Our Senior Advisors provide guidance and specialized support to Cayenne’s management team:
Akira Hirai - Founder & Senior Advisor
Oro Valley, AZ
With over 30 years of experience in entrepreneurship, management, business planning, financial analysis, software engineering, operations, and decision analysis, Akira has the breadth and depth of experience needed to quickly understand entrepreneurs' businesses and craft the most suitable solutions.
Before founding Cayenne Consulting in early 2001, Akira started two Internet companies in Silicon Valley. Previously, Akira held various management positions in New York at Salomon Brothers, most recently as Vice President in Fixed Income Derivatives Trading, focusing on new business development and risk management. He has also worked as a senior financial risk management consultant to the financial services industry; software engineer; advertising sales manager for the popular Let's Go travel guide series; general manager of an advertising and graphic design agency; and engineering intern at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
Akira was a regular guest speaker on the topics of business planning, financial forecasting, and capital formation at the Phoenix chapter of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's FastTrac entrepreneur training program and at various programs affiliated with Arizona State University (ASU). He mentored companies preparing to present before the Arizona Angels and the Arizona Venture Capital Conference (AVCC). Akira has also served on the Board of Directors for ITASA (Information Technology Association of Southern Arizona). He was named Entrepreneur of the Week in October 2000 by vCapital.com.
Akira earned his BA in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University.
View Akira's articles and client testimonials.
Please note that as Cayenne's CEO, Akira is no longer able to personally take on any new clients.
Tom Miller - Senior Advisor
Phoenix, AZ
Over the past 50+ years, working independently as a serial entrepreneur as well as a serial intrapreneur within multi-national corporations, Tom has focused on recognizing outstanding new technology opportunities and successfully forming and leading new enterprises. His career has included leadership roles at both Fortune 1000 companies such as Texas Instruments, NCR, Fairchild Semiconductor, Fujitsu and DuPont, and entrepreneurial ventures such as Integrated CMOS Systems, VIA Technologies, Quantum3D, Anadigm, Serious Integrated, and most recently Cerebrum Corporation, a SaaS laboratory information systems company. Tom's extensive experience and expertise span business development, sales and marketing, brand management, operations (general management), and manufacturing.
Tom's earliest successes were at Texas Instruments where he led business development efforts to develop electronic sound generators and controllers for integration into leading consumer electronic products for the toy and game industry. Parker Brothers, Coleco, Milton Bradley and many others introduced products incorporating the TI technology, resulting in revenue growth from zero to over $50 million annually within 3 years. Tom later led efforts to commercialize the first RISC microprocessors, initially at NCR and then at Fairchild, followed by his first entrepreneurial efforts with Integrated CMOS Systems (sold to Toshiba) and VIA Technologies (now a major international IC company in Taiwan). At Fujitsu Microelectronics from 1992 to 1996 Tom initiated efforts to restructure US semiconductor operations, reducing operating costs by more than $20 million while increasing sales from less than $190 million to over $600 million within 3 years.
Since 1998, Tom has advised or participated in the formation of more than 30 other high technology startups. Additionally, Tom currently is a trusted advisor to numerous other public and private companies in the displays, semiconductor, and software industries.
Tom began his career as a hardware and firmware designer for microprocessor systems and holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY.
Marty Zwilling - Chief Knowledge Officer
Phoenix, AZ
Marty Zwilling's passion is nurturing the development of entrepreneurs by providing first-hand mentoring, funding assistance, and <a href="https://www.caycon.com/business-plan-consultant">business plan development</a>.
He writes a daily blog for entrepreneurs and dispenses advice on the subject of startups to a large online audience of over 235,000 Twitter followers. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and the Huffington Post. He recently released his first book titled "Do You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur?"
He has a 30-year track record of demonstrated results as an executive in general management, computer software development, product management, and marketing, as well as in leading technical business transformations, conducting due diligence for investors, mentoring new technical executives, and overseeing business development, customer service, and outsourcing both onshore and offshore.
Marty began his career with IBM, holding an array of positions including executive roles in software development and professional services. Prior to launching on his professional path, Marty's education included the attainment of Bachelor of Science Degrees in Accounting and Computer Science from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
A resident of Fountain Hills, Arizona, Marty is a Board Member at Callaman Ventures, on the startup selection committee of the Arizona Angels Venture Group Inc., an advisor to the Arizona State University Technopolis program, Executive in Residence at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and member of the Advisory Boards for several startups in the area.