Roger Strauch is Chairman of The Roda Group, a seed stage venture capital group, based in Berkeley, California. His firm, co-founded in 1997 with Dan Miller, provides entrepreneurs the resources, environment, and guidance to launch and grow their high technology businesses.

Roger is on the Board of Directors of Cool Systems, the manufacturer of Game Ready, a medical physical therapy system.

The Roda Group is the lead investor in Solazyme, a renewable oil and bioproducts company and the leader in algal biotechnology. The Roda Group has led or co-led every round of the company’s financings. Biofuels Digest named Solazyme as the 2010 Company of the Year.

He was the first CEO and former chairman of Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) a leading search engine on the web. Mr. Strauch was a board member and former CEO of Symmetricom, a public telecommunications equipment manufacturer. In 1983 he co-founded TCSI Corp., a telecom software company. As TCSI’s chairman and CEO, Mr. Strauch led the company from a start-up to a successful IPO in 1991 and secondary public offering in 1996. Prior to TCSI, he was a communications system engineer and project manager for Hughes Aircraft's (now Boeing) Space and Communications Group.

Mr. Strauch is a member of the Engineering Dean's College Advisory Boards of Cornell University and University of California at Berkeley. He is the recipient of the 2002 Wheeler Oak Meritorious Award from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2006, Mr. Strauch and his wife Dr. Julie Kulhanjian were named and honored as "Builders of Berkeley". He is an executive member of the Board of Trustees for the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley and is on the Board of Trustees and is past President of the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Roger was the recipient of the 2010 Helen C. Barber Award from the Board of Trustees for a Trustee who serves the Berkeley Repertory Theatre with unique distinction. Mr. Strauch is Vice President and a member of the Executive Board of the Piedmont Council of the Boy Scouts of America and serves as a leader in the local scouting troop. He is a Life Trustee of the Armenian Assembly of America.

Mr. Strauch is a member of the Madison Council, a philanthropic advisory board to the Librarian of Congress.  He is also on the Board of Trustees of the Northside Center for Child Development, a mental health social services agency in Harlem, New York City.

Mr. Strauch endowed the Roger A. Strauch Chair in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences and co-founded the William Saroyan Endowment for Armenian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. With Mr. Miller, he helped establish the Ask Jeeves Planetarium at the Chabot Space and Science Center and the Roda Theater at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, winner of the 1997 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Mr. Strauch is the Chairman of the Paros Foundation which supports arts and education organizations in Armenia. Roger co-founded and is an owner of ICON Communications, a broadband ISP in Armenia utilitizing WiMax technology.

For forty years, Roger has been a licensed amateur radio operator - he holds an extra class license. His current call sign is KD6UO and it was WA1KZE.

Mr. Strauch earned a Bachelor of Science degree, with distinction, from Cornell University and Master of Science degree from Stanford University, both in electrical engineering. He holds two patents in the area of wireless communications.

Dan Miller is Managing Director of The Roda Group, a seed-stage venture capital group focused on clean technology. Dan co-founded the firm with Roger Strauch in 1997.

Dan serves on the board of The Roda Group affiliate Solazyme, a renewable oils manufacturer that creates food, fuel, cosmetics and other products from algae. Solazyme is producing low-carbon diesel and jet fuel at scale today, and has delivered fuel to the U.S. Navy. Solazyme's partners include Chevron, Unilever, and Roquette. Solazyme was named the #1 bioenergy company in the world for 2009/2010 by Biofuels Digest.

Mr. Miller was previously the president and member of the board of Ask Jeeves, Inc. (now Ask.com), a former Roda Group affiliate. He has served on the boards of other former affiliates including PolyServe (now owned by HP) and SightSpeed (which was acquired by Logitech).

Prior to The Roda Group, Mr. Miller was Executive Vice President of TCSI Corporation, a company he co-founded with his Roda Group partner, Roger Strauch. TCSI (now owned by Rocket Softwar) is a leading provider of integrated software products and services for the global telecommunications industry. Prior to TCSI, Mr. Miller was a systems engineer at Hughes Aircraft's (now Boeing) Space and Communications Group where he was responsible for designing communications payloads for commercial communications satellites.

Mr. Miller is a member of Cornell University's Faculty Computing and Information Science and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Boards. He is also a member of the board of the Pacific Pinball Museum, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching art, history, and science through pinball.

Mr. Miller is a member of the board and former President of the Foundation Board of Trustees of the Chabot Space & Science Center. At Chabot, Dan spearheaded the development of a climate change exhibit and web site for kids called Bill Nye's Climate Lab, featuring Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Dan is a leading speaker on the urgent need to address climate change, including at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen. An online version of his talk is the second most viewed climate change lecture on the FORA.tv web site. He is a member of Board of Directors of Climate Healers, a group dedicated to deploying solar cooking stoves in developing countries. Mr. Miller is also a member of The Climate Project. You can learn more about climate change and Dan's activities at his Climate Place web site.

Dan received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, with distinction, from Cornell University and his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He holds three patents in the areas of compression technology and wireless communications systems.

Marty recently joined The Roda Group as a Principal. He is focused on helping the firm identify extraordinary people and businesses that intend to address the issues associated with climate change, the increasing demand for low carbon energy, and the stress on earth's natural resources.

Prior to joining The Roda Group, Marty was the CEO of Cardstore.com, a Roda Group portfolio company. Under his leadership, Cardstore grew to become a leading online retailer of greeting cards. The company was acquired by American Greetings (NYSE: AM) in December of 2010.

In addition to Cardstore.com, Marty held senior management positions at The Roda Group's companies, Game Ready and Ask Jeeves. At Game Ready he helped create a top brand in orthopedic rehabilitation, as the company grew from start-up to $20M in annual revenues. With Ask Jeeves, he helped the company navigate through an IPO, and the dot-com bubble bust to emerge as a profitable enterprise, acquired by IAC (NASD: IACI) in 2005 for $1.85 billion.

Marty received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University and his Masters of Business Administration from John F. Kennedy University’s School of Management. He began his career as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, serving as the Supply Officer on the USS Elrod.