Shawn Abbott
A partner with iNovia Capital, Shawn Abbott has a passion for building communications and Internet start-up companies. Shawn is
presently an investor and board member at Tynt, CoolIT Systems, SiXtron, Peraso and Reflex Photonics. He has played entrepreneur,
investor, technical and general management roles across fifteen technology start-ups in three continents over 20 years.
His work pioneering internet security as CTO, then President, at Rainbow Technologies (NASDAQ:RNBO) saw the company grow
ten-fold in profitability before being sold to SafeNet (NASDAQ:SFNT) for nearly a half billion dollars. In the late 1980s, he established
and built the AND Group, which pioneered the CD-ROM locking used on several million discs.
Brian Antonen
Brian Antonen joined Celtic House in 2000. He is based in the Toronto office. Originally an electrical engineer, Brian has over 21
years of technical, business operational, and capital markets experience. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in
Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey
School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Brian is also a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of
Ontario and of the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario.
Brian's investment focus is on Digital Multimedia and Wireless. During his nine years at Celtic House, he has established himself
as a domain expert in video and multimedia processing and is viewed by his peers as a leading semiconductor investor in
Canada. His knowledge of the sector has unique breadth and depth, from the technicalities of the product to the intricacies of the
market. His record of success includes ViXS Systems (a world leader in multimedia processing components) and Camilion
Solutions (one of the fastest growing financial software companies in North America). He has held directorships on 13 private
boards, and currently serves as a board member of eight Celtic House companies.
Ron Glibbery
Ron has over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry in both the technical and commercial aspects of the business. He founded Peraso Technologies in September 2008, and closed a $10M series A financing for the company in October 2009. Ron was also the founder of Cogency Semiconductor, a fabless semiconductor company focused on the development of modems for use in powerline networking. While at Cogency, Ron sat on the Board of Directors of the HomePlug Alliance, the predominant standard in the powerline networking market. Cogency was sold to Intellon Corporation in 2004, and Mr. Glibbery become President of Intellon at that time. Intellon was subsequently purchased by Atheros (NASDAQ: ATHR) for $244M in December 2009, and the bulk of the original Cogency engineering team continues to operate in Toronto, ON.
Jim Whitaker
Jim joined the predecessor manager of the VentureLink Group of Funds in March 2003 after more than eight years with Working Ventures Canadian Fund Inc. where he led the Information Technology Team and was a member of the Management Investment Committee. While at Working Ventures Jim led investments or acted as Board member in approximately twenty companies. Prior to joining Working Ventures, Mr. Whitaker worked in a number of practice areas at Ernst & Young providing financial advisory services to mid-market companies in a wide range of industries. Mr. Whitaker is a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Business Valuator.