Laura L. Lukaczyk

Laura Lukaczyk is the Founder and Managing General Partner of Avansis Ventures, LLC. Avansis has invested in Cognio, Covega, Exent, iPhotonics (NYSE: SLR), Trust Digital, and Tucana Technologies Inc. Laura has over fifteen years of entrepreneurial and venture capital experience. She has participated in the startup of successful companies, and in all aspects of their growth and financing – both from the investing and operating sides of the business. Laura has a first hand understanding of the motivations and challenges experienced by new companies and their founders. Laura currently serves on the board of Tucana Technologies Inc. and Exent Technologies Ltd.

Prior to Avansis, Laura was a consultant for New Enterprise Associates ("NEA") in its Reston, Virginia office. At NEA she participated in investing nearly $85 million in companies such as DataCore, Exent, TeleGea and WNP (acquired by Nextlink).

Prior to NEA, she was the founding CFO at Denwa Communications and previous to this, the Director of Sales at International Communications Corp. ("ICC"), which grew to $100 million in annualized revenues within 14 months. Laura’s prior investment experience includes working as a manager of private equity placements for Multifinance Holding Corp., a family fund with $100 million under management. Her prior technical experience includes semiconductor engineering and manufacturing for the Delco Electronics Division of General Motors.

Laura is co-chair of the Centennial Celebration for the Chemical Engineering School of the University of Wisconsin. Laura also serves on the Incubator Advisory Board of the Reston Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the NVTC Private Equity Committee. She received her MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School and her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Laura serves as a member of the Technical Advisory Board at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Engineering School.

Laura can be reached at 703.796.0222.

Brownell Chalstrom
Venture Partner

Brownell Chalstrom has worked with Avansis since 2002. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Trust Digital and Deepfile Corp. in Austin.

Brownell has been a pioneer at the intersection of software and communications. He was General Manager of Lotus Notes and an engineering Vice President at BBN. He helped found three start-ups (Amplitude, PrimeStreet, and Ceres Systems). He has consulted to a number of leading companies, including Microsoft, Verizon, Polycom, Unisys, and Xircom. He was the marketing VP at DataCore Software and JetForm (now Adobe).

He earned engineering degrees from MIT and the University of California Berkeley.

Brownell can be reached at 703.880.6795.

Betsy A. Atkins
Special Limited Partner

Betsy Atkins is a former co-founder of Ascend Communications. As an independent venture capitalist focusing on investments in early stage high tech companies, Betsy is referred to by industry observers as a leading "tech angel". Her career includes several entrepreneurial startups such as Amplitude and operational management experience with a variety of high tech companies. Betsy also sits on the board of directors of Laurel Networks, Polycom, Inc., UTStarCom and the Florida International University ("FIU"). She is a guest lecturer at Stanford University and FIU. Her educational background includes scholarships to Oxford University and the University of Copenhagen and a BA from the University of Massachusetts.

Betsy can be reached at 703.796.0222.

Christine Hughes
Venture Partner

Christine Hughes joined Avansis as a Venture Partner in 2001. Christine is the CEO and co-founder of Achievement Plus, a private company that works with community organizers to provide year-round tutoring for kindergarten through twelfth-graders. She has over twenty-five years of experience in marketing information technologies and business development, holding senior executive positions in Fortune 50 to small companies. Christine is a member of the board of directors of Infodata and Rightforce, and is a board advisor of Whale Communications and PrivacyRight, all high-tech companies. Her prior experience includes Senior VP of Marketing and Business Development for Secure Computing Corp., Senior VP of Corporate Marketing for Novell and VP of Integrated Marketing for the U.S. operations for Xerox. She was also VP of two advisory services for Gartner Group. She serves on the Boards of Trustees for the Computer History Museum. Christine received a BA from San Francisco College for Women.

Christine can be reached at 703.796.0222.

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