Corvil » Board of Directors

Donal Byrne – CEO

Donal Byrne is the CEO and President of Corvil, and has over twenty years experience working in the field of computer systems, networking and telecommunications. His most recent interest is in mathematical and algorithmic-based solutions for low-latency management and optimization of high frequency electronic trading infrastructure. Donal joined Corvil in 2000 as the non-executive Chairman and in 2002, he took on the role of Chief Executive with a view to building a successful multinational software company for the Financial Services sector. In 2004, Donal was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer for his work with Corvil and in 2005 he was a named in the Top 10 Emerging Technology Companies in the Ernst and Young, Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Prior to Corvil, Donal was part of the founding management team of FirstMark Communications; an alternate broadband service provider in Europe. At Firstmark he held the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the company.

From 1993 to 1999 Donal worked in Silicon Valley. In 1996, Donal co-founded Berkeley Networks. Berkeley Networks was acquired by Fore Systems in September 1998. Shortly after, Donal was appointed Senior Vice President of Marketing for FORE Systems. Fore was a leader in Internet switching platforms. In 1999, Fore Systems was acquired by GEC.

From 1993 to 1996, Donal was the Director of Architecture and Product Management at Bay Networks (formerly Synoptics and Wellfleet) where he was responsible for development of next generation routers called layer-3 switches. Donal joined Synoptics from Digital Equipment Corporation, where he led the hardware and software engineering development of a wide range of data switching and Internet routing products, in Boston. In the late eighties, he worked in France Telecom’s research laboratories, (CNET, Lannion), where he focused on high-speed optical transmission and telecommunications systems.

Donal holds a B.E. and M.Eng.Sc degrees from University College Dublin. He has been an invited speaker at many industry conferences and events and has numerous publications and patents in the field of network communications.

Zenas Hutcheson - Vesbridge

Zenas has been involved with high-tech venture companies since 1981 as an investor, board member, CEO and consultant. Before forming Vesbridge, Zenas was SPVC’s Co-Managing General Partner and the Managing General Partner of the NITI group within SPVC. Zenas joined SPVC in 1997.

Some of Zenas’ representative investments include: Vivo Software (acquired by Real Networks, 41x return), GeoTrust (acquired by VeriSign), Granite Systems (acquired by Telcordia), Acopia Networks and Chosen Security (spun-out of GeoTrust upon acquisition).

Prior to joining SPVC, Zenas was an independent consultant and turnaround specialist in the high-tech arena for nearly 20 years, serving as a senior advisor, board member, chairman or CEO to over 35 companies and taking the role of CEO at CAECO, Vivo Software, and Control Automation and board member at Natural Microsystems, PictureTel, and Concord Data Systems, all of which had extremely successful exits. He started his career at Bain & Co (1979-81) and BoNY (1975-78).

John Flynn - ACT Venture Capital

John Flynn has been with ACT Venture Capital since 1996 and focuses on early stage technology investments with a particular interest on Semiconductor, Communications and Software companies. Prior to joining ACT Venture Capital, John worked with EDS Group, the international IT Services and Consultancy company.

Jim Mountjoy

Jim is one of the leading figures in the highly successful Irish software sector. He was founder and CEO of Euristix, a 150 strong company that developed world-class solutions in Telecommunications Network Management and Signalling. Euristix was acquired by Fore Systems in 1999.

Peter Skinner – Apax Partners

Peter Skinner joined Apax Partners in 1994 to play a line management role in leveraged transactions where management needed reinforcement, and in turnarounds, where existing management had failed. Prior to joining Apax Partners he had spent 10 years with Plessey in a variety of manufacturing roles before joining ITT at its European headquarters in Brussels to oversee telecommunications projects. On returning to the UK, he became general manager of STC Telecommunications’ manufacturing operations. In 1987, he joined British Telecommunications (BT) as director of its manufacturing operations and in 1989 was appointed director of BT’s mobile communications division, a 200 million pound business. From 1992 he was made responsible for customer service for BT’s UK business customers. He had recently acted as chairman of Tertio. Peter graduated from Aberdeen University with a degree in English.