Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Hires Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm, has hired Chi-Hua Chien as Partner. He joins KPCB from Accel Partners where he focused on digital media, software-as-a-service, consumer Internet, and online advertising infrastructure companies. Chi-Hua was instrumental in Accel's investments in AdECN (acquired by MSFT) and Facebook, and also worked on the firm's investments in BitTorrent, fbFund, Glam, Trulia, and YuMe Networks. Previously, Chi-Hua was the Director of Marketing at hosted software provider Coremetrics, a leading ecommerce web analytics provider. Chi-Hua's prior roles include corporate development at Google, where he covered the digital video market and coordinated the company's first acquisition in China, as well business development at eCoverage, and investment banking in Morgan Stanley's Technology Group. Chi-Hua has a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering, and BA in Economics, all from Stanford University where he was named a Mayfield Fellow and President's Scholar. He also earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Based in Menlo Park, KPCB has backed entrepreneurs in more than 400 portfolio companies, including Netscape, Amazon.com and Google.
Verdiem, Inc. Hires Allison Cornia as Vice President of Marketing
Verdiem, Inc., the leading provider of power management solutions to quantifiably reduce the overall carbon footprint of networked PCs by up to 50%, announced it has hired Allison Cornia as Vice President of Marketing. She joins Verdiem from Digeo, a HDTV DVR and set-top box company, where she was VP Marketing & Communications and ran all branding, marketing strategy, marketing research, customer relationship management, and corporate communications. Prior to Digeo, Allison was GM, Device Marketing & Advertising at RealNetworks. Earlier, she was at Microsoft where she held senior marketing positions for Xbox and MSN. With headquarters in Seattle, WA, Verdiem has received private funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, The Angelino Group, and Catamount Ventures.
Doostang Hires New Chief Executive Officer
Doostang, the invite-only career community, has hired Drew Carpenter as its new CEO. Mr. Carpenter joins Doostang from Walmart.com where he was Director, Digital Life & Media. In this role he had full P&L responsibility for all photo, books, movies and music categories. He also held senior roles in Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Walmart.com. Prior he was venture capitalist at Madrona Venture Group and also was Co-Founder & VP Client Management at SF Interactive, an Internet marketing and web development firm for clients such as Nike, Sun Microsystems and H-P. He graduated from Amherst College and has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Doostang has received venture funding from Shasta Ventures.
National Banana, Inc. Appoints Jim Ramo as Chairman of the Board
National Banana, Inc., the online destination for professionally produced short-form comedic content, has appointed Jim Ramo as Chairman of the Board. Most recently Mr. Ramo was CEO of Movielink, the online content joint venture of five movie studios, including MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Earlier, he was the CEO of Geocast Network Systems, as well as the COO of TVN Entertainment. He was also the founder and EVP of DirecTV, where he ran all sales, marketing, programming and customer service. Earlier in his career Mr. Ramo spent time with TRW, Times Mirror Cable Television and CBS. He holds a B.A. from Berkeley and an M.S. from The London School of Economics. National Banana was founded by Jerry Zucker, the director of acclaimed movies including Airplane!, the Naked Gun trilogy, and The Kentucky Fried Movie. The company has received venture funding from USVP and Venrock.
Vice President of Online Product Marketing
Jason Hovey Joins Fluid Entertainment
Fluid Entertainment, Inc., an independent developer and operator of online games for kids, has appointed Jason Hovey as Vice President Online Product Marketing. He joins Fluid from Kaboose, a leading developer of online games for children, where he was the VP, Business Development and also ran all kids and education products. Prior, Hovey was GM, Yahooligans and Yahoo! Education at Yahoo! where he drove web traffic from 1.5M users and 25M page views/month to more than 6M users and 200M page views/month. He earned a BA from UCLA. Fluid is a private company headquartered in San Francisco and has received venture funding from Trinity Ventures.
National Banana, Inc. Hires Patrick Panzarella as Chief Executive Officer
National Banana, Inc., the online destination for professionally produced short-form comedic content, has hired Patrick Panzarella as CEO. He joins National Banana from Sarafino Ventures, where he was a Partner investing in and operating various traditional and new media companies, including Single Touch Interactive, Youthstream Media Networks, and Artist Direct (where he ran business development). Earlier, Panzarella was the Founder of Artemis Records and also produced hit movies, including The Funeral and Kids. Mr. Panzarella earned his bachelor\’s degree from USC. Headquartered in Los Angeles, National Banana was founded by Jerry Zucker, the director of acclaimed movies including Airplane!, the Naked Gun trilogy, and The Kentucky Fried Movie. The company has received venture funding from USVP and Venrock.
