John O'Farrell

National Board Member

2018 - Current

General Partner

2010

a16z is a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. I was recruited as the first non-founding General Partner in 2010. Board member at Slack, PagerDuty, Factual, GoodData and IFTTT. Non-profit board memberships: UNICEF USA; MapLight.

EVP Business Development

2008 - 2010

Silver Spring Networks provides an open, extensible and secure IP-based networking software and hardware platform that enables large electric utilities to deliver the full promise of the Smart Grid. Led development of cross-company strategy and three-year plan for international expansion. Recruited the business development and international teams. Led business development and startup of initial projects in Europe, Latin America and Asia. Ran partnerships and M&A.

EVP Business Development

2001 - 2007

Alliances -- EDS, Cisco Outbound M&A -- Rendition, iConclude, Creekpath, Tangram Inbound M&A: Acquisition of Opsware by HP Revenue-generating transactions: EDS, Cisco, NTT, NEC, Qwest...

EVP International

1997 - 2001

• Responsible for all aspects of international business, including business development and operations. • Founded international division and grew it to $70M annual revenues, 500 employees, 20M daily page-views, 280,000 broadband customers, 10 countries. • Negotiated joint ventures with local partners in Japan, Australia and Netherlands.

President, US WEST Interactive Services Group

1995 - 1997

• Responsible for Internet strategy development and execution. • Managed development of domestic high-speed Internet services strategy. • Established a venture investment unit and incubator, leveraging MediaOne’s broadband distribution into multiple strategic investments, generating several hundred million dollars in value.

Vice-President, Corporate Strategy

1992 - 1995

• Managed cross-company strategy development effort, involving over 100 executives, and drove U S WEST’s industry-leading $15 billion investments in broadband cable in the US, Europe and Asia. • Key member of strategy and execution teams for Time Warner Entertainment investment and Continental Cablevision acquisition. • Managed strategy development and implementation of tracking stock for cable and wireless assets as a precursor to full spin-off.

Head of New Enterprises

1989 - 1992

• Developed and executed diversification strategy. • Founded successful call center and home security ventures. • Led business development activities in United States, Europe, Russia, Latin America and Asia.

Senior Associate

1986 - 1989

• Strategy development for clients including Toshiba, Airtouch, Pacific Telesis, GTE.

Marketing Associate

1985 - 1986

Marketing Associate (while attending Stanford GSB)