Creating Positive CEO & Board Dynamics
Setting Up The Proper Operating System When Constructing & Working With Your Board
Every year at the CEO Master Minds Summit, we gather founders, and entrepreneurs to gain a much greater understanding on topics related to capital, revenue and talent from seasoned tech executives.
This year, Dennis DeBroeck seasoned legal veteran, Eric Benhamou, Founding General Partner at BGV, and Eric Stang, Chairman & CEO of OOMA shared thoughtful critique of today’s fundraising and capital landscape.
Revenue and marketing vanguards including Donna Wells, former CMO of Mint.com, and Francis Lobo, former CRO of WeWork discussed product marketing fit and the importance of understanding your customer.
Providing perspective on the talent landscape were Sarah O’Brien, Global Insights Director at LinkedIn and Don Seeley, Head of Search at DeWinter Group.
We were truly grateful to every speaker for their time and insights at this year’s event. But don’t take our word for it — you can see these tremendous conversations for yourself.
Lastly, a special thanks to our CEO Master Minds Summit partner, Silicon Valley Bank and sponsors DeWinter Group, TriNet and SheppardMullin.
Eric Benhamou, Founder and General Partner at BGV
Eric Benhamou has over 40 years of experience in the IT industry, including 14 years of active venture capital experience. He founded Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) in 2003 and made active investments in early stage information technology Silicon Valley firms focused on global enterprise and telecommunications markets. In fund I, he leads investments in Swan Labs (F5), Dasient (TWTR), Voltaire(MLNX), Finjan(FNJN), Contextream (HP) and Load Dynamix. Eric currently serves on the boards of Grid Dynamics, Ayehu, Totango, Secret Double Octopus and 6d bytes, portfolio companies of BGV’s fund II and III.
Eric Benhamou has extensive corporate governance experience, having served on more than 25 corporate boards, including 10 publicly traded companies such as 3Com, Palm, Netscape, Legato Real Networks and Cypress Semiconductors (CY). He continues to serve on the boards of Silicon Valley Bank (SVBFG) and of Finjan Holdings (FNJN). Through his career, Eric Benhamou participated in 7 IPO’s and 36 M&A’s.
Prior to his venture capital career, Eric Benhamou built and operated several IT companies and experienced all the stages of growth from start-up to Global Fortune 500. Principally, he served as CEO of 3Com from 1990 to 2000 and as Chairman until 2010. Revenues grew 25-fold during his tenure. In his last year as CEO, 3Com was ranked 294 in the Global Fortune 500 rankings. He was the first 3Com CEO to formalize a corporate venture investment strategy and started 3Com Ventures, a $250 million corporate venture fund in 1998. He also served as CEO of Palm until 2003, and subsequently as Chairman of the Board. Both 3Com and Palm were sold to HP in 2010. Prior to 3Com, Eric Benhamou was a founder of Bridge Communications, an early networking pioneer which he helped take public on NASDAQ in 1985. He started his career as a software engineer at Zilog in 1977.
Eric Benhamou has been teaching entrepreneurship in various business schools around the world for the past 10 years, principally at INSEAD, Stanford and IDC’s Herzliya’s Arison School of Business, where he was a visiting professor. He also served on the Advisory Board of Stanford’s school of Engineering and the Board of Governors of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. He is also active in several non-profit organizations, chairs the Israel Venture Network and the American Friends of Arts et Métiers.
Eric Benhamou, 62, has an MS from Stanford University’s School of Engineering, a Diplôme d’Ingénieur and a Doctorate from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers, Paris. He also holds several honorary doctorates and international awards.
