Peter Solvik is an American venture capitalist in technology companies. He was formerly a chief information officer at Cisco Systems, Inc.[1]
Education edit
Solvik got his undergraduate degree in 1980 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the school's first graduate with a dual degree in business and computer science.[2]
Career edit
Information technology edit
After graduating, Solvik joined Texas Instruments, and moved to Apple as the personal computing sector took off, where he ran its AppleLink group.[2][3] After 11 years at Apple, he served as Senior Vice President and CIO of Cisco Systems, Inc. from 1993 until 2002.[4][5][6][7] While at Cisco, Solvik was an executive sponsor of internal initiatives such as the creation of Status Agent, which allowed customers to track the status of their own orders online.[8] He was instrumental in Cisco's acquisition of over 100 companies,[4] including Calico Technology.[8]
In August 2000, BusinessWeek recognized Solvik as a "standout" CIO for his leadership of Cisco's e-sales and supply chain management initiatives, which had resulted in a reduction of $1.5 billion in costs by using Internet technologies across a wide range of areas, including human resources and manufacturing.[9] In December 2000, Network World named him one of its "25 most powerful people in networking".[10] That same year, B to B magazine named him one of its "Top 25 E-Champions".[11]
Venture capital edit
Solvik is co-founder and Managing Director of Jackson Square Ventures (fka Sigma West), a venture capital firm focused on B2B SaaS and Marketplaces.[12] Previously, he was a Managing Director at Sigma Partners, which he joined in 2002. Prior to Sigma, he also served on the Board of Directors of myCFO.
Solvik's successful investments include DocuSign; his fund's $17.5 million investment in that company was valued at $687 million when the company when public in 2018.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b "DocuSign's biggest backer turned $17.5 million into $687 million". Los Angeles Times. Bloomberg. April 27, 2018. Retrieved March 5, 2023.
- ^ a b Goff, Leslie (May 8, 2000). "Many Paths". Computerworld. IDG Enterprise.
- ^ Cone, Edward (5 November 2005). Ex-CIO Spends Venture Capital on More Than Just Tech, CIO Insight
- ^ a b Haggin, Patience (27 March 2017). Jackson Square’s Pete Solvik on M&A and Big-Company Disruption, The Wall Street Journal
- ^ Matson, Eric (28 February 1997). Two Billion Reasons Cisco's Sold on the Net, Fast Company
- ^ Wilder, Clinton, and Angus, Jeff (July 21, 1997). Pace of Change: Faster Than The Speed of Data, Information Week
- ^ Burke, Stephen (29 December 1999). An Interview With Peter Slovik - Cisco, CRN
- ^ a b Tully, Shawn (August 17, 1988). "How Cisco Mastered the Net". Fortune. Retrieved March 5, 2023 – via EBSCOHost.
- ^ Reinhardt, Andy (August 28, 2000). "From Gearhead to Grand High Pooh-Bah". BusinessWeek. pp. 129–130. Retrieved March 5, 2023 – via EBSCOHost.
- ^ Born, Julie and Jim Duffy. (December 25, 2000). 25 most powerful people in networking. Archived 2008-03-17 at the Wayback Machine networkworld.com Retrieved 01-Mar-08.
- ^ "Top 25 E-Champions: Peter Solvik." B to B (March 27, 2000). Abstract.
- ^ Digital Fuel board profile
Further reading edit
- 2001 article at CIO Magazine incorporating a Solvik interview