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Board of Directors
 Axel
Bichara
Director
Axel Bichara is a Senior Partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on
software and services technology.
Before Atlas Venture, he was Vice President of Product Development
at Premise, a venture-backed software company which he co-founded
in 1987. Premise was acquired by Computervision in 1991.
Axel was lead investor in SolidWorks, a mechanical design automation
software company that was acquired in 1997 by Dassault Systemes.
Axel also participated as a first round lead investor in SpeechWorks.
As a Board Member, Axel helped build the company through an IPO
in 2000 and its later sale to ScanSoft in 2003. He continues to
serve on the Board of Phase Forward (IPO in July 2004) where he
was first round lead investor; and in addition to BlueShift, he
currently serves on the Boards of Atlas Venture portfolio companies
Bluespec, CLK Design Automation, Liquid Machines, Marathon Technologies
and Navimedix.
Between 1997 and 1999 Axel spent 18 months in Munich to build up
Atlas Venture's business activity in Germany.
Axel holds an MBA from INSEAD, a Master of Science degree from MIT
and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Technical University
in Berlin.
 Richard
A. D'Amore
Director
Rich has been with North Bridge since inception. From 1982 until
starting North Bridge, Rich has been in the venture business. Prior
to 1982 he worked as a consultant at Bain and Company and as a certified
public accountant with Arthur Young and Company.
Rich's venture investing is targeted at the software industry. He
has focused his investment activity in the Northeast since establishing
Hambro's office there in 1982. Rich's investments have been split
between early-stage projects and special situations. Virtually all
have been active projects, including structuring initial transactions
and assuming a board seat.
Rich is a graduate of Northeastern University (summa cum laude),
1975, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration
(Baker Scholar), 1980.
 Dr. Paul R. Low
Director
Paul has been President and Chief Executive Officer of PRL Associates,
a technology consulting firm, since founding the firm in 1992. Previously,
Paul was Vice President-General Manager, Technology Products for
IBM from 1989 through 1992 and a member of IBM's Management Board
from 1990 to 1992. Paul is a director of Veeco Instruments Inc.,
Applied Materials, Inc. and Solectron Corporation.
 Ellen
B. Richstone
Director
Ellen is the Chief Financial Officer of Sonus Networks, Inc., a
leading provider of voice over IP (VoIP) infrastructure solutions
for wireline and wireless service providers.
Through her work with several global, publicly traded and private
high technology companies, Ellen brings 30 years of financial experience
to her role as Director at American Power Conversion (APC), on both
Audit and Compensation committees. Prior to joining Sonus Networks,
she was the president and chief executive officer of Entrepreneurial
Resources Group, a professional services firm that provides operational
and financial solutions to companies worldwide. She has been chief
financial officer of corporations ranging in size from $100 million
to $2.3 billion, including Brooks Automation (Nasdaq), Augat, Inc.
(NYSE), Rohr Aerospace (NYSE), and Honeywell Bull. She also has
held executive positions with Data General Corporation (NYSE), and
Polaroid Corporation (NYSE).
Ellen currently is a director of Employment Resources, Inc. and
BlueShift Technologies. She was previously a director of the Financial
Executives International, New England Chapter, as well the Women's
Technical Institute. Ellen holds a bachelor's degree from Scripps
College, and a master's degree of international affairs and a master's
degree of law and diplomacy with a specialty in international business
law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
She also holds an advanced professional certificate in finance from
the New York University Stern School of Business.
 Peter J. Simone
Director
Peter is a retired CEO with over thirty years of business experience at the executive and board levels. Currently, he is an independent consultant to private companies in the Boston area and the investment community. He sits on the boards of Sanmina-SCI Corp. (SSCI), Newport Corp. (NEWP), Veeco Instruments, Inc. (VECO), Cymer, Inc. (CYMI), several private technology companies, Massachusetts High Technology Council and President of the Board of Walker Home and School for Children. He has a BS from Bentley College (1970) and an MBA from Babson College (1974).
 Peter
van der Meulen
President
Peter has been in the semiconductor industry for over 16 years.
During his career, Peter has served in a variety of management positions
in engineering, marketing, strategic business development, and sales.
As a BlueShift founder, Peter has assembled a world-class management
team and raised over $14 million in funding. Peter created BlueShift's
revolutionary linkable vacuum system design and has several patents
to his name. Peter has also given numerous talks and papers about
semiconductor automation at industry conferences and meetings.
Peter served as a General Manager for Brooks Automation's Equipment
Front End Business, which he started and grew during the 2001-'02
downturn to a $12M. He also ran Brooks' vacuum systems business
for 7 years during which revenues grew from $2.5M to $65M. Peter
worked for Inspex, where he was the director of Sales and Marketing
for DMS, a yield management software product. Peter worked for Varian
Ion Implant Systems for 5 years where he designed the E500 implanter.
Peter has a Masters in Physics from Eindhoven University in The
Netherlands and an MBA from Babson College. He continues to serve
as a chairman of the Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference
(ASMC).
 Richard Melanson
President and CEO
Rich has over 20 years of President/CEO/COO experience in semiconductor capital equipment and scientific instrument companies. In addition to his general management experience Rich has extensive cross functional management experience in field service, manufacturing, sales, finance, mergers & acquisitions and business development. He has a proven track record of growing revenue and profitability.
Before joining BlueShift, Rich served as a senior executive at GlenRose Partners a private equity firm. Prior to Glen Rose, he held senior management positions at Thermo Electron, a $4.5B NYSE company. Positions held included President of Neslab Instruments ($68M), COO ThermoSpectra ($180M) a public sub of Thermo, VP Business Development ($800M), Optical Technologies Sector, and Division President of the Industrial and Weighing & Inspection Divisions ($250M). Rich served as President of Philips ElectroScan after leading the successful acquisition to Philips Electron Optics. ElectroScan was a venture capital financed start-up where he advanced from VP of Manufacturing to COO to President & CEO. He began his career at AMRAY (KLA-Tencor), advancing to become VP of Operations.
Rich has a BSBA from Lowell Technological Institute and a Masters in Science from Bentley College.
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