People moves: corporate investors in the IT sector

Dell Technologies Capital (DTC), the corporate venturing arm of Dell, hired Omri Green as a senior director and partner. DTC tasked Green with identifying and backing early-stage developers of cybersecurity, DevOps, enterprise software and microchip technology across Israel and Europe. He had held a similar role at venture capital firm Grove Ventures having initially joined as a principal in 2017. Formed in 2012, DTC focuses on startups specialising in enterprise and cloud infrastructure, investing about $200m a year. It backed approximately 130 companies, including 14 valued at $1bn or higher.

Jodi Olson departed from her communications and marketing partner role at GV, an early-stage investment vehicle for internet technology conglomerate Alphabet. Olson joined GV in 2012 to lead its marketing and communications efforts and advise its portfolio companies on their public relations (PR) tactics. In 2015, she helped the unit create a PR and marketing-themed annual conference dubbed GV Comms Summit. Before joining GV, Olson led consumer and platform communications for social network operator Twitter for nearly two years, having previously held a similar role at Kosmix, the social search group later acquired by retailer Walmart.

Matt Garratt left his managing partner position at Salesforce Ventures, the strategic investment arm of US-headquartered enterprise software producer Salesforce, for a general partner position at VC firm CRV. Salesforce had hired Garratt in 2013 in a corporate development and strategy role following more than four years at technology investment firm Battery Ventures, and he helped manage the launch of Salesforce Ventures the following year as senior director of corporate development. The firm promoted Garratt to senior vice-president and managing partner of Salesforce Ventures in 2018, two years after he featured in GCV’s 2016 Rising Stars list.

Jeff Herbst, head of Nvidia GPU Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of US-based chipmaker Nvidia, left to join venture capitalist Jay Eum in setting up a new firm, GFT Ventures. GFT, which stands for global frontier technology – such as artificial intelligence, data science, blockchain and robotics – had completed a first close of undisclosed size for a debut fund with a final target of $100m. Limited partners for the fund include chipmaker SK Hynix, internet group Naver, asset manager Mirae Asset Global Investments and US-based angel investors, in particular reflecting Eum’s connections as a former head of corporate venture capital unit Samsung Ventures and co-founder of VC firm TransLink Capital.

Curtis McKee, head of corporate development, ventures and investor relations at US-based tech company Arista Networks, joined hedge fund Third Point’ ventures unit as a partner. McKee had joined Arista in October 2019 after six years as part of Intel Capital’s equity investing team. At US-listed chip and data firm Intel’s corporate venturing unit McKee’s deals had included Big Switch Networks, which Arista subsequently acquired in February 2020.

CapitalG, the growth equity arm of Alphabet, promoted investment associates Nina Gerson, Jamie Rosen and Jeremy Zhu to vice-president positions.

CapitalG had hired Gerson in 2019 after her two-year stint as an investment banker at investment banking firm Union Square Advisors, where she advised technology companies with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and private capital funding transactions. Her role at CapitalG entailed Gerson leading a series D round for digital insurance platform Next Insurance in September 2020 and serving as a board observer for Strive Health, a kidney care provider.

Jamie Rosen had joined CapitalG in 2019, having previously been an associate consultant for two years at professional services firm Bain & Company, where she focused on areas including consumer packaged goods, healthcare and private equity.

The unit also brought Jeremy Zhu on board in the same year as Gerson and Rosen. He had been an investment banking analyst for two years at investment bank Moelis & Company, which tasked him with M&A and restructuring deals in the technology, media, and telecommunications space.

GV, a corporate venturing vehicle for Alphabet, appointed Crystal Huang and Sangeen Zeb partners. Huang will invest in enterprise software-as-a-service, infrastructure and financial technology developers on behalf of GV, focusing on product-driven go-to-market strategies.

GV hired Huang after nearly three years as a principal at New Enterprise Associates, following five years in similar roles at fellow venture capital firm GGV Capital. Her investments included companies such as BigCommerce, BitSight, Tile and NS1.

Zeb will likewise concentrate on enterprise and financial technology deals for GV and comes from growth capital firm Founders Circle Capital where he spent two and a half years as a partner, backing companies including Algolia, Confluent, Databricks and Robinhood, following more than five years at investment firm Centerview Capital.

GV was also hit by the death of partner Tyson Clark, a GCV Rising Stars award winner. Tyson Clark, 43, had joined GV in 2015 after working briefly at Andreessen Horowitz and, before that, working in corporate development at Oracle and as an investment banker for Morgan Stanley after six years in the US Navy.

