Board Of Advisors

William A. Geist, Senior Vice President - CDC Software, Inc., is a senior executive with over 30 years of experience leading technology organizations and directing the application of information technology (I/T) for achievement of business goals. He is a results oriented leader who has served as a consultant, corporate executive, and general manager with profit and loss responsibility. He has demonstrated the ability to transform organizations and improve financial results, with particular expertise at building and growing professional services practices.

Bill earned a BS in Mathematics from Bucknell University and an MBA in Information Systems from the University of Rochester. He is a member of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and has served in various leadership roles within TAG and its predecessor organization, the Business and Technology Alliance.

Jim Borders is the President of Novare Group, Inc., a real estate investment and development company located in Atlanta, Georgia. He started in 1992 and has invested in self storage facilities and office buildings, has developed apartments, condominiums, and office buildings, and has converted apartments to condominiums. While his early projects were adaptive reuse, he is currently developing three new condominium buildings in Atlanta. His major projects include One Park Tower, 10 Park Place South, Renaissance Lofts, The Metropolitan, Peachtree Lofts, The Biltmore, Biltmore House, 33 Ponce, Newnan Lofts, and Peachtree Place. In the past three years, his partnerships have sold over $110 million of condominiums. His new projects are Centennial House, a 101 unit condominium in joint venture with Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, 933 Peachtree, a 498 unit apartment-condominium in joint venture with Wood Partners and TMW, and WN Buckhead, a 400 unit apartment/condominium in joint venture with Wood Partners.

Georgia Tech, Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering
University of Georgia, J.D./M.B.A.
Jim practiced law at King & Spalding before beginning his business career.

Jon Stroup is an EVP and Partner at Slayton Search Partners and has more than 12 years of experience in executive search. He has led senior level engagements for multi-national, mid-cap, and early stage companies in the industrial, business services, distribution, energy, logistics and technology sectors. Previously, Jon was a Partner and Office Manager in the Atlanta office of Egon Zehnder International.

Earlier in his career, Jon spent seven years with Scientific-Atlanta (now a Cisco company), a supplier of broadband communications systems. He managed the Time Warner Cable account, Scientific-Atlanta’s largest customer and the first major buyer of digital video products. Earlier, Jon was a Regional Manager in California and Colorado for Instron Corporation (now a unit of Illinois Tool Works), a supplier of materials testing equipment to defense, industrial and R&D laboratories.

Jon received a BSE with Honors in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University and a Masters in Engineering from MIT.

Professional & Community Activities

• Advisory Board Member of Advocate Networks, LLC
• Advisory Board Member at AdByNet
• Former Director of the Georgia Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT), the MIT Atlanta Enterprise Forum Advisory Board, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Board of Advisors

Stuart Johnson is a Partner in the Business & Finance practice with extensive experience in the areas of middle-market transactions and the private equity and venture capital markets.

Mr. Johnson’s representative experience includes:

• Consummating acquisitions, sales, joint ventures, private equity investments and strategic partnerships Numerous transactions as lead counsel in the telecommunications, manufacturing, plastics, home building, business services, food services and health care industries
• Counseling private companies in structuring relationships between business owners, employment matters, succession planning and state and federal taxation
• Assisting foreign clients in the planning and implementation of their business operations in the United States and in the planning and execution of their international activities

Education

J.D., Order of the Coif, University of Virginia School of Law, 1987

M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1986

B.A., With Distinction, University of Virginia, 1982

Bar & Court Admissions

Georgia, 1987