Mike Benvenuti

Mike Benvenuti is a Fund Manager with Cove Fund, an active Expert in Residence at UCI Applied Innovation, and an advisor or board member with several early-stage startups. Mr. Benvenuti was previously a service sector business executive with a long history in recurring revenue business where keeping customers for life is the key to building shareholder value. In 1985, he joined the nascent wireless industry, was an early-stage employee for PacTel Cellular that had an IPO as AirTouch in 1994 and was purchased by Vodafone in 1999 for approximately $60B.  Subsequently, he held positions of Senior Vice President, Divisional President and Chief Operating Officer for both private and publicly held companies in the education sector.  Mr. Benvenuti received a BS (cum laude) in Civil Engineering and an MBA in Finance from UC Irvine.

Dr. paul voois

Dr. Paul Voois is a Fund Manager with Cove Fund and is also a member of Tech Coast Angels. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Voois established a track record of building valuable companies with unique, defensible technology in the networking, communications and software industries. In 2002 he co-founded ClariPhy Communications, a venture-backed supplier of optical networking semiconductors that was acquired in 2016 by Inphi for $300M, which was subsequently acquired by Marvell (NASDAQ:MRVL) for $10B, and now operates as Marvell’s Coherent DSP business unit. He served as ClariPhy’s CEO until 2011 and as Chief Strategy Officer until its acquisition. Prior to founding ClariPhy, he served as CEO of 8x8 (NASDAQ:EGHT), a market leader in voice and video over IP technology. Dr. Voois received an MS and PhD from Stanford and a BS (summa cum laude) from Penn State, all in electrical engineering. He is an inventor on 36 issued United States patents.

J.C. Ruffalo

J.C. (Jeffrey Charles) Ruffalo recently joined Cove Fund as a Venture Partner. Prior to joining Cove Fund, J.C. was the Director of LaunchPad and Investor Relations at Octane OC, a top 5 of over 900 SBA funded incubators in the US. During his Octane tenure, J.C. advised and assisted over 300 companies in a wide range of innovative technology industries successfully attain strategic goals. These companies raised over $2 billion in capital and realized over $2.6 billion in M&A. Of the more than 10,000 high paying technology jobs created, 85% were in Southern California. These companies include Hyperice, Bonti, EV Connect, AtaCor Medical and Enevate.

J.C. believes that nurturing and maintaining strong relationships between entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors is key in successful venture partnerships. J.C. received a BS in in Entrepreneurship and Finance, and a minor in Economics from Chapman University Argyros School of Business.

Don M. Bailey

Don is the former CEO of Questcor, a specialty pharmaceutical company sold to Mallinckrodt in 2014 for $5.8 billion.  While CEO, the stock of QCOR increased over 22,000% as sales increased from $10 million to $1 billion annually. Prior to QCOR, Mr. Bailey served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Comarco, and has served as an advisor, board member and investor in a number of start‐ups. He earned a BSME from Drexel University and an MBA from Pepperdine.

Michael Beaudoin

Michael, Director of Private Equities at Mark IV Capital, leads their investment efforts in rapidly growing companies. Prior to joining Mark IV Capital, Michael created and operated AT&T’s Aspire Accelerator which invests in and mentors the most promising and innovated Ed-tech startups. Michael graduated with an MBA from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and holds a BS from Ball State University.

Bruce Hallett

Bruce is a co-founder of Miramar Digital Ventures.  With over two decades of collaborations with technology entrepreneurs, Bruce co-leads Miramar investments in the Data, IoT and AI markets. Prior to founding Miramar, Bruce was Managing Partner of the Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison Orange County office, where he managed IPOs, venture financings and liquidity events for many high profile technology companies in SoCal.

Mohannad Malas

Mr. Malas is a Principal and Co-Founder of IRA Capital. His responsibilities include raising equity for IRA’s private funds and syndicated offerings, while overseeing the firm’s overall investment strategy. Mr. Malas is also the President and CEO of Dana Investments, a full service real estate operating company he established in 1984. Throughout his career, Mr. Malas has been directly involved in the acquisition, financing, management, development, and disposition of more than $1 Billion of real estate across all product types.

Fariborz Maseeh

Fariborz Maseeh is the founder and managing principal of Surlamer Investments, an investment management firm, which invests in real estate, technology startups, and manages several proprietary traded hedge funds. He is founder of The Massiah Foundation, a charitable organization which invests in education, health and cultural causes. He is a member of the Corporation Board of MIT, a Trustee of Caltech and a member of the board of fellows of Harvard Medical School.

Richard Sudek

Richard is the former Chief Innovation officer of Beall Applied Innovation at UC Irvine. He founded his first company with $250 dollars and later sold to SAIC, a multi-billion dollar international firm. He continues to be an active angel investor with over 20 years of experience, and Chairman Emeritus of Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel organization in the U.S. He is also a member of Golden Seeds (largest woman oriented angel group in the U.S.), and an advisor to other funds and startups.