Wildlife Acoustics, Inc., a privately held Massachusetts corporation, is the leading provider of bioacoustic monitoring technology for scientists, researchers, and government agencies worldwide. To date, the company has sold thousands of it's Song Meter audio recorders to hundreds of government agencies and universities in dozens of countries to monitor birds, frogs, bats, indects, fish, dolphins, elephants, primates, and other wildlife. The company is the latest in a series of highly successful ventures founded and led by entrepreneur, innovator and technologist, Ian Agranat.
Our customers are our most important asset. By listening and understanding, we are able to continuously innovate to produce the most sophisticated, flexible and reliable products to meet the broad and diverse needs of our customer base. We pride ourselves on our commitment to customer service and satisfaction and our ability to exceed expectations.
Management |
Advisors |
Ian Agranat, President & CEOIn 1991, Agranat founded Agranat Systems, Inc., the leading provider of embedded web software and development tools. The company's hundreds of customers included industry leaders such as Cisco, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks, Siemens, Alcatel, Hewlett-Packard. Canon and Xerox. In 2000, he sold his company to Virata Corporation and stayed on as Vice President and General Manager of the Applications Business Unit. Later, after a merger with Globespan, Agranat decided to explore new creative challenges. These included serving on the boards of non-profit organizations, assisting in teaching "Starting and Growing a Business" at the Harvard University Extension School, and investing in and advising a number of start-up companies. In 2003, fascinated by the technical challenges, business opportunities and connection with nature and the outdoors, Agranat founded Wildlife Acoustics. The company is now the leading supplier of bioacoustic monitoring tools and technology to government agencies and researchers worldwide. Ian Agranat holds several patents and is the author of a number of published articles and papers. He is a 1987 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a degree in computer science. Michael Gonnerman, Board of DirectorsMike is a financial guru. He has 37 years experience as a Director, Advisor, financial consultant, CFO and auditor, and has helped companies deal with issues involving corporate oversight, financial management, financial reporting, forecasting and financing.His financial tools have been adopted by hundreds of companies, and he speaks frequently on finance and entrepreneurship. Since 1993, Mike has served on the Boards of Directors or advisors of more than twenty companies. Seven of these companies have realized liquidity events, either a sale or IPO. Mike has consulted to more than 80 companies. He offers a full range of CFO services, from helping with financing to negotiating sales and acquisitions. Peter Schmidt, Board of DirectorsPeter H. Schmidt is a serial entrepreneur, having co- founded more than ten companies and non-profits. He is co- inventor on five networking patents, and has brought eight products to market in the past decade. Teradyne acquired his company Midnight Networks for cash in 1996, and since then he has been involved as an angel or Director in an additional 19 startups. One 2003 mentoree was a semi-finalist in the $50K and another won the HBS Business Plan Contest. He flies aerobatics for fun. He earned degrees in computer science and in management from MIT. Stuart Nixdorff, Board of DirectorsStuart Nixdorff is co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing at RedShift Systems. Stuart is a seasoned, start-up executive with over 18 years of experience launching new products, technologies and companies. Stuart has a deep background as a leading pioneer in global and imaging technologies. Stuart's specific area of expertise is early market development and strategic customer acquisition (closing the first deal and ramping the business). He has launched 15 new category products and technologies that have sold over 10M units generating revenues in excess of $100M. |
Jean Hammond, AdvisorJean Hammond is an active angel investor usually focusing on early stage high tech start-ups. Jean is a co-leader of Golden Seeds - Boston (focused on investing in women-managed businesses) and member of Launchpad and Hub Angels. Jean is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the high-tech industry. She managed JAM Technologies, was the founding CEO of Quarry Technologies and also co-founded AXON Networks. Paul Edelman, AdvisorPaul Edelman is Managing Director of Edelman & Associates, an executive search and technical recruiting firm serving software, biotech, and other high technology companies. Previously, Paul was VP of Staff and Organization Development for MicroE Systems, a successful high technology startup. Paul began his career at AT&T where he served as an internal organization development consultant and then as Operations Manager for the startup of the American Transtech subsidiary. Paul currently serves on the board of the Greater Boston Chapter of the Society for Concurrent Product Development and is a member of the Hub Angels Investment group. Paul earned his SB in Physics at MIT and a Ph.D. in Psychology at Harvard. David SibleyDavid Sibley is renowned in the birding world as the most gifted contemporary painter of birds and one of the country's foremost authorities. The son of well-known ornithologist Fred Sibley, his passion for art and birds emerged at the very early age of five. He grew up traveling across North America and joining expeditions to the neotropics where he encountered many ornithologists, artists and birders, including Arthur Singer, Roger Peterson and Don Eckelberry. Later, he left his studies at Cornell University to pursue his passion for birds and art. After a few years working at Cornell's Library of Natural Sounds and the Cape May Bird Sanctuary, he devoted full time to traveling, studying and sketching birds. David Sibley's monumental Guide to Birds, a work 10 years in the making, secured his place in the birding world alongside the greats: John James Audubon and Roger Peterson. The authoritative guidebook, published in 2000, contains 6,600 beautiful, detailed watercolor illustrations and covers 810 North American species and 310 regional populations. Since the publication of his critically acclaimed guide, he has spent full time painting and writing a number of additional Sibley guides, including the Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, Birding Basics, Guide to Birds East and Guide to Birds West. Richard WaltonRichard Walton, educator, writer, video producer and researcher, is an amazingly prolific contributor to the field of natural science. He is best know in the birding world for the Birding by Ear series produced with Bob Lawson and based on the famous Peterson Field Guides. Rather than merely providing samples, the innovative "by ear" series uses educational and entertaining techniques designed to actually teach bird songs. Richard Walton's broad experience in natural history education played a vital part in the highly successful series. He has been a classroom teacher, lecturer and workshop leader at colleges and universities, Audubon Societies from Massachusetts to Florida, and organizations such as the American Birding Association and Association of Field Ornithologists. He has also been involved in a number of research projects, from butterfly counts to bird censuses. Richard Walton is founder and co-owner of Brownbag Productions, which produces natural history DVDs, and videos for museums, nature centers, Audubon organizations and educational television. He is the author of a number of popular and educational natural history books, tapes and videos and contributes regularly to popular and scientific journals |