John Balen is general partner, Canaan Partners, in the firm's Menlo Park, California office where he focuses primarily on investments in communications and mobility as well as next-generation enterprise technology companies. Prior to joining Canaan in 1995, John served as a managing director of Horsley Bridge Partners, a private equity investment firm in San Francisco. During his nine-year tenure, he was responsible for a wide spectrum of investments in high-tech companies, venture capital and buyout partnerships. Earlier in his career, he was a sales applications engineer at Codenoll Technology Corporation, a fiber communications start-up, and an engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation. John currently sits on the boards of Blurb, Cardlytics, Casabi, Command Audio, Dexterra, Echopass, ID Analytics, Silicon Optix and SOASTA.
As Chief Executive Officer of Switchfly, Daniel Farrar is responsible for the strategic direction and leadership of the company. He brings more than 25 years of corporate management and strategic development experience with venture-backed software companies, private equity firms and Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Switchfly in 2011, Daniel was chief executive officer at Openlane, a privately held venture-backed SaaS provider. Previously, Daniel was a general partner with private equity firm Morgenthaler and held various positions with GE Capital, including President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Fleet Services and GE Capital Fleet Services Europe. Daniel has also held board positions with multiple venture-backed companies, including Aegis Group, Comm-Works Holdings, Formed Fiber Technologies and GreenRoad Technologies. Daniel received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his MBA from Harvard University.
Cameron Lester is a founding General Partner with Azure Capital Partners where he specializes in software and related infrastructure technologies. His current board memberships include Switchfly, Get Satisfaction, SilkRoad Technology, SourceCode Technology, Twitvid, and Zend Technologies. Other successful investments include TopTier Software (acquired by SAP), VMware (acquired by EMC), Interwoven (IPO in 1999), PSS Systems (acquired by IBM) and Salesforce.com (IPO in 2004). Immediately prior to Azure, Cameron was a Managing Director and the Group Head of the Software Investment Banking Group at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB). Prior to CSFB, Cameron was a Director and the Group Head of the Software Investment Banking Group at Deutsche Bank Securities.
Bob Rees is a general partner with Startup Capital Ventures and an experienced venture capitalist with a 25-year track record of forming, incubating, funding, and growing successful young companies. Prior to joining Startup Capital Ventures, Bob held positions with Access Venture Partners, an affiliate of Draper Fisher Jurveston, and Woodside Fund. He has built an investment track record that includes exits for Innova Corporation, Hotrail, CashWorks, and AccelGraphics. Prior to entering the venture capital industry, Bob held key executive positions at Mobil and Tenneco and led the sales and marketing group at a Kentucky-based start-up. Bob currently serves on the boards of QuanTEM Laboratories, WhiteHat Security and Xignite.
Mark Leslie was the founding chairman and CEO of Veritas Software. During his tenure as CEO, the company grew from 12 employees to 5,500 employees deployed globally, and from an annual revenue base of $95,000 to $1.5 billion. In 2000, Veritas was the 10th largest independent software company by revenue, third largest by market capitalization, and a member of the Fortune 1000. Mark currently serves on the board of NetApp Corporation (NSDAQ: NTAP) and a number of privately held high-technology corporations, including Cassatt Software, Doostang, Librato Software, Model N Software, Servo Software, SugarCRM, Wall Street Systems and Xsigo Corporation. He is also on the boards of multiple nonprofit organizations, including the NYU Board of Overseers, the NYU Science Advisory Board, Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life, Community Foundation of Silicon Valley, and the Leslie Family Foundation.
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