Senior Enterprise Software Executive; Big Data, Cloud and Platform Expert Ted Kummert, Joins Madrona Venture Group as Venture Partner

SEATTLE, Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Madrona Venture Group, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced today that Ted Kummert is joining as a Venture Partner.  Kummert joins Madrona after over 23 years at Microsoft Corporation, where he has held multiple executive leadership positions, most recently as Corporate Vice President of the Data Platform Group.  He is a proven engineering and business leader bringing a wealth of experience leading large global engineering teams in high scale businesses. 

As Venture Partner, Ted will help identify new investments, provide strategic and operational advice to Madrona portfolio companies, and continue as a thought leader in enterprise technology. 

"Madrona is one of the most successful venture capital firms in the country, and is investing in areas that have inspired me for years," said Kummert. "I look forward to interacting with the young entrepreneurs and engineers Madrona supports and helping them turn compelling ideas into successful businesses."

Since joining Microsoft in 1989, Kummert led teams in many product areas including operating systems, consumer online services, enterprise security and enterprise application platform.  As Corporate Vice President of the Data Platform Group, Kummert led the development of several key Microsoft enterprise products including SQL Server, SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse, Windows Azure Data Services and Microsoft's business intelligence and big data offerings.  Widely known as the "data chief" of Microsoft, he led the data platform business through a period of significant growth and drove the cloud and big data strategy for the platform.     

"As cloud, data analytics and applications 'as-a-service' change how companies do business, Ted is a true asset to our entrepreneurs and to the Madrona team," said Matt McIlwain, Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group. "We are excited to have Ted share his wealth of management and technical expertise with our current and future portfolio companies."

Raised in Seattle, Kummert holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington.  Kummert started his career as a hardware engineer at Hewlett-Packard and Apple. He serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Washington Department of Electrical Engineering and is on the board of SeeYourImpact.org.     

About Madrona Venture Group
Madrona (www.madrona.com) has been investing in early-stage technology companies in the Pacific Northwest since 1995 and has been privileged to play a role in some of the region's most successful technology ventures. The firm invests predominately in seed and Series A rounds across the information technology spectrum including consumer Internet, commercial software and services, digital media and advertising, networking and cloud computing, and mobile. Madrona manages nearly $1 billion and was an early investor in companies such as Amazon.com, Apptio, Isilon Systems, Sharebuilder, and World Wide Packets. 

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SOURCE Madrona Venture Group