Board & Advisors

Phase Change Board of Directors

Mark Bieler
Mark Bieler has been a Phase Change board member since June 2009.

He is the President of Mark Bieler Associates Inc., a management consulting firm for private and public sector organizations on strategic human resources and organization development. His clients have included The Westfield Group, Morgan Stanley Retail, Ogilvy & Mather, Mercantile Trust, and the CIA.

Mark is also Chairman of the Edwin Gould Foundation, an incubator for social entrepreneurs and education initiatives.

Previously, he was Director of Human Resources for Bankers Trust Company, and Executive Vice President of the parent organization, Bankers Trust Corp. He had human resources responsibilities for the Banking Operations Group and the international, U.S., and world corporate banking units.

Steve Bucuvalas
Steve Bucuvalas founded Phase Change in 2005.

Steve is the Chief Inventor of Phase Change's software digitization. He describes himself as a cruise missile aimed at realizing a quantum leap in software productivity, or sometimes, light-heartedly, as the Dr. Emmett Brown of artificial intelligence (AI) in software.

He graduated from Harvard University in 1977 with a focus on evolutionary biology and began his software career the same year as a Bank of Boston assembly language programmer.

In his early career, he led corporate advance technology groups initially working on the development of ATM networks, specialized database management systems, and MVS-exploit identification. He developed Prolog‐based productivity tools for business analysts and one of the first assembly-language ATM systems in New England. As he became more interested in artificial intelligence (AI), he ran an AI group focused on developing expert systems for financial services institutions.

During his corporate career, Steve served in multiple executive positions including Senior Vice President, Technology, for the Bank of New England; and Vice President of Advanced Technology and Architecture for Prudential Home Mortgage.

In the mid-1990's he transitioned out of large corporations into creating his own innovation-focused organizations, continuing his emphasis on creating practical results using theories from computer science and AI.

Steve founded eoTek LLC in 1996 to develop Internet-based software solutions for the mortgage, financial services, and communications industries. At one point, eoTek had 80 employees and contractors serving clients such as Chase Mortgage, Banc One, and MCI/WorldCom.

In 2000, he sold eoTek to Nexstar Financial Corp., a portfolio company of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR). He joined Nexstar after the acquisition as its Chief Technology Officer before founding Phase Change Software in 2005. Nexstar was later acquired by MBNA (now Bank of America).

Steve is an incessant innovator, serial entrepreneur, and self-taught polymath. He is a man who loves theory and is driven to see its power generate impactful results. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective to solving the software digitization problem. Steve often explains solutions to large issues by combining computation theory, program analysis, mathematical logic, cognitive science, neuroscience, and human evolution.

 

 

Melvin Yellin
Melvin Yellin has been a Phase Change Board Member since 2019. He also served as a Board Member from 2008 to 2014, and an Advisor from 2014 to 2017.

He is a founder and an officer of Acreage Holdings, a vertically integrated Cannabis company licensed in 21 states in the United States. Acreage went public in 2018 and is currently trading on the Canadian Stock Exchange and other exchanges.

Melvin was previously a Partner at Tandem Global Partners, a globally focused money management company and High Street Capital, a venture capital company in New York.

He spent the bulk of his career at Bankers Trust Company, where he was a Partner, Executive Vice President, and General Counsel when it merged with Deutsche Bank in June 1999.

During his career, he acted as chairman and speaker for numerous business organization programs, including those run by the Conference Board, National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Columbia University Business School, and University of Wisconsin School of Business.

Gary Brach
Gary Brach has been the CEO of Phase Change since March 2021, and a Board Member since April 2016. He is focused on introducing Phase Change to the market.

His background is in the software industry with over 25 years of experience primarily as a software entrepreneur in the storage and insurance industries.

Gary was President of Phaser Change from 2016-2021. He is a former Director at Intuit Inc. after selling Prestwick Services LLC, the leading premium pay-as-you-go billing platform, to Intuit in 2013.

Before joining Prestwick, Gary was the CEO of AgencyPort Software, the leading provider of agent portal technology for the property and casualty insurance industry. AgencyPort was acquired by The Sword Group in 2009 and is now owned by Accenture Inc.

He was the co-founder and President of Smart Storage Inc., the first company to commercialize CD-recording and archival storage virtualization software. Smart Storage was sold to OTG Software in 2001 and is now part of Dell Inc.

 

Howard Culang
Howard Culang has been a Phase Change Board Member since July 2008.

He served as President of Laurel Corp., a financial services firm, from January 1996 through December 2011. He was a Managing Member of JH Capital Management LLC, a private equity fund management company, from July 1998 to December 2010, and Cognitive Capital Management LLC, a management company for a fund of hedge funds, from April 2001 to December 2005.

In the past, he served as Vice Chairman of Residential Services Corp. of Prudential America, the holding company for Prudential Home Mortgage Lender's Service Inc., and Prudential Real Estate Affiliates.

Howard was also a Managing Director and Executive Committee Member of the Prudential Home Mortgage Company, where he worked from November 1985 to December 2005.

During his career, he's held a number of senior management positions with Citibank NA, including Senior Credit Officer, and served as a Member of the Smart Storage Inc. Board of Directors until it was acquired by OTG Software in 2001. Howard has been a Director of Radian Group Inc. since June 1999, where he serves as Chairman of the Credit Committee.


Don Peskin
Chairman of the Board
Don Peskin is the Chairman of the Phase Change Board of Directors. He has been a Phase Change Board Member since November 2007.

Don has more than 25 years of Wall Street and investment experience, most notably as a Managing Director and Principal at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which he left in September 1997 to pursue private investment opportunities in finance, technology, and related industries. He is the Founder and President of Short Hills Capital LLC, a privately held investment company.

In addition to his principal investment activities, Don is also a Managing Member of Chatham Hills Development LLC, a real-estate development firm, and recently served as a Managing Member of Cognitive Capital Management, which was the General Partner of the Cognitive Strategic Fund, a hedge fund of funds.

He also served as a Member of the Ballard Petroleum LLC Board of Directors from 1997 to 2001, when the company was acquired by Alberta Energy Corp.

Don was previously a Member of the Entrepreneurship@Cornell Advisory Council.

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