Management Team
Executive Team
Kent F. Brooks, CEO & Founder
Mr. Brooks is CEO and a Founder of InvestStar. He is the inventor of the valuation tools and prototypes upon which the company was founded, and the patents and registered trademarks associated with them.
Mr. Brooks is a retired management consulting partner from Accenture (previously Andersen Consulting). He retired from the firm after 26 years. Mr. Brooks held leadership positions in Accenture’s San Francisco, London, World Headquarters, and Tokyo offices. Between 1982 and 1988, he was worldwide Practice Director of Accenture’s Sales, Marketing and Logistics consulting practice, and he has strong multinational management experience.
He received both his Engineering B.S. degree and MBA degree from Stanford University.
Ray J. Minehan, CFO & Founder
Mr. Minehan is CFO and a Founder of InvestStar LLC. Mr. Minehan has spent most of his business career in or serving the Financial and Brokerage Industries. He was the Chief Administrative Officer at Sutro & Co., CFO at Hambrecht & Quist, Inc. prior to and during the period in which it went public, and was an Audit Partner with Arthur Andersen & Company specializing in the Financial Industries. Most recently Mr. Minehan was the Chief Financial Officer at Memestreams, Inc., a startup company that was developing information management software.
Mr. Minehan served in the United States Air Force as a navigator assigned to the Strategic Air Command as B-52 navigator/electronic warfare officer. He attained the rank of Captain.
Mr. Minehan received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance from Golden Gate University.
Board of Directors
Gwynn R. Williams, Chairman of the Board
Mr. Williams is Chairman and a founder of InvestStar LLC. He has been a founder of numerous companies, many focused in the areas of Science and Software development, including: Xoma Inc.; Murex Inc.; Glyko Inc.; BioMarin Inc; Leader Industries Inc.; Jordan-Williams Corporate Design Ltd; McDonald-Williams Cattle Company; AstroMed Limited; Astroscan Limited; and Scarus Limited. He is currently a Director and Chairman of the Governance Committee of BioMarin Pharmaceutical in Novato CA ( Nasdaq BRMN).
Earlier in his career, Mr. Williams was: a partner in Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) in their Los Angeles, Sydney and San Francisco offices, where he specialized in the design and installation of Financial Control Systems; a senior mathematician with General Motors Research in Detroit; an internal consultant with Canadian International Paper Company; and a statistician with British Steel.
Mr. Williams received a B.Sc. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Wales. He is a Chartered Physicist and Fellow of the Institute of Physics in the UK, and is a Trustee of the UK Transplant Trust.
Karl E. Bakhtiari, Director & Founder
Mr. Bakhtiari is a founder and Board member of InvestStar LLC. Mr. Bakhtiari is the Founder, President and Director of Stonesfair Financial Corporation, which has acquired and operates approximately 2,400 apartment units in Northern California and Montana. Mr. Bakhtiari has a long history of successes in the real estate industry in land development partnerships, multi-family housing, retail centers, and other investments.
Prior to becoming involved full-time in the real estate industry, Mr. Bakhtiari was a consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and an executive at Tandem Computers.
Mr. Bakhtiari holds an MBA in finance from California State University, Chico. He is a Board member of the Chico State University’s Business Advisory Board, and frequently gives guest lecturers for the College of Business. He is the 2003 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Business.
Tim J. Halloran, Director & Founder
Mr. Halloran is a founding Board member of InvestStar LLC. Timothy J. Halloran has been a lawyer, shareholder, and owner of the Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney law firm since 1989. Mr. Halloran's focus has been primarily in civil litigation and business advice. He is an experienced trial lawyer and litigator. He is recognized as a Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.
As a counselor to businesses and companies, Mr. Halloran and his team of attorneys provide guidance in all areas of operations, including licensing, incorporation, copyright, internet, human resources and real estate
Mr. Halloran received his undergraduate degree at U.C. Berkeley, and his J.D. from Hastings College of the Law in 1982. During law school, he clerked at the Attorney General's Office.
John P. Hullar, Director & Founder
Mr. Hullar is a founding Board member of InvestStar LLC. Mr. Hullar is a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities. He joined Wells Fargo Securities in January 2001 as Managing Director of Capital Markets, with more than 20 years in the financial services business.
Before joining Wells Fargo Securities, Mr. Hullar worked at Hambrecht & Quist as Managing Director and Director of Worldwide Sales, where he oversaw all aspects of U.S. and International Institutional Sales and Accounts, Executive Financial Services and Venture Services Sales. In addition, Mr. Hullar was also a member of the Operating Committee, Brokerage Committee, and Equity Commitment Committee at H&Q.
Before joining Hambrecht & Quist, Mr. Hullar worked at Morgan Stanley for 11 years, in Institutional Sales in New York and in management positions in Research and Sales in Tokyo and London.
Mr. Hullar holds a B.A. from Yale University and attended N.Y.U.’s Stern Business School.
Mr. Hullar is a member of: the Yale University Development Board; former Trustee and Chair of Finance at The Hamlin School and The Branson School; and former Trustee of The First Tee Chapter of San Francisco.
John Linehan, Director & Founder
Mr. Linehan is a founding Board member of InvestStar LLC. John Linehan has over twenty-five years of experience in the Consumer Goods Industry in both large and small businesses. He began his career at Procter & Gamble in sales management. He then spent seventeen years at the Clorox Company where he held domestic and international sales, marketing and general management positions. He was National Sales Director of “Brita” water filter systems during its early development, where under his direction sales volumes grew at triple digit annual growth.
In 1997, Linehan left Clorox to pursue the challenges, fast pace, flexibility and excitement of smaller business environments. He joined IDV Wines and played an active role in executing eight mergers and acquisitions. This activity transformed that $300 Million business into the largest beverage alcohol company in the world. He then joined PowerBar and helped prepare the company for a sale or IPO, and the company was successfully sold to a major food company at a very strong valuation.
Linehan then joined a retail sales floor technology company, Imagicast, as EVP of sales & marketing and was later elected COO. Most recently, Linehan served as President and CEO of Guardian Angel Holdings, Inc. a San Francisco based Consumer Goods Company that was focused on developing a patented “alcohol blood level” test strip consumer product.
He is a graduate of Trinity College where he was president of the student government and started two small businesses. He is a Board of Trustees member of Schools of the Sacred Heart and of Saint Dominic’ School Private School.
Key Advisors
Stuart H. Sands, Brokerage-Technology Strategy & Tactical Implementation
Mr. Sands led the development of the Strategies, Architectures, and Plans for InvestStar’s technology. He defined in detail all of InvestStar’s key technology and data base structures, and tested the selected implementations approaches on its web site.
From 1994-2004 Mr. Sands worked for several of Charles Schwab & Co.’s Information Technology groups. He was an Architect/Director and in that role was responsible for the architecture, analysis, and design of several business critical systems, including: Schwab Equity Ratings (SER); MIDAS (Fixed Income/Money Market Mutual Funds Portfolio Management System); and Matrix (Equity-based Mutual Funds Portfolio Management System). Also, while at Schwab, he served on the Architecture team for its Grid Computing Pilot, was active in the implementation of its Unified Software Development Process, and helped to introduce OO, UML, XML, .Net, SOA technologies.
Prior to joining Schwab, Mr. Sands worked with Castle Rock Consulting Group, Xoma Corporation, and Lutech, Inc., in a variety of information technology related positions.
Mr. Sands received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering Physics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dan Halabe, Technology Strategy
Greg Berardi, Marketing & Public Relations
