NEA Announces Appointment of Ron Bernal as Venture Partner

CHEVY CHASE, Md., March 9 /PRNewswire/ -- New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), a leading global venture capital firm, today announced that technology industry veteran Ron Bernal has joined the firm as a Venture Partner. In this new role, Mr. Bernal, a former entrepreneur-in-residence with NEA and proven company builder, will work closely with the firm's enterprise infrastructure and services (EIS), electronics and energy technology teams.

"Ron brings to NEA a wealth of domain expertise and is already deeply engaged with numerous companies in the firm's portfolio," said Peter J. Barris, NEA Managing General Partner. "We are thrilled to welcome him as a Venture Partner and look forward to the valuable insight Ron will bring to both current and future investments as a member of our technology team."

Mr. Bernal has spent nearly eight years in the venture capital industry and, through previous affiliations, is currently a director of four companies in NEA's portfolio:  Boulder Wind Power, Data Robotics, HelioVolt and ProStor. He was most recently a Partner at Sequel Venture Partners where he focused on cleantech, enterprise infrastructure and enterprise software investments. While at Sequel he led the firm's investment in HelioVolt and serves on that board. Mr. Bernal was previously a Venture Partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, where he led investments in Data Robotics and ProStor and continues to represent the firm on those boards. He also led the firm's investment in and served on the board of Data Domain, an NEA-incubated data deduplication company acquired by EMC in 2009 for $2.4 billion.

"I've worked closely with many of NEA's partners over the years, and am excited to be a part of this exceptional team," said Mr. Bernal. "The firm's leading edge position across the electronics, EIS and energy technology sectors is an exciting vantage point from which to help build truly innovative, best-in-class technology companies."

Mr. Bernal previously worked for Cisco Systems as Vice President of Operations for the Product Technology Groups and the Service Provider Line of Business. He joined Cisco following the acquisition of Growth Networks in 2000, where he was President and CEO. Mr. Bernal co-founded Growth Networks, a fabless Internet switching fabric semiconductor company, in 1998 while serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at NEA. NEA funded Growth Networks through two rounds of financing prior to its acquisition by Cisco. Previously, Mr. Bernal spent more than seven years with Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) in roles of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President and General Manager of the $1 billion-plus server division and President of the MIPS group, the microprocessor subsidiary of SGI. He was also Vice President of Engineering and COO of Edge Computer, a computer company he co-founded in 1983.

A strong advocate of alternative energy technologies, Mr. Bernal is a founding member and chairman of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association and serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Cleantech Open. He hold's a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from DeVry Institute of Technology.

About NEA

New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $11 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company's lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. Since the firm's founding in 1978, NEA's experienced management team has invested in over 650 companies, of which more than 165 have gone public and more than 265 have been acquired. In the U.S., NEA has two offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and one in Menlo Park, California. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit www.nea.com.

SOURCE New Enterprise Associates, Inc.