Richard L. Harris
General Partner & Founder
Rich Harris led the creation of RedShift Ventures in the Spring of 2006. Mr. Harris currently serves on the board of directors of several RedShift portfolio companies including ProtoStar, DigitalBridge Communications, Lamina Lighting, Nextreme and VBrick. Rich has worked with a number of successful technology companies, including Cronos Integrated Microsystems (acquired by JDS Uniphase), MDLinx (acquired by a division of Sony) and Woodwind Communications (acquired by Vina Technologies).
An active member of the mid-Atlantic entrepreneurial community, Rich currently serves on the advisory boards of the University of Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship and MTECH Ventures. He is a former board member of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA), and a founder and past chairman of the Young Atlantic Venture Association. Rich is a frequent lecturer at UMd, where he is a former Clinical Professor for the R.H. Smith School of Business.
Prior to forming RedShift Ventures, Rich was a Managing Director with SpaceVest and prior to that, a program manager for the Dingman Center. He is also a former practicing attorney, specializing in civil litigation and intellectual property law.
Rich received his B.A. in Economics from Denison University, and both his M.B.A. in Finance and J.D. from University of Maryland, where he was awarded the James E. Dingman Scholarship in Entrepreneurship and served as associate editor of The Business Lawyer. In his spare time, Rich is an avid cyclist.
Mark A. Frantz
General Partner
Mark Frantz currently serves on the board of directors at several RedShift Ventures portfolio companies including Intelliworks, Telarix and TerraGo Technologies. Mr. Frantz also serves on the Board of Directors at ODIN Technologies, the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and the Commonwealth of Virginia's Research & Technology Advisory Council (VRTAC). On a personal level, Mark has also been an investor/advisor to New Media Strategies (acq. by Meredith Corp., NYSE - "MDP"), Sourcefire (Nasdaq - "FIRE") and Luna Innovations (Nasdaq - "LUNA").
Mr. Frantz was previously the Managing General Partner of In-Q-Tel, the strategic venture capital affiliate of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Prior to that, Mark was with Carlyle Venture Partners, where he worked with a number of portfolio companies including Blackboard (Nasdaq - "BBBB"), Imagitas (acq. by Pitney Bowes, NYSE -"PBI"), ISR Solutions (acq. by Stanley Works, NYSE - "SWK"). Mr. Frantz joined Carlyle from Redleaf Ventures, where he worked with various portfolio companies including Lightningcast (acq. by AOL/TimeWarner, NYSE - "TWX"). Prior to Redleaf, he was the Associate to the Senior Chairman of Alex. Brown and he worked extensively with the Technology and Internet groups. Mark has also served as the Associate Director of The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs under President George H. W. Bush and as the economic and technology policy advisor to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, where he came up with idea for the early-stage venture capital fund PA Early Stage Partners (now known as Novitas Capital).
Mr. Frantz is actively involved in the community, having served as the Co-Chair of the Greater Washington Board of Trade Technology Transfer Task Force, a member of the Advisory Committee on Technology Transfer to the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology & Science, Accelerating Innovation/Tech Transfer 2005, the 2002 & 2003 "Technology Transfer in the Mid-Atlantic" Steering Committee, the Chairman of the Northern Virginia Technology Council's Private Equity Committee, Co-Chair of the Program Committee for the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association ("MAVA").
Mark holds J.D. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and a B.A. degree from Allegheny College. Mr. Frantz was an NCAA All-American swimmer at Allegheny and has qualified for the USA Triathlon National Championship nine times.
Srini Mirmira
Partner
Srini Mirmira currently serves on the board of directors of several RedShift Ventures portfolio companies including Imaginova, Novariant, SiOnyx and TerraGo Technologies. Prior to joining RedShift, Dr. Mirmira was with SpaceVest and prior to that, served as a manager of technology evaluation and acquisitions at Boeing. Prior to Boeing, Srini was in business development at Applied Materials and at Intel.
Srini graduated with distinction from Bombay University in Mechanical Engineering, and subsequently obtained a M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University. Srini's research on thermal properties of dielectric thin-films and organic composite materials led to two patents and over fifteen publications in leading scientific journals and professional conferences. Srini also holds an MBA, specializing in finance and economics, from the University of Chicago. Srini is on the Advisory Board of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, is an avid squash player, and enjoys hiking through National Parks.
Jami Ojala
V.P. of Finance
Jami Ojala is the Vice President of Finance for RedShift Ventures, directing the accounting, tax and investment financial activities of RedShift's management company and its investing fund partnerships. Previously, Ms. Ojala worked as a Controller for a technology firm, an SEC reporting manager for a publicly-held healthcare company, and was an audit senior for Grant Thornton. Additionally, she worked as a financial analyst for NASA and is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Jami received a B.S. degree in accounting from George Mason University, where she was a member of the Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honor Society.