Highland Capital Partners Expands Silicon Valley Team

LEXINGTON, Mass. and MENLO PARK, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm with over a twenty-year history of helping great people build great companies, today announced that Peter Bell will be relocating from Boston to the firm's Menlo Park office.

"Backing innovative, market leading companies in California has always been an essential aspect of Highland's investment strategy," stated Peter Bell, General Partner with Highland. "I am passionate about entrepreneurship and excited to return to California and further expand our presence in the region."

Bell joined Highland in 2006 and specializes in technology investments across all stages of company growth. As an industry veteran, Bell has worked with and invested in companies in the information security, e-commerce, data center infrastructure, enterprise software and communications industries. Bell serves on the boards of Desktone, ExaGrid Systems, Gigamon, InXpo, Ocarina Networks, SCVNGR, Virtual Computer, VMTurbo, and is actively involved with Highland's investments in NetentSec and RethinkDB.

"Peter brings deep industry knowledge and experience along with an active, collaborative approach that is invaluable for technology companies at all stages of growth," said Murli Thirumale, co-founder and CEO of Ocarina Networks, a San Jose-based provider of application-aware storage optimization solutions. "He has been a terrific partner, trusted advisor, and instrumental in helping Ocarina achieve our market position and level of growth to date."

Before joining Highland, Bell was Managing Director and founder of Stowe Capital, LLC, which specialized in providing capital and management expertise to emerging growth companies. Prior to establishing Stowe Capital, Bell was the co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StorageNetworks, an information storage software and services company. Under his leadership, Bell took the company from pioneering concept to over $120 million in annual revenue, including a successful IPO in June 2000. Bell began his career at EMC Corporation in their Silicon Valley office. At EMC, Bell held positions in marketing, operations and sales and played a key role in building and managing the Open Storage Group, a major growth engine for the company.

Highland has had a longstanding presence in California, and Bell will be joining existing Silicon Valley General Partners Richard de Silva, Corey Mulloy and Dr. Bijan Salehizadeh, M.D. Highland has invested in over 50 California companies and presently has a deep and growing portfolio of companies there including, among many others, AccentCare, Affine Systems, BAROnova, Coremetrics, Digg, FanSnap, Gigamon, Hyperion Therapeutics, Metacafe, MokaFive, Ocarina Networks, YogaWorks and Zoove.  Two of the firm's earliest investments were in Sybase and Origin Medsystems. Sybase was recently acquired by SAP for $5.8 billion, and Origin was acquired by Eli Lilly and became part of the original Guidant. During the 1990's, the firm backed teams at Ask Jeeves, Digital Market, Edify, NextCard and Quote.com. More recent California-based exits include Conor Medsystems (IPO; acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Fastclick (IPO; acquired by ValueClick), P.A. Semi (acquired by Apple) and US Labs (acquired by LabCorp).

About Highland Capital Partners

Highland Capital Partners was founded with the mission of helping great people build great companies. For over twenty years, the firm has taken a sector-focused approach to investing in exceptional healthcare, internet & digital media and technology companies. With $3 billion of committed capital and offices in Boston, Silicon Valley, Shanghai and Geneva, Highland has invested in and worked to create such firms as Ask Jeeves, Avid Technology, CheckFree, Conor Medsystems, Continental Cablevision, lululemon athletica, Lycos, MapQuest, Navic Networks, New York Times Digital, Ocular Networks, P.A. Semi, Quattro Wireless, Quigo, Renal Treatment Centers, Staples.com, Starent Networks, Sybase, Telica and VistaPrint. For more information, visit Highland's web site at www.hcp.com.

SOURCE Highland Capital Partners