Danoo, Inc. Appoints A New Board Member
Danoo, Inc., a new digital out-of-home media network, appointed Michael Hudes to the Board of Directors. Mr. Hudes is the Global Director of Digital Media at Clear Channel Outdoor where he focuses on creating, partnering or acquiring media properties, taking advantage of new technology to drive greater returns on Clear Channel Outdoors’ existing global estate while identifying new ‘placed-based’ media channels and interactive platforms to reach consumers with more targeted and timely advertising and content. Prior to joining Clear Channel Outdoor, Hudes was President & COO of AdSpace Networks, a leading builder of digital media networks for advertising and promotion in public spaces and at retail. Earlier he was President & COO of Organic, Inc. and also served as Director of Marketing & Advertising Partnerships at da Vinci Time & Space, a leading interactive television company focused on creating original content and development tools for interactive programming. He began his career in advertising with the Young & Rubicam companies. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Danoo delivers engaging localized content to urban consumers via the web, mobile devices, and a network of out-of-home digital screens.
Chris Darner Hired By PlayFirst As Vice President of Product
PlayFirst, Inc., has hired Chris Darner as Vice President of Product. Prior to joining PlayFirst, Chris worked at NetFlix where he was the Director of Product Management and led all online design and customer experience for one the world’s most trafficked consumer websites in the world. He brings a wealth of online and new media design and product management experience from companies such as The Chopping Block and Concrete Media. Chris earned a BFA from New York University. PlayFirst is a leading developer and publisher of casual games on the Internet, desktop, and mobile platforms and has received funding from Trinity Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and Rustic Canyon Partners.
Aesthera Corporation Hires Chief Marketing Officer
Aesthera Corporation, developers of a revolutionary, pain-free, light-based platform for aesthetic skin treatments, has hired Lauren Selmeier as Chief Marketing Officer. A highly regarded marketing executive, Lauren was most recently the VP Marketing and Global Channel Development at Accuray, a leading non-invasive radiosurgical medical device company. She also ran international sales and marketing at Conceptus and was also the VP, Surgical Marketing at Aesculap. Earlier in her career she held a number of sales and marketing positions at both Baxter International and Medtronic. Based in Pleasanton, CA, Aesthera has received financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and MedVenture Associates.
SVP of Sales, Marketing & Client Services
Tippit Hires Matt Elders As SVP of Sales, Marketing & Client Services
Tippit, a pioneering Internet media company that owns and operates a growing network of high-traffic, industry-specific websites that deliver B2B vendors a cost-effective demand generation platform, has hired Matt Elders to run all sales, marketing and services efforts. Before joining Tippit, Matt was the SVP of Worldwide Sales at both Buzzlogic and Iconoculture, respectively. Prior he was the GM, Sales & Marketing at Sawyer Media, a Sequoia Capital-backed media platform start-up. Earlier, Matt was an employee at Scient where he was the first sales executive and served as the VP Worldwide Sales during the company’s explosive revenue growth from less than $2M to a $300M run rate. Before Scient, Matt was VP Sales & Marketing for the Decision Drivers business at Gartner Group. With headquarters in San Francisco, Tippit has received private funding from Trinity Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Granite Global Ventures.
Move,Inc. Hires Web Industry Veteran to Lead Company
Move, Inc., (NASDAQ: MOVE) the media leader in connecting consumers with the when, where and how to move, announced that Lorna Borenstein has been named President. In this new position, she will report to CEO Mike Long and will have full P&L responsibility leading the day-to-day business operations, engineering, marketing and product development of the Company. Prior, Ms. Borenstein held a number of executive positions at Yahoo! including global vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Personals and vice president, marketing of Yahoo! Search & Marketplace Group, where she was responsible for leading all marketing strategy and initiatives for this multi-billion dollar business. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Borenstein served as VP & GM at eBay, the largest online trading community. Borenstein was initially hired by eBay to launch its Canadian business responsible for overall strategy and operations, business development, sales and marketing, branding, merchandising, product and public relations and making it the country's No. 1 online shopping destination.
RazorGator, Inc. Hires New Chief Executive Officer
RazorGator, Inc. has hired Jeff Lapin as the Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Lapin is an experienced interactive and entertainment industry executive. Most recently he was the CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software. Prior he was the Vice Chairman & COO of THQ, Inc. which grew from $30 million to nearly $600 million in revenues during his tenure. Mr. Lapin also served as the President of both House of Blues, Inc. and Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He received a BA from UCLA and a JD from Loyola University Law School. Based in Los Angeles, RazorGator has received funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers & Oak Investment Partners.
SuccessFactors Acquires SVP Global Marketing
SuccessFactors has announced that it hired Steve Sommer as SVP Global Marketing. Prior to joining SuccessFactors Steve was SVP Marketing & Business Development at ArcSight, a leading provider of enterprise security management software solutions. Earlier he was President & CEO of AirPrism and also SVP of Markteing & Business Development at Portal Software. During his tenure at Portal revenues grew from $2 million to over $250 million. Before Portal, Steve was the VP Worldwide Marketing at Informix Software and also held senior marketing roles at Cognos, Digital Equipment Corp and SciTex. He was also a consultant at McKinsey & Co. and started his career at Procter & Gamble. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from Harvard Business School. SuccessFactors has received funding from Greylock Partners, TPG Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners, Cardinal Venture Capital and Canaan Partners.
