Pierre Chamberland
Founder in Residence
Pierre has more than 30 years of experience driving product innovation for technology businesses around the world, spanning semiconductors, consumer electronics, and cybersecurity. Prior to joining 85 Advisors, Pierre was CEO of NetGovern, an information governance software company that he founded, grew to an 8-figure business, and subsequently sold in a strategic M&A transaction. Pierre is also an investor, coach, and mentor for software company founders, sharing the valuable experience he has gained during his career as a serial entrepreneur, executive leader, and technologist. He is a strong believer in the transformative power of open-book management and employee-ownership. Pierre is Community Evangelist for the Open Invention Network (openinventionnetwork.com) and the Canadian Council of Innovators (canadianinnovators.org).
Mark Kovarski
Executive in Residence
Mark has more than 25 years of experience driving growth and innovation within Fortune 2000 technology, communications, and financial services companies. Prior to 85 Advisors, Mark served as Senior Managing Consultant at Cisco Consulting Services where he advised some of North America’s largest financial institutions regarding technology strategy, implementation, and digital process transformation. While at Cisco, he was a key member of the strategic development teams responsible for defining Cisco’s M&A and competitive strategies in (Big) Data Analytics and Blockchain. In that capacity, Mark also provided strategic guidance to promising FinTech startups as a Barclays’ Rise NYC accelerator program mentor. Previously, Mark held multiple leadership roles within BMO Financial Group’s IT organization, including business technology strategy and strategic vendor management. Earlier in his career, he led IT operations management teams at Rogers Communications and AT&T. Mark is passionate about using technology to address humanitarian challenges, leading him to co-found The Humanized Internet, a non-profit organization with a mission to provide persistent, secure, global intelligent digital identity to the world’s population, including the 1.5 billion people who currently lack legal identity.
Jeff Fisher
Executive in Residence
Jeff has more than 20 years of experience developing and implementing strategic alliances and go-to-market strategies for several notable emerging and growth-stage infrastructure software companies. Prior to 85 Advisors, Jeff was Vice President of Sales and Alliances at Hysolate, a Team8-backed endpoint security startup, where he led the effort to bring the company’s disruptive secure client hypervisor software solutions to the U.S. market. Previously, he served as Vice President of Strategy and/or Alliances for a number of innovative enterprise software companies, including Softricity (acquired by Microsoft), Desktone (acquired by VMware), RES Software (acquired by Ivanti) and KEMP Technologies. In these roles, Jeff helped conceive and evangelize emerging product categories, such as Application Virtualization and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) that are now multibillion software markets. He was an integral member of executive leadership teams that raised more than $100 million in venture/growth capital and delivered more than $400 million in exit value to shareholders. Earlier in his career, Jeff held technical sales and business development roles at Microsoft and Citrix. He earned a B.A. degree from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School.