Executive Committee

• Bob Hughes, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  Bob began his career with Texas Capital Corporation, a venture capital company, serving as Vice President until 1968. He then helped form a new venture, Communications Properties, Inc. He served as VP - Finance until 1974, at which time he became President. Communications Properties was the 7th largest cable TV company in the United States when it was sold to the Times Mirror Corporation in 1979. Hughes then founded a new cable TV company, Prime Cable Corp. serving as Chairman and CEO. Prime's goal was to become a significant cable TV operator with a particular emphasis on major metropolitan markets. By 1989, Prime had assembled cable TV properties in Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Anchorage, Alaska. By 1995, Prime had become one of the eight largest companies in the cable television industry, with over one million subscribers in six states. In 1997, Prime began an orderly disposition of its properties to other major cable television operators. These sales were concluded in 2000.

  Bob previously served as Director and Board Chairman of the National Cable Television Association. He also was a founder and Director of the original C-SPAN board. He currently serves on the board of directors of various businesses including Diamond Ventures and Prime II Investments. He has served or currently serves on several non-profit boards including the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Excellence, the Executive Committee of the College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma, and Teton Pines Country Club (Jackson Hole, Wyoming). Mr. Hughes presently serves as Chairman of Prime II Investments.

  Bob received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and his BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma.

• Brien Smith, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  Brien is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to joining NB Alternatives in 2001, Mr. Smith worked in the private equity sector serving in a number of roles for Mason Best Company, L.P., including investment, financial planning, reporting, and investor communications for the firm and its affiliates. Brien led and participated in numerous transactions, including public debt and equity offerings and the sale and purchase of portfolio investments. He began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co. Working in the tax group, he focused on the financial services sector in the southwest. Brien sits on the Limited Partner Advisory Boards of a number of investment relationships. He is also a director of National Autotech Inc. and has served on the boards of Perry Homes, Safeguard Business Systems, Inc. and Mainstream Data, Inc.

  Brien received a masters degree in professional accounting and a B.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a certified public accountant, receiving certification by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy in 1983..

• David Callard, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  David co-founded Pelican Investment Management and is based in New York City. He started his business career at J.P. Morgan where he worked primarily in its Trust & Investment Division as an investment officer, ultimately becoming a vice president. He then became a general partner of Alex.Brown & Co. in Baltimore, Maryland and a member of the firm's executive committee. He also chaired Alex.Brown's strategic planning committee and was a director of the firm. While at Alex.Brown he founded and headed the real estate and the mergers and acquisitions departments and headed the firm's investment banking business.

  Since 1992, he has been president of Wand Partners, a private equity firm that has raised and invested $350 million in a variety of companies. During his career, Mr. Callard has chaired Hotel Investors' Trust, a NYSE-listed REIT, has been director of six other public companies and currently serves as a director of three private companies and as a Trustee of Union Theological Seminary. As Chairman of Pelican Investment Management, he and his partners serve a number of high net worth families through advising as to investments, financial planning and related matters.

  David is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, attended Union Theological Seminary, and served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

• Greg Marchbanks, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  Greg began his career with Century Development Corporation in Houston, Texas, a major commercial real estate development firm. Greg was Project Manager for a number of projects, including the Summit Plaza office buildings, the University State Bank office building, and the Houston City Club. Century was the developer of Greenway Plaza and the Allen Center mixed-use development projects.

  He then joined Prime Cable in 1982 and later served as CEO before the company was sold in 2000. He directed Prime Cable to diversify its interests into other communications businesses outside the cable industry. He serves as the CEO of Prime II Investments, a holding company of private equity investments and is also on the Wave Broadband Advisory Board.

  Through the Marchbanks Company, Greg has investments in real estate and early stage private equity. In 2006, he joined forces with Liz Lambert, the creator of the renowned Hotel San Jose in Austin, Texas, and Bill Gernstein to form Bunkhouse Group LLC, a unique boutique hotel management and consulting group. Greg previously served on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee for St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas. He is also a former Board President for the historic Paramount and State Theatres.

  Greg received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

• Steve Thoma, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  Steve is a retired 36 year veteran of Merrill Lynch and Company and a former member of the Private Client Executive Committee. He held various positions at Merrill Lynch, ultimately becoming Chairman of their Business Financial Services Unit. In that position he oversaw the firm's delivery of financial services to small and mid-sized businesses. This included cash management, lending, retirement planning, investments, and succession planning.

  He joined Merrill Lynch in 1966, as a member of the Junior Executive Program and held a variety of positions including branch office sales and administration as well as home office administration. He was elected a Senior Vice president in 1993.

• William Glasgow, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER  |  READ BIO »

  William is the CEO of AmericanWay Education, a Prime II Investments company and owner of LA College International. His prior experience in education includes overseeing investments in Grand Canyon University, Chancellor University, CollegeDegrees.com and MyEdu.com. William is a past member of the NACIQI Board, which provided input to the Secretary of Education, was nominated to the Department of Education's FIPSE Board and is currently interim Chairman of the Texas Charter School Association, an organization overseeing over 100 schools and 100,000 students.

  Prior to his education experience, William was the former CEO and co-founder of Security Broadband and was President of Prime Cable. Prior to becoming President, he served as CFO and in various development and finance roles in over 17 years with Prime Cable (combined revenues of over $500 million and over 1,000 employees). He has also directed investments into telecommunications ventures, including Nextlink Nevada, E-Spire, General Communications, Inc., and Thrifty Call and currently sits on the board of AmericanWay Education, General Communications Inc. ("GNCMA"), Infrasafe, Inc. and various Prime-related entities. Moreover, he spent the past 17 years involved in growing a private K-12 school from 70 students to over 800 students and for over 15 years, he has been involved in the entrepreneurship program and Moot Corp competition at the University of Texas MBA program.