Bill Malloy Joins Ignition Partners; Bill Malloy Brings More Than 20 Years of Wireless Telecommunications Marketing Experience to Ignition Partners.

Business Editors

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2002

Ignition Partners, an early and seed stage venture capital firm, today announced that Bill Malloy has joined the VC as its newest venture partner.

Malloy brings more than 20 years of technology and marketing experience to Ignition Partners, including 11 years as an executive at McCaw Cellular/AT&T Wireless. While at AT&T Wireless, Malloy was credited with several notable achievements including creating and launching AT&T Digital One Rate and growing company sales from $4 billion to $6 billion.

Most recently, Malloy served as the CEO of two start-ups, WorldStream Communications and Chicago-based Peapod. At each of these companies, Malloy led their respective turnaround and follow-on financing efforts.

"Over the 15 years I've known and worked with Bill, he's been a builder of businesses, which is a key advantage to entrepreneurs to help them grow and succeed," said Steve Hooper, partner with Ignition. "Particularly, it is his extensive experience in the wireless and telecom industry that makes him so valuable to Ignition in our effort to seek and fund entrepreneurs dedicated to building strong businesses over time."

Malloy will be working closely with Ignition's portfolio companies and is responsible for continuing to build relationships with influencers throughout the telecom industry.

"My core values align nicely with Ignition's, so it's a natural fit," Malloy said. "Having been involved with start-ups throughout my career, working with Ignition will allow me to leverage both my operational experience and industry relationships to benefit Ignition's deal flow efforts and current portfolio companies."

At AT&T Wireless Malloy drove revenue growth to a level that was nearly three times the industry average. Malloy also completed the acquisitions of Vanguard Cellular Systems and of L.A. Cellular, which propelled AT&T Wireless into the number one position among U.S. wireless carriers.

Malloy graduated from Northwestern University's Kellogg Management Institute after receiving his bachelor's degree in communication from Washburn University. He and his family live in the Chicago area, where Malloy sits on the board of Chicago's Big Shoulders Fund, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of enabling Chicago's neediest inner-city children to attend parochial schools.

About Ignition Partners

Ignition Partners, (www.ignitionpartners.com), headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., is a premier venture capital firm focused on early stage computing, network infrastructure and telecommunications startups in the Western United States. Ignition brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, technical expertise and operational experience. Ignition's partners are proven business leaders with more than 160 years of combined experience, who have built some of the world's most successful businesses of the last two decades, including Microsoft Windows, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless and Microsoft's enterprise business. The VC's founders are also credited with leading Microsoft's Internet turnaround.