InterWest Press Releases
InterWest Partners Announces IT Team Expansion
New Partners Strengthen Team, Add Networking and Entrepreneurial Experience
Menlo Park, CA - May 3, 2005 — InterWest Partners, a leading diversified venture capital firm, today announced that Michael Boich and Khaled Nasr have joined as partners, adding successful operating and venture capital experience to the firm's Information Technology team.
"Khaled's career has been in senior positions in the networking systems sector, while Mike's experience is broadly entrepreneurial as a founder and CEO of several successful startup companies. The depth and breadth of their domain knowledge, coupled with their senior level operating experience, complement InterWest's focus on active involvement in early stage investing and will expand our footprint as we seek new investments with our $600m fund, IW IX," said Flip Gianos, General Partner.
Mike Boich, Partner, Adds Software and Semiconductor Experience
In his new role, Boich, 51, will seek new opportunities in the software and semiconductor industries. Boich has more than 20 years of experience in the hardware, semiconductor and software industries and has been a founding CEO of three companies. Prior to InterWest, he was investing for Alta Partners. Previously, Boich co-founded and served as the CEO of Rendition, an InterWest-backed graphics chip company, which was acquired by Micron Technology in September 1998. Prior to Rendition, Mike was the founding CEO of Radius, also an InterWest-backed company in the Macintosh peripherals business, which grew from zero to $100 million in four years under his leadership. Additionally, he served as CEO of Eazel, an open source software company whose software now ships with all major Linux distributions. Boich started his technology career in 1982 as the first Software Evangelist for The Apple Macintosh project. He holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Khaled Nasr, Partner, Adds Communications, Wireless and Emerging Technology Expertise
Nasr, 46, will seek investments in the wired and wireless communications sector, including systems, software and semiconductors, as well as underserved areas in emerging technologies. For the last five years, Nasr has been investing for Alta Partners. Prior to that, Nasr spent nearly 16 years with a number of start-ups in the networking and telecommunications industries. Nasr was President and Chief Executive Officer of FlowWise Networks. He served as General Manager and Vice President, International, at Ipsilon Networks, an IP switching pioneer. Prior to Ipsilon, Nasr served as Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Computer Communications (ACC), a leading manufacturer of access routers and remote access servers, and as Vice President of Marketing and Services with Premisys Communications, a leading provider of Integrated Access solutions. From 1987 to 1992, Nasr spent five years with Newbridge Networks, the last three as Vice President of Network Services. Nasr will remain on the boards of Netli, Xelerated and Aegis Semiconductor. Nasr holds a Bachelor of Arts and Masters Degree in Mathematics and Political Philosophy from Cambridge University in England.
Boich and Nasr will work with InterWest's team of IT partners based in Menlo Park, CA and Dallas, TX.
About InterWest Partners
InterWest Partners (www.interwest.com), founded in 1979, is a leading diversified venture capital firm focused on building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs and portfolio companies. Currently investing its tenth fund, InterWest X, a $650 million fund, InterWest has raised more than $2.8 billion of capital since inception. InterWest has a total of 13 partners and general partners in Menlo Park, CA and Dallas, TX, who bring together deep domain knowledge in life sciences and information technology.
The firm's past successful investments in life sciences include: ArthroCare (ARTC), Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (ASPV, acquired by Galenica group, SWX:GALN), Cor Therapeutics (CORR; acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, MLNM), Corixa Pharmaceuticals (CRXA; acquired by GlaxoSmithKline, GSK), Coulter Pharmaceuticals (CLTR; acquired by Corixa Pharmaceuticals, CRXA), Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST), Epicor Medical (acquired by St. Jude Medical, STJ), Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH), IntraLase (ILSE; acquired by Advanced Medical Optics, NYSE:EYE), Myogen (MYOG, acquired by Gilead, GILD), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck, MRK) Spinal Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic, MDT), TheraSense (THER; acquired by Abbott Labs, ABT) and Ventritex (VNTX; acquired by St. Jude Medical, STJ).
The firm's past successful investments in information technology include: CIENA (CIEN), Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), Crystal Semiconductor (acquired by Cirrus Logic, CRUS), Cyrix (CYRX; acquired by National Semiconductor (NSM), Lightera (acquired by CIENA), PlaceWare (acquired by Microsoft, MSFT), SiTera (acquired by Vitesse, VTSS), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Stratacom (STRM; acquired by Cisco, CSCO) and Xilinx (XLNX).
