Venkates Swaminathan

Most recently, I was Vice President of Business Development at Plaxo, Inc., in Mountain View, CA, where I focused on generating revenue and user growth through distribution and integration alliances worldwide. Through my efforts, we closed a major deal with Comcast that led to the company's acquisition by Comcast in 2008, at a difficult time to engineer exits. I also drove deals for advertising and for media content on Plaxo. Prior to Plaxo, I was a consultant focusing on VoIP, wireless, and alliance strategies for a number of clients. Prior to that, I was senior vice president at NeuStar, Inc., which acquired NightFire Software in 2003. I founded and was executive vice president and chief strategist at NightFire Software. Led the company to be the clear leader in its space, doing over $20 million in profitable revenue. At NightFire, my roles included strategy, product planning, marketing, and alliance development; as well as working closely with engineering and sales to drive products and revenues. Before NightFire, I was director of marketing at Telesphere solutions, a subsidiary of ADC Telecommunications based in Minneapolis; and held various engineering, marketing, and program management roles at TCSI Corp. in Berkeley; and architected their flagship product, Object Services Package (OSP). I have a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering (completed Ph.D coursework) from the University of Illinois in 1988, where I was a University of Illinois Fellow in 1985-86; and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 1985. Specialties: Revenue generation, marketing, alliance development, strategic & product planning