Highland Capital Partners Announces Promotions

PALO ALTO, Calif. and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Highland Capital a leading global venture capital firm focused on partnering with exceptional entrepreneurs building innovative enterprise and consumer tech companies, today announced that Manish Patel has been promoted to lead the firm's Silicon Valley Consumer Internet practice as a General Partner. Manish's appointment reinforces Highland's commitment to building a robust and dynamic next generation investment team in California.   

"Manish's background in engineering and product design has been instrumental in his ability to connect with exceptional entrepreneurs and source compelling early stage opportunities in the valley," said Peter Bell Managing General Partner at Highland Capital. "This promotion recognizes the critical role Manish has played in helping to build Highland's reputation and our confidence in his abilities going forward." 

Manish joined Highland in 2010 after spending nearly seven years at Google building the products and teams responsible for many of the company's key product offerings, from AdWords and AdSense, to Google TV and Google Maps. Manish currently serves on the boards of Shift and Scopely, and also previously led Highland's investments in Aviate (acquired by Yahoo!) and SmartThings (acquired by Samsung).  Manish holds a teaching appointment at Stanford University and is on the advisory board of the MIT Enterprise Forum (VLAB).

In addition, Highland also announces the appointment of Jessica Pelletier to Chief Financial Officer. Jessica joined the firm in 2005 and has been a key leader within the finance team successfully growing the scope and complexity of her role. Prior to joining Highland, Jessica worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in the firm's private equity and mutual fund practices.  Jessica began her career in the finance department at StorageNetworks.  She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and holds a M.S., Taxation and a B.S., Accounting from Bentley College.

About Highland
Founded in 1988, Highland Capital Partners is a global venture capital firm focused on putting the entrepreneur first. With offices in Palo Alto and Boston, Highland has raised over $3 billion in committed capital and invested in more than 271 companies, resulting in category-defining businesses across consumer and enterprise technology. Investments include 2U, CheckFree, Enjoy, Gigamon, Harry's, Shift, Malwarebytes, Qihoo, Starent Networks, Sybase, vArmour, VistaPrint, and VMTurbo. For more information, visit www.hcp.com.

SOURCE Highland Capital Partners

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