Board of Directors

Richard L. Mooers
Executive Chairman of the Board, age 48

In 1985, Rick graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maine, United States, with a bachelor of science degree in business administration. He trained as a certified public accountant and subsequently worked at various accounting firms, including Kenneth Foster & Co CPAs and MacDade Abbot & Co CPAs, in the Northeast USA from his graduation until 1991.

In late 1991, Rick joined Dominion Group Limited, an investment/merchant bank which specialized in the technology, agriculture, and environmental industries, initially as director of corporate finance. He subsequently became CEO of that company. In these roles, he gained a wide range of both international and US experience, including being involved with a number of businesses in various stages of development, including start-ups, commercializations, and public offerings.

Rick co-founded Mooers Branton & Company and MB Merchant Group, LLC with Roger Branton in 1997. Mooers Branton & Company is an international merchant bank which provides early-stage financing to emerging businesses in the technology, hospitality, and real estate sectors. Mooers Branton & Company manages its portfolio of investments through the privately held company, MB Merchant Group, LLC.

Rick's merchant banking activities have given him a wide range of international experience, including experience in restructurings, turnarounds, and mergers and acquisitions. Together with Roger Branton and Joe Bobier, Rick co-founded xG Technology, Inc. in August 2002.

As a merchant banker, Rick from time to time takes on operational roles in portfolio companies. That is the case with xG Technology Inc. where he presently serves as Executive Chairman. Drawing on his varied experiences as a serial entrepreneur from a merchant banking platform, Rick is a generalist in a world of specialists. For example, he possesses a working knowledge or better in areas such as management, finance, accounting, tax; international dealings, restructurings/turnarounds, business start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, securities, legal, investment banking, consulting, negotiating and structuring transactions, licensing; regulatory issues, and most importantly risk management. Rick has both international and US-based experience. Rare and uniquely beneficial to an early stage company, he brings this multinational experience, as well as his key international relationships, to xG Technology, Inc. Rick has been involved in leading the various stages of business from start-up to private placements to commercialization to IPO to exit.

On a day–to-day basis with xG Technology Inc., Rick’s responsibilities include a) communicating the vision and message of the business; b) key relationship management; c) liaising with media and advisors; d) management of the business; and again most importantly e) risk management. He strives to effectively execute on his responsibilities while simultaneously aligning the goals of various parties. First and foremost, he ensures that the goals of the Company are aligned with those of the shareholders. Likewise, he ensures appropriate incentives are in place to provide for the alignment of the goals of various external relationships such as customers and key vendors with those of the Company.

Roger G. Branton
CFO, age 44

In 1989, Roger graduated from West Chester University in Pennsylvania with a bachelor of science degree in accounting. He trained as a certified public accountant and worked for Horty & Horty in Wilmington, Delaware, USA from his graduation until 1993. Roger went on to become an associate at Dominion Group Limited, an investment/merchant bank which specialized in the technology, agriculture, and environmental industries, where he worked until 1997. His work at Dominion Group Limited included, but was not limited to, acting as interim chief financial officer for several companies within its investment portfolio.

Roger co-founded Mooers Branton & Company and MB Merchant Group, LLC with Rick Mooers in 1997. Mooers Branton & Company is an international merchant bank which provides early-stage financing to emerging businesses in the technology, hospitality, and real estate sectors. Mooers Branton & Company manages its portfolio of investments through the privately held company, MB Merchant Group, LLC.

Together with Rick Mooers and Joe Bobier, Roger co-founded xG Technology, Inc. in August 2002, where he presently serves as CFO.

Roger takes an operational role in the companies managed by Mooers Branton & Company and he draws on a wealth of general experience through his merchant bank experience.

In his role as an officer of xG Technology, Inc., he works quite closely with Rick Mooers in a wide variety of roles including management, finance, accounting, tax; international dealings, restructurings/turnarounds, business start-ups, mergers and acquisitions, securities, legal, investment banking, consulting, negotiating and structuring transactions, licensing; regulatory issues, and risk management. Roger has invaluable international experience and relationships, and has been involved in each of the various stages of business.

On a day-to-day basis with xG Technology, Inc. Roger’s responsibilities include a) overseeing the successful execution of, and adherence to, the business plan; b) ensuring timely completion of key projects; c) facilitating efficient communication of the message and corporate vision to key employees and relationships; d) contract review; e) liaising with the financial community; f) both macro- and microeconomic analysis; and most importantly g) ensuring that the Company does not exceed its already secured resources.

John Coleman
CEO, age 58

John C. Coleman brings to xG Technology, Inc. 34 years combined experience in expeditionary operations from both government service and the private sector. In his final years as a U.S. Marine, he was posted as the Chief of Staff, 1st Marines Expeditionary Force for the first two years of OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM supervising the largest field headquarters ever assembled in wartime by the Marines. Though an Infantry Officer by trade, he was known and remains widely recognized throughout the Corps as a visionary and leading innovator in the exploitation of digital technology to enhance command, control, and communication within military forces.

