Board of Trustees

As a nonprofit corporation, VentureCapital.org has no shareholders.
It is governed by a Board of Trustees, corporate officers, and management.

Marcia Nelson

Sharenett LLC / Triple C Advisory

Marcia is a Managing Director and Registered Representative at Sharenett Securities LLC, a members-only global network of professional investors collaborating on curated, quality investment opportunities. Marcia has spent a large portion of her career working in and for family offices and private dealmakers. She was previously at Alberleen Family Office Solutions, an independent investment advisory firm backed by family offices, and she formerly worked for an ultra-high-net-worth philanthropic family as well as a sports and entertainment family. Over the last 20 years, she has developed a strong network of private families, institutional investors, and advisers who are increasingly seeking access to quality direct deal flow from trusted, experienced partners.

Triple C Advisory is a business life cycle consulting firm Marcia co-founded. Working off three pillars – Customer Acquisition, Consulting, and Capital – the firm works with early-stage companies as an advisor and board member to prepare them to receive institutional-grade investments and advises family offices on investment themes and strategies.

Marcia serves on the boards of several industry-related organizations, including; Chairman of the Board of ACG-NY (Association for Corporate Growth), which focuses on driving middle-market investments; Vice-Chairman of the Board ofVentureCapitall.Org, a non-profit early-stage startup accelerator; Advisory Board of Assure, an SPV Fund Administrator, Advisory Board Member of Sheryl Grant Enterprises, a mentoring and education organization focusing on minority women; and she serves on the Investment Committee for University Impact, a donor-advised fund.

Marcia received an honorary mention as one of the 2021 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A by Mergers & Acquisitions magazine and was named one of the 2020 Most Influential Women and she was one of the 2018 Who’s Who In Impact Investing by the Denver Business Journal and was honored with the 2017 ACG-NY Women of Leadership Award.

She received her BA from Southern Utah State College and her MBA from the Gabelli School at Fordham University. Marcia holds Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Marcia Nelson

Board Chair

Chris Anderson

Durham, Jones & Pinegar

P. Christian Anderson, Durham, Jones & Pinegar, is a Shareholder in the Firmʼs Salt Lake City and Lehi offices. His practice focuses on M&A, Business and Finance, Private Equity, Securities, International, Life Sciences, and other technologies. Mr. Anderson has worked for many years in the venture capital arena, representing both investors and their portfolio companies. He enjoys representing high-growth companies throughout their life-cycle, with respect to both financing transactions and the myriad business transactions they deal with.

Chris Anderson

Board Member

Chris Badger

NOW CFO

Chris is a hard-driving senior accounting professional who brings a broad and diverse industry experience to the firm. His accounting expertise includes strategic corporate management, implementing and managing financial and operational reporting functions support for Boards and investor relationships. In addition to his accounting expertise, Chris has extensive experience in Human Resources, health insurance benefits, retirement plans including 401(k)s, Top Hatplans, ESOPs and Qualified and Non-Qualified Profit Sharing Plans. Chris has also managed and directed the IT functions and back office support including customer service and administration departments.

Chris Badger

Board Member

Jim Divver

Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Zions Bank

Jim oversees all aspects of the government relations for leveraging the customer base in the Zions Bank footprint. His efforts have yielded over $2.7 billion in revenue for Zions. He is a member of the company’s Zions Insurance Committee and Trust Committee. Divver’s expertise includes insurance, wealth management, public finance, demand and time accounts, Foreign Exchange, and Health Savings. During his tenure at Zions Bank, he has overseen the Sales Resource Team, Private/Executive Banking, New Business, Zions Insurance Agency, and Zions Government Relations. Before joining Zions Bank in 2001, Divver was Vice-President of Sales for First Security Corporation, where he led non-traditional sales in Private Client Services. His efforts there exceeded fee income projections by $500,000 and grew assets by over $100 million. Divver holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science(“a useless degree,” he has been known to say) from the University of Utah. He holds licenses in Property, Casualty, Life and Health Insurance. Jim Divver serves on a number of boards and advisory boards. These include the Downtown Alliance Board, Community Nursing Services Board, Deseret Fountain Board, Guadalupe School Board, American Lung Association, University of Utah Business School Alumni Board, Hale Center Theatre Advisory Board, Utah League of City and Towns Advisory Board, and the American Bankers Health Savings Account Council Board. In 2010, he received The Zions Bank prestigious “Roy Simmons” Community Award.

