Rising Tide Culture Company

Ossama has co-managed over $1 billion of international technology funds in diverse leadership roles including EVP of Berkeley International in San Francisco, Chairman of Technocom Ventures in Paris, President of Newbridge Networks Holding in Canada, Senior Managing Director of Newbury Ventures, and Chairman of the Rising Tide Fund in Silicon Valley. In the eighties, Ossama had the opportunity to co-lead the mezzanine financing of 80+ Silicon Valley based IT companies that became spectacular successes, including: Adaptec, Cirrus Logic, Atmel, PMC-Sierra, LSI Logic, Linear Technologies, and Oracle. Their combined market value today exceeds $200 billion. In the last 25 years, Ossama was chairman or co-founder of seven cutting-edge startups in the U.S., UK, France and Switzerland including ACC in Santa Barbara (routers, acquired by Ericsson), Algety in Lannion (soliton transmission, acquired by Corvis), HighDeal in Caen (rating engines, acquired by SAP), HighWave in Bretagne (fiber optic amplifiers, Listed on Euronext), NetCentrex in Paris (VoIP, acquired by Comverse), nCipher in Cambridge (encryption, listed on LSE), and Zong in Menlo Park (acquired by eBay). Currently, Ossama serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of the West in San Francisco. On the social entrepreneurship side, he is a charter member of the C100, a Silicon-Valley based association dedicated to mentoring and angel financing Canadian entrepreneurs. Ossama also served on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Relief International, a nonprofit, focusing his efforts on social entrepreneurship and development of women in the Middle East. He was chairman of the board of TechWadi and the Egyptian American Society in Silicon Valley and vice-chairman of the Board of PSD, an NGO focused on providing one laptop per child for up to 130,000 Palestinian children in need of education. On the academic side, Ossama served on the Board of Advisors of Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and of UCSF Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medicine in San Francisco. He was appointed as the Willard Brown Distinguished Professor at the American University in Cairo School of Business, where he remains a member of the Board of Advisors. Ossama lectured on Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University and the University of San Diego, and on international business at UC Berkeley and Santa Clara University. He was also a guest speaker on entrepreneurship in diverse venues including the White House, the State Department, MIT, Harvard University, and the Commonwealth Club.

Tamer is an innovator in the digital media industry with deep domain knowledge and a strong appreciation for the dynamics that create successful startups in Silicon Valley. Prior to joining Rising Tide, Tamer was employee #2 and top salesman at Zong, the world’s leading mobile payments company. In his four years at Zong, Tamer formed deals that were pivotal in establishing the company as the leader in its space. Zong was acquired by eBay in 2011. In April 2011, he co-founded Foghorn Games, an international game development company focused on multiplayer cross-platform applications for on the iPad. Foghorn Games was merged in July 2012 into Popover Games, where Tamer currently serves as an Advisory Board member. Tamer is an active angel investor and advisor to several startups. He served as President of Grantoo, a social gaming network that enables university students to play online competitive games for tuition.

Brent brings over 25 years of professional experience in industry and investing. Most recently, Brent led the Internet of Things (IoT) global marketing efforts for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Communications Media Solutions Business division. Prior to HPE, Brent spent six years in private equity financing at Newbury Ventures where his focus was on early stage global communication and IT companies. He assisted on investments and follow-up financing in several companies including Zong (acquired by e-Bay, Inc.), Sandvine Corp. (TSX:SVC), Abridean (acquired by nCipher, Inc.), LEA (acquired by HP Company, Inc.), Netcentrex (acquired by Comverse, Inc.), and Highwave Optical Technologies SA. He is also an Independent Director at Socket Mobile (NASDAQ: SCKT) and Quanergy and is an Associate with Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) West, a Canadian seed-stage program to bring the best ideas in the technology field to market.

