Name Mike Volpi | ||
 | ||
Occupation Partner of Index Ventures | ||
Residence California, United States | ||
Founder stories index s mike volpi pure storage s scott dietzen
Michelangelo "Mike" Volpi (born 13 December 1966) is an Italian-American businessman and venture capitalist. He co-founded Index Ventures’ San Francisco office with Danny Rimer in 2009 and was previously Chief Strategy Officer of Cisco Systems during the company’s prominent growth era, acquiring over 70 companies in less than five years. In 2007 he left Cisco and became Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Sequoia Capital. A few months later, he was appointed CEO of Joost, an internet TV service created by Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. In 2009 he became General Partner at Index Ventures.
Contents
- Founder stories index s mike volpi pure storage s scott dietzen
- Mike Volpi Partner at Index Ventures
- Early life
- Cisco
- Index Ventures
- Other Board Memberships and Non Profit Involvement
- Personal life
- Awards
- References
Mike Volpi - Partner at Index Ventures
Early life
Volpi was born in Milan, Italy. When he was five, his family moved to Tokyo, Japan, where he lived until he moved to the United States in 1984 to attend [[college]. He earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering (1984-1988) and an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering (1988-1989) from Stanford University.
Volpi began his career at Hewlett Packard's optoelectronics division in 1989 where he was both in engineering and marketing. While at HP, he met his future wife Toni C. Cupal. He returned to Stanford to earn an M.B.A. from the Graduate School of Business (1992-1994).
Cisco
Volpi joined Cisco Systems in 1994 in the nascent business development group. He was promoted to leading acquisitions at Cisco starting in April 1996. As Chief Strategy Officer for the company he led corporate strategy, business development, and strategic alliances. During his tenure, he and his team were responsible for the acquisition of over 70 companies in seven years, including a nearly $7 Billion acquisition of Scientific Atlanta. Their acquisition strategy of Volpi and his team at Cisco is widely regarded as a model for technology mergers and acquisitions. he was promoted to the chief strategy office working for CEO John Chambers until 2000. Some press speculated he was heir apparent to Chambers.
Moving into an operational role as a senior vice president and general manager, he led the routing and switching teams, then co-led the routing and service provider group with Prem Jain until 2007. During this time Cisco's first Carrier Routing System product was announced, the CRS-1, in 2004.
From 2007 until 2009, Volpi was CEO of Joost, an Internet startup focused on online TV which was founded by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In September 2009, a lawsuit was filed against Volpi by Skype’s founders in conjunction with the proposed divestiture of Skype from eBay. The lawsuit was dropped in November 2009.
Index Ventures
At Index Ventures, Volpi invests in early-stage companies, primarily across enterprise and open source. Volpi currently serves on the boards of Index portfolio companies Confluent Software, Big Switch Networks, Lookout, Elastic, Hortonworks, Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG), and Blue Bottle Coffee. He also contributes to the firm’s late-stage growth fund through his investments in Sonos and Zuora.
Other Board Memberships and Non-Profit Involvement
Volpi is a non-executive board member of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE: FCAU), an independent director of European investment firm Exor (BIT: EXO), and was a board member of Swedish mobile giant Ericsson from 2010 to 2013. He previously served on the board(s) of Opsware (now HP), TIBCO Software, Skype, StorSimple, Cloud.com, and Clearwire.
Volpi currently serves sits on the board of Castilleja School, an independent school for girls grades 6-12 in Palo Alto, California, and is a Global Advisory Board Member at Knight-Hennessy Scholars, an international graduate-level scholarship program for study at Stanford University. He previously served on the board of Witness, a non-profit organization that uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations, and on the Advisory Council for the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Personal life
Volpi is trilingual, and married with 2 children. His father is Vittorio Volpi, an executive at the United Bank of Switzerland.