Jim Divver

Board Member

Michael Keene

Westminster College

Prof. Keene is currently both a member of the Dept. of Management faculty and the Director of the MBA in Technology Commercialization Program in the Bill & Vieve Gore School of Business at Westminster College. Dr. Keene holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from Princeton University, an MBA and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University, and over the last 35 years he has conducted and managed programs in fields ranging from environmental remediation to fuel cells and cystic fibrosis.

Although widely published during his research career, he soon left academia for industry, and was one of the four founding scientists of IDT (Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc., the worldʼs largest supplier of specialty oligonucleotides to the global biotechnology industry).

He has since been an executive, founder or board member for a number of other technology-based firms, including Ceramatec, Inc. here in Utah. Prior to joining Westminster, he was appointed to serve as both the State Science Advisor and Director of the Utah Centers of Excellence Program under Governors Leavitt and Walker.

A co-founder of the Utah Life Science Association (now BioUtah), he remains an active consultant, company mentor, and external reviewer for both the University of Utahʼs Technology Commercialization Office and the State of Utahʼs Technology Commercialization & Implementation Program.

Michael Keene

Board Member

Maile Keone

President & CEO Listen Technologies

As president and CEO, Maile Keone is responsible for executing Listen Technologies’ strategic business plan, guiding the company’s vision, and creating value for shareholders, partners, and customers. Having worked in the technology industry for the past 30 years, she brings a wealth of experience to her role. A passion for delivering value through inclusive listening experiences across markets and applications has made her instrumental in year-over-year growth, enabling the company to thrive. Her strengths include strategic thinking and translating that to successful execution. At Listen Technologies, Maile has built world-class teams, thanks to her philosophy of finding amazing people, getting them in the right positions and letting them succeed. She loves working with people to find out what they want to accomplish in life and helping them achieve it. Her favorite part of the job is mentoring individuals who work with her. Working at Listen Technologies has taught Maile that you can have a fulfilling career while making a difference in the world. She loves contributing to the fun culture that instills pride in those who work at Listen Technologies. Maile has a bachelor’s degree in English and has a few favorite career wins including product placement on Good Morning America, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Best Tech. When she’s not working, Maile loves to spend time with her very blended family of a patient and amazing husband, eight children, a dog, and cat. They love to travel and are game to try anything new. She also loves any kind of food, real estate, property renovation, and community renewal. And chocolate.

Maile Keone

Board Member

Bill Kirth

Investor and CCO of APiO, Inc

Bill has 30 years of experience infield-exam/auditing, bank compliance, asset-based lending, factoring, purchase order financing, subordinated debt, and private equity. A partner with Rectify Partners which a management consulting firm with a small equity fund. Most of his career has been in finance having worked for Zions Bank, Wells Fargo, GE Capital, Summit Financial and Sterling Financial. Bill has taught courses and has published material on asset-based lending for RMA, Lorman Education. Bill is also a regular on alternative finance panels sponsored by Goldman Sachs, Silicon Slopes, and many other panels and seminars. Currently serve on the board of RMA (Risk Management Association) Utah Chapter, Rectify Partners, and ACG Association for Corporate Growth) Utah Chapter (as a founder). Having had previously served on the national RMA membership board for 4 years. In 2020 during COVID, he took a sabbatical from in-person, active deal sourcing to invest in and work on a fintech credit platform. This coincided with the COVID pandemic as he worked from home and spent much of my time in front of a computer, on a Zoom call, or on the phone. This has given him a broader understanding of credit and underwriting in banking, ABL lending, and factoring. Today, I focus on financing early-revenue stage companies with debt financing solutions and provide limited subordinated debt and limited direct investments in businesses.

Bill Kirth

Board Member

Kathy Ricci

SLCC

Kathy Ricci is a Business Advisor with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Salt Lake Community College. She is the former CEO/Executive Director of the Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund (UMLF). This non-profit organization provides financing and management support to entrepreneurs in start-up and existing firms that do not have access to traditional funding sources.

While there, she led the organization in lending over $15 million to over 900 businesses resulting in the creation/retention of over 1,600 jobs. Kathy received the South Salt Lake Chamber 2016 Business Person of the Year Award, 2015 Salt Lake Chamber Women & Business Pathfinder Award, 2015 Business Woman of the Year for the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was included in the Utah Business Magazine 2011 “30 Women to Watch”.

