Peter Barris is an American businessman and venture capitalist. He is a founding

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 ...

Investor in

Groupon Groupon, Inc. is an American global e-commerce marketplace connecting subscribers with local merchants by offering activities, travel, goods and services in 13 countries. Based in Chicago, Groupon was launched there in November 2008, launching ...

. Barris is currently on the Board of Directors of nine companies; Broadview Networks Holdings, Inc., Echo Global Logistics, Inc.,

, Hillcrest Laboratories, Inc., InnerWorkings, Inc., Jobfox, Inc., MediaBank,

SnagFilms SnagFilms was a website that offered advertising-supported documentary and independent films. Films were streamed on the website, which contained a library of over 5,000 films. Filmmakers could submit documentaries for consideration as well. The ...

, Vonage Holdings Corp, and ZeroFOX. Barris is often featured on the Forbes Midas list and was ranked #8 on the list in 2011.

Business career

Barris joined the

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

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...

(NEA) in 1992 and has served as Managing General Partner since 1999. Prior to joining NEA, Barris was President and Chief Operating Officer of Legent Corporation (LGNT) and Senior Vice President of the Systems Software Division of

UCCEL UCCEL Corp, previously called University Computing Company ("UCC"), was a data processing service bureau on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Corporation (UCE). Both companies were ultimately acquired at valuations that were record breaking for their time. Earlier, Barris spent almost a decade at

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

in a variety of management positions, including Vice President and General Manager at GE Information Services.

Career at NEA

Since joining NEA, Barris has led investments in over 25 information technology companies that have completed

public offering A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be publicly listed. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a prospectu ...

s or successful mergers. These include such industry pioneering companies as Amisys, InnerWorkings, Neutral Tandem,

UUNET UUNET Technologies, Inc., formerly UUNET Communications Services, was an American commercial Internet service provider. Founded in 1987, it was one of the first and largest commercial ISPs and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in ...

, and

Vonage Vonage Holdings Corp. (, or simply Vonage) is an American cloud communications provider operating as a subsidiary of Ericsson. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the organization was founded in 1998 as Min-X as a provider of resident ...

. Additionally, Barris was also the principal investor in

CareerBuilder CareerBuilder is an American employment website founded in 1995 that operates in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. CareerBuilder provides talent management software and other recruitment related services. The company is majority-owned ...

and JobFox.

Education

Barris received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

and a master of business administration from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Other activities

Barris has served on the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, the Dartmouth Tuck School Board of Overseers. He has overseen the investigation into hazing allegations into the Northwestern Football program since its inception, according to the University President. He previously served on the Executive Committee of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association and was also a founding member of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic organization in the Washington D.C. area. Barris contributed to the Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund.Archbishop Iakovos Leadership 100 Endowment Fund
2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barris, Peter Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Tuck School of Business alumni Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni American venture capitalists American people of Greek descent