SEATTLE – April 10, 2008 – Skytap, the leading provider of cloud-based virtualization solutions, today announced Scott Roza will be joining immediately as its Chief Executive Officer. Roza, most recently an executive with Hewlett Packard (HP) and Opsware, will lead Skytap through the next stage of rapid company growth. Skytap announced series-A funding of $6 million from Madrona Venture Group, Ignition Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and WRF Capital in August 2007.
“Scott Roza brings extensive industry knowledge and proven leadership skills to Skytap and we are thrilled to have him on board,” said Brad Silverberg, a founder of Ignition Partners and co-investor in Skytap. “He is joining a world class team and Skytap is in an ideal position to build out the next generation of cloud-based virtualization services.”
Matt McIlwain, a managing director of Madrona Ventures and co-investor in Skytap joined Brad in welcoming Scott Roza: “I worked closely with Scott at iConclude, a Seattle technology startup that was acquired by Opsware in 2007, and we have great confidence in Scott’s ability to lead the Skytap team as they launch their first virtualization solution.”
Prior to joining Skytap, Roza was the vice president of worldwide OEM and Channel Sales for HP’s Business Service Automation business unit. In October 2007, HP acquired Opsware in October 2007 for $1.6 billion, where Roza served in a similar role. Roza was also vice president of marketing and business development for iConclude, where he was instrumental in positioning iConclude as the leader in the emerging Run Book Automation space. In this role he built iConclude’s business relationship with Opsware, the firm that ultimately acquired iConclude for $63 million in early 2007. Prior to iConclude, Roza served as vice president, sales and marketing, for Advanced Digital Information Corporation (ADIC), a $475 million per year public data storage company, where he more than doubled ADIC’s branded business. Roza has also worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Co., and served 5 years in the United States Navy as a Submarine Officer.
“The expected growth for virtualization solutions is astounding,” said Scott Roza, CEO of Skytap. “The Skytap team has developed an amazing product and I am excited to join a company that is at the forefront of this industry.”
A recent report from analyst firm IDC predicts server virtualization will become a $20 billion industry by 2010. IDC also indicates $17 billion will be spent on the virtualization solutions and services segment that Skytap is targeting.
Today, Skytap is also announcing its first product offering, Skytap Virtual Lab. The company is forecasting rapid growth and will be aggressively hiring key individuals in sales, business development, engineering, and IT operations positions. Career opportunities can be found at www.skytap.com/about-us/careers
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners, (www.ignitionpartners.com) is a premier private investment group with offices in Bellevue, Washington and Shanghai, China. Ignition Partners’ affiliated family of funds includes Ignition Ventures and Ignition Growth Capital in the U.S. and Qiming Ventures in China. The investment group’s three categories of funds – early stage venture, growth capital and China ventures -brings together an unparalleled combination of domain focus, functional expertise and global operational experience with partners from leadership positions at Microsoft, McCaw Cellular Communications, AT&T Wireless, Cisco, Starbucks and other industry leaders.
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 infrastructure, and wireless. Madrona currently manages more than $425 million and was an early investor in companies such as Classmates.com, World Wide Packets, ShareBuilder and iConclude.
For more information, press only:
Ashley Halseth
Communiqué PR
ashley@communiquepr.com
(206) 282-4923, ext. 121
Alani Kalfayan
Communiqué PR
alani@communiquepr.com
(206) 282-4923 ext. 118
