Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a venture capitalist 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.[1][2]

Lane Bess
Born (1961-09-18) September 18, 1961 (age 62)
Alma materCarnegie Mellon University
Known forInvesting, Principal and Founder at Bess Ventures and Advisory
SpouseLetty Bess
ChildrenCameron Bess

Early life and education edit

Bess graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1979.[3]

In 1983, Bess received a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. Bess has served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since June 2019.[4][5]

Career edit

Bess held senior sales and marketing positions at NCR Corporation.[6]

Bess also served as President of Trend Micro.[7][8] In 2008, he became president and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, where in 2010 he was preparing the company for an initial public offering.[9] From 2011 to 2015, Bess was the COO of Zscaler.[10][11][12]

Bess serves on the boards of several companies, including Deep Instinct,[13][14] eSentire, TrueFort, ZeroFOX, PLUM (SPAC).[8][15][16][17][18][19][20]

Spaceflight edit

On December 11, 2021, Bess flew into space aboard Blue Origin NS-19.[21]

Personal life edit

Bess is married to his wife Letty.[22] 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.[3] Cameron is a furry, identifies as pansexual, and streams on Twitch.[23][24]

References edit

  1. ^ "Lane Bess and Cameron Bess Slated for Dec. 9 Blue Origin Flight". Market Realist. November 23, 2021.
  2. ^ "Who is Lane Bess as passengers on Blue Origin's next flight are revealed?". November 23, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Ocean Township H.S. alum Lane Bess heading to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin", Asbury Park Press, December 6, 2021. Accessed December 13, 2021. "Venture capitalist Lane Bess, a 1979 graduate of Ocean Township High School, will fly."
  4. ^ "Bess, Dempo Join CMU Board of Trustees - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
  5. ^ "$10 Million Gift Endows Carnegie Mellon Deanship - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
  6. ^ Bess, Lane (March 2, 2012). "Lane Bess: What do you do when you don't know what to do?". Fast Company.
  7. ^ "TrueFort Unveils Board of Advisors Featuring Top Executives from Cyber Security, Financial and Telco". Bloomberg.com. October 16, 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Former Palo Alto Networks CEO Lane Bess Joins ZeroFox". ZeroFox.
  9. ^ Berndtson, Chad (June 25, 2010). "Palo Alto Eyes IPO, Distribution As Growth Goes Viral". CRN.
  10. ^ "Lane Bess - Chairman at Deep Instinct". THE ORG.
  11. ^ "Term Sheet — Wednesday, August 20". Fortune.
  12. ^ "Deep Instinct appoints Lane Bess as CEO alongside Guy Caspi remaining as Board Chair and CPO".
  13. ^ "AI Is Transforming Cybersecurity". www.wsj.com.
  14. ^ "Deep Instinct Snags Former Palo Alto, Zscaler Exec as CEO". www.bankinfosecurity.com.
  15. ^ "Lane Bess". Sepio. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  16. ^ "PLMIU Company Profile & Executives - Plum Acquisition Corp. I - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com.
  17. ^ Caparroso, José (March 10, 2021). "Lumu recibe US$7.5 millones en ronda con SoftBank para su modelo de ciberseguridad". Forbes Colombia.
  18. ^ "Cybersecurity Veteran Marios Damianides Joins TrueFort Advisory Board • TrueFort". Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  19. ^ "Two Tech Industry Titans Join Salient Systems Board of Directors". finance.yahoo.com.
  20. ^ Spiro, James (January 16, 2022). "Lane Bess joins Sepio as Chairman of the Board". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com.
  21. ^ "Michael Strahan to Join Next Blue Origin Space Flight" New York Times. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  22. ^ "Donor Story: Letty and Lane Bess : Our Impact : Archive : CASA of Santa Cruz County". casaofsantacruz.org.
  23. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (December 12, 2021). "Pansexual astronaut Cameron Bess on launching with Blue Origin and why diversity matters in space". Space.com. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  24. ^ Griffin, Andrew (December 10, 2021). "The first ever furry is about to go into space". The Independent. Retrieved April 11, 2024.