- Mike Volpi
-
Mike Volpi (born 13 December 1966 in Milan, Italy) is a venture capitalist and partner at Index Ventures which he joined in 2009.[1] He is best known for his leadership of Cisco’s business development efforts during the company’s prominent growth era.
Contents
Career
Mike began his career at Hewlett Packard's optoelectronics division in 1989. He joined Cisco Systems in 1994 in the nascent business development group. He was rapidly promoted to Chief Strategy Officer for the company where he led corporate strategy, business development, and strategic alliances. During his tenure, he and his team were responsible for the acquisition of over 70 companies in 7 years. Their acquisition strategy is widely regarded as a model for tech M & A).[2] Later, he also became General Manager for Cisco’s $10B+ Routing and Service Provider Business and re-established Cisco’s market leadership in Service Provider routing.[3] In 1999, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[4]
From 2007 until 2009, Mike was CEO of Joost,[5] an Internet startup focused on online TV which was founded by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.[6] In September 2009, a lawsuit was filed against Mike by Skype’s founders in conjunction with the proposed divestiture of Skype from eBay.[7] The lawsuit was dropped in November 2009.[8]
Index Ventures
At Index Ventures, Mike invests in early stage companies across the Internet, telecom, networking and media sectors.[9] He currently sits on the boards of Cloud.com, Foodily, GroupSpaces, Lookout, Path, SoundCloud and Storsimple. Mike also contributes to the firm’s late stage growth fund through his investment in Sonos.
Public Boards
Mike has been a board member of Swedish mobile giant Ericsson (ERIC) since 2010.[10] In addition he previously served on the board(s) of Opsware (now HP),[11] TIBCO and Clearwire.
He currently serves on the board of Witness, a non-profit organization which uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.[12] Mike previously served on the Advisory Council for the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Education
He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Personal life
Born in Italy, Mike was raised in Japan and moved to the United States in 1984. He is trilingual. Mike is married with 2 children.
Awards
Network World: 1999 Power Issue – 25 Most Powerful People in Networking [13]
References
- ^ http://www.indexventures.com/news#news/index/news_id/223
- ^ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_09/b3721084.htm
- ^ http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2004/hd_052504.html
- ^ "1999 Young Innovators Under 35". Technology Review. 1999. http://www.technologyreview.com/tr35/?year=1999. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
- ^ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090706/mike-volpi-jumps-from-joost-to-index-a-boomtown-interview-and-full-press-release/
- ^ http://eetimes.eu/en/joost-taps-cisco-vp-mike-volpi-as-ceo?cmp_id=7&news_id=199901152
- ^ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125328729155823251.html#mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews
- ^ http://kara.allthingsd.com/20091104/i-love-the-smell-of-settlement-in-the-morning-skype-founders-set-to-get-10-percent-option-to-buy-three-percent-more-and-two-board-seats/
- ^ http://indexventures.com/team#profile_id_46
- ^ http://www.ericsson.com/thecompany/press/releases/2010/03/1391510
- ^ http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20030820005196/en/Opsware-Adds-Independent-Board-Members-Noted-Industry
- ^ http://www.witness.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1046&Itemid=168
- ^ http://www.networkworld.com/power99/power99-25volpi.html
Categories:- Italian businesspeople
- Venture capitalists
- 1966 births
- Living people
- TR35 winners
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