John Hamm has a diverse background as a technology CEO, a venture investor and operating partner, and a leadership coach/advisor. Hamm has been an investor in and Board Director of more than 30 companies, including Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD, acquired by Broadcom), Ironport (acquired by Cisco), Documentum (acquired by EMC), Solarflare (acquired by Xilinx), and Blue Microphones (acquired by Logitech). Hamm currently leads a "private practice" CEO Executive Coaching program for VC-backed technology CEOs worldwide. He has advised more than 115 CEOs and many of their teams over the last 15 years in CEO role clarity, leadership practices, strategy, Board Management, and executive team development. Prior, John was CEO of PonoMusic, a project founded by Neil Young dedicated to the quality of studio master music recordings for consumers who value audio/musical fidelity. In addition, prior, John served as CEO of Accept Software (enterprise Product Management SaaS) which Versata acquired.

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John was also a Partner at TCG Advisors and a Venture Partner at Redpoint Ventures. In addition, John has excelled in senior leadership/operating roles at several high-growth companies, including Whistle Communications, funded by IVP and Mayfield Fund (acquired by IBM in 1999). Prior, Hamm served for six years as EVP and G.M. at Adaptec. Earlier, he held executive positions at Western Digital in the U.S. and Europe. John started his career at Hewlett-Packard. John's popular leadership book, "Unusually Excellent" (Wiley - 2010), is available @ Amazon. His timeless article, "The Five Messages Leaders Must Manage", was the lead feature in the May 2006 issue of The Harvard Business Review. Prior, Hamm wrote "Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale", in HBR in December 2002, used in more than a dozen MBA programs worldwide. Hamm has been published in Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, and The WSJ. John taught at The Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. John holds dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Engineering from Purdue University - Engineering Physics and Engineering Management.