Management team

Mark Housley

Chairman and CEO
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Prior to Vigilent, Mark served as CEO of InFocus Corporation, a collaboration technology company providing products and video calling services giving people the tools they need to visually present, capture and share ideas.

He was previously the CEO and director of Glimmerglass, Inc., a provider of all-optical switching systems; chairman and CEO of Digital Origin; the turn-around CEO of Radius; and served as president and director of Media100.

Prior to that, he co-founded Spectrum Wireless and Splash Technologies, and held positions as vice president and general manager for Supermac, Inc., and Siemens AG. Early in his career he held a variety of engineering, sales, and marketing positions with IBM, ROLM, and ASK Computer Systems. He graduated with honors in mathematics from Pomona College.




Clifford Federspiel

President and CTO
Cliff Federspiel

Dr. Federspiel is a leader and visionary in the field of environmental and energy management, having authored more than 50 papers on topics ranging from HVAC and CRAC control, to indoor air quality and cooling optimization. He is the recipient of the Ralph G. Nevins Physiology and Human Environment Award from ASHRAE, and holds numerous patents in the field.

Dr. Federspiel began his career in R&D at Johnson Controls after receiving his BSME from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, and his SMME and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1998 he joined the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Specialist at The Center for Environmental Design Research and the Electronics Research Laboratory.

Building on his pioneering research in dynamic cooling technology and wireless networking, Dr. Federspiel incorporated Federspiel Controls in 2008 (renamed Vigilent in 2011) to address the emerging need of treating cooling and energy consumption as a managed resource. Today, he is a leading voice in the field of sustainable energy solutions and green technology, and a frequent speaker at industry conferences, where he advocates for technology solutions for a better planet.



Dave Litwak

Chief Revenue Officer
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Dave is responsible for overseeing worldwide sales, business development and marketing efforts. In his role, he is leveraging 20+ years of senior leadership experience running software and high technology sales organizations to accelerate growth at Vigilent.

Previously, Dave worked for a myriad of technology companies, most recently serving as Chief Revenue Officer at InFocus, where he ran its worldwide sales team. Before that, he was SVP of Sales at PayNearMe, a FinTech startup; SVP of Sales at MarketLive, a SaaS eCommerce technology provider; and SVP of Sales at Gearworks, which offered location-based mobile business applications.

These companies run the gamut from venture-backed, Silicon Valley start-ups to established companies, and share a common thread of extremely aggressive revenue growth achieved through scaling and optimizing sales organizations, balancing direct and indirect channels, and instilling process, discipline, and accountability.



Dave Lynch

CFO
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Dave leads the Vigilent financial operations, supporting the company’s rapid anticipated growth. He brings 20 years of experience to the administration of finance, accounting and human resources.

Prior to Vigilent, Dave served as Chief Financial Officer of Dust Networks®, where he directed finance, accounting, and human resources and oversaw Dust’s acquisition by Linear Technology Corporation. Prior to that, he served as CFO and Senior Vice President of finance and alliances for Zack Systems. Dave also worked for the assurance and emerging company services divisions at PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, where he worked primarily with software and internet corporations. Before that, he served as a Vice President in Wells Fargo’s East Bay small business financing unit where he sourced and closed over $20 million in commitments.




Jim Rynne

Vice President and General Manager, OEM
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Jim leads the OEM Partners organization, where he brings over 20 years of experience and a track record of entrepreneurial success as a product management executive at both established companies and early-stage startups.

He most recently bootstrapped Novelx and commercialized the company’s innovative nanoscale imaging technology that was acquired by Agilent Technologies. Prior to that, Jim productized the photonic switching technology of Glimmerglass Networks. Jim started his career at AT&T Bell Labs and held a variety of strategy and business development positions at Lucent Technologies.




John Taylor

Managing Director, EMEA
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John is leading the European expansion of Vigilent to complement the company’s growth and success in the United States and Asia.

As an American working in Europe for the last 20 years, John has extensive experience in bringing new concepts to market, and positioning technology in a way that facilitates adoption across different cultures, working with both large and small companies.

Prior to Vigilent, John held a number of roles over five years at Equinix, focused extensively with major European telecoms firms to shape the company’s engagement with global, regional and local service providers.

At Glimmerglass, John developed the European business for photonic interconnection, leading to significant deployments in both government and telecommunications sectors.

John has a keen interest in the ways in which everything is connected, from Layer 0 to the stars or, in the case of Vigilent, from IT load to cooling.




Bob Thronson

Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
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Bob’s professional focus is leading powerful technologies to broad market success. At Vigilent, he is responsible for marketing and development of the company’s global partnerships.

Prior to Vigilent, he led marketing and/or business development at Genesys Telecommunications Labs, Telera, Centex Telemanagement, and Spectrum Services.

Bob is an investor in and advisor to early-stage clean technology companies, especially those with a focus on energy efficiency. He has an MS/BS in Industrial Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration from Stanford University.