Cedar Ventures - Meet the Team

Karen Kassouf, kassouf@cedarventures.com. Ms. Kassouf, Managing Member and founder of Cedar Ventures, has 25 years of experience in the health care, insurance and financial service sectors, serving in different capacities including that of securities lawyer, investment banker, business development officer at an operating company and investor. She founded Cedar Ventures in 2000 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1993 to 2001, Ms. Kassouf initiated and ran Cedar Equities, the venture capital subsidiary of Western Indemnity Insurance Company, an insurance entity in Texas. Prior to that, she initiated and spearheaded the health care investment banking unit in the Southwest for Chemical Banking Corporation (now Banc One and JP Morgan Chase), building up the unit to where it ranked third in the state of Texas for hospital debt financings (1989-1990), generating $4-$5 million in fee income with 20+ new accounts. Ms. Kassouf was a significant deal team member on two health care leveraged buyouts while at Chemical Banking Corporation, including the 1989 AMI buyout using $1.6 billion of financing. Prior to joining Chemical Banking Corporation and Texas Commerce Bank, she served as a securities lawyer for Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon, New York, New York, where she worked on financings for electrical utilities, public power and power cooperatives, water districts and hospitals.

Ms. Kassouf is a member of the New York and Texas Bar Associations, Atlanta Venture Forum, National Venture Capital Association, and a founding advisory board member of Women Business Leaders and a member of the US Healthcare Industry Foundation, a Washington, D.C. group of senior health care executives across the country and overseas. She is a member of the boards of the ATFL in Washington, D.C. and of Create Your Dreams in Atlanta, Georgia, an after school youth development and enrichment program. Ms. Kassouf also studies Arabic at the Alif Institute and plays competitive league tennis in Atlanta.

Ken Fox, fox@cedarventures.com. Mr. Fox provides marketing expertise to Cedar Ventures and is based in Charleston, South Carolina. He has held senior marketing and business development positions with Hill Rom (a division of Hillenbrand Industries), the Nutra-Sweet Company and Hunt-Wesson. He has done extensive work in obese patient care; set up and assessed in-hospital trials for new medical devices; conducted market assessments for the wound care industry, the MRI service market, the cosmetic surgery market, hospital infection control devices, and for medical devices in Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan.

Mr. Fox received a BBA from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Pepperdine University. He is a mentor in The Citadel's Charleston, South Carolina-based MBA program and is the former chairman of the South Carolina World Trade Center.

Julianne Kampling, kampling@cedarventures.com. Ms. Kampling is based in Brussels, Belgium and provides Cedar Ventures with research analysis, business development expertise and M&A experience. She is experienced in the industry sectors of polymers, energy and chemicals, fluids and resins. She has done corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning for Cargill Corporation, BP Amoco and Dow Corning. At BP Amoco, she oversaw the divestiture of the engineering polymers business for the Engineering Polymers and Carbon Fibers business unit. She also worked in Chemicals Development and Petroleum Products, and was responsible for investments and transactions ranging from $2 million to $1 billion. Prior to this, Ms. Kampling was a Development Engineer at Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, Michigan where she focused on their fluids and resins business and developed and commercialized new products valued at $70 million.

Ms. Kampling graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Chemical Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) and Chemistry (High Honors) and an MBA (with High Distinction).

Andrea Serrate, seratte@cedarventures.com. Ms. Seratte, CPA, is a consultant to Cedar Ventures. She has been a consultant to hospitals, physician practices and specialty service providers in the areas of revenue cycle management, practice assessments, managed care program/IPA product development, process improvement, financial analyses, budgets, information system selection, implementation and strategic planning. Ms. Seratte has been the Vice President of Operations in the Southwest region for BMJ Medical Management, Inc., Vice President of Operations for Rehab Managed Care of Arizona, as well as Vice President of Finance for the Medical Rehabilitation Hospital Division and regional CFO for Novacare.

Ms. Serrate received a BA in Accounting from Florida Atlantic University and a BS from the University of Massachusetts. She is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a board member of the Children's Angel Foundation Hacienda Inc.

