Board
Barry W. Johnson
Chairman, Secretary
Barry Johnson is a founder of Privaris and is responsible for the overall strategic vision for the company.
He is also a Professor in the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Virginia where he has spent the past 22 years creating new concepts in computer dependability and security. He has worked extensively with startup companies throughout Virginia in coordination with Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology and through his role as a director of a state-funded technology innovation center. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, he was with Harris Corporation where he designed and analyzed fault-tolerant computer systems for aerospace applications. He is the author of two books, eight book chapters, and more than 150 articles. Dr. Johnson is a past member of the IEEE Board of Directors and the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors and Executive Committee. He served as the IEEE Computer Society's President in 1997 and is an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to fault-tolerant computing. Dr. Johnson holds B.S., M.E., and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.
Wayne L. Hunter
Director
Wayne Hunter is Managing Partner of Harbert Venture Partners (HVP), a venture capital fund focused on early stage growth companies in the information technology and life sciences industries in the Southeastern U.S. HVP is an affiliate of Harbert Management Corporation, an investment management firm focusing on alternative asset classes with approximately $5.0 billion under management.
Prior to joining Harbert, Mr. Hunter was Managing Director and Head of Wachovia's Technology Investment Banking Group. In addition, Mr. Hunter was a member of First Union's Private Equity/Venture Capital Fund Investment Committee and served on First Union's Investment Banking Management Committee. Prior to First Union's acquisition of Wheat First Butcher & Singer in 1998, Mr. Hunter was the founder, Managing Director and Group Head of Wheat's Communications and Technology Group and a shareholder of Wheat. Mr. Hunter has more than nineteen years of experience working with leading entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. In addition to Privaris, Mr. Hunter currently serves on the Boards of Harbert portfolio companies Airimba Wireless, BroadSource, TapRoot Systems and Unitrends.
Mr. Hunter received a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law and a B.S. from Auburn University.
Edward C. McCarthy
Director
Ed McCarthy is a Principal with River City Capital Funds. He entered the venture capital industry in 1984 and joined the River Cities' team in 1999. He heads River Cities' Raleigh office where he maintains an extensive network of contacts through the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. During the five years before joining River Cities, Mr. McCarthy served as executive vice president and director of the corporate general partner of Blue Ridge Investors of Greensboro, North Carolina. Previously, Ed was a principal with Atlantic Ventures Partners, which had offices in Virginia and North Carolina. He began his career in the Information Systems Sector of the Harris Corporation in Melbourne, Florida. Initially serving as a design engineer, his responsibilities grew through a sequence of engineering management and product-line management positions.
He has extensive experience on a number of boards of directors of private and public companies. He previously served as a member of the Board of Governors of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies.
Mr. McCarthy received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Stetson University.
Michael M. Kohonoski
Director
Mike Kohonoski is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Privaris. He joined Privaris in August of 2002 as its Chief Operating Officer and V.P. of Engineering and his been instrumental in driving the design, launch, and sales of all Privaris product families. He has been involved in entrepreneurial activities in the greater Washington D.C. area for over 20 years and has extensive experience in running angel, and venture backed operations. Previously, he co-founded and served as President for netgenshopper.com, an online sales lead generation business that delivered localized connections between both national and local businesses and consumers, and facilitated a merger with its major competitor, Respond.com, in 2001. Previously functioned as the Chief Operating Officer for Authentica Security Technologies, a security software firm specializing in Information Rights Management (IRM) as it pertains to document owner customization of a recipients ability to view, copy, print and forward proprietary information. Authentica was acquired by EMC in February 2006. Prior experience includes functioning as President and CEO of The Guild Corporation, a technical services firm that was acquired by SystemOne in 1998. Mr. Kohonoski has held various engineering and product development roles with Valutec and Xerox in the areas of U.S. government defined electronic emissions security and high volume production, and holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University.
