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Meet the Team

Introducing the folks leading the charge toward growth and innovation.
Don Yount Critical Mention

Don Yount

Chief Executive Officer and President

Don Yount joined Critical Mention after serving as president and CFO of Corente, Inc., a cloud networking company acquired by Oracle Corp. Previously, Don served as executive vice president, COO and board member of TVI Corp. (NASD:TVIN), a supplier of health and safety technology devices. Prior to TVI, Don was operating principal at Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds. Earlier in his career, Don served in executive corporate strategy and finance positions at several high-tech firms in the telecom, datacom, software development and media industries. He received a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, where he won the Richard H. Jenrette Fellowship and was a Dean’s Scholar. Don also served as chair of the Early Stage East Venture Conference and was a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group, now called PACT.

Michael Bermann

Chief Operating Officer/ General Counsel

Michael Bermann rejoined Critical Mention as general counsel in 2008. He had previously crafted the firm’s initial user agreements and negotiated its first content partnerships during the company’s 2002 launch. Prior to that, Mike was in private practice with the national law firm of Mintzer, Sarowitz, Zeris, Ledva and Meyers, P.A. in Miami, Florida. In 2004, Mike served as senior associate and head of the legal team at Silver, Levy Feldman & Pass, P.A. in Tampa. He received his J.D. from Nova Southeastern University Law School in Florida and earned a dual degree in Political Science and Philosophy from Syracuse University.
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Vishal Padhye

Chief Technology Officer

Vishal was named Chief Technology Officer in 2020. His leadership has resulted in the improvement and modernization of over 160 globally-distributed datacenters, using configuration management, distributed networking, datacenter infrastructure management and hardware lifecycle management. Vishal joined Critical Mention in 2013 as Senior Network/Systems Engineer and was responsible for the configuring, deploying, supporting and maintaining of Unix and Windows-based Enterprise Class servers across 150 data centers. In 2015 he became Head of DevOps, leading continuous integration and deployment using Jenkins & Puppet, Ansible and Docker.

Prior to joining Critical Mention, Vishal served as Senior System Analyst and IT Infrastructure Manager at Visual Graphic Systems. He holds a BE in Electronics and Telecommunication from the University of Mumbai and an MS in Management and Information Systems from SUNY Buffalo.

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Matthew Maul

SVP, Engineering

As SVP, Engineering, Matt leads a team of front end, content, and systems developers that is constantly seeking ways to increase the speed and reliability of Critical Mention’s platform. Matt began his career at Critical Mention in 2006 as a Software Developer before becoming Content Engine Team Lead in 2014. He played a crucial role in the platform’s transition to Amazon Web Services in early 2017.

Matt holds a BS in Computer Science from Marist College where he graduated magna cum laude.

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Zack Jenkins

VP, Sales and Account Management

Zack Jenkins joined the Critical Mention team in 2011 as a Sales Executive, was later promoted to Sales Director and was promoted again in 2018 to Vice President of Sales and Account Management. He currently shapes the organization's sales and go-to-market strategy, as well as negotiating partner agreements. Before joining Critical Mention Zack worked as a private wealth manager at Allen Partners. He graduated Cum Laude from Boston University and also attended Copenhagen Business School.

Our Board of Directors

Alexis Egan

Alexis Egan is a managing director and head of origination for Providence Strategic Growth. Prior to joining Providence in 2014, she worked at Garvin Hill since its inception in 2009. Previously, she served as an executive director at CIBC. Earlier in her career, Alexis was an associate at TA Associates, a Boston-based growth equity firm focused on technology investments and a financial analyst at the investment banking firm Alex. Brown. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College.

Leo Griffin

Leo Griffin is currently CEO and a member of the board of ActivBody Inc., a health technology company. Previously, he was a principal at Clarity Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm primarily focused on investments in technology, media and telecoms. From 2003 through 2006, Leo was a principal at Monitor Ventures, the venture capital and advisory arm of the Monitor Group. From 1998 through 2003, he served as a strategy consultant with Monitor Group’s consulting arm. From 1992 to 1996, Leo was with Braxton Associates, where he advised companies in Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. Leo holds a degree in Industrial Economics from the London School of Economics and received his MBA with distinction from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University.

Marty Kahn

Marty Kahn is chairman of Code Ocean and formerly vice chairman of ProQuest, LLC.  Previously, Marty served as ProQuest’s CEO after its acquisition by CIG in 2007. He served as chairman of the Board of Directors for OneSource Information Services, Inc. from 1993-2004 and in the same capacity for Ovid Technologies, Inc. from 1989-1998. He also chaired the board of Vista Information Solutions. Earlier in his career, Marty served as president of BRS Information Technologies and held executive positions at McGraw-Hill and the W.B. Saunders Company. He is a member of the board of directors and the finance committee of TrickleUp, a charitable organization. Marty earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA cum laude from Yale College.

Anthony E. Meyer

Anthony E. Meyer is a New York City-based entrepreneur, private investor and philanthropist. He is the President of Ocean Road Advisors, Inc., a privately-held “family office” investment management company, and also serves as the chairman of privately-held Meyer and Co., LLC, a New York City-based merchant banking firm. Anthony has founded and managed companies in the education, healthcare and investment management areas, including the investment management affiliates of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC and Trammell Crow Company. Anthony graduated from Harvard College in 1982 as a John Harvard Scholar, with a magna cum laude degree in economics, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School with distinction in 1984.

Don Yount

Don Yount joined Critical Mention after serving as president and CFO of Corente, Inc., a cloud networking company acquired by Oracle Corp. Previously, Don served as executive vice president, COO and board member of TVI Corp. (NASD:TVIN), a supplier of health and safety technology devices. Prior to TVI, Don was operating principal at Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds. Earlier in his career, Don served in executive corporate strategy and finance positions at several high-tech firms in the telecom, datacom, software development and media industries. He received a BS in Business Administration and an MBA from the University of North Carolina, where he won the Richard H. Jenrette Fellowship and was a Dean’s Scholar. Don also served as chair of the Early Stage East Venture Conference and was a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Venture Group, now called PACT.