Sylvan Source Directors

Brief Biographies


Laura Demmons - Robert J. Frankenberg - John Sylvia - Lawrence H. Dubois


Laura Demmons, Chairman

Laura Demmons is a founder and CEO of Sylvan Source, and a 20-year veteran with a successful track record of growing teams and businesses. Ms. Demmons has been an entrepreneur in the "CleanTech" industry since 2001.

Ms. Demmons started her career in sales with Eastman Kodak and then joined Hewlett-Packard in 1988. She spent 12 years with Hewlett-Packard in a variety of business management positions in technology areas ranging from high speed cable modem and interactive television infrastructures to PCs, servers and storage.

Prior to becoming a CleanTech entrepreneur, Ms. Demmons was CEO for TDC-The Design Company, a marketing and product design firm.

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Robert J. Frankenberg

Bob Frankenberg currently chairs Kinzan, a leading provider of internet services platforms. Mr. Frankenberg was the chairman, president and CEO of Encanto Networks when the company's major business was sold to Avaya in July 2000. Prior to Encanto, Mr. Frankenberg was the chairman and CEO of Novell, the world's largest networking software company and corporate vice president & group general manager of Hewlett-Packard's Personal Information Products Group. Mr. Frankenberg joined Hewlett-Packard in 1969 as a manufacturing technician, later became a design engineer, software engineer, project manager, engineering and marketing executive and general manager.

Mr. Frankenberg serves as a member of the board of directors of public companies ElectroGlas, National Semiconductor, Nuance Communications, and Secure Computing, as well as private companies BroadWeave, Digital Bridge, Kinzan and Sylvan Source. He also serves on the advisory board of the Sundance Film Festival and is a member of the Westminster College Board of Trustees.

Mr. Frankenberg is widely published, a frequent public speaker and holds several computer design patents. He has received numerous awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal, Smithsonian Jefferson Scholar, Distinguished Utahan, and SJSU College of Engineering Distinguished Graduate. He was recently inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame.

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John G. Sylvia

John G. Sylvia is a founding partner of Aqua International Partners, L.P., a private equity fund sponsored by the Texas Pacific Group and focused on the water and alternative energy sector. Mr. Sylvia has spent 20+ years in finance and operations, both in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Sylvia began his career with a concentration on international finance and merchant banking activities, working with European and Asian firms seeking joint venture investments in the United States, Europe and Asia. While serving as an adjunct professor of Applied Economics and Finance at the University of San Francisco, he joined a team to form a public vehicle (Cal Energy Co.) to finance, and own/operate geothermal power stations. Following a successful public offering, Mr. Sylvia served as CFO -growing market capitalization from $200 million to $2 billion, both raising and investing over $5 billion to finance global investments in renewable and traditional energy facilities through mergers and acquisitions, and transitioning acquired operations into an integrated platform. With the completion of the company's international expansion plan, Mr. Sylvia concentrated on the integration of global business units - the success of which led to the acquisition of the company by a unit of Berkshire Hathaway.

Mr. Sylvia serves on the board of Grupo Rotoplas, ITB/ PIT Brewing and Sylvan Source. He has also served on the board of Jain Irrigation Systems, and as a director and officer of Northern Electric plc, Magma Power Co., CE Indonesia, and CE Philippines. He holds a B.Sc. in Finance and an MBA from Santa Clara University, California.

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Lawrence H. Dubois

Dr. Dubois is corporate vice president and head of the Physical Sciences Division of SRI International where he leads a group of over 160 scientists and engineers focusing on the development and commercialization of technologies impacting a broad range of important problems including energy, environment, healthcare, national security and transportation. Before joining SRI, Dr. Dubois was the director of the Defense Sciences Office at DARPA and a distinguished member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Dr. Dubois received his BS degree in Chemistry from MIT and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of over 130 publications and holds numerous U.S. and foreign patents. His many honors include the prestigious IR100 and Alpha Chi Sigma awards as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Outstanding Achievement and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

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