Ron Weissman, Ph.D., Venture Advisor

Ron Weissman has an extensive background in the software field from both a corporate and investor perspective. Weissman was a partner at Apax Partners from 2000 until 2007, when Apax exited the venture capital market to focus on global buyouts. He was a member of the firm’s global technology and telecom team. His current focus is on developing venture-backed software companies and continues to manage technology investments in Apax’s venture portfolio. He is currently on the boards of Apax portfolio companies Centerbeam (mid-market infrastructure management via SaaS), Composite Software (data integration for BI), Silicon Optix (Emmy-award winning video processing) and Transera (SaaS based call center virtualization) and is a board observer for Nanomix (carbon nanotube medical sensors) and Peregrine Semiconductor (sapphire on silicon technology for high density applications).  Apart from Apax, he serves as Executive Chairman of Host Analytics (SaaS-based CPM) and MarketBright (marketing automation via SaaS) and is on the boards of Chiliad (federated search) and Attensity (voice of the customer analytics). He is an advisor and/or investor in a number of other early stage companies, including Allocade (patient management), Cataphora (legal analytics), Cohesive FT (SaaS-based data center virtualization), Grid Agents (energy monitoring for utilities), Kalat (VOIP), MedCode (SaaS-based medical billing, Modius (data center power management) and Sonim (ruggedized handsets for the grey collar market). His primary focus is on software and services. Weissman is member of the Band of Angels, Silicon Valley’s oldest angel investor group and also assists a number of venture capital firms including Greycroft and Trident.

In addition to current Apax directorships, he has served as an advisor, observer or director for many Apax portfolio companies, including BlueArc, Bristol Technologies (sold to HP), Confluent Software (sold to Oblix/Oracle), Global Factory, HAL Knowledge Systems, Icarian (sold to Workstream), INEA (sold to Cartesis / Business Objects / SAP), Lexiquest (sold to SPSS), Mesh Networks (sold to Motorola), Milcom Technologies, Pictage, Planview, Plexus Online, Preventsys, Promethean, Solid Information Technologies (sold to IBM), Sonim Technologies, Sysis, Tideway and Visalign (sold to CDC). He has also served as acting VP of Marketing for several Apax companies including Composite and BlueArc.

Weissman has more than 25 years experience in high technology. Prior to joining Apax Partners, he was vice president of global marketing and corporate development for Verity, the industry leader in enterprise information management. During his tenure, the company's executive team was named the large company Turnaround of the Year (1999) by the Turnaround Management Association after Verity gained dominant market share and saw its market cap grow from $50 million to more than $1.7 billion. Prior to Verity, He spent more than five years at NeXT Computer, where he managed European and corporate marketing and managed much of the company’s transition from hardware to software, and Filoli Information Systems (insurance claims management) where he was VP of Sales and Marketing and acting co-CEO.

A frequent conference speaker, he has published or lectured extensively on venture capital trends and issues, the management of early stage venture-backed companies and software trends and has been an advisor to many public and private companies, including Apple, NeXT, Sun Microsystems, IBM and Microsoft as well as many departments of the U.S. government  (Energy, Agriculture, DoD) and was a co-author of the Academy of Public Administration/National Archives’ study of the future of electronic recordkeeping in the federal government. Weissman was one of three IT industry leaders profiled in the 2003-2006 Price Waterhouse Coopers Technology Forecast where he discussed the future of information retrieval and knowledge management.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Fulbright Scholar, he received his BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at Berkeley. He chairs the Emerging Technologies Forum of the Venture Capital Task Force, is a member of the Task Force’s Executive Committee, is on the executive committee of SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs) and serves on the advisory boards of market research firm BASEX, the Golden State Capital Network, Stanford University’s SQSS (Stanford Program for the Quantitative Study of Society) and the Entrepreneurs’ Foundation. He is an Overseer of the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and is an Associate Trustee of the University. He is also a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Corporate Council and Medallion Society.