Arie van Gemeren joined Rising Tide in 2018 and focuses on value-add for existing portfolio companies, deal sourcing across a diverse nationwide network, and bringing a deep level of knowledge on the Banking and FinTech business from nine years in the industry to the Firm’s investments. Prior to Rising Tide, Arie served as an advisor with Goldman, Sachs & Co. LLC, where he advised an exclusive group of ultra-wealthy families and institutions across the United States and abroad. At Goldman Sachs, he assisted in the oversight of clients assets in excess of $3 billion and recommended and researched investments in public markets as well as a broad array of private investment vehicles and opportunities in venture capital, buyout, private real estate and private credit. Prior to this, Arie was an equity research analyst with Fisher Investments, an international money management firm which managed in excess of $70 billion in AUM. Arie is a CFA Charterholder.

Ameena sources and leads investments in top companies across personalized medicine, biotechnology, health IT and more. At the intersection of science and technology, she works with academic institutions to leverage and commercialize campus-based research and intellectual property, to further bridge the gap between academia and industry. Prior, Ameena worked at Novozymes, a world leader in bio innovation and enzyme production with half the global enzyme market share, to develop procedures for maximizing yields through industrial scale up. She is a recipient of multiple competitive grants funded by the National Science Foundation for research done at the California Academy of Sciences and the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, as well as an awardee of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She has conducted research in DNA damage and repair in genotoxicity models, microbiome diversity, and stem cell induction and stabilization. She holds a BS in Genetics.

Joe joined the team in 2008 and currently manages all financial affairs including investment valuation, financial reporting, investor relations, and SEC compliance. He also is active in fund formation, deal review, term sheet preparation, due diligence, and portfolio management. Over the years, Joe has assisted multiple portfolio companies with a variety of finance related initiatives including management, business planning, M&A transaction support, post-merger integration, recruiting, financial reporting / consolidation, audit preparation, and adoption of complex accounting requirements. He has served on both boards and audit committees, including BDNA Corporation (acquired by Flexera in 2017), a provider of authoritative enterprise IT data for effective decision making, and Delivery Agent. For periods of time while at Rising Tide, Joe has also acted as Chief Financial Officer of Techwadi, a California 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Mo is part of the investment team at Rising Tide. In 2015, he drove the formation of the Rising Tide Seed Fund, bringing together some of the preeminent tech leaders of the past thirty years and other strategic partners and family offices, as Limited Partners. He manages the Seed Fund, focusing on expanding and leveraging the Silicon Valley ecosystem across incubators, accelerators, universities, corporate partners, angel investors, technical experts, and venture capital funds to: source and identify the most innovative startups; invest in the most competitive deals; help entrepreneurs identify strategic paths to market; and accelerate their growth through business development and strategic partnership, particularly internationally. Mo is a Board Observer at eXo Imaging, a revolutionary company reducing by three orders of magnitude the selling price, size, and power consumption of traditional 3D/4D ultrasound imagers.

Ashif is a serial social entrepreneur and investor who has built and sold several enterprises and is heavily engaged in the community. Ashif was awarded the 2002 Ernst & Young Prairies Entrepreneur of the Year award and in 2005 was named as one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 and in 2007 named BDC’s Entrepreneur of the Year (Alberta) and has received Canada’s 50 Best Managed companies award three years in a row. Ashif received NAIT‘s Alumni of Distinction Award and was also recognized as one of the Top 50 Graduates in 50 years. In 2014 (in 2017 promoted to Hon. Colonel), Ashif was named an Honorary Lt. Col for the 20th Field Artillery Regiment (Canadian Army) in addition to receiving the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals as well as the Alberta Centennial Medal. In 2017, Ashif received an Honorary Degree (Bachelor of Business Administration) from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). Ashif has serves/served on several boards.

Mary Sansait serves as the Program Director of Rising Tide Capital. Mary started at Rising Tide Capital in August of 2016. Mary currently resides in the Greater New York City Area.

Andrew Doss serves as the Director of Policy & Partnerships, Future Tide Partners of Rising Tide Capital. Andrew started at Rising Tide Capital in May of 2018. Andrew currently resides in the Greater New Orleans Area.