At Threat.Technology we track over 100,000 infosec, cyber security, military and cyber startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California, United States based Venture Partner operating in the Cyber Security space. If you think a Venture Partner is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Umesh Padval
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Umesh Padval is a partner at Thomvest partner at Thomvest Ventures in San Francisco, California. He focusses on venture capital investments in cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure. He currently serves on the private company boards of Bolster, Shiftleft, Clari, Shield X, Avalanche Technology and Tactus and public company board of Impinj. He is also an investor in Baffle and Harness.He has extensive board experience serving on over 30 public and private company boards and several audit, compensation and nominating and governance committees. Prior to joining Thomvest, Umesh was a successful entrepreneur, investor and CEO of a public company. He most recently worked for over 8 years at Bessemer Venture Partners in their office in Menlo Park. Prior to Bessemer, he worked as an executive vice president at LSI after its acquisition of a public video infrastructure and distribution company, C-Cube Microsystems. At C-Cube, Umesh served as president and CEO and grew the company profitably to over $300m in revenue and 500 employees with a global presence. Previously he was a Board Member at Lastline(Private,Sold to VMware),Blue Willow Systems (Private, Sold to Philips), Avnera (Private, Sold to Skyworks), Skyhigh Networks (Private, Sold to McAfee), Mellanox (Public, Sold to Nvidia), IDT(Public, Sold to Renesas), C-Cube Microsystems (Public, Sold to LSI), Entropic Communications (Public, Sold to Maxlinear), Silicon Image (Public, Sold to Lattice), Elantec (Public, Sold to Intersil), Berkeley Design Automation (Private, Sold to Mentor Graphics), Monolithic Power Systems (Public), Tilera (Private, Sold to EZchip) and PA Semi (Private, Sold to Apple). He was also an investor in Thousand Eyes( Private, Sold to Cisco) and Cylance( Private, Sold to Blackberry). Umesh holds a Bachelor’s in Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and a Master’s in Engineering from Stanford University. He has served on several advisory boards at Stanford University and currently serves on the board of Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Medical Group.
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About Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Jonathan Barker
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Jonathan’s diverse background includes managing the China subsidiaries of two Fortune 500 companies: Commercial Metals Company and EchoStar Communications Corporation; co-founding a Silicon Valley-based video search technology company – MeeVee – as well as developing strategic marketing and distribution plans, structuring and negotiating financial and commercial transactions, and carrying out due diligence for more than two dozen multinational companies and investment banks. Jonathan sits on the board of Tactus Technology. He holds a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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About EchoStar, Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
Ashish Kakran
Venture Partner of Thomvest Ventures
Ashish has always been passionate about technology. Prior to joining Thomvest, where he’s a Principal – focusing on cybersecurity and infrastructure, Ashish supported founders in the cloud infrastructure space at Engineering Capital with product inputs, follow-on financing, and customer introductions through a CIO Forum he built from scratch. His journey in venture capital started with internships at BGV and Canaan Partners.
Ashish’s past experience includes spending over 3 years at AppNeta, a Bain Capital-backed startup where he managed TraceView, a distributed-transaction-tracing product that was acquired by SolarWinds in 2016. He also founded TwtPulse and was a founding engineer at eJonesPulse, which used prediction market mechanics for sentiment analysis for customers like the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Having been a part of startups, ones that were successful and ones that were not, he has developed an eye for finding the combinations of problems, teams, and cultures that help companies be successful.
Outside of work, he enjoys building and nurturing communities, and often bring people together with fun picnics and small lunches/dinners for thought-provoking conversations. At EVCA, a 500+ member community of pre-Partner VCs, he has led the Enterprise Infrastructure vertical while also serving as the President of the IIT Guwahati Bay Area Alumni group and member of the Executive Committee for PanIIT USA. Ashish has a BS in Computer Science from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Connect with Ashish at [email protected], follow him on LinkedIn, and see his latest research on Medium.
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About Thomvest Ventures: Thomvest Ventures provides companies with cross-stage venture capital fund.
John Stewart
Venture Partner of AllegisCyber
John Stewart formed and leads Cisco’s Security and Trust Organization, underscoring Cisco’s commitment to address two of the most critical issues that are top of mind for boardrooms and world leaders alike. Under Stewart’s leadership, the organization’s core missions include protecting Cisco’s public and private customers, enabling and ensuring Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle and Trustworthy Systems efforts across Cisco’s portfolio, and leadership in the areas of privacy, trust and assurance, and efforts with governments globally. Throughout his 25-year career, Stewart has led or participated in widely ranging security initiatives from IT design for elementary schools to national security programs. In addition to his role at Cisco, he sits on technical advisory boards for Area 1 Security, BlackStratus, Inc., and Threatstream. He is a Board member at Shape Security and RiskSense, Inc. and serves as a special advisor to RedSeal’s Board of Directors. Additionally, Stewart serves on the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Cyber Security Review panel and was formerly on the Cybersecurity Think Tank at University of Maryland University College. He served on the CSIS Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th United States Presidency, was on the Board of Directors for Fixmo, Koolspan, the National Cyber-Forensics Training Alliance (NCFTA), and Shadow Networks, and was on advisory boards for many companies including Akonix, Cloudshield, Finjan, Ingrian Networks, Nok-Nok Labs, Riverhead, and TripWire. John is a highly sought public and closed-door speaker and his team was most recently recognized with the 2016 Global Excellence Award for Security Organization of the Year by Info Security Products Guide, and he was individually recognized with the RSA 2015 award for Excellence in Information Security. Other recent honors include the 2014 Global Golden Bridge Award for CISO of the Year, as well as the CSO 40 Silver Award for Chief Security Officer of the Year in 2014. Stewart has a Master of Science degree in computer and information science from Syracuse University.
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About AllegisCyber: AllegisCyber invests in early stage companies developing technology and software to serve emerging markets.
Nawaf Bitar
Venture Partner of AllegisCyber
Nawaf Bitar joined Juniper Networks, Inc. in April 2011 and today is Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Security Business Unit. In this role he is responsible for Juniper’s security business including the overall strategy and execution. Prior to joining Juniper, Bitar served as Vice President of Engineering and Operations of Security Technology at Cisco Systems, Inc. He joined Cisco in 2007 when it acquired IronPort Systems, where he served as Senior Vice President of Engineering. Prior to joining IronPort, he served as Vice President of File Systems & Services at Network Appliance Inc. Previously his career included roles at Silicon Graphics and Apollo Computer. He has over twenty five years of engineering and engineering management experience. Bitar graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor of arts degree.
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About AllegisCyber: AllegisCyber invests in early stage companies developing technology and software to serve emerging markets.
Hossein Eslambolchi
Venture Partner of AllegisCyber
Dr. Eslambolchi is recognized worldwide as one of the foremost thought leaders and technological scientists. He joined AT&T Bell Labs and quickly become global Chief Technology Officer, global Chief Information Officer, President and CEO of AT&T Labs, President and CEO of AT&T Global Network Services, and Chief Transformation Officer at AT&T. For more information see Wikipedia bio.
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About AllegisCyber: AllegisCyber invests in early stage companies developing technology and software to serve emerging markets.