Reza Malekzadeh (entrepreneur)

For other people named Reza Malekzadeh, see Reza Malekzadeh (disambiguation).
Reza Malekzadeh
Born Tehran, Iran
Residence San Francisco, California
Nationality French
Occupation General Partner, Partech Ventures

Reza Malekzadeh is a San Francisco-based software executive and entrepreneur of French nationality, noted for his active role in the development of virtualization leader VMware[1][2] and several entrepreneurial ventures.[3] Most recently, he had joined Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners funded software startup Nimbula as its VP of Marketing.[4][5][6] In March 2013, Nimbula was acquired by Oracle Corporation.[7] Malekzadeh left and joined Startup Cumulus Networks, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Peter Wagner and 4 of the 5 original VMware founders.[8][9][10] In early 2016, he joined Partech Ventures as General Partner.[11]

Career

Reza Malekzadeh was born in Iran and raised in France where he graduated from leading Business School HEC[12] class of 1995. He moved to Silicon Valley and started his career at software startup NetCarta as Product Manager for the flagship product WebMapper. NetCarta was acquired by Microsoft.[13]

He then joined the Softway Group in San Francisco and simultaneously launched his first entrepreneurial venture. With Gregoire Gentil, he formed Pilot Plus, a software company delivering products on the then nascent Palm Pilot platform. Pilot Plus released the ToDo Plus and Memo Plus applications, which rapidly became top sellers on the leading Palm Pilot e-commerce site, PalmPilotGear. Gentil and Malekzadeh sold Pilot Plus to Hands High Software in 1998.[14][15]

Reza Malekzadeh then joined VMware, co-founded by Mendel Rosenblum, Diane Greene and Edouard Bugnion. He was the first non engineer employed by the company and served as its Director of Marketing. As such, he was instrumental in launching the company in February 1999 at the DEMO Conference organized by Chris Shipley.[16] He also served as one of the primary spokespeople for the company throughout its early years.[17][18][19]

Reza Malekzadeh left VMware in late 2003 and, again with friend Gregoire Gentil, started a new venture, Twingo Systems. Twingo Systems was a leading provider of desktop security solutions for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). The company was first launched at the DEMO conference (DEMOMobile) in 2003 and its first customer was Sygate.[20] Twingo Systems was acquired[21] by Cisco Systems on March 12, 2004.[22] Both Gentil and Malekzadeh joined Cisco in the Security Technology Group.[23]

Reza Malekzadeh left Cisco in 2005 to join software startup Akimbi Systems, funded by Partech International, Mayfield Fund and Hummer Winblad as its Vice President for International. In that role, he drove significant international growth, including sales, marketing and channel operations.[24][25]

VMware acquired Akimbi in 2006.[26] Following that acquisition, Reza Malekzadeh re-joined VMware as its Senior Director for Products and Marketing in EMEA. In that role, he was responsible for all of the company's marketing operations in Europe Middle East and Africa, including its annual user conference VMWorld. Reza Malekzadeh's leadership allowed the conference to draw a record number of attendees in 2009 despite the economic crisis and travel restrictions that most companies had put in place.[27][28] He left VMware in the summer of 2009.[29]

Reza Malekzadeh was an official blogger on the VMware corporate website[30] and spoke at various conferences around the world[31] including Gartner[32] and VMworld.[33]

Reza Malekzadeh is co-author of several software patents:

References

  1. ↑ "VMware Makes Move for Server with Two New Products". Dec 5, 2000.
  2. ↑ "LinuxTicker: Emulating a complete PC with VMware". Jan 24, 2000.
  3. ↑ Om Malik (October 1, 2004). "The New Road to Riches". CNN.
  4. ↑ Timothy Prickett Morgan (June 25, 2010). "Nimbula puffs up 'cloud operating system'".
  5. ↑ Alessandro Perilli (June 23, 2010). "Diane Greene is back: Nimbula leaves the stealth mode and enters the IaaS cloud computing market".
  6. ↑ "Nimbula Announces $15 Million Series B Round of Financing; Total Funding Exceeds $20 Million". August 23, 2010.
  7. ↑ http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/acquisitions/nimbula/index.html
  8. ↑ "Cumulus Networks™ Brings The Power Of Linux® To Networking". June 19, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Cumulus Networks Management Team". June 19, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Cumulus Networks investors".
  11. ↑ "Partech Ventures appoints new general partners in Paris and San Francisco". June 8, 2016.
  12. ↑ Anne Swardson - Washington Post Foreign Service (March 21, 1998). "Best Minds Bidding France Adieu".
  13. ↑ "Microsoft Agrees to Acquire NetCarta". Dec 10, 1996.
  14. ↑ "Pilot PLUS Joins Forces with Hands High Software". March 6, 1998.
  15. ↑ "Pilot PLUS Joins Forces with Hands High Software". Business Wire. March 6, 1998.
  16. ↑ "VMware Corporate Timeline".
  17. ↑ "VMware ready to capitalize on hot server market". June 30, 2000.
  18. ↑ "Dual Virtual Systems Don't Duel". Feb 23, 2000.
  19. ↑ "Plex86, VMware compete to get rid of dual booting". November 20, 2000.
  20. ↑ "Twingo Announces First Partner for Groundbreaking Solution to Secure 'Untrusted Computers'".
  21. ↑ "List of Acquisitions made by Cisco Systems in 2004".
  22. ↑ "Cisco Systems to Acquire Twingo Systems".
  23. ↑ "Reza Malekzadeh's bio on Cisco Website".
  24. ↑ "Akimbi Systems Overview".
  25. ↑ "Akimbi Systems Announces Global Expansion and Internationalized Release of Akimbi Slingshot". 25 April 2006.
  26. ↑ "VMware Advances Software Lifecycle Management". June 16, 2006.
  27. ↑ "VMworld Europe Draws Record Number of Attendees Who Learn How Virtualization Enables IT as a Service for Increased Flexibility, Control and Choice". February 26, 2009.
  28. ↑ "VMware Announces Speaker and Exhibitor Lineups for VMworld Europe 2009". January 14, 2009.
  29. ↑ "Exec Exodus At VMware: CIO Tayloe Stansbury And EMEA Marketing Director Reza Malekzadeh Split".
  30. ↑ "The Value of a Mature Platform: Hyper-V vs. VMware Infrastructure". December 24, 2007.
  31. ↑ "Reza Malekzadeh speaks at VMWare conference in Israel". March 17, 2009.
  32. ↑ "Reza Malekzadeh's bio on Gartner website".
  33. ↑ "SLN107: Cisco Network Admission Control and VMware ACE".
  34. ↑ "Method, system, apparatus, and program product for temporary personalization of a computer terminal".
  35. ↑ "Portable electronic storage device".
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