Board of Directors
Dean Wiltse
Chairman and CEO
Dean Wiltse brings 30 years of knowledge and expertise in the marketing and technology industries. Mr. Wiltse spent the last four years as CEO and President of Greenfield Online. Under Wiltse's leadership, Greenfield delivered and sustained an organic growth rate of greater than 70% per year, reached a $90MM run rate in 2005 revenues and $21MM in EBITDA, and completed a successful IPO in July 2004. During his tenure at Greenfield Online, Wiltse led Greenfield's strategic shift from a custom marketing research company to an online data and technology company. Under his leadership, Greenfield established the largest community of global online panels, communities, and affiliates, and was a key enabler for the custom marketing research industry to leverage the Internet for surveys and data collection. In recognition of his accomplishments, Wiltse was nominated as the Ernst & Young 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year and nominated by Research Magazine as the "Marketing Research Industry CEO of the Year" for 2005.
Prior to his four years with Greenfield, Wiltse served as president of the software division at Engage, Inc. His leadership resulted in the development of online profiling and ad-serving technology-an industry first-that enabled tailoring and targeting online marketing based on an individual's specific interests and online behavior. Wiltse also held senior level positions at Avid and Vivo Software, purchased by Real Networks in 1998.
Austin Ventures
David Lack, Partner
David Lack joined Austin Ventures in 2002 and helps drive our growth equity investment efforts. His primary focus is on business services markets with a particular emphasis on supply chain and logistics, information services, subscription-based media, and general business process outsourcing companies. David has also played an instrumental role in the development of our CEO-in-Residence program, and has successfully partnered with several executives to identify unique market opportunities and execute transactions with like-minded founders.
Prior to joining Austin Ventures, David spent seven years with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading, global management consultancy. While at BCG, David worked extensively with Fortune 200 CEO’s and executive management teams serving as an advisor on growth, market positioning and M&A strategies. David received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA from Dartmouth College.
Chris Pacitti, General Partner, Venture Capital
Chris Pacitti joined Austin Ventures in 1999 and focuses on software investing. Chris has worked with such AV portfolio companies as Bazaarvoice, Credant, FameCast, FiveRuns, ON Networks, Permeo Technologies, Pluck, Powered, Troux, Vovici and Worksoft. Previously, Chris was with TL Ventures, where he was a vice president. Prior to TL Ventures, Chris was a co-founder and chief operating officer of a technology start-up company that pioneered several industrial applications for a novel oxidizing chemistry.
Chris received his BA in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the Microsoft Venture Capital Advisory Board and the Entrepreneur's Foundation Board.
Mayfield Fund
Rajeev Batra, Venture Partner
Rajeev Batra is an experienced entrepreneur, operating executive and investor. Rajeev has been involved with several pioneering technology trends starting in the early 1990s.
At Mayfield, Rajeev has a broad and stage agnostic focus on SaaS, Enterprise and Infrastructure Software, Internet, Digital Media and Services. His current investments are: Gigya, the Rubicon Project and Vovici, where he serves on the Board.
Prior to Mayfield, Rajeev was at American Capital Strategies (NASDAQ: ACAS), a leading middle market private equity and buyout firm, where he worked on growth equity, buyout and later stage venture investments. Prior to ACAS, Rajeev was at Mobius Venture Capital (fka Softbank Venture Capital), where he worked on software and consumer/media investments. He started his venture capital and private equity career at Austin Ventures, where he focused on software and services investments.
Rajeev has held a number of positions in sales, marketing, and engineering at startups and high growth companies that were pioneers and leaders in their respective markets, such as Siebel Systems, Scopus Technology and Open Environment Corporation (OEC). OEC was a middleware software company that pioneered n-tier computing and application server technologies. He was a key contributor in the company's rapid growth from a bootstrapped startup to its IPO and eventual acquisition by Borland. Rajeev was also a member of the founding team of NetNumina Solutions, an IT consulting firm, which was acquired by Keane.
Rajeev received an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and a BS with Honors in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park.
