Caren DeWitt
Chairman of The 
Board of Directors
webMethods Foundation

Caren DeWitt co-founded webMethods Inc., in 1996 with her husband, Phillip Merrick, and friend, Charles Allen. For five years Dewitt was the company's senior marketing executive as the company grew from a basement start up to an enterprise of 1,000 employees 550 blue chip customers and partners, 27 offices in 11 countries and annualized revenue in excess of $250 million.

While DeWitt and Merrick envisioned making webMethods one of the world's leading software companies, they also believed that a true definition of corporate success meant that the company and its employees should play a meaningful role in improving the communities in which they do business. To fulfill this ideal, in December 2000, they formed the webMethods Foundation, a venture philanthropy organization devoted to helping underprivileged people achieve their potenial by supporting non-profits in the area of housing and education and healthcare.

To underscore the importance of this mission, in March 2001, DeWitt took leave from webMethods, Inc., to dedicate herself full time to the Foundation as its Chairman. Ms. DeWitt also is engaged in writing and speaking on marketing in the new economy.

Prior to co-founding webMethods, Ms. DeWitt served at America Online as Director of AOL.com, pioneering early e-commerce initiatives and managing AOL.com's transition to an Internet portal. Previously she spent several years creating and managing national award-winning marketing programs for corporate, government and non-profit clients, the latter category including the National Health Services Corps, the Indian Health Service, and the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

Ms. DeWitt currently serves on the board of directors of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the board of directors of the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. Ms. DeWitt received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Matthew Serbin Pittinsky
Chairman
Blackboard, Inc.

Blackboard, Inc. Chairman Matthew Pittinsky is a recognized leader in the field of e-Learning and, particularly, on the Internet's impact at institutions of higher education.  As founding CEO, Pittinsky has been instrumental in Blackboard's growth, including 1,900 client institutions, 415 staff, four acquisitions and over $100 million in investment financing, building what most industry analysts recognize is the leading provider of e-Education software infrastructure around the world.  Matthew is responsible for Blackboard's initial vision, born of research conducted at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  He coined Blackboard's rallying cry to "transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning." 

Matthew is editor of the forthcoming book "The Wired Tower" to be published by Prentice-Hall Financial Times.  He has numerous articles and has been quoted in major media outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Business Week, among others. 

Jeremy Brosowsky
Founder and CEO
Washington Business
Forward

Jeremy Brosowsky founded Business Forward Media (originally The Pangaea Group LLC) in 1998. He guided the company from concept to prototype to publication of Washington Business Forward magazine; Greater Washingtonís only monthly business magazine premiered with a May 1999 issue.

Prior to launching Business Forward Media, Brosowsky was a financial analyst specializing in the beverage and tobacco industries with Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York. While at Goldman, he co-authored reports and briefs for institutional investor clients, and worked on the research side under an Institutional Investor-ranked analyst on equity offerings totaling more than $350 million. Brosowsky holds a B.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to his work as CEO of Business Forward Media, Brosowsky is on the board of the Greater Washington Initiative and a participant in the Potomac Conference.

Mario Morino
Chairman
Morino Institute

Mario Morino, a former software entrepreneur, is chairman of the Morino Institute, chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners, and a special partner at the private equity investment firm General Atlantic Partners. 

Under Mario’s leadership, the Morino Institute works to enhance the lives of children of low-income families by helping to foster innovation in the nonprofit and philanthropic organizations that serve their needs. Founded in 1994, the Morino Institute operates as a catalyst organization, launching entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations to put ideas into action. 

Entrepreneurial organizations created and incubated by the Morino Institute include:

Venture Philanthropy Partners, which provides sustained financial and management assistance to boost the strength and impact of youth-focused organizations; the Netpreneur program, a learning community dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship in the National Capital region; the YouthLearn Initiative, which provides tools and resources to strengthen technology-enriched learning programs and is now run by the Massachusetts-based Education Development Center, Inc.; the Youth Development Collaborative Pilot, which helped create networked learning centers in low-income neighborhoods of the District of Columbia; and the Potomac KnowledgeWay, an organization that worked in the mid-1990’s to build the National Capital region’s potential as a technology power in the global economy. 

Prior to establishing the Morino Institute, Mario enjoyed a 30-year career in the information technology industry during its developing years. In 1973, he co-founded Morino Associates, a software firm that merged with another firm in 1989 to become LEGENT Corporation.  LEGENT was acquired in 1995 in what was then the largest transaction in the computer software and services industry. 

Mario serves as a trustee of Case Western Reserve University, The Brookings Institution, and The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region; and as a commissioner of the National Commission on Entrepreneurship.

Mario’s honors and awards include: induction into the Washington Business Hall of Fame (2001), National Ernst and Young Supporter of Entrepreneurship (2000), Washingtonian magazine’s Washingtonian of the Year (1999), American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award (1999), Greater Washington Area Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (1998), and KPMG High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year (1993).

Andrew R. Hill
President & CEO
DevElements Incorporated 

Andrew Hill is the president and CEO of DevElements Incorporated (www.DevElements.com), a strategic IT consulting and integrations company.  Andrew founded DevElements in June 1999 with the vision of providing innovative “any-to-any” connectivity solutions for businesses looking to streamline their business and human resources processes.  Since creating DevElements, Andrew has grown the Company from one employee to 27 and generated revenues of $2.8 million in 2001 through smart growth and the successful integration of world-class solutions to multi-national corporations.  DevElements has customers worldwide with deployments in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.  Clients include Andersen (formerly Arthur Andersen), Environmental Resource Management, Federal Realty Investment Trust, Stewart Title, Thomson, and Wiley Rein & Fielding.  DevElements is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and has an office in Portland, Oregon.

 

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