Company Bios

Search Team

TIMOTHY J. TONELLA
Chief Executive Officer

Tim joined Matchstar Venture Search in May of 2006 to focus primarily on business development and funding opportunities. He is also a principle in PacificWave Partners, a privately held international financial advisory firm that specializes in PIPE [private placement] financings for micro and small cap publicly traded companies, and a partner in SCIUS Capital, a full-service New York based investment banking firm that provides intellectual property commercialization, M&A, strategic/advisory and transactional services.

Previously, Tim was the Senior Vice President/General Manager of Western Operations for Merrill Corporation, a billion dollar privately held technology company that provides content delivery solutions for the financial and legal marketplace. His responsibilities included overseeing all business operations, strategic initiatives, and sales development in the areas of M&A due diligence, electronic content distribution, and document life-cycle management. Mr. Tonella and his team worked primarily with private equity and venture capital firms, investment banks, attorneys in the securities, corporate finance, and restructuring areas, public company finance and legal departments, and Big Four accounting firms.

Prior to joining Merrill in 2000, Tim was a Vice President for Bowne Financial and the General Manager of a manufacturing and product licensing company. Additionally, he held a variety of business development positions with RR Donnelley in their international, telecom, and information services business units. Tim is the current Chairman of the San Francisco Business Forum (the leading Bay Area networking organization for financial intermediaries), a former member/sponsor of the Life Science Angels, and president of New View Investment Services – a management consulting firm that helps early stage companies commercialize intellectual property. Tim graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Tim is a hard core full contact fighting fan and participant, enjoys traveling and personal training. He currently lives in the city of San Francisco with his wife and two children.

CAROLYNE P. CONNOR
President

Carolyne founded MatchStar in early February 1999 with partner, Heidi Harrison. Carolyne and Heidi have worked together since 1986. Carolyne is trained in behavioral interviewing and is focused on building successful management teams for fast growth, technology companies.  She refined a unique process for profiling, recruiting, interviewing, and benchmarking candidates that has increased the ROI for executive placement.  She is a serial entrepreneur who put herself through college by starting a property management company.   After winning the Deloitte & Touche Human Resource Management Award in 1995, Carolyne decided to sell her property management company in order to focus on building other companies. From 1995-1998, she was a Manager for Temps & Company where she helped the company revenues grow from $20 million to $42 million. She launched the first Job Store in 1997 which was featured in Inc. Magazine within 6 months of opening. During that time period, she helped build teams at companies such as: Microstrategy, LCCI, Teligent, AOL, Booz-Allen, EDS, Discovery Channel, US Airways, ARC, Jones Day, World Bank, Boeing, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Marasco Newton, Friedman Billings Ramsey, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Conservation Fund, March of Dimes, and United Way. In 1998, she decided to launch a new business strictly focused on building the management teams of fast growing, venture-backed technology clients.

In 1995, Carolyne received a B.A. in Business Administration (New and Small Business) from Georgetown University.  During college, she won 1st Place in the Women's Kumite, Eastern Regional Karate Championships for 3 years in a row.  Carolyne lives in the city of San Francisco where she is the proud wife and mother of two.

HEIDI HARRISON
Senior Vice President of Operations & Research

Heidi co-founded Matchstar in February 1999. She currently oversees the development and maintenance of MatchStar’s proprietary database and is credited with sourcing over 2,000 new executive candidates into the Matchstar network. Heidi is also responsible for the operation and management of recruiters and research personnel. These staff members enable MatchStar to “flex up” in high capacity periods and meet the demand requirements of clients with highly tailored industry needs.

Carolyne and Heidi have worked together since 1986, when she originally assisted Carolyne with her property management company. In 1997, Heidi worked with Carolyne to launch the first Job Store, where she was responsible for the account management and development of over 50 new clients in her first year. Heidi recruited, interviewed, trained, and placed candidates in the environmental, banking, media, government contract, non-profit, high tech, and communications industries. This experience led to the development of a new process for recruiting, interviewing, and training teams, which served as the platform for Matchstar’s current placement services. She began her industry career in Human Resources at First Union National Bank and is certified in Targeted Selection © behavioral interview training by Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Heidi earned a B.S. in Business Management with a Finance concentration from Clemson University. She enjoys hiking, bicycling, and refinishing antique furniture and lives with her husband and young daughter in Maryland.

