Management
Michael Mann - Chairman and Founder
Mike Mann is an Internet entrepreneur with a track record of starting and growing successful businesses. Mann currently serves as manager and founder of WashingtonVC (www.washingtonvc.com), an investment firm that incubates early stage companies using the exchange of complimentary technologies and marketing services to grow each individual venture. WashingtonVC’s portfolio of interlocking companies share resources, talent and technology to deliver innovative products and services across a broad range of industries.
In 1994, Mann founded Internet Interstate, a leading Internet service provider which was sold to Verio in 1998. In 1998, he founded BuyDomains.com, the largest secondary market for Internet domain names and one of the largest domain registration sites in the world. Mann served as president of BuyDomains.com before selling it to Highland Capital and Summit Partners in 2005.
Mann is also active in several philanthropic endeavors. Between 1998 and 2001, Mann served as the founding chairman of the board for ByteBack.org, which operates computer training centers serving inner-city communities at no charge. Today, Mann serves as chairman of Grassroots.org, a global network providing free services to other nonprofits and promoting social action. Along with friends and family, he also operates Make Change! Trust, a charitable fund that supports select non-profit organizations.
Mann is also the author of Make Millions and Make Change!, a roadmap for entrepreneurs seeking opportunities to contribute time and money to socially responsible causes.
Ari Rabban - CEO and Co-founder
Ari Rabban is an IP communications industry veteran, with specific expertise in the start-up environment, moving companies from concept to operation. He joins Phone.com from Pulver Ventures, an incubator for new IT companies, where he served as managing director and vice president.
Previously, Rabban served as vice president of corporate development and marketing for VocalTec Communications, the VoIP market pioneer and developer of the first internet phone. During his tenure at VocalTec he served as president of two subsidiaries that were ultimately spun out: Surf&Call Solutions, one of the initial voice-enhanced e-commerce solutions companies, and Truly Global Inc., a web based communications service. Rabban joined VocalTec from Lucent Technologies.
Frequently cited as a VoIP market expert, Rabban has been involved with the internet telephony industry from its very early days; he has been widely quoted in trade publications and has been interviewed for media outlets around the world.
Rabban received an MBA from Carnegie-Mellon University; he also has a law degree and bachelors in economics from Tel Aviv University. He practiced corporate law in Tel Aviv, Israel prior to his arrival in the US.
Alon Cohen - Executive VP and CTO
Alon Cohen is an entrepreneur, inventor and is widely recognized as one of the creators of the Voice over IP industry. He joins Phone.com after founding and managing a successful series of recent business ventures, including BitWine and RemoteAbility. Cohen was the co-founder of VocalTec Communications (NASDAQ:VOCL), the first company to provide Internet voice technology worldwide, which in 1996 was one of the earliest successful Internet IPOs.
As an innovator Alon Cohen holds 4 US patents on different communications technologies, including the “Audio Transceiver” (US Patent 5,825,771) which is the basis for Voice over the Internet (VoIP) technology. The recipient of many awards and accolades for his innovative work including the “VoIP Visionary Award” (2005) from Pulvermedia. Cohen represented the State of Israel in the United Nations negotiations of the ITU Study Group 16 for the development and ratification of global VoIP standards.
Cohen received an MBA and BSC.EE from Tel Aviv University, both Magna Cum Laude.
Brian Scott, COO
In his role with Phone.com Brian leads all product development, product management, network operations and customer service departments. For the past 11 years, Brian has been the Founder & CEO of TierraNet Inc., a successful, privately held web hosting and domain-registration company.
Brian has over 15 years of experience in the field of computer software development, network infrastructure, developing SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications, and is an expert in the field of enhanced voice services. With an engineering and programming background, Brian is an experienced problem solver, and system and network administrator.
Brian graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors of Science in the field of Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
