Manny Fernandez

Mr. Fernandez co-founded SI Ventures in 1996 and has 35 years of experience as a venture capital investor and senior operating executive in the information technology and semiconductor industries. He was previously Chairman, President, and CEO of Gartner, where he led the buyout of Gartner in 1990, took the company public in 1994, and led its growth from $40 million to over $90 million in annual revenue during the 1990s. Prior to Gartner, Mr. Fernandez was President and CEO of three technology-driven companies, including Dataquest, an information services company, Gavilan Computer corporation a laptop computer manufacturer, and Zilog Incorporated, a publicly-traded semiconductor manufacturer. At Zilog, he was responsible for growing annual revenue from $5 million to $120 million in only three years while creating the leader in the 8-bit microprocessor market. Previously, Mr. Fernandez was also a Group Executive Vice President of Fairchild Semiconductor, where he managed roughly one-third of Fairchild's business at the time. He began his career in engineering positions with Fairchild and Harris Corporation. Mr. Fernandez holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida and completed graduate work in electrical engineering and business management. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Florida, and serves on the boards of Black & Decker, Brunswick and Florida Research Consortium. In addition, Mr. Fernandez was recently appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee