Board of Directors

As Chairman of the Board, Larry Barker draws upon more than 25 years of broad leadership experience, with proven expertise in sales & marketing.  Mr. Barker was elevated to Chairman after serving as Aptela's CEO for the past two years. Prior to joining Aptela, Mr. Barker served as Chief Executive Officer of Argent Networks Ltd, where he led all aspects of the company's growth.  Previously, Mr. Barker served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visual Networks, President of the Software Division at ADC Telecommunications, and President of the Telecommunications Software Division at CSC.

Mr. Barker holds a B.S. degree in business administration and speech communications from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, where he is a Trustee.  Mr. Barker also serves on the Board of Directors for Telular, Inc. and Interlink Electronics.

Mr. Gruner co-founded JMI in 1992 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Gruner is currently a Director of Aptela, Inc., Autotask Corporation, Catapult Learning, Inc., Courion Corporation, Halogen Software, Inc. and Navicure, Inc. Mr. Gruner is a former Director of Appriss, Inc. His past JMI investment experience includes Corliant, Inc., CyberTech Systems and Software, Inc., Financial Alliance, Inc., Intellitactics, Inc., Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Inc., META Group, Inc., Optika Imaging Systems, Inc., PROS Holdings, Inc., Transaction Systems Architects, Inc. and Transcentive, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Gruner was a Director of Hyperion Software Corporation for ten years.

Prior to co-founding the Firm in 1992, Mr. Gruner was a Principal in the Technology Group at Alex. Brown. Prior to joining Alex. Brown, he worked in marketing at Sigma Design, Inc. and in investment banking in the Technology Group of Blyth Eastman PaineWebber, Inc.

Mr. Gruner graduated from Yale University and the Harvard Business School.

Mr. Peyser brings over 40 years of senior management experience to Aptela’s team. He has founded, led and grown several successful business ventures, generating billions of dollars in revenue and shareholder value. An engineer by training, Mr. Peyser’s career spans several industries, including aerospace and telecommunications. For 20 years, he was President and CEO of Cable & Wireless, creating a worldwide leader in long distance telephone service. He currently serves on various non-profit and corporate boards, actively continuing to build growing organizations.

Mr. Peyser has a BA from Dartmouth, an MS in Electrical Engineering from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and an LLB from Georgetown University.

Mr. Pulaski founded SmartVault Corporation in May of 2008, and currently serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. As founder, he has made it his personal mission to deliver a simple, low-cost paperless SaaS solution to small-businesses using QuickBooks. He contributed heavily to the initial formation and conception of SmartVault, and continues to play a vital role in the overall product design, roadmap, and go-to-market strategy.

Prior to SmartVault, Mr. Pulaski founded and served as CEO and Chairman of BindView Corporation, a leading supplier of security management software solutions. Under his management, the company successfully evolved from a privately funded software development group through a successful IPO, and the ultimate sale of the company to Symantec Corporation in 2006.   
 
Mr. Pulaski is also an active member of the executive boards for the Holocaust Museum Houston, Teach for America, and the Houston Technology Center. He provides philanthropic support to arts, healthcare and educational organizations.  

Mr. Pulaski holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin.

As Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Douglas Strahan is responsible for the overall management of Aptela’s strategy, operations and performance. Mr. Strahan leverages over 25 years of experience across finance, human resources and administrative operations to lead the company.

Prior to joining Aptela, Mr. Strahan was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of INPUT, the leading government market research firm. He was also Chief Financial Officer for two early stage businesses: Advocates On Call, a company he co-founded, and BIA Financial Network, a premier financial advisor to the communications industry. Prior to BIA, he was Director of Finance for a $600 million division of Blockbuster Entertainment and Controller for $100 million unit of Bardon, Inc. Mr. Strahan started his career at General Electric in the company’s world class financial management training program.

Mr. Strahan holds a post-MBA Certificate in Accounting and a MBA in International Business from George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and a B.S. in Finance and Marketing from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.

Mr. Woloson joined JMI in 1994 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Woloson is currently Director of Apparent Networks, Inc., Aptela, Inc., Axeda Corporation, ClickSquared, Inc., Eloqua Corporation, Empathica, Inc., Harmony Information Systems, Inc., Panorama Software, Ltd. and Undertone Networks, Inc. Mr. Woloson's past JMI investment experience includes Astrum Software Corporation, NEON Systems, Inc., Network Intelligence Corporation, Primax Recoveries, Inc., Qiave Corporation, Transcentive, Inc. and Unica Corporation.

Prior to joining the Firm in 1994, Mr. Woloson was a Financial Analyst in the Technology Group at Alex. Brown. Prior to Alex. Brown, Mr. Woloson was a Fixed Income Analyst at Kidder Peabody International, Inc. in London.

Mr. Woloson graduated from Harvard University.