Our Team

Nat Goldhaber, Managing Director

Nat is the resident expert on mobile technology with a broad interest in areas such as mobile payments and social networking. His focus on this investment field is built on twenty years of experience in IT as: CEO of Cybergold; founder of Centram Systems West; founding CEO of Kaleida Labs and Vice President of Sun Microsystems. Prior to his business career, Nat served as Special Assistant to Pennsylvania’s Lt. Governor, William Scranton, III. He ran the state’s Energy Agency as its Interim Director. Some past investments include: Ask Jeeves, Shiva and Macromedia. Nat is currently on the board of Adura Technologies, cFares, and TargetCast Networks.

Nat holds a master’s degree in Education and is an emeritus member of the Executive Board of the College of Letters and Science at UC Berkeley. He serves on the Advisory Board for the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, as a member of the US Secret Service Electronics Crime Taskforce, and is a Board Member of the Federation of American Scientists.

Nat lives in Berkeley, California with his wife of 27 years, Marilyn. Their three boys are in college.

 

Randy Hawks, Managing Director

Randy is a Managing Director at Claremont Creek Ventures, bringing more than 25 years of technology industry experience as a senior general manager and venture investor to the group.  Randy invests in Information Technology and has a special interest in Security and Sensor Networks.  In the years prior to co-founding Claremont Creek Ventures, Randy was a General Partner at Novus Ventures and a Venture Partner at Horizon Ventures. Before his venture capital career, Randy had startup experience as CEO at Captiva Software and as COO at Identix (from its founding through IPO and life on NASDAQ).  He served as Sr. VP at AT&T Paradyne and as a VP of Marketing & Division GM at ITT Information Systems (Qume).  Early in his career, Randy served in a variety of roles in the minicomputer business at Texas Instruments and began work as a computer research engineer at Cornell Aeronautical Lab.

Representative investments for Randy at CCV include: Shotspotter, Billeo, Wired Benefits, Blue Vector and Sentilla.  Prior investments include Inapac, Invivodata, Flytecomm, View Central and Be Here.

Randy holds a BSEE from University of Arkansas and has completed the Stanford University Executive Management Program. He serves as a Committee Chair for Keiretsu Forum and is a member of the US Secret Service Electronics Crime Taskforce.

Randy and his wife Bev live in Oakland, California. Their three children are grown.

 

John Steuart, Managing Director

John has spent the last 20 years managing, building and investing in technology and life science companies.  John focuses on the intersection of the information technology and life sciences markets including bioinformatics, molecular diagnostics, genomics, proteomics, software and instrumentation for med-tech industries.

John serves on the board of directors of Arcxis, Tibion, Fluxion, Gene Security Network & Wired Benefits.  He is an Industry Fellow at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the College of Engineering as well as a member of the Advisory Council to the Lester Center's Berkeley Entrepreneurs’ Forum at UC Berkeley. 

Early in his career, he joined Alafi Capital, an Emeryville-based venture firm specializing in early-stage biomedical companies, where he served as an officer of the General Partner.  At Alafi, John lead investments in more than a dozen successful start-ups, and served as the senior executive and board member of various firms such as Tanox, Software Ventures, Lipomatrix, and Megan Health.

In the mid-90s, together with colleague Nat Goldhaber, John helped start Cybergold, an Internet marketing and payments company, serving as the early COO and CFO through its IPO, merger with Mypoints and sale to United Airlines. John continued with the Mypoints unit of United serving as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships.

John lives in Berkeley with his wife and three children, a block away from the Triple Rock brewery. 

 

Ted Driscoll, PhD, Venture Partner

Ted Driscoll is a Venture Partner at Claremont Creek Ventures. He is also an active angel investor and managing director of the Sand Hill Angels, a 50-person angel group.

Prior to his venture capital experience, Ted helped found five successful companies in imaging- related markets. He was founder and CEO of Be Here Technologies, a pioneer in Internet, Broadcast and Videoconferencing technologies. He served as a Division President and CTO of Diasonics, with responsibility for its MRI, ultrasound, digital X-ray, lithotripsy and acoustic ablation technology areas. He had earlier directed the Diasonics technology team that developed the first commercial MRI scanners and numerous advance in MR imaging. Previously, Ted was also Vice President of Engineering and R&D of Identix, now a world leader in fingerprint and face recognition, and Director of R&D at International Imaging Systems, an early pioneer in remote sensing. His research and patents in ultrasound therapy and acoustic hemostasis also led to the founding of another company, Therus, now partnered with Boston Scientific.

