Stephen Van Beaver
General Partner

Stephen has broad management experience in the technology industry as an entrepreneur, manager, active investor and advisor for emerging information technology and telecommunications companies for more than two decades. He has led hardware and software products and services companies and divisions, working across many functional areas including technology and engineering management; operations; and sales and marketing strategy. 

Prior to joining Pilot House, Stephen was co-founder and Senior Vice President of Operations for Road Runner LLC, the high-speed data joint venture between MediaOne (now Comcast), Time Warner (now AOL Time Warner), Compaq (now HP) and Microsoft. In this role, he grew numerous operational functions, as well as other areas of the business including deployment, program management, quality assurance, customer care, and regional operations. He also served as Vice President of Operations and Technology for MediaOne Internet Services, as well as for Continental Cablevision.

Before joining Continental Cablevision, Stephen was General Manager of the AT&T Interchange Online Network division. Stephen also held senior positions at Shiva and Index Technology, within the marketing, operations and technology functions.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Camiant, CentrePath, Mazu Networks, Navic, PeerApp, Stoke and is involved with BigBand Networks.

Stephen holds a Masters of Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Hartford.

Margaret H. Lawrence
Partner

Margaret has been investing in information technology companies since 1998, and brings a combination of investment and information technology expertise to the firm.

Prior to joining Pilot House, Margaret was an Associate at Chestnut Partners, a Boston-based merchant banking/venture capital firm that invests in and provides financial advisory work to early-stage software companies. At Chestnut, Margaret worked in partnership with management teams though all stages of their business, to increase speed to market and enhance opportunities for financing. She was also part of the team that invested in iAtlas (sold to AltaVista/CMGI) and Africana.com (sold to AOLTimewarner). Previously, she was a product manager at Verizon Wireless. Margaret began her career at Lehman Brothers where she focused on mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance transactions.

Margaret currently serves on the Board of Directors of  nTAG, SupplyScape and works closely with Camiant.

Margaret earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Williams College and a Masters of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School.

Arif Padaria
Principal

Arif has been involved in innovative technology development as an entrepreneur, manager, banker, and investor since 1990, and brings a combination of investment, operational and international expertise to the firm.

Prior to joining Pilot House, Arif managed a strategic investment fund at Microsoft directed toward Microsoft's top-tier global Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). The goal of the strategic investment fund was to both accelerate adoption of all Microsoft platform products and drive joint revenue.

Before joining Microsoft, Arif was a member of TVM Capital's technology investment team, in the firm's Boston office. At TVM, investment interests included enterprise software and more specifically, infrastructure software and internet enabling technologies. He was also part of the team that invested in Neolinear (sold to Cadence) and Comstock Systems (sold to Hitachi Data Systems).

Prior to TVM, Arif was an investment banker at Broadview where he focused on mergers & acquisitions in the technology, media & communications sectors. Arif has also held various technical and management positions at ETI, Princeton Softech and Computer Associates.

Arif earned a Masters of Science and a Bachelor of Science, in Computer Science, from Rutgers University and a Masters of Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

Tara O'Meara
Office Manager

As the office Manager, Tara supports the firm's investment professionals, manages the firm's accounting function, and manages employee benefits and retirement plans.

Prior to Pilot House, Tara held a variety of administration roles at Star Markets Company, most recently as Executive Assistant in the company's wholesale division. She also held a variety of other administrative roles where she honed her skills as an administrative professional in managing, organizing and streamlining office functions.