Chairman and CEO
Karen C. Francis joined AcademixDirect in 2009 and serves as Chairman and CEO. She brings a valuable combination of marketing, technology and educational experience to the education marketing company. She was most recently Chairman and CEO of Publicis & Hal Riney, an advertising agency based in San Francisco and owned by global holding company Publicis in Paris, France. Prior to that, she held senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Internet Capital Group and Bain & Company management consulting.
Karen serves on the Board of Directors of Mamapedia.com and has contributed as an advisor to technology companies for the last ten years, including comScore, XL Tech Group, Redloop Media and Scanscout. She also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for Dartmouth College for nine years, honing her expertise in the trends and issues facing higher education today.
The owner of a zinfandel vineyard in Healdsburg, California, Karen is an avid wine collector and is a member of the Napa Valley Vine Trails Coalition. She enjoys hiking and cycling.
Karen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College. She studied at l’Université de Toulouse, France and speaks French.
Founder and Board Director
Al Abhari founded AcademixDirect in 2004 and currently serves as a Board Director. An innovative entrepreneur, he has a successful track record of growing Internet businesses to profitability.
Al honed his unique combination of technical expertise, marketing know-how and industry insight during a decade of business-building in the online media space. In 1999, he founded Streetline, a digital marketing company specializing in online advertising services for the leading insurance carriers across the U.S. He built Streetline into one of the top three online media providers serving 500+ insurance carriers and agents. In 1996, Al founded Trade Connections, a B-to-B barter exchange that leveraged technology to manage systematic barter transactions between manufacturers, retailers, and service providers. Trade Connections was subsequently sold to the American Trade Association in 1998.
Outside the office, Al has a passion for endurance sports, including cycling and running, along with high performance and classic cars. He loves spending time with his wife and two daughters.
Al holds a BS in Management Information Systems from San Jose State University. He speaks Farsi fluently.
Chief Technology Officer
Satish Ramakrishnan brings more than 20 years of experience to his position as AcademixDirect’s Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining the company, Satish served as CTO of CoreObjects where, over a five-year period, he helped grow the company from 40 employees to nearly 500 and established it as the leader in new product development services by assisting in the launch of close to 40 companies and 75 products.
He has also held executive positions at PointCast (AOL), KnowNow, Inc., Good Technologies (Motorola) and Women.com (NBC Universal), as well as key positions at Wipro and BEA. Satish earned a BS in Computer Science from the University of Mysore in India.
Chief Financial Officer
Jeff West joined AcademixDirect in May 2009 to lead accounting, finance, human resources and legal operations. He has significant expertise in daily accounting operations, financial planning and analysis, treasury, IPO preparation, M&A and venture funding.
Jeff previously led the finance functions at MySQL, the leading global open source database software provider. From 2005 through 2008, under Jeff’s financial leadership, revenues soared to $100 million. When MySQL was acquired by Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in February 2008, Jeff led due diligence efforts and ensured a successful integration of MySQL finance systems and staff. Prior to MySQL, Jeff held finance executive positions at Omnicell Inc. and Redback Networks.
Jeff holds an MBA from Golden Gate University and a BA in Accounting from San Jose State University. He speaks passable English and fluent accountant-ese.
Board Director
Jamie Claire joined AcademixDirect as its second founding member and brings significant experience in operational organization and contract development to the Board of Directors.
Prior to joining AcademixDirect, Jamie was responsible for contracts development and corporate compliance at Toshiba International Corporation in San Francisco, California. During her tenure at Toshiba, she was responsible for contract formation of the company’s largest sales, the implementation of corporate policy, and cross-functional execution involving sales, finance, administration, engineering and aftermarket departments. Before Toshiba, Jamie worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ corporate finance group and the law firm of White & Case in Tokyo, Japan.
Jamie earned a Juris Doctorate and Certificate in International Law from Golden Gate University and a BA cum laude in Asian Studies and Political Science from Tufts University. She speaks Japanese fluently.
Board Director
Gustavo Alberelli joined Kennet in 2005 and focuses on investments in software, Internet and technology-enabled services. He works extensively with portfolio companies on optimizing the efficiency of their respective sales models.
Gustavo brings a decade of experience working with high-growth technology companies from different vantage points, including financial advisor, employee and venture investor. Beyond his role at AcademixDirect, he is a Board member at TradingPartners, a Board Observer at IntelePeer, and an angel investor in Designer Apparel.
Before Kennet, Gustavo worked at Trinity Ventures in Menlo Park, California. Prior to venture capital, he worked in marketing and business development at Saltare, an enterprise start-up in San Mateo, California funded by DFJ and Sutter Hill. Gustavo began his career in the technology investment banking division of Robertson Stephens. He has also consulted for companies like WebMD.
Gustavo holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Swarthmore College. He speaks Spanish fluently.
Board Director
Javier Rojas has led Kennet’s U.S. investment activities since 2000. He is a specialist in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Internet business models, and is an experienced coach to young companies as they seek to scale their market reach.
Javier’s influence can be seen in the success of companies like project management software vendor Daptiv and healthcare analytics business Medefinance. He has also been instrumental in a number of successful exits for founder-led businesses, including most recently NetPro and Adviva. He also serves on the boards of Kapow Technologies and IntelePeer. He lectures regularly on entrepreneurship and bootstrapping.
Before joining Kennet, Javier led investment bank Broadview’s West Coast software and services practice and specialized in helping founder-led bootstrapped businesses achieve high exit values. He has invested and/or advised on a number of successful companies including Etek, Webex, Looksmart, Blue Mountain Arts, When.com and Rightworks. Javier has also been an entrepreneur himself, having founded a software company targeting the financial services market. Previously, he gained international experience in corporate finance and capital markets at Morgan Stanley in New York City and London.
Javier holds and MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS/BA in Finance and Computer Science from Georgetown University. He speaks fluent Spanish.