Lane Bess

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Lane Bess
Born (1961-09-18) September 18, 1961 (age 60)
Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S.
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Known forInvesting, Principal and Founder at Bess Ventures and Advisory
Spouse(s)Letty Bess
ChildrenCameron Bess

Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a venture capitalist known for his work in technology. He has served as principal and founder of family fund Bess Ventures and Advisory, LLC, a strategic management, investment and marketing services firm, since February 2015.[1][2]

Early life and education[]

Bess was born in Neptune City, New Jersey and graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1979.[3]

In 1983, Bess received a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, then went on to receive an MBA degree from University of Dayton. Bess has served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since June 2019. In the same year, Bess and his wife Letty donated $10 million to Carnegie Mellon University to endow the dean's chair for the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.[4]

Career[]

Early in his career, Bess held senior sales and marketing positions at NCR Corporation, where he oversaw multinational global sales.[5][6] Then he went on to AT&T, where he was responsible for the product launches of AT&T's business and consumer internet services in the mid-1990s.[7]

From 2002 to 2008, Bess served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and General Manager of Trend Micro.[8][9] In 2008, he became president and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, where he served until 2011, leading late fundraising and taking the company to its Initial public offering.[10][11][12] From 2011 to 2015, Bess was the COO of Zscaler, a company focused on cloud-based internet security services.[13][14]

Bess serves on the boards of several companies, including Deep Instinct, eSentire, TrueFort, ZeroFOX, PLUM (SPAC).[9][15][16][17][18][19]

In March 2015, Bess founded Bess Ventures and Advisory, where he serves as founder and principal. Some well-known investments of Bess Ventures and Advisory include Arista Networks, Nutanix, ThoughtSpot, Rubrik and Zscaler.[20][21]

Spaceflight[]

On November 23, 2021, it was announced that Bess will fly into space aboard Blue Origin NS-19.[22][23][24] The flight took place December 11, 2021.

Personal life[]

Bess lives in Miami Beach, Florida with his wife Letty. His son Cameron Bess accompanied him to space aboard Blue Origin NS-19, making them the first parent-child pair to fly to space together.[25][26][27]

References[]

  1. ^ "Lane Bess and Cameron Bess Slated for Dec. 9 Blue Origin Flight". Market Realist. November 23, 2021.
  2. ^ "Who is Lane Bess as passengers on Blue Origin's next flight are revealed?". November 23, 2021.
  3. ^ "Ocean Township H.S. alum Lane Bess heading to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin", Asbury Park Press, December 6, 2021. Accessed December 13, 2021. "Venture capitalist Lane Bess, a 1979 graduate of Ocean Township High School, will fly."
  4. ^ "$10 Million Gift Endows Carnegie Mellon Deanship - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
  5. ^ "Palo Alto Networks raises $27 million - San Francisco Business Times". Archived from the original on 2008-09-28.
  6. ^ Bess, Lane (March 2, 2012). "Lane Bess: What do you do when you don't know what to do?". Fast Company.
  7. ^ Porterfield, Carlie. "'Good Morning America' Host Michael Strahan Will Be Onboard Blue Origin's Next Space Flight". Forbes.
  8. ^ www.bloomberg.com https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2019-10-16/truefort-unveils-board-of-advisors-featuring-top-executives-from-cyber-security-financial-and-telco. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ^ a b "Former Palo Alto Networks CEO Lane Bess Joins ZeroFox". ZeroFox.
  10. ^ Berndtson, Chad (June 25, 2010). "Palo Alto Eyes IPO, Distribution As Growth Goes Viral". CRN.
  11. ^ "TrueFort Adds Lane Bess to Board of Directors". finance.yahoo.com.
  12. ^ "Two Tech Industry Titans Join Salient Systems Board…". Salient Systems.
  13. ^ "Lane Bess - Chairman at Deep Instinct". THE ORG.
  14. ^ "Term Sheet — Wednesday, August 20". Fortune.
  15. ^ "Lane Bess".
  16. ^ "PLMIU Company Profile & Executives - Plum Acquisition Corp. I - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com.
  17. ^ Caparroso, José (March 10, 2021). "Lumu recibe US$7.5 millones en ronda con SoftBank para su modelo de ciberseguridad". Forbes Colombia.
  18. ^ "Cybersecurity Veteran Marios Damianides Joins TrueFort Advisory Board • TrueFort".
  19. ^ "Two Tech Industry Titans Join Salient Systems Board of Directors". finance.yahoo.com.
  20. ^ "Why Lane Bess Invested in Panorays". Panorays.
  21. ^ https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article256318017.html[bare URL]
  22. ^ "Michael Strahan to Join Next Blue Origin Space Flight" New York Times. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  23. ^ "Blue Origin sets six-person tourist trip to space for Michael Strahan, Laura Shepard Churchley and first parent-child duo".
  24. ^ Moreau, Jordan (November 23, 2021). "Michael Strahan Is Heading to Space Aboard Next Blue Origin Flight".
  25. ^ "Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to launch Michael Strahan, 5 others into space". November 23, 2021.
  26. ^ Radel, Dan. "Ocean Township H.S. alum Lane Bess heading to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin". USA TODAY.
  27. ^ Budman • •, Scott. "Venture Capitalist Lane Bess Ready for Trip Into Space".
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