Ted holds a PhD from Stanford University in Digital Imaging, Masters degrees from Harvard University in Computer Graphics and Remote Sensing, and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Ted holds 40+ granted U.S. and foreign patents in image-related fields, with approximately 30 additional pending applications.

 

Bradford C. Webb, PhD, Venture Partner

Brad Webb is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in the biomedical and biotech industries. In addition to his active role as a Venture Partner at Claremont Creek, Brad consults with other venture firms specializing in medical and pharmaceutical early-stage investing.

After receiving a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1979, Brad joined 3M Company's ophthalmology products division as a research and development scientist working on designs for post-cataract surgery intraocular lenses. He also supervised human clinical trials and FDA approval processes for 3M. After leaving 3M, Brad led or participated in several start-up ventures in the ophthalmic products industry, with responsibility for research, clinical trials and FDA affairs.

In 1988 Brad founded Vision Biology, Inc., to develop new viscoelastic products for use in eye surgery. Vision Biology's revolutionary patented Viscoelastic Surgical Fluid for use during cataract surgery was licensed to Alcon Laboratories in 1996. Brad spent several years consulting for Alcon on a variety of medical product research and development projects, and recently has participated in investments in biotech and medical technology companies.

Brad is a member of Tech Coast Angels, a Southern California based Angel group, is active with UC Santa Barbara technology programs, and will be instrumental in extending the reach of Claremont Creek into the broader Southern California technology region.

 

Paul Straub, Principal

Paul Straub joined Claremont Creek Ventures in 2005. Prior to joining, Paul worked in product management at VERITAS Software (SYMC) and as a consultant to management at Red Hat Software. He also spent several years as an Associate at Infinity Capital and Information Technology Ventures in Palo Alto where he focused on early-stage investments in software and services companies. Paul began his career at Montgomery Securities and subsequently as a member of the Mergers & Acquisitions Investment Banking team at Thomas Weisel Partners.

Paul serves on the board of TargetCast Networks and Adura Technologies.

Paul holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce.

 

Vidya Sundaram, Associate

VSVidya Sundaram joined Claremont Creek Ventures in 2008. Vidya most recently worked in business development and program development at GreatSchools.net. She began her career at E-Stamp, where she led their USPS compliance team. Vidya has also served as technical lead at Xtime, where she designed resource scheduling systems for Fortune 500 clients.

Vidya holds a dual Masters in Business Administration and Public Policy from UCLA, and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. She advises a number of nonprofits in the San Francisco area and can occasionally be seen performing in black box and large theaters throughout the Bay Area.

 

Tami Flores, Senior Executive Assistant

Tami Flores is the firm’s primary point of contact and communication for limited partners. She joined Claremont Creek in 2005, bringing valuable organizational and client management experience from her previous jobs as administrative assistant to author/academic/science writer Timothy Ferris and customer service specialist at several companies.

Tami holds a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley and resides in the Oakland Hills.

 

Ashlee Cloud, Executive Assistant

ACAshlee Cloud is the Executive Assistant to the Life Science Team at Claremont Creek Ventures. She recently joined the team in Spring of 2008 with seven years of administrative experience in fast paced environments juggling multiple roles such as Senior Assistant/Office Manager/Project Manager and Student Director. She enjoys seeing others succeed and finds fulfillment in assisting them obtain their goals and is appreciative to assist the staff of Claremont Creek.

Ashlee holds a BS in Ministry Leadership from Southeastern University.

 

Kathryn Thorpe, Executive Assistant

KTKathryn Thorpe has six years of administrative experience including Executive Assistant experience as well as Program Management in the entrepreneurial realm from her previous position at the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at the Haas School of Business. There she facilitated entrepreneurship events, managed student entrepreneurship programs and activities, and expanded the Center's outreach to the UC Berkeley campus and the entrepreneurial and venture capital communities.

Kathryn holds a BS in political science from the University of Utah and resides in North Berkeley.

 

    ©2005 Claremont Creek Partners, LLC  
    ©2005 Claremont Creek Partners, LLC