Digital Railroad was founded in the spring of 2003 by Evan Nisselson with the goal of developing ground-breaking digital imaging applications for the professional photo industry.

Charles A. Mauzy, CEO (view archive). Charles Mauzy’s passion and professional career has centered on photography and visual communication for over 30 years. He has been a highly successful professional nature & natural history photographer for over 20 of those years.

His work is published internationally, and his extensive magazine credits include National Geographic, Life, Newsweek, Sierra, Time, Audubon, Geo, Smithsonian, Forbes, Stern and Atlantic Monthly. His photographs have also been featured in numerous advertising campaigns and annual reports for leading companies worldwide, including Boeing, Kodak, Nike, Ford, Phillip Morris, Bristol Myers, Anderson Consulting, Sumitomo, Fuji, DuPont, ARCO and Weyerhaeuser. He is best known for his photographs of the Pacific Northwest forests and mountains, and his fine-art prints are held in numerous private collections.

Charles has been deeply involved in advancing both the business and technology of photography. He was formerly the Director of Photography for Allstock, one of the leading stock picture agencies in the country up to its acquisition in the early 1990s. He subsequently served as Director of Media Development for Corbis Corporation in Seattle, where he supervised worldwide acquisition activities, focusing on image and art collections held by professional photographers, agencies, museums, private and public archives, government organizations, corporations and cultural institutions. Following Corbis, he served as Vice President of Business Development for EyeWire, where he was responsible for bringing together creative content with new digital technologies and developing new business opportunities for creative professionals. Subsequently he served as CEO of Altamira, focused on developing advanced technology solutions for digital imaging applications up to its sale in 2001.

Up to taking his current position at Digital Railroad, Charles served as Microsoft’s General Manager of Strategic Relations, Policy, and Standards for Windows Client Business. His responsibilities include managing key strategic business relationships with industry leading companies’ world wide, managing the Windows Technical Policy and Media Standards teams, and the Child Safety & Family Safe computing team. He also served as Business Architect for Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer, focused on digital imaging technologies and developing Microsoft’s digital imaging strategy.

Maris Berzins, President, has been developing software products and services for over 20 years. Before joining Digital Railroad, Maris worked at Microsoft, where he held multiple roles, including Product Unit Manager, Group Program Manager and Development Manager. His tenure included leadership positions in MSN, Picture It, MSN Photos, Biz Talk Server and Works, shipping over a dozen product versions. Prior to Microsoft, Maris developed software for defense contractors, with a specialty in digital imagery visualization and tactical training and simulation.

Key accomplishments in his career include developing and shipping the first version of MSN Photos; developing the EDGE 2D/3D imagery visualization workstation at Autometric, for key customers in the defense and intelligence communities; participating in a joint NASA/3M/Autometric digital imaging, download and printing demonstration project on Space Shuttle mission STS-48; and successfully developing and deploying tactical training devices for US and foreign militaries. Maris' roles have given him ample opportunity to interact with customers and he has been a speaker at numerous customer events, for both business and technical audiences.

Maris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Purdue University and has taken graduate studies in Mapping Sciences and Engineering, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and Computer Science, from George Mason University. In his spare time, he is an enthusiastic amateur photographer.

Thomas A. Grina, Chief Financial Officer, has over 20 years' experience leading the finance functions of early-stage as well as mature companies. In these roles, Tom has built and managed quality accounting, finance, human resources, and administrative organizations. He has successfully raised over one billion dollars of financing, including a number of public offerings and has completed substantial merger and acquisition and divestiture transactions. Tom also has a proven track record in developing and refining strategic business plans, implementing new systems, and operations management.

Prior to joining Digital Railroad, Tom was CFO at Digeo, Inc., a company that creates home entertainment technologies, including digital media recorder platforms and services. Before Digeo, he was CFO at several telecommunications companies including Advanced Telcom Group, Advanced Radio Telecom, and Dial Page. Tom started his business career in public accounting with the predecessor of KPMG.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Denver and passed the CPA exam in Colorado. He played soccer at the University of Denver, has coached baseball for nine years, and is an avid golfer and wine collector.

Andy Parsons, Chief Technology Officer, has been creating innovative software and building engineering teams for over 10 years. Before coming to Digital Railroad, he led the development effort at Juice Software, a venture-funded startup offering a suite of desktop business intelligence products. As VP of Software Development at ExchangePath, Andy’s team built a disruptive micropayment engine that garnered investment from CMGI. At IconNicholson and Prodigy, he built numerous large-scale Web and client-server products, including many of IBM’s massively scaling Patent Server applications. Andy’s consulting expertise has been tapped by Fortune 500 companies, including L’Oreal, where he advised and mentored the e-commerce development group. He has been an instructor in Web-development platforms and is an active IEEE member. He has also presented at the prestigious DEMO and CTIA conferences.

Andy holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.A. in Music from the Manhattan School of Music. He is an accomplished saxophonist and composer.

Mark Ippolito, Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Ippolito’s career in the photography industry spans more than 20 years, over which time he created new businesses in the photo and digital-media industries, was instrumental in launching new digital-imaging products, and overseeing international sales offices. He established key accounts with top-tier ad agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, Grey Direct, J Walter Thompson, and Foote, Cone & Belding, as well as developed strategic partnerships with companies such as Canon, Extensis, Fuji, Kodak and Nikon. He also has led initiatives with cutting-edge technology companies such as Adobe, amazon.com, Apple Computer and Hewlett Packard.

