Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

ist known for his work in technology. He has served as principal and founder of family fund Bess Ventures and Advisory, LLC, a strategic management, investment and marketing services firm, since February 2015.

Early life and education

Bess graduated from

Ocean Township High School Ocean Township High School (OTHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school in the Ocean To ...

in 1979."Ocean Township H.S. alum Lane Bess heading to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin"
''

Asbury Park Press The ''Asbury Park Press'', formerly known as the ''Shore Press'', ''Daily Press'', ''Asbury Park Daily Press'', and ''Asbury Park Evening Press'', is the third largest daily newspaper in the state of New Jersey. Established in 1879, it has been o ...

'', December 6, 2021. Accessed December 13, 2021. "Venture capitalist Lane Bess, a 1979 graduate of Ocean Township High School, will fly." In 1983, Bess received a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. Bess has served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since June 2019.

Career

Bess held senior sales and marketing positions at

NCR Corporation NCR Voyix Corporation, previously known as NCR Corporation and National Cash Register, is a global software, consulting and technology company providing several professional services and Electronics, electronic products. It manufactured Self-c ...

. Bess also served as President of

Trend Micro is an American-Japanese cyber security software company. The company has globally dispersed R&D in 16 locations across every continent excluding Antarctica. The company develops enterprise security software for servers, containers, and cloud ...

. In 2008, he became president and CEO of

Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The core product is a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to ...

, where in 2010 he was preparing the company for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. From 2011 to 2015, Bess was the COO of

Zscaler Zscaler, Inc. () is an American cloud security company based in San Jose, California. The company offers cloud-based services to protect enterprise networks and data. History Zscaler was founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry and K. Kailash. The com ...

. Bess serves on the boards of several companies, including Deep Instinct, eSentire, TrueFort, ZeroFOX, PLUM (SPAC).

Spaceflight

On December 11, 2021, Bess flew into space aboard

Blue Origin NS-19 Blue Origin NS-19 was a New Shepard sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin that launched on 11 December 2021. The flight was scheduled to launch on 9 December 2021, later delayed to 11 December 2021. The mission patch of the f ...

. Bess, along with the other members of Blue Origins NS-19, were the final recipients of the FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings, an aviator wings-like badge created by the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

to encourage and draw attention to commercial space flight. On February 25, 2025, Bess returned to space on

Blue Origin NS-30 Blue Origin NS-30 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin, which launched on February 25, 2025, using the New Shepard rocket. Passengers Details The flight's passengers include Lane Bess on his second flight on New S ...

Personal life

Bess is married to his wife Letty. His son Cameron Bess accompanied him to space aboard Blue Origin NS-19, making them the first parent-child pair to fly to space together. Cameron is a furry, identifies as

pansexual Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determ ...

, and streams on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bess, Lane 1961 births Living people American astronauts American financial businesspeople Carnegie Mellon University alumni University of Dayton alumni American venture capitalists Ocean Township High School alumni People from Neptune City, New Jersey Commercial astronauts New Shepard passengers People who have flown in suborbital spaceflight New Shepard astronauts