Our Team
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Richard Irving, Co-founder
Based in Silicon Valley, Richard co-founded Pond in 1997 and brings 30 years' experience in venture capital, business management, marketing and engineering in technology companies including AT&T Bell Labs, AMD, and Brooktree.
Starting as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs, and strategic marketing manager at AMD, Richard later managed multiple business units at Brooktree with full P&L responsibility both prior to and following the company's initial public offering. Richard has been involved in over $1B of IPOs, acquisitions, and private financings. Richard's expertise includes water, energy efficiency, wireless, systems, hardware, software, semiconductors, and materials.
Richard serves as Director of Acco Semiconductor and Emefcy Ltd. Previous Boards include picoChip (acquired by Mindspeed 2/12), Nanotech Semiconductor (acquired by Gennum 4/11, now Semtech), 4Home (acquired by Motorola Mobility 12/10), Gigle Networks (acquired by Broadcom 12/10), Transitive (acquired by IBM 12/08), YAC (acquired by J2 Global 7/07), Artisan Software (management buyout 4/07), SealedMedia (acquired by Stellent 8/06, now Oracle), Eccord Systems (assets acquired by Codima 8/03), and Microcosm Communications (acquired by Conexant 1/00, now Mindspeed). Richard has a B.Sc. (1st Class Hons.) and an M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Manchester University.
Richard's
LinkedInOn Twitter: @richard_irving
Member of Aquapreneurs.
Richard's Exits:
PicoChip, 4Home, Gigle Networks, Transitive, Microcosm, Brooktree
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Charles Irving, Co-founder
Based in Europe, Charles has over thirty years in corporate deal making in the investment and commodities arena, of which 18 years were with Glencore.
Charles was a founder of Pond providing the main interface with investors. He continues to be "the investor's conscience" in Pond. He is involved in all aspects of the fund including, deal flow,fund management, fund raising and some portfolio company issues. Charles currently is on the board of Swapit and Mekanist.
Upon graduating in Business studies at Kingston University, Charles showed his entrepreneurial spirit early by moving to Brasil where he lived for 8 years. He was active in import and export, shipping and then entered the World of oil trading when he joined Glencore. A career which involved a truly global activity where he had responsibility for large risk management positions, financing and investment. He maintained trusting relationships with leaders and operators over many cultures.
Charles is a member of various BVCA committees, speaks regularly on Venture Capital at industry events as well as business schools. He is a trustee of The Richmond Golf Club and supports an Art foundation.
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Kent Godfrey, General Partner
Dividing his time between Europe and Silicon Valley, Kent has more than 25 years of executive management, strategic planning, sales, marketing and business development experience in the high-tech industry and joined Pond in 2005.
Before coming to Pond, Kent served for five years as Chairman and CEO of Frictionless Commerce concluding with the sale of the company to SAP in June 2006. Kent served for four years as the Chairman and CEO of Andromedia, Inc. Having just filed its S-1 prospectus for an initial public offering, Godfrey merged Andromedia with Macromedia, Inc., where he later served as executive vice president of strategic business development. He has also led sales, business development, and marketing efforts at a number of companies including IA Corporation, Epoch Systems (acquired by EMC), Sequent Computer (NASDAQ: SQNT, then acquired by IBM), Pyramid Technology (NASDAQ: PYRD, then acquired by Siemens Nixdorf) and Varian Associates, Inc.
Kent previously served on the board of several companies and organizations, including: TRM Corporation (NASDAQ: TRMM), Softcoin Inc., Hipbone Communications (acquired by Kana), Pixel Devices (acquired by Agilent), Invention Machine Corporation and Vocal Point Inc. (acquired by Telecom Italia). Kent is currently on the boards of 4Home, LiveRail and Broadway Networks. Kent also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Seven Hills School, a private non-profit Pre-K through 8th grade elementary school in Walnut Creek, California.
Kent earned a Master of Science degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research from Babson College.
Kent's
LinkedInKent's Exits:
4Home, Gigle, Broadway, Frictionless Commerce, Andromedia, Pixel Devices, VocalPoint
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Jamie Urquhart, Venture Partner
Based in Europe, Jamie Urquhart is a Venture Partner with Pond. Jamie is highly experienced in global technology licensing businesses.
Currently a board member at picoChip, Jamie was with ARM Holdings plc, from its inception in November 1990 until November 2002. During that time he undertook a number of roles, including Chief Operating Officer and Director, and latterly Chief Strategy Officer. Before that he was with Acorn Computers Limited, joining in 1984 as a VLSI Design Engineer, becoming VLSI Design Manager of the VLSI Design Group. Jamie is also a non-executive director of Imperas, nCipher, Antenova, and SplashPower.
Jamie holds a BSc from Bath University in Physical Electronics.
Jamie's
LinkedIn
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Sandra Ralston, Finance / Compliance Officer
Sandra has over 35 years' accounting/administration experience. Sandra joined Pond in October 1998.
Sandra set up and put in place all of the controls and procedures to manage the systems of financial control for Pond Ventures I LP/Pond Ventures II LP and Pond Ventures III LP.
Sandra is Pond's Finance/Compliance Officer.
Sandra's
LinkedIn