In senior executive positions at Corbis Corporation, Getty Images and PhotoDisc, Ippolito was among the first wave of sales executives to embrace emerging desktop-publishing technologies and expand their applications to a digitally driven market. As Director of Sales at Corbis Media, he developed business requirements for the e-commerce delivery platform and digital-media products. In multiple key positions at Getty, he managed global sales teams, and implemented programs to migrate Web traffic to the company’s image portal. While there, he launched the Global Major Accounts program, developing custom digital delivery and archiving solutions for top corporations and agencies such as Microsoft, Pearson, Scholastic and Interpublic Group.

Ippolito holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Fordham University in New York City, and is a sought-after speaker at marketing and technology forums. He will be based in Digital Railroad’s Seattle, Wash., office.

Board of Directors

Evan Nisselson, Chairman and Founder (view archive), has worked in the photography industry for 16 years and has focused on digital imaging applications since 1996. He has seven years experience at technology start-ups, from VP Business Development to SVP of Content and Product Strategy, manager of product launches and content teams. Additionally, he has been a photo editor, software developer, lecturer, moderator, contest judge, published photographer and digital imaging consultant.

In 2003, Evan was a digital imaging consultant to Virgilio, the number-one Italian Internet portal, and its parent company, Telecom Italia. He created their new consumer digital imaging channel strategy, financial plan and product roadmap. Virgilio launched their phase 1 channel in March 2004. 

At Eyetide Media, he collaborated with the founders to secure 2M in funding, hire senior management and created a new business model for an image-based marketing business delivered via the Internet. The Eyetide Viewer^TM turns the idle computer screen into a new media channel, allowing partners to broadcast rich interactive content directly to users' desktops every day. To date, more than 7 million users have downloaded the Eyetide Viewer, and over 500 million branded images have been viewed.

As VP Business Development at Eyetide, Evan negotiated and signed deals with Microsoft, AOL, Warner Bros., HBO, washingtonpost.com, Island Def Jam, Getty Images, Magnum, and Time Inc., among others. As SVP of Content and Product Strategy, he hired and managed the content and product design team, developed content partnerships, content production systems and collaborated on product design for the Eyetide Platform.

In 1997, he conceived and managed the first broadband Internet photography portal for Excite@Home, which became a multimillion-dollar joint venture with Intel. Evan has also worked as a photo editor at SABA Press Photos and as an assignment editor on photo book projects, and he continues to work on documentary photography projects: www.nisselson.com

In December 2006, Evan was named to American Photo magazine's "New Power List," the first annual list of people who are creating the technology, business and cultural platforms that will shape the future of photography.

Peter Nisselson is an investor. He is Chairman of Star Struck, Ltd., a public company. Since 1982, he has been investing in small companies, frequently as an officer. These companies have run the gamut from start-ups to mature companies in various industries, such as computer software, catalog marketing, replacement watch battery distribution, records management, consumer perishables, and medical waste disposal. He has also been a director of, and consultant to, private companies.

From 1968 to 1982 he started and developed Cable Information Systems, a CATV owner-operator, and then took it public. He later sold the company to TeleCommunications Inc. Previously he was Assistant to the President of a midsize metallurgical company. He has also been an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

Peter received a BA from Yale University in 1957 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1967.

Mike Brooks is a General Partner at venture capital firm Venrock Associates. His previous experience was with Morgan Stanley & Co., where he was a Managing Director responsible for the firm's investment banking activities with emerging-growth and technology companies, and with J.H. Whitney & Co., where he served as Managing Partner and Senior Partner.

Mike concentrates on information technology investments. He currently also serves on the boards of Optinuity, PerformanceRetail, and MessageOne, Inc. Mike also led Venrock's investment in ProfitLogic. During his 20-year career in the venture-capital industry, Mike has served on the boards of several successful information technology companies, including DecisionOne, Homestore.com, MediaMetrix, Niku, P-Com, Pegasus Communications, Sungard Data Systems and USInternetworking. He has also served as a director of the National Venture Capital Association.

He has a BA degree in History from Yale College and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Ken Gullicksen (view archive) is a General Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, an investment firm with venture capital headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Morgenthaler manages $2 billion in capital and has built over 200 information technology, industrial, and life sciences companies.

Ken has 20 years of experience in Silicon Valley's high-technology industry as CEO, business strategist, marketing/engineering director and venture capitalist. Ken was founding CEO of FiberStreet, Inc., a gigabit network service provider. He previously served as Director of Business Development for Nortel Networks. Ken held a number of market development and engineering roles at Hitachi-Raychem Display Systems and Sun Microsystems.

Ken has a BS in electrical engineering from San Jose State University, San Jose, California, and an MBA from Stanford University. Ken is based in Menlo Park and focuses on software, consumer services and digital media investments. He is a board member of Digital Railroad, imeem, Danal, Nominum and Voltage Security.

Steven Schlenker is a founder, managing partner and chief investment officer of DN Capital Limited, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s compliance and financial responsibilities, looking after DN Capital’s early stage investment strategy. Steve’s area of expertise is in enterprise software and consumer services, and he currently manages DN Capital’s investments in Endeca Technologies, Inc., Datanomic Limited, Digital Railroad, Digital Chocolate, IGA Worldwide and Lagan Technologies Limited.

A private-equity professional for more than 16 years, Steve co-founded DN Capital after a career at the SUN group, where he served as chief investment officer for its European and U.S. technology investments. At SUN, Steve invested in U.S. and European media, IT services, Internet and telecom companies, as well as Central and Eastern European non-technology investments.

Steve received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School with high distinction, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a B.S. in business administration summa cum laude from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Charles Mauzy, CEO

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