ANNA BROWN
Director of Research

Anna joined Matchstar in June 2006 to oversee our growing research group. She has a history of project management in various research areas, as well as production and marketing experience with several early stage technology companies. Anna and her team’s focus is on identifying key candidates for target select headhunting and managing Matchstar’s growing database and referral network. Additionally, she plays a key role in our marketing/communications of available job positions, compensation statistics, and industry segment news.

Prior to joining Matchstar, Anna spent four years working for the RTC Group, where she was in charge of European ad sales and management of the company’s EMEA dynamic client database. Additionally, she played an integral role in the launching of two European technology based publications and the production and marketing of a number of worldwide computer conferences, including a custom tour of events for Microsoft. Anna was the founding member and assistant producer of the Telluride Technology festival from 2000-2005, and has held positions with other technology related services companies Powerware Global Services, the Tech Coast Corporation, and web design firm Grafix. She graduated from the University of Arizona with an emphasis in Political Sciences and Psychology.

Financing Team

TIMOTHY J. TONELLA
CEO, New View Investment Services, Inc.

Tim is the CEO of NVIS, a consulting firm that assists early stage companies raise capital funding through institutional sources. NVIS works primarily through two NASD licensed investment banks, Pacificwave Partners and SCIUS Capital. Tim’s focus is on private investments for micro to small cap publicly traded companies (PIPE transactions) and “Series A” venture capital syndications in the healthcare, technology, cleantech, and consumer spaces.

Additionally, Tim serves as CEO of Matchstar Venture Search and President of Oryxe Inc., an intellectually property company that licenses transdermal delivery systems for pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President/General Manager of Western Operations for Merrill Corporation, a billion dollar privately held technology company that provides content delivery solutions for the financial and legal marketplace. Mr. Tonella and his team worked primarily with private equity and venture capital firms, investment banks, attorneys in the securities, corporate finance, and restructuring areas, public company finance and legal departments, and Big Four accounting firms.

Tim is the current Chairman of the San Francisco Business Forum (the leading Bay Area networking organization for financial intermediaries) and a former member/sponsor of the Palo Alto based Life Science Angels. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

JAY PLOURDE
Founder and CEO, Scius Capital

Jay Plourde is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SCIUS Capital and manages the firm’s Mergers and Acquisition practice and sources and executes engagements and transactions for clients. Mr. Plourde has more than eighteen years of experience advising clients on capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, financing strategies and providing strategic advisory services. Mr. Plourde has executed numerous transactions across a wide range of industries and has helped commercialize several life science technologies, industrial technologies – including Cleantech – and information technologies.

Prior to founding SCIUS Capital in 2000, Mr. Plourde held several executive positions with Credit Suisse First Boston, Credit Lyonnais and CBS Publishing Group. In 1987, he helped establish and develop a research and publishing start-up, 13D Research Inc., and co-founded the 21st Century Digital Industries Fund, L.P. in 1992. Mr. Plourde holds a B.S degree from University of Missouri. He currently serves on board of several companies including HydroFuel Systems Inc., EAI Corporation and Cold Spring Harbor Research Laboratory. Previously he served on board of Atlantic Stem Cell Technologies and Filter Control Technologies.

HENRIK ROUF
Managing Partner, PacificWave Partners

Henrik is the Managing Partner of Pacific Wave Partners, a privately held international financial advisory firm providing investment banking services to micro, small and mid capitalization public companies in Europe, United States and Canada. Henrik, Tim, and the Matchstar team work together in helping provide private placement financings for small to midsize publicly traded companies.

Henrik has over 18 years experience in the international financial services industry as a securities professional. From 1996 through 2003, Mr. Rouf was Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Impact Capital in San Francisco, in charge of the private placement division of the company. From 1991 through 1996, Henrik was Senior Portfolio Manager of PVH Fund Managers, a London-based hedge fund manager. He started his career in 1986 with Den Danske Bank in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In early 2004, Henrik launched Los Angeles-based PacificWave Partners, overseeing the company's investment banking practice, including origination, structuring, and financing of publicly traded emerging growth companies in the US and Canada.