Donald W. Moran, www.themorancompany.com. Mr. Moran is an adviser to Cedar Ventures. He founded the Moran Company in 1998 after a 24 year career in the health and human services fields with Value Health, the Lewin Group, ICF Inc., and the OMB. The Moran Company offers clients the capacity to design, implement and manage complex projects involving professional and business service vendors from multiple sources. The Moran Company provides health care clients with resources in the areas of Health Care Benefits Management, Public Sector Managed Care Contracting, Provider Reimbursement and Contracting, and Health Policy Analysis. Clients include major health trade associations, private equity investors and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Mr. Moran received a BS in mathematics from the University of Illinois and subsequently completed a graduate program in Employment and Training Program Administration at the University of Michigan.

Cynthia Kassouf, cakassouf@cedarventures.com, advisor and consultant to Cedar Ventures, PMP, MS - Project Management Professional and Certified Six Sigma Green Belt with over 16 years experience in the Telecommunications sector including at AT&T, Ameritech in the US. She was Senior Account Executive, Motorola National Account, Chicago, IL, 1988-1992; Director, Corporate IT and Project Director, Compliance at CNA Financial Corporation. Ms. Kassouf has over 12 years of project management experience with multi-million dollar projects, process development, risk mitigation, and execution for results including while at CNA Financial Corporation. She also has experience in product development, pricing, and process development, creating new revenue opportunities and streamlining costs. She is a member of the Project Management Institute, an associate member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the American Quality Institute.

Ms. Kassouf has a B.A. in Economics from Bucknell University, a Master of Science in Management from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey and a Master's Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University/ESI, Georgetown, VA. Ms. Kassouf is currently assisting Cedar Ventures with an overseas telecommunications project.

David Gaither, gaither@cedarventures.com, has been working with Cedar Ventures on various projects since June of 2009. Mr. Gaither has experience modeling and structuring new investments. He has been a summer associate at Brook Venture Partners in Wakefield, MA, prior to which he was worked at Accenture LLP as a consultant to the software, healthcare, retail and utilities industries among others. Mr. Gaither was also a senior market associate at Vertis Media, Atlanta, where he developed growth strategies for retail, automotive and industrial clients. He founded and was an investor in a footware technology for the athletic, orthopedic, military, industrial and leisure footwear sectors - he obtained a patent for this technology.

Mr. Gaither has a Masters degree in Business Administration from Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business and also graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College in Atlanta with a Bachelor degree in Business Administration.

Louise Godwin, godwin@cedarventures.com, provides finance administration to Cedar Ventures and is available to assist with internal finance operations of client companies. Ms.Godwin has assisted start up, early stage companies as well as large multi-national companies in implementing accounting systems and overseeing tax and general service areas. Ms. Godwin is fluent in four languages at the business transaction level and has lived, worked and conducted business within the United States, Europe and the Middle East. She has industry expertise in the consumer products-import/exports, oil and gas, health care, technology and software, telecommunications and non profit sectors. She has also held the following positions:

Accounting consultant to a privately owned hospice company in the Southeast, a financial trading company, and a company that manufactures electronic devices
Accounting Manager for the American Heart Association
Accounting Director for Equant, a telecommunications company based in Paris, France
Finance Manager for Carrier1 France SARL, a telecommunications company based in Paris, France
Accounting and Fiscal Manager and International Accounting Analyst for Concert Global Networks France SA, Paris, France (joint venture between AT&T and British Telecommunications)
Chief Accountant and Fiscal manager for BT France
Various accounting positions with ICG Services (computer manufacturing), Paris, France; Generale d'Importation, Paris, France; Paul Weil& Fils (import/export), Beirut, Lebanon and Paris, France; and Shell Corporation, Beirut, Lebanon

Ms. Godwin also has software expertise in Oracle, Peachtree SAP, QuickBooks, PeopleSoft and Microsoft Excel (advanced). She has a BBA degree in Business Administration from Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon, and has studied business at the MBA level at American University, Beirut, Lebanon. She is fluent in French, English, and Armenian and is conversant in Arabic.