Vice President of Marketing
LucidEra Acquires VP of Marketing
LucidEra announced that it has hired Alex Moissis as Vice President of Marketing. Previous to LucidEra, Alex held key roles at Business Objects during 9 consecutive years of growth and profitability as the company grew from revenues of $40M to over $850M. While at Business Objects: he headed the company's worldwide product marketing team for the launch of the company's first web product, WebIntelligence; as the VP of marketing for the Americas, he was instrumental in helping grow the company's sales from fourth to first place in North America. And finally, as the VP of Product Strategy he influenced the expansion of the company's product portfolio with the acquisitions of Acta (in 2002) and Crystal Decisions (in 2003). Prior to Business Objects, Alex held product marketing and management roles with the UNIX products group at Oracle and at Sybase, where he helped launch the company's Replication Server product. In his most recent role, Alex was the VP of marketing at Valchemy, a leading software as a service vendor for M&A. IBM acquired the business in 2006. Alex holds four degrees from MIT, including a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and a master's degree in management from the Sloan School. LucidEra has received funding from Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners.
VP Marketing
Marketing Veteran Joins Fortify Software
Fortify Software, a company developing solutions to mitigate security vulnerabilities in the software development process, has hired Andrea Butter as Vice President of Marketing. She joins Fortify from U3 where she held the same position. Prior, Andrea was an early member of the management team at Palm during its growth from a start-up to nearly $1B in sales. During her six years at Palm, she managed every product launch including the revolutionary PalmPilot and the PalmV. As Vice President of Marketing, Andrea was responsible for analyst relations and branding, as well as Palm's channel and direct marketing efforts geared towards consumer, enterprise, and government customers. Prior to Palm, Andrea held international marketing positions at Apple Computer and its software subsidiary, Claris. After studies at the University of Salzburg, Austria, Andrea received two master's degrees from Stanford University. Based in Palo Alto, Fortify Software has received funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sigma Partners, and Duff Ackerman & Goodrich.
Chief Executive Officer
Raymond Stern Takes Helm of New Consumer Technology Company
Presto Services Inc. has announced that Raymond Stern has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Presto, which has developed a new digital delivery service that makes it easier for family and friends to stay connected and share digital content, is working in close partnership with HP to deliver the integrated product and service. Prior to joining Presto, Raymond was SVP of Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer at Intuit. During his tenure at Intuit he was also SVP of Strategy & Corporate Development. Before Intuit, Mr. Stern was a Partner and the Vice President in charge of the West Coast Technology and Media Practice for The Boston Consulting Group. He has a BS from Stanford and an MBA from The Harvard Business School. Based in Mountain View, CA, Presto has received funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Clearstone Ventures.
VP Worldwide Sales
Enterprise Software Veteran to Lead Growing Sales Organization
Ignite Technologies, developers of a managed digital distribution service that allows companies to send any size digital file to any PC, anywhere in the world, over any connection without any changes to existing network infrastructure, has hired Joe Pollard as VP Worldwide Sales. Most recently, Joe was the SVP Sales & Marketing at Remote Dynamics, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Permeo Technologies. Prior, he was EVP Worldwide Sales at MetaSolv Software from start-up to over $130 million in revenue and through a successful IPO. Earlier in his career, Mr. Pollard held sales positions as Tivoli Systems, Apollo Computer and DEC. He holds a BS in Computer Systems Engineering from The University of Memphis. Based in Dallas, TX, Ignite has received funding from SAP Ventures, Walden Ventures, and Austin Ventures.
Associate Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Hires Wen Hsieh
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm, has hired Wen Hsieh as Associate Partner. He joins KPCB from McKinsey & Co. where he was a Partner and Co-Leader of the firm's Asia Semiconductor Practice. In this role he was responsible for spearheading major client engagements in the U.S., Mainland China, and Taiwan across the entire global semiconductor value chain. Prior to McKinsey & Co., he was the Founder & CEO of OnChip Technologies, a developer of microfluidic-based protein chips for high-sensitivity and high-throughput proteomic separation and identification applications. Earlier, he was a Co-Founder of Campus24.com, a provider of online auctions and classifieds for college students which was acquired by Collegeclub.com. He earned a BS, MS and PhD in electrical engineering, with a minor in biology, from CalTech. Based in Menlo Park, KPCB has backed entrepreneurs in more than 400 portfolio companies, including Netscape, Amazon.com, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems.
Associate Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Hires Ellen Pao
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm, has hired Ellen Pao as Associate Partner. She joins KPCB from BEA Systems where she was Senior Director, Corporate Business Development and also oversaw the development site for their new mobile product line. Prior she worked in business development at TellMe Networks and managed business development for the Asia Pacific Group at Microsoft's WebTV Networks. Earlier she was an attorney at Cravath Swain & Moore and also spent time at AT&T Bell Labs where she wrote network failure simulation programs. She holds a BSEE from Princeton University, a JD cum laude from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Based in Menlo Park, KPCB has backed entrepreneurs in more than 400 portfolio companies, including Netscape, Amazon.com, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks and Sun Microsystems.