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Board of Directors

Dave Leonard
CEO

Dave founded Redwood Systems with the driving belief that LED lighting presented entirely new opportunities to create energy-optimized commercial lighting and smart building solutions. Prior to forming Redwood, Dave was VP and GM of Cisco System’s Desktop Switching Business Unit (DSBU), Cisco’s largest and most profitable business unit with revenues reaching $6 billion. Along with LAN access, DSBU also provides switching solutions for Metro Ethernet, Industrial Ethernet, and Data Center Blade Servers. During his career at Cisco, Dave held several executive management positions including: VP and GMP of the Wireless Networking Business Unit (WNBU) and VP of Engineering for WNBU

Dave joined Cisco through the acquisition of Grand Junction Networks in 1995. At Grand Junction, Dave served as an engineering leader charged with developing Grand Junction’s first 100 mbs Ethernet switch. Prior to Grand Junction, Dave held leadership positions at Sun Microsystems, Amdahl Corporation, Cray Research and Hewlett-Packard.

In addition to his executive role at Redwood Systems, Dave served as Executive Chairman of the Board for enterprise mobility provider Agito Networks through its acquisition by Shoretel in 2010.  Dave earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado.

Mark Covaro
CTO

Mark is a co-founder of Redwood Systems and has over 20 years of experience as a system architect and designer. For the last 12 years, he has been working on electrical, mechanical, and thermal architecture for networking systems. His specialty has been in analog design, including high speed signaling physics and power system design. Mark has worked at Cray Research, Amdahl, and Sun Microsystems as a system designer and architect.

Mark has worked on three engineering teams (Cray Research, AMD, and Cisco Systems) which have each shipped over a billion dollars of product. Mr. Covaro earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A & M University.

Winston Fu

Winston Fu is a General Partner at USVP, and he is an active investor in cleantech and semiconductors (and semiconductors-related) companies. Winston also co-leads USVP's investment activities in China.

In addition to the Redwood Systems board, Winston serves on the boards of Active-Semi International, CFX Battery, Maskless Lithography, Superprotonic, Teknovus and Solyndra. During the past decade, Winston also served on the boards of Alchemy (acquired by AMD in 2002), Brion Technologies (acquired by ASML in 2007), Clear Shape Technologies (acquired by Cadence in 2007) and New Focus (NUFO made its initial public offering in 2000 and was subsequently acquired by Bookham in 2004).

Prior to joining USVP, Winston served in technical and marketing roles at Vixel Corporation, which made its initial public offering in 1999 (NASDAQ: VIXL) and was subsequently acquired by Emulex (ELX) in 2003. As director of product marketing, he was responsible for developing new applications for the VCSEL device product line at Vixel. Prior to helping launch Vixel, Winston researched and developed technologies in the areas of semiconductors, lasers and superconductors at Stanford University, Sandia National Labs and MIT.

Winston holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from MIT, a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, where he was an Austin Scholar.

Winston is a former captain of MIT's NCAA volleyball team and a former assistant coach for two nationally ranked juniors' volleyball teams. Still a volleyball fan, he is an advisor to Front Range Volleyball, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching and coaching juniors. Winston is married and has two children.

Tom Crotty

Tom joined Battery Ventures in 1989 and is responsible for managing all investment and operational aspects of the firm. His primary focus has been on the communications and e-commerce sectors, with investments including @stake Inc. (acquired by Symantec), Advanced Computer Communications (acquired by Newbridge Networks), Amber Wave Systems (acquired by U.S. Robotics), AnswerSoft (acquired by Davox), CipherTrust (acquired by Secure Computing), FaxSav Inc. (NASDAQ: FAXX), FORE Systems (NASDAQ: FORE), Primary Rate Inc. (acquired by Xircom), RADNET Ltd. (acquired by Siemens) and Witness Systems (NASDAQ: WITS).

Tom is actively involved in the venture industry and has served as a board member of the NVCA. In 2005, he was invited to join the board of the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA), which brings together business, university and government leaders in a public/private partnership to build the state’s technology economy. Tom began his venture capital career in 1986 when he joined Abacus Ventures, a partnership focused on communications investments. He has been in the technology business since 1980, holding positions with IBM’s mainframe and minicomputer business. Tom received a BA in Business from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Neil Rimer

Neil Rimer is a co-founder and Partner of Index Ventures. In 1992, Neil started the venture capital activity of Index's predecessor firm, later co-founding Index Ventures and raising the firm's first fund in 1996.

Neil's investment focus is on innovative solutions for energy and environmental problems.  He is currently on the board of AlertMe, AdMarvel, Doubletwist, Innovative Silicon, Lehigh Technologies, Moo Print, Netvibes, Photobox, Pulsic, Redwood Systems, and Weatherbill. Neil sponsored many of the firm's investments including Betfair, Ofoto (now Kodak), Trolltech (now Nokia) Listen (now Real Networks), Numerical Technologies (now Synopsis), and Genmab (SDE: GNA). He has also served on the Board of Directors of U.C. Sampdoria, a football club competing in the Italian Serie A.

Before starting Index Ventures, Neil spent four years with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. Neil has a BA. in History and Economics from Stanford University and a MBA from Harvard Business School.