Jim Murray has been investing in early stage companies for over 30 years, and has been a principal in firms specializing in investment banking and venture capital for telecom and information technology businesses since 1982. Prior to Court Square, he was a founding partner of Columbia Capital, which today manages five funds aggregating over $2 billion. Jim is currently a director of CSV I portfolio company Mintera Corp., and of CSV II portfolio companies Imagine Communications, GreatCall, Inc. (Jitterbug), and Seakeeper, Inc. In addition, he serves as a board observer at Pipeline Financial Group. He served on the strategic advisory board of Birchmere Ventures II, LP/Bay City Capital and the Technology Crossover Ventures Internet Advisory Committee. 

During his career Mr. Murray has served as a director of over two dozen technology companies including some seven firms that were IPOs, publicly listed, or merged into public companies. He served for two years as CEO of North Coast Cellular, a service provider in Northern California. He served on the board of the Smurfit Graduate School of Business Administration, University College, Dublin, Ireland. He is the author of Wireless Nation: The Frenzied Launch of the Cellular Revolution in America, the first definitive account of how the American cell phone industry evolved (selected by Booklist as one of the “top ten” business books of 2001). As an inventor, Mr. Murray is the holder of a U.S. patent for a wireless maritime ignition control system. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, a J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from the College of William and Mary. From 2001 through 2009, he served as Chairman of the Virginia Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments.

Randy Castleman has over two decades of company-building experience at the intersection of digital media, telecom and IT, including founding and senior operating roles in small and large companies, as well as involvement in key developments in intellectual property protection and licensing on the Internet. Prior to founding Court Square with Jim Murray and Chris Holden, he created and managed the New Media & Technology Strategy group at performance rights clearing house ASCAP, advising the CEO and board on technology issues and developing the industry’s first license for music on the Internet. While at ASCAP, Mr. Castleman also served as technology policy advisor for the National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, a Federal advisory commission comprised of CEOs from the telecom, software, and media industries that advised the White House on Internet policy issues.

Prior to ASCAP, Mr. Castleman was part of the founding team, with actress Jodie Foster, of Egg Pictures, a PolyGram-financed feature film production company, where he had management responsibilities for both business operations and creative matters. He had senior management responsibilities at Interscope Communications and Ogilvy & Mather acquired by WPP and worked on DSL planning and implementation for BellSouth, acquired by ATT.

Mr. Castleman serves or has served as a director of CSV portfolio companies Bug Labs, TRAFFIQ, SNOCAP, Labrador Mobile, Grand Central and Optinel Systems. He has served on the board of the UVA Emergency Medicine Advisory Board and is founder and president of the Charlottesville Police Department Foundation. Mr. Castleman earned his BA from Princeton University in 1985 and his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia in 1998.

Chris Holden brings over 25 years of early stage investing and company-building experience to Court Square, including 11 years with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in a variety of senior operating, strategy, and executive management roles.

From 1995 to 2000 he served as Chief Executive Officer of Kesmai Corporation, a wholly owned software and technology subsidiary of News Corp, which he sold to Electronic Arts and America Online. Prior to becoming CEO of Kesmai, Mr. Holden was vice president of News Technology Group, which held company-wide responsibility for investing in technology and new media businesses, as well as managing the integration and deployment of new technologies across News Corp business units worldwide. He also served on News Corp’s Global Interactive Strategy Taskforce, was a member of the executive team that created iGuide (a joint venture between News Corp and MCI which later became TV Guide Interactive and merged with Gemstar Corporation), and was a senior executive with the News Digital Media Group, which oversaw the online operations of a number of News Corp companies. Prior to joining the News Technology Group, he co-founded the Advanced Media Group for HarperCollins Publishers in New York (a News Corp company) and served as corporate vice president. While at News Corp, Mr. Holden served as a director of numerous private companies in the IT, Software, and media sectors.

Mr. Holden left News Corp in 2000 to co-found Court Square Ventures. He has been a board member in CSV I portfolio companies CSTV (sold to CBS), Logic Library (sold to SOA Software), and Verance (still operating). Currently, he is a director of CSV II portfolio companies Emerging Media Group, Grab Networks, Echo360, and Mobile Posse. He serves on the board of the Martha Jefferson Hospital Foundation, the University of Virginia Patent Foundation, and was appointed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to the Board of Visitors of Virginia State University. He is a graduate of Woodberry Forest School and Davidson College.

Doug Burns joined the Court Square team in 2002. Doug is on the board of Labrador Mobile and is a board observer at a number of Court Square portfolio companies including GreatCall, Imagine Communications, Seakeeper, and Continuum 700. In addition to his work with portfolio companies, Doug is responsible for administrating Court Square’s funds and relations with limited partners. In the Charlottesville community, he serves on the board of the Building Goodness in April Foundation and serves on the Martha Jefferson Hospital Family Advisory Council.

Doug has worked in a variety of roles with early stage technology companies since 1995, initially in Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group (Washington, DC) as a Senior Auditor focused on the financing needs of high-growth early stage technology companies in the region. His clients included dozens of technology companies in the software and telecommunications sectors across the Mid-Atlantic and in California. He earned his B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from Washington and Lee University and is a Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He received his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and graduated with academic honors.

Brian Kannry joined the Court Square team in 2007, bringing over 12 years of experience in Finance, Technology, and Media. Previously, he held the position of Vice President in Merrill Lynch’s Technology Investment Banking group in Palo Alto, California, as well as positions in Capital Markets and Equity Research for JPMorgan. His clients while at Merrill Lynch consisted of both Small Cap and Fortune 500 communications and technology companies, including Oracle, Apple, Hewlett Packard, JDS Uniphase, EDS, and EMC.

Mr. Kannry served as Vice President of Business Development for Charlottesville-based startup and online media company Musictoday, in which Live Nation acquired a majority stake in 2006. He has authored multiple cases for the MBA program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School and earned his BA in Government and International Relations from Cornell University.