Management Team
Robert M. Karr – CEO/Founder
Bob is the CEO/Founder of LinkSV, a website which connects the dots of the people, capital and companies of the Silicon Valley, and is positioned at the intersection of business intelligence and social networking. He has been an active angel investor, an advisor to emerging Internet companies, and was a co-founder of the Angels Breakfast Club. Bob retired from a 30-year career in the corporate liability insurance business where he spent 15 years as a Partner of Dinner Levison Company and another 15 years as SVP of the Sedgwick Group, where he managed Business Development & Client Services focused exclusively on emerging & pre-IPO companies in the Silicon Valley. Many of Bob’s emerging clients have turned into successful IPO’s. A graduate of University of the Pacific, he and his wife, Jonlyn, reside in Saratoga, California. Their sons David and Steven are co-founders of Guayaki Sustainable Rainforest Products, a socially and environmentally conscious beverage company producing and selling Guayaki Yerba Mate; a healthy and energizing drink. (http://www.guayaki.com/).
Dawn DeBruyn Novarina – General Manager & CMO
A three-time entrepreneur with twenty plus years of marketing, sales and business development, Dawn currently leads day-to-day operations, including marketing and development, for LinkSV and works with Silicon Valley companies as a principal at Traffic, Revenue & Results. She started her career selling software to Fortune 5000 firms and OEMs as chief rainmaker in her first company and went on to build a nationwide network of VARs and developers that doubled annual sales 3 years in a row. In 2003, she founded Traffic, Revenue & Results to focus on strategic and digital marketing. Today, Dawn helps companies increase traffic and sales by developing the best organic growth strategies to drive customer acquisition and increased sales. Dawn earned a BA in Economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She and her family now live on the San Mateo Coast.
Mario Chaves – Advisory Board
With over 25 years of software development and engineering management experience, Mario is currently the CEO of Avantica Technologies and led LinkSV’s original development efforts in 2005. Previously, Mario was Chief Technology Officer at Babcock & Brown, a leading investment banking firm, where he led a worldwide team and was responsible for all technology strategies and implementations. Prior to Babcock & Brown, Mario was the Director of Product Development for Intuit, where he led the development of new products for the Quicken product line and managed the development of Intuit’s International Products. Prior to Intuit, at Software Publishing Corporation, Mario created Harvard Graphics, which redefined the presentation graphics software category and was largely responsible for the company’s growth from $20M to over $100M in revenues. Mario earned an MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Davis.
Sue Salvesen – Advisory Board
Sue is a successful serial CFO and founder and CEO of STRe Solutions. STRe (short for Strategic Resource Solutions) is a staffing resource company specializing in providing permanent placement and contract resources at the senior executive, management and professional levels to finance, accounting, IT, HR and legal departments. Sue has over 20 years of extensive hands-on financial and management experience and more than 7 years experience as a CFO. She has led 3 IPO’s and several acquisitions. Sue received her BA Degree in Economics with High Honors and Distinction in Economics from Douglass College of Rutgers University. She also holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma. Sue is Treasurer of and serves on the Board of Directors and the Finance committee for a local non-profit organization, Girls for a Change. She is also a member of Financial Executives International and Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives and a founder of CFO Virtual Board.
Linda Holroyd – Advisory Board
As CEO and founder of FountainBlue, Linda coaches executives, advises tech start-ups, and writes on, speaks about, and produces events on market, technology and leadership trends, serving the community of thousands she created, as well as the Silicon Valley tech community overall. Previously, Linda was co-founder and CEO for Galatia, a high-tech, service-oriented web consultancy in the emerging internet field, where she oversaw the successful development of dynamically-generated web sites in the financial services, government, high tech, and academic industries. She managed the launch, growth, sale and transition of the consultancy. Prior to that, she engaged in similar marketing, business development, operational and strategic roles in tech start-ups in the areas of document imaging, file security and web development space. Two of the start-ups were purchased and one of them is still running. Linda advises organizations which support technology and nonprofits such as ASTIA, VLAB and WCA, and sits on the advisory boards for her client companies, providing strategic, marketing, and business development support. Linda is a recipient of the 2011 Business Journal Women of Influence award. Linda is a graduate of UC Davis with a major in Psychology and a minor in Education, and earned certificates in nonprofit management, executive management and program management through UCSC Extension and San Jose State.