Our Team

Agility's Management Team brings a variety of skills and experience to the process of providing innovative debt financing products to emerging growth companies. The team's collective experience includes over 500 debt transactions including; short term working capital lines of credit, bridge financing, amortizing term loans and acquisition financing. The underlying philosophy is to provide customized debt solutions, without cumbersome financial covenants.

Management Team

In addition to his responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer of Agility Capital, LLC, Mr. Skinner is Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Towbes Group Incorporated, a fully integrated real estate investment, development, and property management company. Mr Skinner joined the Towbes Group, Incorporated in 1997. He was promoted to Executive Vice President in 1999. 

Mr. Skinner also serves on the Board of Directors of Montecito Bank & Trust. In that capacity, he serves on the Board's Mergers & Acquisitions, Loan, and Trust committees. Mr. Skinner is also a member of the Bank's Asset & Liability, Executive, and Venture Lending Committees. In 1998, Mr. Skinner was named as the Bank's General Counsel. In addition to his real estate and banking responsibilities, Mr. Skinner is a Managing Member of Towbes Capital Partners, a real estate fund that he co-founded and helped to raise. 

Prior to joining The Towbes Group, Mr. Skinner spent almost seven years with the international law firm of White & Case in its Los Angeles and in New York offices. During his tenure at White & Case, Mr. Skinner was involved in a wide variety of matters ranging from corporate reorganization and insolvency matters to high profile litigation cases where he represented such clients as The Tokai Bank, Swiss Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. Mr. Skinner's legal expertise covers complex business litigation, and construction and real estate law. 

As a contributor to the community, Mr. Skinner serves on the Boards of Directors of The Towbes Foundation, Camerata Pacifica and the development committee for the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Mr. Skinner is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1985 and a Juris Doctorate in 1990. Most recently, he was appointed to the USC Law School Board of Councilors.

Daniel has 20 years of experience providing structured debt products to emerging growth venture capital backed and small cap public companies. He has been involved with over 500 transactions.

In 1996 he co-founded Sand Hill Capital, a leading Venture Debt provider located in Menlo Park, California. He served as a General Partner and was involved with all facets of the fund.

Prior to founding Sand Hill, Daniel spent 10 years with Silicon Valley Bank and Bank of the West in the Technology Lending Groups of both institutions. He was instrumental in the formation of the technology lending philosophy, and was directly involved in lending, underwriting, debt restructuring and warrant valuation.

Daniel has private company operating experience serving as the co-founder and CFO of Planetweather, an internet based weather site and as interim Chairman of Paraform Corporation, a digital software company. He played a key role in selling both of these companies.

He is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, an active member of the Commercial Finance Association, an organic Avocado farmer and father of three girls.

Jeff has an extensive background in venture debt financing through his years of experience at Sand Hill Capital and his current managing role at Agility Capital. Jeff is a founding board member of the Westlake Village/Santa Barbara Chapter of the Tech Coast Angels, a southern California-based angel investment capital group.

He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Coast MIT Enterprise Forum and has Chaired the Advisory Committee for the Technology Council for the Santa Barbara Region Chamber of Commerce. He is also an active member of the Selection Committee for the South Coast Business & Technology Awards Dinner, a member of the Central Coast Venture Forum Steering Committee and a panelist at many business plan competitions.

He is a graduate of UCSB and is most proud of his accomplishments as a loving husband and father of two young sons.

Senior Advisors

John has over twenty five years experience in the management and financing of early stage companies, corporate finance and planning, and investment management. Since 2000 John has been an active partner in Commercial Bridge Capital, LLC, a venture lending fund based in San Diego. John has held roles as CEO and Director of Genetic BioSystems, Inc. a venture funded start up company developing products for biomedical research, and President and Director of AMBIS, Inc. a biomedical equipment company. John also served as CEO and Director of Digivision, Inc., a medical imaging equipment company.

John is former President of the UCSD Alumni Association and is a Trustee of the UCSD Foundation Board and is Chairman of the Investment Committee. In addition he currently serves on the Board of Directors of eStudySite, Inc. and MediaGear, Inc.

John holds a BA in Economics from the University of California, Irvine and a PhD in Economics from the University of California, San Diego.

John has over thirty years of experience in corporate law, securities law, M&A, has held senior management positions of both publicly and privately held companies and most recently was a founder of a venture debt fund. John's professional affiliations include: Commercial Bridge Capital (a venture lending fund), Founder; Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), Senior VP-Corporate, and General Manager of the Technology Applications Division; Trition Group Ltd., (ASE:TGL),President and then Chairman and CEO; JNI Corporation (NASDAQ:JNIC), Board Member, Interim CEO, then Chairman of the Board.

He received his JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School. He is licensed to practice law in California and is a member of the American, California and San Diego Bar Associations.

In his 20 years of research, development, marketing, and management experience in the biosciences industry, David's corporate positions have included Director of Technology & Business Development, Global Product Manager, and Vice President of R&D. His career has spanned both diagnostics and therapeutics, and he was instrumental in the construction of several ground-breaking alliances between diagnostic and biopharmaceutical companies for the development of new predictive assays for targeted oncology therapies.

As an independent consultant, David has worked with biopharmaceutical and diagnostics companies on matters of strategy, technology development, licensing, and marketing; as a Healthcare Advisor to the Los Angeles Regional Tech Alliance (LARTA); and as a due diligence advisor to bioscience investors.

David is currently Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Stellar Biotechnologies Inc., which is developing a biologic platform technology for therapeutic and preventive vaccines. David received his B.A. in Aquatic Biology and his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Staff

David has 20 years in high tech marketing and sales from "Star Wars" systems to audio and storage products. He has held management roles in product marketing and sales with M-Audio, Adaptec, and Alps. Products developed under his management have won numerous industry accolades and best-in-class awards. David studied Physics at the University of Washington and has been married for 12 years.

David has provided the accounting framework for the fund since it's inception. He is a Partner with the account firm Bartlett Pringle and Wolf, which he joined in 1999 after working for over 7 years as a manager in the tax department at Arthur Andersen in the Silicon Valley. His experience in the Silicon Valley gave David unique and valuable insights into working with high technology and start-up companies. In addition to his extensive tax background, David has also brought expertise in equity-based compensation (including stock options), small business stock incentives, choice of entity decisions, tax controversies, tax incentives, and out-bound/in-bound international tax planning. David has worked with many different types of entities including venture capital and angel-financed companies, publicly traded companies and individuals.

David earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce with a major in Accounting from Santa Clara University.

He is a member of the Board and the Treasurer for the Central Coast MIT Enterprise Forum and the Central Coast Venture Forum, and has served as the Chairperson of the Community Gifts Committee of the Carpinteria High School Stadium Project. He is also an avid football fan and volunteers as an assistant football coach at Carpinteria High School.

phone: 805.963.7811
email:  uhler@agilitycap.com