Mark Putney has had direct involvement in the high-tech industry since 1984. He has lived in the Silicon Valley since 1978. In 1985 he founded Techsystems Inc. a sales and marketing company promoting high end capital equipment to the semiconductor and printed circuit board assembly industry. The company started from scratch and ultimately exceeded $30M in sales. In 1987 Mr. Putney founded Screen Manufacturing Technologies servicing the PCB assembly industry. After selling his interest for a multiple of 25, the company was sold to an international public firm. Mr. Putney has founded several other businesses in the PCB assembly, electronic product and financial services industries returning well over 200% IRR.

He has direct experience with start-ups and has an extensive network of management, manufacturing and marketing contacts and is well connected with the Venture Capital industry in the Northern California and Texas markets. Mr. Putney founded TAT Capital Partners Ltd. in 1997 and contributed in raising 2 funds totaling approx. $120M in venture partnerships. He has made investments in several early stage technology companies. He has served on the Board of Directors for ZF Micro Devices Inc., Surface Interface Inc. (acquired by FEI Company, NASDAQ: FEIC), Optcom Corporation and Scivac Corporation. Mr. Putney is also serving of the non profit Board of Directors of Teen Challenge of Northern California/Nevada for the rehabilitation of teenage drug and alcohol abuse.