of software business experience, mostly in senior executive positions. John’s unique combination of business focus, market orientation and deep technical experience has helped him contribute to building market segment leaders throughout his career.
John’s career has focused on helping small to medium-sized companies achieve sustainable growth and competitive advantage. Most recently, John served as SVP of portfolio development at Bentley Systems, where he spearheaded over 28 acquisitions that resulted in several segment-leading businesses for Bentley. John helped create an end-to-end process that included market segment analysis, identification of acquisition candidates, transactions and negotiations and interim management during the critical integration stage. This process helped Bentley achieve its aggressive growth through acquisition goals and created several new business segments that were the result of an acquisition “roll up” strategy. These new businesses quickly became the source of continued growth at the company.
Earlier in his career, John joined Autodesk when there were fewer than 100 employees and less than $35M in annual revenues. He quickly rose to the level of general manager of the AutoCAD Division, and then VP of product development and CTO reporting directly to then CEO, Carol Bartz.
Interlaced with his corporate roles, John has also started and sold two software businesses.
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Larry Nuttall
Since 2006 Larry has advised 30 technology companies as a management consultant with Ascentage Group and Ascentage.Biz. He currently serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of ConverterTechnology Inc., owned by CPS Group Investments, and is executive director of two other CPS Group companies, Auraya Systems and Cooltrax.
In addition Larry is a co-founder of Newforma and served on the executive management team as a vice president of sales, from its original founding and early stage growth through two rounds of venture capital investment.
Previously, he served as vice president of US sales for Microsoft Business Solutions. He was general manager and vice president of US sales for Great Plains Software Inc. which was acquired by Microsoft in 2001. Prior to that he was vice president of sales, service and support for RealWorld Corporation, a privately held accounting software company acquired by Great Plains Software in 2000.
Larry has also managed and grown regional direct and channel sales at mapping software developer Environmental Research Systems Institute. Prior to that, he held a national channel sales and marketing management role for computer-aided design software leader, Autodesk, Inc.
Larry is a graduate of Franklin Pierce College where he earned a degree in business management.
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R. Drew Ogden
Drew is a founder and managing director of the Ascentage Group and a principal and managing director of Ascentage Advisors. Drew's role at Ascentage involves facilitating the business development needs of high-tech ventures and creative enterprises, including advising clients in the areas of strategic planning, channel expansion, licensing, international business, and facilitating strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions. Drew also serves on the board of directors of several of the Ascentage Group's clients.
Prior to founding Ascentage, Drew was the vice president of Legal and Business Development at Softdesk, Inc., a Nasdaq company that developed and distributed CAD software for architects and engineers worldwide. At Softdesk, he was part of the executive management team that took the company public and was responsible for negotiating strategic licensing agreements, spinoffs and multiple acquisitions. Ultimately, Autodesk (ADSK) acquired Softdesk in early 1997.
Drew was previously a partner at Frankel, Murphy & Ogden, an intellectual property law firm. He practiced in the areas of licensing, international business and distribution counseling. Drew has also held the positions of in-house counsel and director of international sales at an accounting software company and an operating system software company, respectively.
Drew holds a Juris Doctorate from UNH School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in finance from Franklin Pierce College. Drew is an adjunct professor at UNH School of Law. He is a member of the Bar of Massachusetts. Drew is also a registered principal, holding the FINRA Series 24, 82 and 63 licenses.
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