Aretta is led by seasoned technology entrepreneurs with an emphasis in telecommunications startups.
Michael A. Rand has worked in the electronics communication industry for over 20 years. He co-founded Future Networks in April 1999 serving as CTO and Vice President of Engineering responsible for developing high speed VoIP and data products for the cable industry. Future Networks was sold to Tellabs in 2001 winning the Georgia Catalyst Magazine’s 2001 “Deal of the Year” award. Most recently he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Fortel DTV from 2004 to 2006, leading the sale of Fortel DTV to QuStream. He is currently a Director and member of the Atlanta Technology Angels serving on the investment screening committee. Prior to forming Future Networks, he worked for Arris Interactive as Sr. Hardware Design Manager responsible for development of their proprietary hybrid-fiber-coax telecommunication system. Before Arris Interactive, he worked for Nortel Networks, GEC Avionics, and Motorola managing and developing products for the telecom, military, and consumer communications industries. Rand received his MS and Bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Marc J. Fribush has been involved with computer telephony since 1995. He was a co-founder and COO of Encounter Technologies, an ATDC (www.atdc.org) member company focused on integrated web-telephony software applications for the social networking marketplace. Encounter was acquired by The Generations Network (formerly MyFamily.com, Inc.) in April 2006. From 1999 to 2003, Fribush was a Senior Product Manager at Yahoo! working with streaming media and telephony products for the investment banking market. Prior to Yahoo!, he was Director of Product Management for Intellivoice Communications, a speech recognition application developer for wireless carriers. Prior to Intellivoice, he held account management positions at Genesys Telecommunication Labs and Dialogic Corporation. Fribush holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland.