Board of Directors
Axel Bichara, Senior Partner, Atlas Venture
Axel Bichara joined Atlas Venture in 1993 and focuses on IT investments from the Boston office. Before coming to Atlas Venture, he was vice president of product development at Premise, a venture-backed software company which he co-founded in 1987. Premise was acquired by Computervision in 1991. Axel was lead investor in SolidWorks, a mechanical design automation software company that was acquired in 1997 by Dassault Systemes. Axel and Atlas Venture also participated as a first round lead investor in SpeechWorks. As a board member, Axel helped build the company through an IPO in 2000, and its later sale to ScanSoft in 2003. Between 1997 and 1999 Axel spent 18 months in Munich to build up Atlas Venture's German activities. Axel holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MS from both MIT and Technical University in Berlin.
Paul Margolis, Partner, Longworth Venture Partners
Paul Margolis has more than 25 years of entrepreneurial and investor experience. In 1980, Paul co-founded enterprise resource planning (ERP) software leader Marcam Corporation, which grew under his 16-year leadership to over $200 million in revenues and more than 1,200 employees. He led Marcam's successful IPO in 1990 and as chairman he led the spinout of Marcam Solutions and Mapics, Inc. into two public companies in 1997, achieving a market capitalization of more than $380 million. Paul helped found the Open Applications Group, an enterprise software industry association and was its first chairman. He earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA from Brown University.
Steven P. Williams, Managing Director, Sierra Ventures
Steven P. Williams joined Sierra Ventures in 2000 following a successful career as a senior operating executive building two significant software company successes – Marimba, Inc. (NASD:MRBA) purchased by BMC and Tivoli Systems (NASD:TIVS) purchased by IBM. Steve leads Sierra Ventures’ Internet infrastructure investing practice. At Marimba, Steve was one of the company’s first employees, established the company’s worldwide sales and field service operations, and subsequently served as Chief Operating Officer. He also helped guide Marimba’s product plans and business strategy and managed Marimba’s consulting services and customer support operations. At Tivoli Systems, which Steve joined prior to the time the company had any product revenue, Steve helped formulate the company’s sales model and value proposition, hiring profiles, compensation plans and product pricing. He hired and managed Tivoli’s western US sales team with over 100 employees prior to Tivoli’s $750 million sale to IBM. Steve holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.
Peter Gyenes
Peter Gyenes has four decades of experience in sales, marketing, and general management positions within the software and computer systems industry. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Ascential (NASDAQ: ASCL) until it was acquired by IBM in 2005. Prior to Ascential, Gyenes served as Chief Executive Officer of Informix Software where he led the sale of its database business to IBM and the transition from Informix to Ascential. Earlier, Gyenes was Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Ardent Software, which he joined in May of 1996, which was acquired by Informix in 2000. Before Ardent, Mr. Gyenes served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Racal InterLan Inc. Previously, Mr. Gyenes served in executive sales, marketing, and general management positions at Data General Corporation, Encore Computer Corporation and Prime Computer, Inc. He also serves on the boards of Applix, Inc. (NASDAQ: APLX), ViryaNet, Inc. (NASDAQSC: VRYA), a number of privately held technology companies and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. He is a graduate of Columbia University where he received both his B.A. in mathematics and his M.B.A. degree.