Advisors

• Melvin B. Taub, Member, Board of Advisors

  Melvin B. Taub was Corporate Technology Officer for Citigroup until his retirement in July 2003. He chaired the Citigroup Information Technology Leadership Council and addressed technology planning and cross-business technology initiatives. Prior to September 2000, when he moved to Citigroup Corporate, he was a Senior Executive Vice President of Salomon Smith Barney and the CIO of the Global Corporate and Investment Bank. He had directed Operation and Technology at Salomon Smith Barney and its predecessor companies since 1991.
  
  Prior to joining Smith Barney, Mel held a variety of senior management Operations and Systems positions at Merrill Lynch, E.F. Hutton, and Shearson Lehman Brothers. He was a member of the Boards of Directors for the Depository Trust and Clearing Company and the Options Clearing Corporation, for which he was Member Vice Chairman. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of the National Securities Clearing Corporation, as a member of Boards of Director of the Securities Industry Automation Corporation and the NASDAQ Stock Market, and as a member of the After Hours Working Group on Clearance, Settlement and Operations Issues, on behalf of the Securities and Exchange Commission, NYSE and the NASD. He currently serves on the Hewlett Packard Board of Advisors and the MCI Board of Advisors. He also advises several small technology companies.
  
  Mel has a B.S. in Mathematics from Brooklyn College and a M.S. in Operations Research from New York University Engineering School.

• Bruce Fador, Member, Board of Advisors

  Bruce Fador recently joined the Weiss Group, Inc. as President and CEO of Weiss Ratings, Inc. from the Center for Financial Research and Analysis where he was Managing Director and in charge of all facets of sales and marketing. Prior to joining CFRA, Bruce was at Thomson Financial, where he was Managing Director responsible for spearheading Thomson's independent research activities. Bruce was the President and CEO of WorldStreet, a software solutions provider serving the securities industry. Bruce was instrumental in securing over $57 million in venture funding from top-tier firms. Earlier, Bruce spent almost fifteen years with Thomson Financial Services. He was instrumental in the growth of First Call, a global, on-line distribution network for financial research, from $18 million to $120 million in annual revenues. Bruce was President and CEO of First Call from 1992 until 1998. Bruce is a graduate of Boston College and participated in the INSEAD Executive Development Program, Fontainebleau, France.

• Wei Zhao, Member, Board of Advisors

  Dr. Zhao is currently a Senior Associate Vice President for Research at Texas A&M University and a Director of the Division of Computer and Network Systems for the National Science Foundation. He joined Texas A&M in 1990 where he has been a full professor in the Department of Computer Science since 1996. Between 1997 and 2001, he served as a department head. Dr. Zhao is an IEEE Fellow. Dr. Zhao is an inventor for two U.S. patents and has published over 180 papers in journals, conferences, and book chapters. Dr. Zhao received his MS and PhD in Computer and Information Science from the University of Massachusetts.