Company
Carl Baldassarre
Board of Directors
Carl Baldassarre has more than 30 years of experience in banking and finance.
He is currently Managing Director of PNC Erieview Capital (formerly National
City Equity Partners), a private equity and mezzanine capital investment firm.
Mr. Baldassarre serves on the board of directors of several portfolio companies
and nonprofit institutions, including the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is an
honors graduate of John Carroll University with a B.S.B.A. in finance. He is also
a frequent guest lecturer, award winning music composer-performer as well as
President and CEO of Syzygy Music Enterprises, LLC.
Todd Federman
Board of Directors 
Todd Federman is the Executive Director of North Coast Angel Fund. North Coast
manages two early-stage funds made up of over 150 individual angel investors,
and has made investments in 26 early-stage companies since 2006. Prior to joining North
Coast, Todd served as an independent consultant for the brand strategy team at AOL,
where he led several word-of-mouth marketing and experiential marketing initiatives.
Previously, Todd worked for Diamond Management and Technology Consultants (now part of PWC),
a global management consulting firm where he focused on program management for technology
and organizational development efforts.
Todd co-founded, and remains active with, “One With Nature,” an all natural line of health and beauty products. Todd currently serves on the Boards of Directors for DecisionDesk, StreamLink Software and Youth Opportunities Unlimited a Cleveland non-profit that empowers youth through jobs and entrepreneurship programs. Todd holds a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Kent State University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Ted Frank
Board of Directors
Experienced technology executive and innovator of new markets and solutions. Current
and past companies firmly established as leaders in their respective markets. Champion
of the SaaS model's penetration of both the F1000 and SMB markets and a substantial
driver of the governance, risk & compliance thought leadership that has been required to
establish it as a unique and distinct software category. Ted is currently COO of SparkBase,
a rapidly growing leader in gift/reward program processing. He also serves on the board of
CoverMyMeds, PRC Medical, and OptixConnect.
John Knific
Chief Executive Officer
John Knific is a seasoned entrepreneur and jazz pianist. He has extensive domain
knowledge of the music education space. Originally starting DecisionDesk in his
dorm, John has since led the DecisionDesk team to be featured among the top 25
young entrepreneurs in the US by Bloomberg Businessweek and grown the company be
the leading provider of online audition services to universities. John is passionate
about growing the young entrepreneur culture in Northeast Ohio. He is a regular guest
lecturer at Case Western Reserve University, Kent State, Baldwin-Wallace College,
Oberlin College, and more. Having graduated with a degree in Pre-Med Biology, John
turned down an acceptance to Case Western Reserve University's Medical School to grow
DecisionDesk. He is grateful for the support of the region, his investors, and his colleagues.