Kathy has served on the Board of the Pete Suazo Business Center, South Salt Lake Chamber and Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Prior to the UMLF, she was the Associate State Director of the Utah Small Business Development Center in which she assisted in the management of a statewide program providing small business counseling and training. Kathy has a B.S. degree in Finance and Management and a MBA from the University of Utah.

Kathy Ricci

Board Member

Tara Rosander

Xceed Consulting

Tara is the Managing Director of Xceed Consulting, working with some of Utahʼs leading technology companies on strategic initiatives and upscaling process, communication and performance through transitional phases of the company. Additionally, she works with early stage companies on developing funding strategies. Tara sits on the board of VentureCapital.Org and the executive board of the Women Tech Council.

Prior to Xceed, Tara was the Chief Operating Officer for 3DplusMe, a personalized merchandising platform for 3D printing. We built the leading customization software platform for 3D printed merchandise, partnering with major brands such as Disney, Marvel, Hasbro, NFL, Target and others. 3DplusMe was acquired by Whiteclouds in December of 2015.

Tara spent the bulk of her career in Private Equity as the Director of Operations at Mercato Partners, a growth capital investor with over $300 million under management. Previously, Tara managed Gazelle Investments, an angel investment fund as well as helped found and direct the Junto Partners program, a training program for entrepreneurs taught by Greg Warnock.

A true Ute, Tara has her B.S. in Business Management with an emphasis in Finance from the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. Tara is an audible addict, enjoys exploring the outdoors here and abroad with her family and hitting slopes on powder days.

Tara Rosander

Board Member

Matt Warnock

RidgeCrest Herbals

Matt Warnock is a recovering attorney from Silicon Valley. After graduating from BYU School of Law in 1985, he was admitted to practice in both Utah and California, where he served on the Board of Trustees of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Santa Clara County Council of the Boy Scouts of America. After moving back to Utah in 1998 to do M&A work, he joined the VCO mentor network, where he has volunteered for over 20 years, and now serves as Chairman of VCOʼs Board of Trustees. In 2001 he joined RidgeCrest Herbals as COO, became President in 2005, and sole shareholder in 2016. He holds two patents in herbal medicine, invests with SLC Angels, and serves as a Scoutmaster in his spare time.

Matt Warnock

Board Member

Executive Team

As a nonprofit corporation, VentureCapital.org has no shareholders.
It is governed by a Board of Directors, corporate officers and management.

Tara Spalding

Chief Programming Officer at VentureCapital.Org

Tara Spalding is Chief Programming Officer at VentureCapital.org, Utah-based non-profit organization that assists, coaches, and provides mentoring to entrepreneurs raising investment capital. Prior to her role, she was Managing Director at BoomStartup Accelerator, a division of Assure. Under Tara’s leadership BoomStartup became a global, angel stage investment preparedness program for startups. They worked with more than 1,000 startups from over 50 countries and helped raise over $10M in pre-seed funding. Tara recently co-authored “10 Preparation Stages to Start a Successful Business” designed to help founders substantially think through company creation to improve their success rate when starting their business.

Tara began her high-tech career in Silicon Valley when she taught herself to code software and became the first employee, and eventually VP of Marketing at industry leader, SugarCRM. Her Silicon Valley experience included roles as CMO at GroundWork Open Source and co-founder and CPO at BenchPick. Available to guide startups and corporations in the US and abroad, Hen House Ventures’ innovative, impactful programs are tailored to meet each clients’ specific development and funding needs. Clients include Applitools, ApolloGraphQL, Commtrex, eTeam Sponsor, Sequent Software, Inc., Ten Digit Communications and X2CRM.

Tara Spalding

Interim CEO & CPO

Peter Callister

Venturecapital.org

Peter Callister has spent his career working with early stage startups. He has worked in
economic development, seed-stage investment, product development, sales and
marketing, and overall business strategy. Peter is currently the Chief Operating Officer of VentureCapital.Org, a Salt Lake City-based non-profit that helps entrepreneurs tell their story to investors and make connections to capital. Peter is a Board Member at
Defencify, an EdTech startup, as well at Mommi, a consumer packaged goods startup.
Peter previously was the GM of the SLC Angels and Park City Angels, local investment
groups that invested several million dollars of investment into regional startups. In his
off-time, Peter lives an active life with his wife and two sons. He loves all things outdoors including skiing, hiking, and jeeping.

Peter Callister

COO