Our People
Senior Advisors
Lee Bailey
Lee is a Managing Director for US Renewables Group, which focuses on investing in renewable energy. He joined from Rustic Canyon where he was a Partner. Previously, Lee was the founding director of a $60 million joint U.S. and Israeli government fund investing in joint ventures to commercialize energy, information and healthcare technologies. Lee also served as the White House Director for International Science and Technology Programs from 1995-1997. From 1986 to 1992, Lee held various senior management positions with Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
Michael Kim
Michael is the founder and Managing Partner of Cendana Capital, a next generation fund-of-funds investing in private equity. Prior to the founding of Cendana Capital, Michael was a Partner at Rustic Canyon. Formerly an investment banker, Michael was with Morgan Stanley’s Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Group in Menlo Park and was directly involved with 27 announced transactions worth more than $77 billion for such clients as Hewlett-Packard, Ciena, Seagate, Bay Networks, Netscape and Texas Instruments.
Renee LaBran
Renee is the founder and Partner as RC/Fontis Partners, a growth equity firm investing in businesses targeting ethnic markets in the consumer goods and services, media and business services segments. Previously, Renee was a founding Partner with Rustic Canyon. Prior to Rustic Canyon, Ms. LaBran held a variety of executive positions with the Los Angeles Times/ Times Mirror in the areas of digital media, advertising sales, investments, and strategic planning. During her tenure, she managed revenues in excess of $300 million and oversaw more than 200 employees. She was also a co-founder and served as Chief Executive Officer of CareerPath.com (now CareerBuilder), and a co-founder and board member of Classified Ventures. Prior to Times Mirror, Ms. LaBran was a management consultant with the Monitor Company in the United States and Europe and managed its Los Angeles office.
Shoa-Kai Liu
Shoa-Kai brings 30 years of diverse technical and management experience to his role as a senior advisor to Rustic Canyon. He spent 22 years with MCI, focused on the networking technology developments and deployments that today form the backbone of the Internet. Prior to MCI, his experiences also included working in various government projects such as the OTH Radar System, the SDI, the NASA Space Telescope ground data network system and the USAF Consolidated Space Operation Center Communication System Modernization. Shoa-Kai has been awarded four patents.
Mark Menell
Mark has 20 years of strategic, financial advisory and investment experience with a focus on companies in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. Mark was a founding Partner at Rustic Canyon. Previously, he was an investment banker, most recently co-head of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Merger & Acquisitions Group, based in Menlo Park. During Mark’s tenure, where he was responsible for advising on more than 50 completed transactions valued in excess of $150 billion involving clients such as Excite@Home, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Netscape, USWeb/CKS and VeriSign.
Michael Song
Michael was a founding Partner at Rustic Canyon. Previously, he was director of corporate investments with Times Mirror, overseeing its venture capital portfolio. Prior to his tenure at Times Mirror, Michael was a consultant with the Los Angeles office of the Boston Consulting Group, where he focused on online financial services, convergence issues, high technology and aerospace. Before joining the Boston Consulting Group, he was an investment banking associate in the emerging markets group at Lehman Brothers.
Jon Staenberg
Jon Staenberg has worked with venture-backed technology companies for 20 years as founder, manager and investor. He is one of the most experienced venture capitalists in the Pacific Northwest, having raised three funds totaling over $30 million. Early in his career, Jon established several marketing groups at Microsoft where he worked from 1988 through 1994. He then joined the senior management team of Virtual i-O, a venture-backed startup, as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.