Following government service, Mr. Coleman joined Hunter Defense Technologies and served for two and half years as Vice President of Business Development. At Hunter he pioneered an entirely new business sector specializing in the development and delivery of expeditionary command and control infrastructure for civil first responders and the DOD. Validating the efficacy of this effort, he led a team that deployed and operated an Expeditionary Emergency Operations Center (E2OC) in the city of Chicago for Barack Obama’s Presidential acceptance speech on 4 November 2008. Though only on the ground for 18 hours, this highly mobile facility integrated an ad hoc team from 43 different federal, state, and local agencies and provided them fully interoperable voice and data communications along with integrated visual information display.

Most recently, Mr. Coleman established Joint Command and Control Consulting (JC3). JC3 provides consulting services focused on the development, integration, and delivery of mature and emerging technologies in support of expeditionary operations, particularly as related to command, control, and communications. In conjunction with its strategic partners, JC3 provides C4ISR-related systems, service, training, and support to expeditionary responders, both civil and military.

George Frederick Schmitt
Non-Executive Director, age 68

George Schmitt brings to xG Technology over 40 years of broad telecom experience in wireless and wireline companies. He currently serves on the boards of Calient, Secure Alert, Ready Jet Go Airlines, and Teleworx. George is SBIC Director at TeleSoft Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm specializing in early stage, mid stage, late stage, and growth capital.

His experience includes e.spire Communications, Omnipoint, LHS Group, Objective Systems Integrators, PCS PrimeCo, AirTouch Communications, Mannesmann Mobilfunk (Germany), Pacific Telesis, Pacific Telephone, and AT&T. Most recently, George was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of e.spire Communications, a provider of voice, data and Internet services to markets throughout the U.S.

Previously, George was President and a Director at Omnipoint Communication Services (NASDAQ: OMPT) until VoiceStream's acquisition of Omnipoint Corporation in 2000. Subsequently, Deutsche Telekom acquired Voicestream to form T-Mobile U.S. George was also a Director of two telecom software companies; LHS Group (NASDAQ: LHSG), where he was a Director and member of the Audit Committee prior to its acquisition by Sema in 2000, and Objective Systems Integrators (NASDAQ: OSII), where he was also a Director and Chairman of the Audit Committee and Member of the Compensation Committee, which was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2000.

Prior to joining Omnipoint, George was President and Chief Executive Officer of PCS PrimeCo (now part of Verizon Wireless) a national PCS partnership formed by AirTouch, Bell Atlantic, NYNEX and U.S. West. He came to PrimeCo from AirTouch, where he was Executive Vice President of International Operations responsible for AirTouch’s operations in its ventures in Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Spain and Thailand. Prior to PCS PrimeCo, George was a member of the board of management of Mannesmann Mobilfunk in Germany and also headed the company’s technical department. His department’s responsibilities included the complete development and operation of the D2 network, the first commercial GSM network in the world. He also served as the Chairman of the GSM Association, an international organization responsible for overseeing the worldwide implementation of GSM wireless technology.

George received an M.S. in Management from Stanford University, where he was a Sloan Fellow, and a B.A. in Political Science from Saint Mary’s College.

James Woodyatt
Executive Director, age 44

James has worked in the financial markets industry since 1990 and held various positions in institutions, including Nomura Bank (Japanese equities, convertible and warrant bond sales), Tradition SA (interest rate swaps, inter-bank dealing) and Decillion AG (convertible arbitrage fund marketing). In 2001 James joined Optimal Investment Services SA, the hedge fund arm of Spain’s Grupo Santander where he was a Senior Vice President, head of International sales and marketing and a member of the company’s management committee. In 2006, James co-founded and became the president of Veegoo Holding and Managing Director of Veegoo Capital Services SA, a group which is active in business advisory and private equity.
 
   

Mats Wennberg
Senior Non-Executive Director, age 53

From 1986 to 2002 Mats worked for Microsoft where he was the Managing Director for the Nordic and Baltic region, based in Stockholm. In 1999, he was assigned to London as Vice-President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where he was responsible for various sales operations for Microsoft until September 2002. He has subsequently been working as a senior advisor for IT Provider AB, a leading Nordic venture capital firm which focuses on accelerating the growth of Nordic early and expansion stage technology companies. He is currently the chief executive officer of Wennberg Industries AB, a company which he founded in 2002 and which has invested in a number of early stage software focused companies. Mats was also chief executive officer of xG Technology, Inc. from January 2004 to September 2005. Mats serves as the Chairman of the xG Technology, Inc. Board of Directors' Audit and Remuneration Committees.

Palmi Sigmarsson
Non-Executive Director, age 50

Palmi has been a licensed securities broker since 1989. For the last 20 years, he has been working as an investment advisor to several pension funds and large corporations in Iceland. Palmi graduated from the University of Iceland in 1986 with a degree in business administration. From 1987 to 1990 Palmi served as head of an institutional securities brokerage at Iceland Investment Corporation, which was the first listed securities company in Iceland. From 1991 to 1995, Palmi was the managing director of Reykjavik Securities (Handsal hf.), a licensed securities company. From 1991 to 1993, Palmi was also appointed as a representative of Icelandic securities companies to a committee formed by the Icelandic securities industry, tasked with reviewing the Icelandic securities law. He moved on to work at Spectra Kapitalforvaltning AB, a licensed securities company, from 1996 until 2004, where he headed the Icelandic branch of the company. He currently runs his own advisor company, PS Consulting ehf, which focuses on providing advice to both private and corporate professional investors.  Palmi serves on the xG Technology, Inc. Board of Directors' Audit and Remuneration Committees.