ClariPhy Board of Directors
Nariman Yousefi, Chief Executive Officer
Nariman Yousefi previously was a founding member and senior executive at Broadcom Corporation Networking group since 1994, where he was instrumental in establishing Broadcom as the leading supplier of Ethernet ICs. During this time he was responsible for a rich portfolio of networking products including Optical and Copper physical layer ICs (PHYs), WAN/Metro/SMB/Enterprise switches, Ethernet controllers and communication processors. While at Broadcom, he held multiple executive roles including Senior VP and General Manager of the Enterprise Networking Group and Senior VP of Infrastructure Technologies. Prior to joining Broadcom, Mr. Yousefi held engineering management positions with Standard Microsystems and Western Digital Corporation. Mr. Yousefi studied electrical engineering at the University of California, Davis and received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pacific and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Dr. Norman L. Swenson, Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Swenson, a co-founder of ClariPhy, has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry. Prior to ClariPhy, he served as CTO and VP Engineering at Kestrel Solutions, a maker of optical networking systems for local exchange carriers. Prior to Kestrel, he was Chief Engineer and Program Manager for Advanced Communications at Lockheed Martin, where he directed research in multi-gigabit communication systems. Dr. Swenson received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he developed novel applications of signal processing for fiber optic communication channels. He received an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Physics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Dr Swenson has nine patents issued or pending and several journal and conference publications.
Robert B. Abbott, Norwest Venture Partners
Since joining Norwest Venture Partners in 1998, Mr. Abbott has focused primarily on enterprise software and communication technologies. Mr. Abbott sits on the board of mBlox (formerly MobileSys), Occam Networks and ClariPhy and actively works with Open-Silicon. He has also worked with such companies as Embark, Escalate, mPower (acquired by Morningstar), Quantum Effect Devices (acquired by PMC-Sierra), Silicon Access, Summit Microelectronics and Think3. Mr. Abbott was formerly a member of the board of directors of Covigo (acquired by Symbol Technologies) and Resonext Communications (acquired by RF Micro Devices). Mr. Abbott has nine years of operational experience in various roles, from engineering to marketing and product management. Before joining NVP, Mr. Abbott was at Silicon Graphics. Prior to Silicon Graphics, Mr. Abbott worked at IBM-ROLM Systems. He holds B.S and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and an MBA, all from Stanford University.
Jonathan Funk, Allegis Capital
Jon Funk is a Managing Director and Venture Partner for Allegis Capital, a $500 million group of venture capital funds founded in 1996 and focusing on startup investments in information technology. From 1985 to 1996, he was a founding General Partner of InterVen Partners, a Southern California early stage technology venture capital firm. He has served on the Boards of many early stage and emerging companies, including Sandpiper Networks, Shopzilla, Rent.com, Trading Edge, Ideaforest, and Veebeam. Mr. Funk received an MBA as a Dean's List Scholar from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Nersi Nazari, Pacific General Ventures
Dr. Nersi Nazari is the founder of Pacific General Ventures, an early stage fund, which invests in semiconductor and software companies. Before Pacific General, Dr. Nazari was vice president of Signal Processing Technology at Marvell Semiconductor Inc., where his responsibilities included the development of storage and communications products. At Marvell he was directly responsible for the architecture of advanced read channels, Giga bit Ethernet physical layer devices, as well as WLAN products. Additionally, he established the system-on-chip (SOC) family of products for the storage market, the highest revenue family of products at Marvell. From 1994 to 1997, Nazari was chief technologist at GEC Plessey Semiconductor. Before that, he was an engineer at Seagate Technology and Digital Equipment Corp. He holds eight patents. He has a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado.
Raman Khanna, Onset Ventures
Raman Khanna is a Partner at ONSET Ventures where he invests in internet infrastructure and digital media sectors. He serves on boards of Buysight, Placecast and SS8. He co-founded Diamondhead Ventures in 2000 where he led the firm.s investments in Cavium Networks (IPO: CAVM), Reactivity (acquired by Cisco Systems), PassMark Security (acquired by RSA Security/EMC), Orative (acquired by Cisco Systems) and Intraspect (acquired by Vignette). Raman was named on the Forbes Midas List as a top 100 dealmaker in 2008 and 2009. He has been involved in many start-ups that had exits valued at over $1 Billion. Prior to Diamondhead Ventures, Raman worked at Stanford University for 16 years in various roles, including Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Raman also served on Advisory Boards of many global technology companies. During his Stanford tenure, Raman was actively involved with many high technology start-ups as an angel investor, advisor and board member.
Martin (Marty) Colombatto, Semiconductor Industry Executive
Martin Colombatto is an experienced Semiconductor Industry Executive and former Chairman and CEO of Staccato Communications, a leading supplier of Ultra Wideband (UWB) silicon and software solutions. With 30 years of experience in the semiconductor and electronics industry, it is no surprise that he’s held management positions with some of the nation’s top organizations. Over Mr. Colombatto’s career, he amassed expertise in engineering, product development, sales & marketing, general management, and mergers & acquisitions. Prior to working at Staccato, Mr. Colombatto was the Vice President and General Manager of Broadcom’s Networking Business Unit. During his tenure, he established and managed a business that generated more than $400 million in revenue over a four-year period. As a corporate officer and member of the executive staff, he led the acquisition of five companies that were integrated into his business unit and formed the technology and product foundation for future revenue growth. Prior to Broadcom, Colombatto held various management positions at LSI Logic Corporation, Texas Instruments and Reliance Electric. In 1982, Colombatto earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from Cal Poly Pomona. He currently serves as a member of the university’s National Development Counsel.