Dr. Ronald Weissman has 30 years experience building businesses and advising CEOs. He has been a Board Director of more than 25 companies and advised more than 50 CEOs and management teams in areas relating to corporate growth, market strategy, business development, HR and finance. Prior to joining the private sector, his higher education career including serving as a faculty member and head of academic computing.

Before Ron joined Performance Works, he was a partner at global private equity firm Apax Partners. Prior to Apax, he was Vice President of Global Marketing, Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Verity, the industry leader in enterprise information management. During his tenure, the company received the Turnaround of the Year award by the Turnaround Management Association after Verity grew its market cap from $50 million to $1.7 billion. In previous roles, Ron managed European, corporate, and higher education marketing at NeXT Computer and managed academic computing along with holding a faculty position at Brown University and the University of Maryland.

Ron is an active leader in the venture capital community. He is currently on the Board of Advisors of the Acorn Fund of the Band of Angels, Northern California’s oldest angel investment group. He is also on the executive committees of SVASE (Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs) and the Venture Capital Task Force where he chairs the Emerging Technology Forum. Venture capital firms, including LLR Partners, Apax Partners, Greycroft Partners and Trident Capital regularly request his advice on areas relating to entrepreneurship. In this advisory role, he works closely with the Venture Capital Roundtable and the Golden State Capital Network.

Ron has published and lectured extensively and was one of three industry leaders profiled in the 2003-2006 Price Waterhouse Coopers Technology Forecast. A frequent conference speaker on entrepreneurship and venture capital, he has also lectured at UC Davis’ Graduate School of Management, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, and the University of Santa Clara.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Fulbright Scholar, he earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California at Berkeley.