Caren D. Merrick is Founder and CEO of Pocket Mentor, a mobile application and digital publishing company focused on leadership development and career advancement. She serves on the boards of the Gladstone Companies, leaders in private equity, debt financing and real estate ownership and financing, a family of public and private investment funds with approximately $1.7 billion invested. (Nasdaq: GLAD, GOOD, GAIN, and LAND). She serves on the Board of Directors of WashingtonFirst Bank (Nasdaq:WFBI). Previously she was a Partner with Bibury Partners, an investment and advisory firm focused on enterprise and consumer technology sectors. Formerly, Ms. Merrick co-founded and was Executive Vice President of webMethods, Inc. (Nasdaq:WEBM), providing business-to-business enterprise software for Global 2000 companies. Ms. Merrick served on the Board of Directors of Inova Healthcare Services and the Northern Virginia Technology Council, and as a Member of the Technology Subgroup on the Virginia Governor's Economic Development and Jobs Creation Commission. Ms. Merrick was Co-Founder, President, and Chairman of the webMethods Foundation/118 Foundation, providing financial grants to non-profits that help low income families in the areas of education and economic development. She has also served on the boards of Greater DC Cares, CharityWorks, the Fairfax Symphony and The Langley School. She is an Advisory Board Member of the Global Good Fund. Ms. Merrick was named a 2011 Top 100 Technology Titan by Washingtonian Magazine. Ms. Merrick received a BA in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is an appointee of the Governor of Virginia.