Samarth Sarthi
Chief Executive Officer
Samarth is the President and Founder of SCA Technologies, where he has led the effort to produce dramatic results for clients through the development and implementation of business analysis solutions. Prior to SCA, he was the co-founder and Vice President of Logistics and Technology for HubOne Logistics, a 3rd party logistics provider that produced benchmark results in the area of distribution costs. During his tenure at HubOne, he conceptualized, designed and led the development of a revolutionary logistics integration software tool that optimizes the flow of goods in a multi-echelon distribution network. Before co-founding HubOne, Samarth rapidly progressed to senior management responsibilities at Northside Foods, where he was recognized for his proven capabilities in strategic supply chain management and business development. He started his career at Xerox where he was involved with strategic sourcing. Samarth has been a guest lecturer on Operations Management and Strategic Cost Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University, where he obtained his Masters Degree in Management. He is also involved with several philanthropic organizations associated with children’s education.
Roger Byford
Technology Executive
Roger holds an MA in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University. He held technical and managerial positions at the British Broadcasting Corporation and Westinghouse Electric Corporation before founding Vocollect, Inc. in 1987. Roger was the Chairman of Vocollect from its founding until the company was sold to Intermec in early 2011. He was Chief Executive Officer for most of the company’s history and successfully raised funds from angel investors, institutional venture capitalists, strategic investors, mezzanine debt lenders and private equity. In addition Roger led a team dedicated to finding new markets for Vocollect. He selected a company to acquire, led the acquisition and ran the acquired entity for a time after the acquisition. Roger was a regional E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year winner in 2004 and the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association’s Outstanding Entrepreneur for 2006. He holds numerous US and UK patents.
David Kowal
President – Champion Foods
With over 25 years of food and beverage experience, David Kowal currently serves as the President of Champion Foods, a manufacturer of both branded and private label products. Prior to Champion Foods, David was President and Chief Executive Officer of Distant Lands Coffee Company, a specialty coffee company in Washington. David has also served as President of Dawn Food Products and held several leadership positions in management, operations and sales & marketing for Dawn Foods and The Pillsbury Company. David holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Michigan.