Michelle Gonzalez, head of US-listed Alphabet’s Google search engine division’s incubator, Area 120, joined Microsoft to run its corporate venturing unit, M12. Before her two years as managing partner at Area 120, Gonzalez had spent a year as a director at the office of the CEO, Sundar Pichai. She had previously spent two years as a partner at IBM Ventures and time as an investor for Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund supporting Black and LatinX founders. Earlier, she had spent seven years at Apple with her final position there as head of its news product.

Lauren Illovsky left Gradient Ventures to join Alphabet’s growth equity unit, CapitalG, as talent partner. Gradient Ventures, the artificial intelligence-focused investment fund formed by Alphabet subsidiary Google, had hired Illovsky in January 2020 as a talent partner after a three-year stint as director of talent at venture capital firm Accel. Between 2013 and 2016, Illovsky worked at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, firstly as partner in executive talent and then on its deal team. Prior to that, she had spent just over a year as an analyst at headhunting firm Spencer Stuart

Venture capital firm Clear Ventures hired Vijay Reddy, previously a US-based partner at Intel Capital, the corporate venturing arm of chipmaker Intel.  The move came after nearly eight years for Reddy at Intel Capital, where he concentrated on artificial intelligence (AI) and deep technology developers. His investments included four unicorns – companies valued at $1bn or above – and two exits through initial public offerings. Reddy sat on the boards of Intel Capital portfolio companies including SambaNova, DataRobot, Lilt, Hypersonix and FogHorn, in addition to multiple startups in stealth mode. He will have a similar role at Clear Ventures, where he will help identify and back early-stage AI and deeptech deals

Michael Stewart departed from Applied Ventures, part of semiconductor technology producer Applied Materials, and joined M12, another US-based corporate venturing group formed by Microsoft, as a partner. Applied Ventures had hired Stewart in 2015 as a principal before promoting him to an investment director position three and a half years later.  His duties included identifying and investing in deep technology developers focusing on areas such as advanced materials, biomedical equipment, the industrial internet of things, energy generation and mechanical process automation technologies. Global Corporate Venturing named Stewart an Emerging Leader. Previously, he co-founded solar charger provider Juse in 2014, having spent a decade at Applied Materials from 2005 in two senior process technology-related roles.

Faraz Hoodbhoy, head of the startups platform at US-headquartered telecommunications firm AT&T, joined Parc, Xerox’s famed innovation centre in California, as vice-president of commercialisation and operations. Hoodbhoy, a GCV Rising Stars 2018 award winner, had been in charge of AT&T’s Innovation ecosystem outreach programme as well as its Palo Alto, California foundry, and was responsible for evaluating and delivering 120-plus commercial deals per year worth about $1.6bn (8% of AT&T’s capital expenditure budget). Hoodbhoy’s background developing AT&T’s 5G and edge computing strategy as well as in augmented and virtual reality, will fit with Xerox’s target for three divisions.

Donald Tucker, formerly head of venture Investments and corporate development for Cisco Collaboration and App Dynamics, an ecosystem building initiative for networking technology provider Cisco Systems, joined e-signature platform developer DocuSign, according to LinkedIn. At DocuSign, he will work in corporate development and venture investments. Previously, Tucker had served as senior manager of finance at Responsys between 2013 and 2014, after a short stint as an equity analyst, specialising in communications equipment and technologies, at investment firm Jeffries. He had started his professional career in 2002 as a financial analyst and trader at energy company Chevron, before moving on to become an investment analyst at Liberty Metal and Mining, part of Liberty Mutual Group in 2009.

Radhika Malik, a GCV Rising Stars award winner in 2021, moved to Dell’s corporate venturing unit, Dell Technologies Capital, as principal. Malik had previously been a senior associate at Samsung’s $500m evergreen Catalyst Fund. At Samsung Catalyst Fund, Malik’s deals had included artificial intelligence (AI) hardware maker SambaNova, optical interconnects provider Avicena, cloud cybersecurity software developer Bitglass, cloud software technology provider Rescale and Babble Labs, an AI software developer acquired by Cisco.

Lip-Bu Tan, who  left his external board director position at internet and technology group SoftBank, joined the board of directors for US-based machine learning technology developer Sima.AI. He already holds a similar position at energy and automation technology group Schneider Electric.

Marcela Bretas joined big data platform Semantix as chief strategy officer, after nearly five years at B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, focusing on investor relations (IR) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), among other areas. She will be in charge of the company’s CVC efforts, M&A tactics and IR.