Management Team
Jeff Bermant
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Jeff had the simple yet powerful idea of protecting his privacy and his computer by accessing the Internet through a browser running on a remote PC. The seed of that idea grew into Virtual World Computing and the Cocoon™ service. Jeff is an entrepreneur by nature. He made his first million in real estate at age twenty-seven. He founded Bermant Development Company in 1986 and has been the president and sole owner ever since. He has 30 years of experience financing and managing real estate development projects and has raised three-quarters of a billion dollars in real estate ventures.
Brian J. Fox
FOUNDER & CTO
Brian has over 25 years of technology and business experience. Prior to Virtual World Computing, Brian founded The Okori Group, a consulting firm specializing in helping companies go from product concept to product realization. Prior to the Okori Group, Brian co-founded and led the technology team in a number of successful startup companies, In his career as a consultant he has completed a variety of high profile projects, including the world′s first Internet banking system for Wells Fargo in 1995. He was the first employee of the Free Software Foundation (Project GNU), where he wrote software, including the BASH shell, widely used in all modern versions of UNIX, (Linux, SunOS, and Mac OS X.)
Vernon Irvin
PRESIDENT & CEO
Vernon Irvin brings over twenty years of executive and operational leadership experience for technology, software and digital media companies, with particular experience for driving consumer-focused technology adoption. Recently, Mr. Irvin oversaw a number of start-ups in the mobile commerce and Internet peer-to-peer markets. He has also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at XM Satellite Radio, and was instrumental in growing over two million customer subscriptions in just two years. Prior to XM, Mr. Irvin served as Executive Vice President and General Manager for the VeriSign’s communications services group, driving revenues of $975.7 million and more than 2,000 employees in 19 countries. While at VeriSign, he oversaw core operations and strategy groups including sales, marketing, M&A, product management, strategic development, and network operations. Under his direction, revenue for the communications services group doubled to $850 million in two years. Prior to VeriSign, he served in senior executive positions at both American Management Systems and British Telecommunications. Mr. Irvin holds a BS degree in Information Science from the University of Cincinnati.