Jeff Weiner has agreed to join both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners as an executive-in-residence. He has been with Yahoo for the past seven years, most recently as executive vice president of its Network division.
PRESS RELEASE
Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, leading venture capital firms, today jointly announced the appointment of Jeff Weiner as an Executive in Residence with both firms. His new role becomes effective in early September 2008.
Weiner served in key leadership roles at Yahoo! for the past seven years, most recently as the Executive Vice President of Yahoo!'s Network Division. In this position he led a team of over 3,000 employees, managing products reaching over 500 million consumers, and overseeing a P&L responsible for roughly $3 billion in annual revenue. During his tenure, Weiner helped drive the Network's Open and Social strategy and expansion of the company's category-leading consumer web products, including Yahoo.com and My Yahoo!; Communications and Community products including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Groups, and Flickr; Search products including Yahoo! Web Search, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Local; and Media, including Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Entertainment properties.
Prior to his Network role, Weiner was part of the Search leadership team that directed the acquisition and integration of Inktomi, AltaVista, FAST as well as the development of Yahoo! Search Technology. He helped launch the company's suite of social search products – including Yahoo! Answers – and led the acquisitions of del.icio.us and Flickr. He was also part of the leadership team formed to help revitalize the company's Search Marketing efforts. Additionally, Weiner helped establish a technology incubation group which later evolved into Yahoo!'s corporate-wide Advanced Product Team. From 2001 to 2002, Weiner oversaw Corporate Development at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for the development and modification of overall corporate and individual business unit strategy and M&A.
Weiner is also actively involved in the non-profit sector, with specific focus on leveraging digital capabilities to broaden the reach and scale of high impact causes. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of DonorsChoose.org and Malaria No More.
Weiner will advise the leadership teams of existing Accel and Greylock consumer technology portfolio companies, and will also work closely with the firm's partners to evaluate new investment opportunities. “Jeff's operational experience in scaling products, teams and revenue will help Greylock enhance our capabilities and add value to our investments,“ said David Sze, General Partner at Greylock.
Weiner brings outstanding leadership experience and a deep knowledge of the consumer internet and digital media sector to his new role. “We are thrilled to have access to Jeff's perspective on web product strategy and operations,“ said Theresia Ranzetta, General Partner at Accel. “Additionally, we look forward to leveraging Jeff's expertise regarding the convergence of media and technology for existing and future Accel portfolio properties.“
Weiner will divide his time equally between the Accel and Greylock Silicon Valley offices.
About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of excellence and innovation in the venture capital business and is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class technology businesses. Accel today invests globally with offices in Palo Alto, California and London, as well as in China via the IDG-Accel Partnership. With over $4 billion under management, Accel has helped technology entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories include Admob, Actuate, Acopia, Agile Software, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, BBN, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Foundry Networks, GlamMedia, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, Maven Networks, metroPCS, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wily Technology, XenSource and Zimbra. For more information, visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com.
About Greylock Partners
Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the world's leading venture capital firms. Over the past 43 years, Greylock has funded and helped build several hundred successful companies. The Greylock approach uniquely puts the entrepreneur first, with Greylock working as an “invited guest” in a highly supportive yet consultative way to help entrepreneurs build outstanding companies. Market-leading companies backed by Greylock include Ascend Communications, CheckFree, CipherTrust, Constant Contact, Continental Cable, Decru, Data Domain, digg, DoubleClick, Facebook, Farecast, Internet Security Systems, Ikanos, Legato, LinkedIn, Media Metrix, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Openwave, Open Market, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Success Factors, Tellabs, Trilogy, Wily Technology, Workday and Zipcar. Greylock's offices are located in Silicon Valley, the Boston area, Israel and India. For more information, please visit www.greylock.com.
