Draper Fisher Jurvetson ("DFJ"), a leading international
high-technology venture capital firm, today announces that Don Wood
has joined the firm as Managing Director. Mr. Wood is a seasoned
entrepreneur, operating executive, strategy consultant, and venture
capital investor. He spent the last eight years at Vanguard Ventures
where he led numerous successful investments such as ZipRealty,
Vocera, and Sylantro. His investment and operating experience spans
the Internet, communication, consumer, and energy industries. Prior to
Vanguard, he was president of Metricom where he led the creation of
the metro wireless Internet service called Ricochet. He also worked
for Octel, McKinsey and Company, and the Environmental Protection
Agency. He holds a patent for a laminated publishing product that has
sold over 100,000,000 copies.
Mr. Wood currently serves on several public and private boards. He
is also Chairman of the Board of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, a
non-profit community organization. He earned his Bachelor of Arts and
MBA from Stanford University.
"Don's past success and breadth of experiences make him a strong
addition to our DFJ team," said Tim Draper, founder of DFJ. "He is the
ideal person to lead the expansion of our global network of DFJ
Affiliate Funds. Our partners and I have known Don for years; he is a
great fit." Tim added, "While there are still promising new
investments to be found in Silicon Valley, DFJ's strategy of investing
globally through its Network Funds has paid off big time with the
recent acquisitions of Skype and Mobile365, as well as the IPOs of
Baidu and DIVX."
DFJ Managing Director John Fisher added, "Don is a proven investor
and company builder, and he will continue doing that here at DFJ. His
primary role at DFJ will be to bring new value to our Network Funds
and lead our expansion into new geographic and sector markets. We are
planning new Network Funds in India, Korea, Vietnam, Canada, Brazil,
Israel, U.S. South East, and elsewhere. Building out our global
network of investment professionals is central to DFJ's growth
strategy."
About DFJ
Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the only venture capital firm with
global presence through a network of affiliated funds, with offices in
more than 30 cities around the world and more than $3.5 billion in
capital commitments. DFJ's mission is to identify, serve and provide
capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to
change the world. Over the past twenty years, DFJ has been proud to
back approximately 300 companies across many sectors including such
industry changing catalysts as Hotmail (acquired by MSFT), Baidu
(BIDU), Skype (acquired by EBAY), United Online (UNTD), Overture
(acquired by YHOO), Interwoven (IWOV), 411 (acquired by YHOO),
Parametric (PMTC), and Digidesign (acquired by AVID). For more
information, visit: www.dfj.com.
