JOHN LOFTUS – MANAGING DIRECTOR, ACTUA CORPORATION
John is a Managing Director at Actua Corporation. In this capacity, he leads acquisitions of partner companies, tuck-in acquisitions for existing partner companies, and works with entrepreneurs to build great companies. John has over 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, private equity investor and operational executive. Prior to joining Actua, John was the founder of the Swinford Group LLC a management consulting firm focused on growth strategies and turnaround situations in private equity backed and F1000 companies.
Prior to forming the Swinford Group, John was the Manager Director and Executive Vice President for all technology investments at Safeguard Scientifics, Inc (NYSE: SFE). For Safeguard, he was an active director on partner company boards, led new and follow-on investments, and multiple successful exits. As Chairman of Mantas, John led the turnaround and successful exit of Mantas to Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) for a hundred million dollar plus gain for Safeguard.
Prior to joining Safeguard, John co-founded Gestalt LLC which focused on software solutions for government and energy customers and successfully was sold to Accenture (NYSE:ACN). John also served as Senior Vice President of Breakaway Solutions, where he managed all strategy and consulting engagements, and was part of the senior management team that took Breakaway Solutions public in the best services IPO ever at the time. Prior to Breakaway Solutions, John was the Senior Vice President and CTO of WPL Laboratories, which earned recognition twice as an Inc. 500 company. Early in his career, John held executive positions at PECO Energy and GE.
John has served on the Boards of Alliance Consulting (sold to Saints Capital), Avista Advantage (sold to Avista Utilities), Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Beyond.com, CoTweet Advisory Board (sold to ExactTarget), Gestalt LLC (sold to Accenture), GovDelivery, Mid-Atlantic Capital Alliance, Mantas (sold to Oracle), NextPoint Networks (sold to Genband), Pacific Title & Art Studio, Inc (sold to Ticonderoga), Portico Systems (sold to McKesson), ProModel (sold to Saints Capital), Relay Networks, and WPL Laboratories (sold to Breakaway Solutions). John has served on the Investment Committees of ICG, Safeguard, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. John was the past Chairman of the Computing Advisory Board of LaSalle University and a past member of VSB CIO Advisory Council at Villanova University. John has developed and taught graduate courses at LaSalle University and University of Pennsylvania and has lectured at Villanova University. John graduated from Villanova University with a B.E.E., M.S.E.E, and a M.S.C.S, and from the University of Pennsylvania with a M.S.O.D.
ROB ADAMS – MANAGING PARTNER, NEXTSTAGE CAPITAL
Rob Adams is a venture industry executive with 20 years of broad operational and financial experience; including business strategy development and implementation, financial analysis and modeling, management development, and business positioning. He is a founding partner of NextStage Capital, L.P., a leading mid-Atlantic seed and early stage venture capital fund.
Prior to joining his partners at NextStage, Rob served six years as Principal and Vice President of Safeguard Scientifics. There, he was instrumental in the development of numerous technology companies, from early stage through public entity. As a part of that role, he was chartered with sourcing, structuring, and negotiating greater than $100 million in investments for Safeguard’s portfolio and $380 million in mergers, acquisitions and exits. He designed and executed venture investment strategies for portfolio companies including PacWest Telecomm ($100 million IPO), Extant ($200 million acquisition by Dynegy), and ThinAirApps ($20 million acquisition by Palm).
Before joining Safeguard, Rob spent five years at Ernst & Young in the Entrepreneurial Services division. At Ernst, he worked with executives of technology-based, venture-backed companies to manage financial advisory services and financial statement audits. Rob has experience in the software, communications, semiconductor, and media/entertainment industries; the latter two were the focus of his efforts in positions at Intel Corporation and RZO, Inc. respectively.
Rob is a licensed CPA with a Masters of Business Administration with distinction from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Skidmore College. He lives in Berwyn, Pa with his wife and two daughters.
FRANK BREWER – FOUNDER AND CEO, NEXTGEN SECURITY, LLC
Frank Brewer has launched NextGen Security, LLC, where he is currently serving as the founder and CEO. NextGen Security is on course to be the leader in the electronic security systems integration industry.
A growing workforce nourishes the daily operations of NextGen, centered in Philadelphia and Houston offices. Staffed with project managers, engineers, safety management, a sales force, and back office support; the Company is able to deliver the highest level of service to our clients who include those topping the Fortune 500 list. NextGen Security is able to meet our client’s specific needs by offering best in class knowledge, design, implementation, management, and on-going maintenance. The goal is to offer the optimal level of protection for your critical points of operation, while ensuring an uninterrupted business flow.
Previously, Frank Brewer served as the CEO of FirstService Security, where he led global secu-rity operations for two of FirstService’s major security brands – Intercon, a premier provider of electronic and physical security in Canada, and Security Services and Technologies (SST), a global leader in security system design, implementation, and integration in the United States.
Prior to assuming the role as CEO of FirstService Security, Frank served as Founder and CEO of SST, where under his leadership, and through organic growth and subsequent acquisitions, he grew the company from $0 to $200M – and successfully divested the firm to a much larger, multibillion dollar international company. During his term as CEO, the company experienced profitable year over year growth and upheld its high-quality reputation in the market. During 1996, 1997, and 1999, SST was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s 500 Fastest Growing Companies. In addition, between 1997 and 2000, SST was named one of the Philadelphia’s regions Fastest Growing Privately Held Companies by the Business Journal.
Frank is considered one of the top entrepreneurs in the Greater Philadelphia region, with such honors as being voted by the Philadelphia Business Journal as one of the top 40 Business Leaders under the age of 40 and recognized by Ernst & Young as one of their Entrepreneurs of the Year. In addition to having extensive experience making multiple acquisitions within both public and private companies, Frank has held several sales, marketing, and corporate management roles inside small private companies, and large multinational corporations within the electronic security industry.
Frank currently serves on five boards. He is a member of two nonprofit boards, the Paoli Hospital Foundation Board and the Chester County Foundation Board, and he sits on the boards of Kutztown University, LSC Environmental Products, and Cross X Platform, LLC (CXP). Frank is the founder of the ClayMir Charitable Foundation, which focuses its efforts on causes that support children, the aging and the needy, and on having a grassroots impact in the community. Frank earned his Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Kutztown University. He is married with two children and currently lives with his family in Pennsylvania.