Blair Whitaker Joins Norwest Venture Partners' Silicon Valley Office; Relocates From Boston to Expand Firm's West Coast Focus On Communications Service Providers.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers PALO ALTO Palo Alto, city, California Palo Alto (păl`ō ăl`tō), city (1990 pop. 55,900), Santa Clara co., W Calif.; inc. 1894. Although primarily residential, Palo Alto has aerospace, electronics, and advanced research industries. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2000 Norwest Venture Partners, the premier venture capital business partner for emerging growth IT companies, announced that Blair Whitaker has joined the firm's Palo Alto office as a general partner. Whitaker relocated from the firm's Boston office to strengthen and expand Norwest Venture Partners' West Coast focus on next-generation communications services companies. Since joining the firm in 1998, Whitaker has invested in next-generation communications and application service providers such as Allied Riser Communication Corporation (Nasdaq:ARCC ARCC Anoka Ramsey Community College ARCC Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church ARCC Architectural Research Centers Consortium ARCC African Regional Centre for Computing ARCC AIM Research Conference Center ), Advanced TelCom Group Inc. and Diginet Americas Inc. "As communication networks become more Internet-centric, the West Coast will increasingly assume a leadership role as the knowledge center for new communications service providers, and we want to be prepared to support that growth," said Promod Haque, managing general partner of Norwest Venture Partners. "We're looking forward to leveraging Blair's experience in building and growing successful communications companies." Whitaker currently serves on the boards of directors for Allied Riser Communication Corporation, Advanced TelCom Group Inc., Diginet Americas Inc., Pangea and Wired Business, all portfolio companies of Norwest Venture Partners. "Blair's strategic counsel and insight has been instrumental in helping us grow Allied Riser Communications," said David Crawford, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Allied Riser Communications. "We consider him a key member of our board of directors and believe that our success is due in no small part to Norwest Venture Partners' involvement in the funding and development of our company." Whitaker previously served as CFO See Chief Financial Officer. and vice president, business development, for Exactis.com (Nasdaq:XACT XACT Xante's Accurate Calibration Technology XACT X Automatic Code Translation XACT Cross Platform Audio Creation Tool ). His successful dealings with venture capital and strategic partners for this startup Internet publishing company afforded him the opportunity to build key relationships with SOFTBANK Holdings, Tribune Companies, American Express, Netscape, Hotmail and Geocities. Prior to Exactis.com, Whitaker served as a vice president for The Centennial Funds, the largest venture capital fund in the Rocky Mountain Region The Rocky Mountain Region is a floristic region within the Holarctic Kingdom in western North America (Canada and the United States) delineated by Armen Takhtajan and Robert F. Thorne. . The Centennial Funds invest primarily in the telecommunications and high technology industries. While at Centennial, Whitaker served as a director for Brooks Fiber Properties (Nasdaq:BFPT BFPT barrier-free proton transfer BFPT Brooks Fiber Properties, Inc. (stock symbol) BFPT boiler feed pump turbine BFPT Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem BFPT Bundesdeutsche Fachtagung für Plasmatechnologie BFPT Braque Francais de Petite Taille ) and Sunbrook Communications. Whitaker earned a master's of business administration degree from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He also holds a master's of engineering in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli. http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. . Whitaker graduated with a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University in New Jersey. About Norwest Venture Partners Norwest Venture Partners, founded in 1961, is the premier venture capital business partner for emerging growth IT companies. The firm actively manages $850 million in investments and has raised more than $1 billion since inception. Norwest Venture Partners has a broad information technology investment focus, including software and the Internet, data communications, telecommunications, semiconductors and subscriber-based services. The firm prides itself on supporting companies beyond the call of duty with the reputation, financial resources, seasoned business experience and network of relationships required for success. The firm has invested in such market leaders as Brocade Communications (Nasdaq:BRCD), Cerent Corporation (acquired by Cisco, Nasdaq:CSCO CSCO Cisco Systems Incorporated (stock symbol) CSCO Chief Supply Chain Officer ), CoSine Communications, Extreme Networks (Nasdaq:EXTR), Maker Communications (Nasdaq:MAKR), Primus Knowledge Solutions (Nasdaq:PKSI), Raptor Systems (acquired by Axent Technologies, Nasdaq:AXNT), Siara Systems (to be acquired by Redback Networks, Nasdaq:RBAK RBAK Redback Networks Inc. (stock abbreviation, AMEX) rBAK Remote Backup ) and Verio (Nasdaq:VRIO VRIO Virtual Reality Input Output ). Information on Norwest Venture Partners is available on the Internet at www.norwestvp.com or by calling 650/321-8000. |
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