Advisors

Tim Root , Co-Founder and Advisor

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Tim Root is a co-founder of VGo Communications and advises the company on technical strategy and implementation. 

Mr. Root has extensive expertise and successfully designed and engineered products that have captured leading market share within the video conferencing industry. Mr. Root has previously held senior management positions at OzVision, Polycom (PLCM) and PictureTel (PCTL) corporations. At OzVision Mr. Root served as CTO and VP Product Development. At Polycom he served as CTO & VP Business Development, which involved overall responsibility for the technical and business direction of Polycom’s Video Division representing over $300M in revenues, and VP Strategy, which involved developing a fully integrated product strategy for the company’s Audio, Video, and Network Divisions. At PictureTel, he held Director of Product Development and CTO positions and led the company to a recognized world class leader in video conferencing. The company was successfully sold to Polycom (PLCM) for $362M.

Mr. Root has also served as a strategic consultant within the video communications industry helping companies create new products and business revenues. Clients have included Avaya, Nortel, RemoteReality, and Revolabs. Prior to PictureTel Mr. Root was a Sr. Engineer developing DSP based defense related imaging systems. Mr. Root has a dual degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Sloan achieving a SM in Management and Engineering, an MSEE, DSP and Video from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a BSEE, Computers from Northeastern University.

Tim Olson - Technical Advisor

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Mr. Olson is a Distinguished Engineer at ShoreTel where he currently drives the direction for ShoreTel's mobility products.  In 2010 ShoreTel acquired Agito Networks where Mr. Olson was the CTO and a founder of the company. Utilizing his diverse background in cellular and 802.11/VoWLAN wireless technologies, he lead the technical direction and architectural planning of the company’s products.

Prior to founding Agito, Mr. Olson was Technical Leader in the Cisco Systems Wireless Networking Business Unit. He was recognized as a “Cisco Innovator” for his leadership in defining the Cisco Structured Wireless Aware Networking, a next-generation architecture providing advanced WLAN security, QoS, mobility, network management, intrusion detection, and RF management.

Mr. Olson joined Cisco Systems in 2000 following the acquisition of JetCell, a wireless startup that developed a GSM Base Station capable of providing GSM cellular service with a VOIP backend. At JetCell, he was an early employee and senior member of the technical staff responsible for system-level product specification, development and deployment. Prior to JetCell, Mr. Olson was Software Architect at Blue Wireless, a start-up that developed a platform using text-to-speech and speech recognition to deliver Internet content over cellular networks. Previously, at Silicon Wireless, a start-up that developed an advanced GSM Base Station and Base Station Controller, he was a key architects for the company’s defining macro-diversity combining feature.

Mr. Olson is a co-author of the initial proposal that is the basis for the forthcoming IEEE 802.11k standard for radio measurement resources. He holds more than 15 patents and pending patents in networking. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California.Mr. Tim Olson is the CTO and a founder of Agito Networks. Utilizing his diverse background in cellular and 802.11/VoWLAN wireless technologies, he currently leads the technical direction and architectural planning of the company’s products.

Mr. Olson is a co-author of the initial proposal that is the basis for the forthcoming IEEE 802.11k standard for radio measurement resources. He holds more than 15 patents and pending patents in networking. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Chico State University.

Roger Walton - Strategic Advisor

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Roger Walton focuses on portfolio development, providing strategic guidance to Castile companies in their formative stages and at critical stages in their development. This guidance encompasses business planning, positioning, partnerships and go-to-market strategies, and draws on an extensive operating background in a broad range of technology businesses. Mr. Walton also leads Castile’s theme-based investment program, which identifies the most productive segments for early-stage investment in upcoming technology and market cycles. He currently participates on the boards of VGo Communications and Whaleback Systems and has previously served on the boards of Neah Power (OTC BB:NPWS), Quantiva (acquired by NetScout), Sandbridge Technologies (acquired by an undisclosed public company) and Stargus (acquired by C-COR).

Prior to joining Castile in 2000, Mr. Walton advised start-up and established businesses – both solution vendors and service providers – on market, product/service, and partnership strategies. Clients included Comverse, SBC, Altiga, Salix, and Xedia. For IT analyst Ovum, he researched and authored several reports on information services markets, developed forecasting models and scenarios for emerging segments, and wrote about a broad range of technologies.

Previously, Mr. Walton was a senior marketing executive at Netlink, Inc. and helped craft the strategic roadmap guiding the success of its frame relay solutions. After the acquisition of Netlink by Cabletron in 1996, Mr. Walton joined Cabletron to lead its carrier marketing initiatives. Prior to Netlink, Mr. Walton was a senior executive at Motorola and Octocom Systems, where he was responsible for marketing a wide range of networking products, and has considerable experience working with service providers to define, develop, and deploy leading-edge communications systems. Mr. Walton speaks frequently on financing and start-up strategies to entrepreneurs and is an advisory board member for The Capital Network. He holds an MA in Mathematics from Oxford University.