Tom comes from a background in high performance computing and includes work on the Semantic Web and the architecture of a semantic database management system.  Having held multiple CEO and Chairman roles, he is well versed in all areas of business, and has a particular expertise in strategic market/product/sale-channel decisions critical in startups and turnarounds.  He founded and took public a software company that subsequently reached a $1B market cap.  He has done multiple turnaround assignments for both early stage venture-financed companies as well as publicly traded companies.  Most recently, he stepped in as interim-CEO of PureSense Environmental, a green tech company in sustainable agriculture; he shifted the business model and ramped sales  10x over the prior year.  Startup/turnaround assignments have generally included financial restructuring and raising new capital from tier 1 venture capitalists.  Tom completed his undergraduate work in linguistics at Yale and complimented this with PhD-level work in artificial intelligence at MIT.

Robert Foster      

Founder and Managing Director

Robert has worked with TechnoServe and Paso Pacifico to lead & advise market-based poverty reduction initiatives in Latin America and East Africa.  Robert has also worked with Criterion Ventures to advise strategy development for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation's Marine Fisheries Conservation and Science Program.  He the co-founder of ReefScape, a public-sector initiative dedicated to the socio-economic and ecological monitoring and conservation of SouthEastern Cuba’s coral reef habitats. Before founding Capitopia Robert also worked as the resident conservation scientist aboard the Quiksilver Crossing, the most successful marketing program in the history of the surf industry. He speaks fluent French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Robert holds a MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management from Oxford University.