Board Members 

Rob Patten is co-founder and CEO of Northridge. Mr. Patten is responsible for working with the Northridge leadership team to develop business strategies and tactics that will serve client needs and increase shareholder value. After starting Northridge 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 a 50%+ Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) at Northridge and today the company is debt-free, profitable, and continues to build on its leadership position as the premier Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the southeast region.
 
In 2008, Mr. Patten ranked #6 in Catalyst Magazine's Top 25 Atlanta Entrepreneurs listing.  In the same year, Northridge was honored with a Pacesetter Award for being in the top 50 fastest-growing private companies in Atlanta.  Rob is on the Board of Directors at Goodwill of North Georgia and is a past Advisory Board member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.
 
Prior to co-founding Northridge, Mr. Patten held senior Information Technology positions with American Card Technology, MCI Telecommunications, and Wang Laboratories. Mr. Patten is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer and has over 15 years of professional software, systems, and business consulting experience. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. 
 
While away from the office, Rob enjoys time with his family, playing golf, and watching Washington Redskins football. Rob and his wife Cindi live in Alpharetta, GA and have two young children.

Jeremey Zela is co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Northridge. Mr. Zela focuses his attention on operations, delivery methodology, solution development, and technology best practices. Mr. Zela is continually involved with researching emerging technologies in order to evaluate which technologies may have the greatest potential impact for clients.
 
While at Northridge, Mr. Zela has led the development of the firm's robust Microsoft.NET class library, designed and built the firm's Liquid Content solution, deployed development processes and tools leveraging Microsoft Team Foundation Server, and created the firm's True North Methodology for reliable and repeatable technology project success.
 
Mr. Zela has over fifteen years of professional technology experience including consulting, technical architecture, systems engineering, and software engineering. Jeremey has held senior technology roles with several leading firms including IBM, MCI Telecommunications, and Wang Laboratories. Mr. Zela is a leading expert in the areas of .NET solution architecture, software methodologies, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and related tools and technologies on the Microsoft platform.

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 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.

Experienced in corporate development, Michael Kardash brings more than 15 years of legal experience to the Northridge 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 is a serial entrepreneur who has founded, co-founded, or managed over a dozen ventures. He is currently managing partner at Greycliff Advisors where he invests in and counsels companies in software, financial services, real estate, greentech, mobile, and new media. An experienced leader, he has delivered enduring improvement to core industry processes by developing systems for driving new business opportunities, improving revenues, and increasing profitability.
 
Prior to forming Greycliff in 2008, McGowan was CEO of Peracon, an institutional real estate asset trading platform. Under his leadership, the company facilitated over $300 billion (USD) in aggregate investment transactions totaling over 50% of all institutional-grade property sales each year in the United States. Earlier in his career, he was a commercial real estate broker in Washington DC, specializing in property leasing and investment sales. During that time, he provided transaction advisory services to over 5 million square feet of commercial property throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. In addition, McGowan has been CEO or partner in a series of professional services and information technology companies.