Management
CareFlash is run by passionate executives, each with our own framework of personal experiences that gives us pride in all that CareFlash represents to people. Our backgrounds encompass a deep passion for entrepreneurship as well as numerous years learning the ropes in public companies... knowing that at some point in our careers, an opportunity would present itself permitting us to "make a difference" on an altruistic level, while developing a compelling business.
Jay Drayer - CEO
Jay calls himself a "recovering CFO" and continually refers to the lessons he's learned from his 20 years of experience, the most recent 7 years of which have involved starting and developing growth-oriented companies in San Francisco and Houston in the capacities of COO, CFO, board member and investor.
From 1995-2000, Jay served as CFO at ZEH Software, a Houston-based software company with offices in London and Singapore. ZEH is a 25-year-old company with 3,000 enterprise installations in 63 countries, and a clientele that includes energy companies, engineering firms, and aircraft and automobile manufacturers. Previous to 1995, he held positions with: Western Atlas (NYSE:WAI), now Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI); Enterra (NYSE:EN), now Weatherford (NYSE:WFT); and BOVAR (TSE:BVR), now Ametek (NYSE:AME)
Jay has extensive hands-on experience with M&A, international business, business development and fundraising. Despite the difficult prevailing conditions in the post 9/11 economy, he successfully engineered and closed several financings (debt as well as equity) in early-stage companies. He is a registered CPA in the State of Texas and is currently a board member of the Financial Executives International's (FEI) - Houston Chapter and the University of Houston's Bauer Business School's Alumni Association. Formerly, he served on the boards of the University of Houston MBA Alumni Association and the Texas Society of CPA's - Houston Chapter where he was named outstanding committee chair in 2000. He received his BBA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, and his MBA from the University of Houston in 1994.
Austin Faught - VP, Business Development
Austin brings a unique combination of experience and leadership to the management team. He has firsthand experience involving the challenges encompassing caregiving where, as an 11 year old, he supported his father's battle with colon cancer. From his perspective comes a passion for the value CareFlash delivers. This is apparent in the ways that Austin goes about developing relationships for CareFlash.
Before CareFlash, Austin was in the pharmaceutical industry where he obtained an in-depth understanding of patient care and healthcare practices. He and his colleagues managed four products and 100+ practices in the Houston area. He has extensive experience in identifying needs and delivering a solution that maximizes value for everyone.
Austin spends his time away from work serving in a local church ministry. He directs a class of singles in one of the largest singles ministries in the nation. This position has given him the chance to connect with others who are seeking truth and rest in difficult times. Austin graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette where he obtained a Bachelor's in Business Management. Beyond being co-captain of the ULL baseball team and a Collegiate All-American, he was selected three times in the Major League Baseball draft.
Aaron Poffenberger - CTO
Aaron has worked 8 of the past 10 years designing and developing secure multi tier architectures for commercial applications in the security space and systems management space. He joined PentaSafe Security Technologies, Inc., now NetIQ Corp., in 1998 and was a member of the team that architected the award winning VigilEnt Security Manager product, now Vulnerability Manager. As development manager of VSM, Aaron managed teams in Oklahoma City and Houston. He later managed PentaSafe's EMEA engineering program from the company's London offices where he put together teams in Houston and Delft (Holland) to develop a product tie-in from VSM to IBM's zSeries mainframes.
Aaron has helped to start or found several companies where he has worked as VP of Development and President. In addition to startups he has worked for large enterprises, including Boeing Aerospace where he worked in systems management. As a developer, Aaron has designed and developed many database solutions around Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL, Microsoft .NET and Java.
Aaron is a member of the IEEE and the ACM and has earned the CISSP accreditation for security professionals. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Oklahoma and was later accepted in to OU's prestigious History of Science program where he completed his MA.
