Rob Bearden, Dan Finnigan, Lewis Cirne Named Entrepreneurs in Residence; Keith
Krach Appointed CEO in Residence
MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Benchmark Capital, a leading
early-stage high-technology venture capital firm, today added four technology
executives to the firm. Three were named Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs),
including Rob Bearden, who held senior executive positions at JBoss, Red Hat
and OpenSpan; Lewis Cirne, the founder of Wily Technology; and Dan Finnigan, a
senior vice president at Yahoo!, responsible for HotJobs. In addition, Keith
Krach, who served as Benchmark's first EIR in 1996 prior to co-founding Ariba,
will serve as CEO in Residence. All four executives will assist Benchmark
companies across the portfolio.
"For 12 years our EIR program has allowed us to forge close working
relationships with world-class entrepreneurs like Rob, Lew, Dan and Keith,
whose talents, experience and market insights are truly inspiring," said Bob
Kagle, general partner at Benchmark. "By bringing seasoned executives into the
firm to found new businesses or work with our portfolio companies, everyone
benefits. They understand the challenges of running a start-up, and
demonstrate by example what it takes to build, manage and lead fast-growth
technology companies."
As EIRs, Mr. Bearden will evaluate new open source business opportunities,
Mr. Cirne will concentrate on open source and web infrastructure companies,
and Mr. Finnigan will focus on advertiser-supported consumer Internet
services. Mr. Krach will work closely with individual entrepreneurs to help
them develop the leadership skills necessary to compete and win in today's
complex and dynamic global business environment.
"I have enjoyed a long relationship with Benchmark, and look forward to
contributing my time and talents to work with some of the impressive
entrepreneurs in its portfolio," said Mr. Krach. "We all know there is no
shortage of bright, creative individuals in the technology industry, but few
have the leadership skills required to take their ideas from concept to market
leadership. I have been very fortunate throughout my career to have strong
mentors, and I look forward to providing that same level of guidance to
others."
Following is a brief summary of each executive's background:
-- Rob Bearden has more than 20 years of experience in the software
industry, with a track record for building strong, global sales
organizations and operations. Most recently he served as chief
operating officer for OpenSpan, a desktop integration software
provider. Previously, as chief operating officer for JBoss, an open
source middleware pioneer, he helped architect and execute the
company's business model, managed its worldwide operations, and played
a key role in its acquisition by Red Hat Software (NYSE: RHT). Prior
to JBoss/Red Hat, he was president of the Americas at i2 Technologies,
a supply chain software provider, and spent six years at Oracle in
executive sales positions.
-- Lewis Cirne is a seasoned entrepreneur, technologist and enterprise
software pioneer. He founded Wily Technology in 1998, built the
company into the market leader in application performance management
and invented its core Java Agent technology, Introscope. Mr. Cirne
served as president and CEO until 2001, and then as CTO, leading Wily
through eight years of consistent sales growth and its 2006
acquisition by CA, Inc. (NYSE: CA). He holds seven patents, including
four related to Wily's core technology. Early in his career he held
senior engineering positions at Apple and Hummingbird Communications.
-- Dan Finnigan has spent his career launching and growing Internet
content, advertising and classified businesses. While serving as
senior vice president at Yahoo!, he orchestrated an advertising,
content and recruitment network for its online recruitment business,
HotJobs, which now includes more than 250 newspapers from 12 media
companies. Prior to Yahoo he led the creation, and served as president
and CEO, of Knight Ridder Digital, spearheading the acquisition of
CareerBuilder with Tribune. In 1996, Mr. Finnigan co-founded and later
served as CEO of SBC Interactive, launched SMARTpages.com (now
YellowPages.com) and led its successful investment in Flycast
Communications.
-- Keith Krach has built and led three companies to global leadership,
and is currently CEO of investment holding company 3Points, Inc. In
1996 he co-founded Ariba, a business-to-business e-commerce pioneer,
served as CEO and chairman for six years, took the company public and
built it into one of the fastest growing software companies in
history. In 2000 he was honored by Ernst & Young as National
Entrepreneur of the Year. Previously Mr. Krach spent seven years at
Rasna Corporation as a founding team member and chief operating
officer, and played a key role in its acquisition by Parametric
Technologies (Nasdaq: PMTC). He started his career at General Motors,
was named its youngest vice president at age 26, and spearheaded the
company's first Japanese joint venture, GMF Robotics.
About Benchmark Capital
Benchmark Capital, a leading venture capital firm, was founded in 1995 to
help talented entrepreneurs with original ideas build successful technology
companies. Benchmark's general partners take a team-oriented, labor-intensive
approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the
firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes high-profile
start-ups like Infinera, MySQL, OpenTable, Second Life, Tellme, Yelp, and
Zillow, and franchise companies such as eBay, Juniper Networks and Red Hat.
The firm manages nearly $2.8 billion in committed venture capital. For more
information on Benchmark Capital, visit its website at
http://www.benchmark.com.
Media Contact:
Carleen LeVasseur
GMK Communications
408.264.6767
carleen@gmkcommunications.com
SOURCE Benchmark Capital
Carleen LeVasseur of GMK Communications, +1-408-264-6767,
carleen@gmkcommunications.com, for Benchmark Capital
