Board of Directors

Kristof De Spiegeleer
Chairman

Kristof De Spiegeleer is a dedicated serial entrepreneur and a respected visionary in cloud computing and virtualization with over 15 years experience in developing innovative technologies for data centers.

His most recent company, Q-layer, which built the very first IAAS platform, was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008. Earlier, his start-up DataCenter Technologies was acquired by Veritas/Symantec, his hosting company Dedigate was acquired by Terremark and Hostbasket was acquired by Telenet.

Kristof is currently active in about a dozen technology startups, including Racktivity, Amplidata, A-server and DacenTec. Through Incubaid, Kristof's incubation center, he provides technical vision, management experience, facilities and a rich network to promising technology startups. His most recent initiative is the Green Unbreakable Cloud Initiative (GUCI), which offers customers the most innovative portfolio of Cloud and Green Computing technologies.

Kristof earned his Masters in Engineering from Ghent University.

Nicolas El Baze
General Partner, Partech International

Nicolas joined Partech International as a General Partner in 2000.

Prior to joining Partech, Nicolas spent 15 years as an entrepreneur and was a founder of several Partech-funded companies: Softway International (acquired by ITway), Softway Systems (acquired by Microsoft) and ISDnet (acquired by Cable & Wireless). Nicolas also led the Softway Venture Development activity which incubated several successful start-ups in the U.S. and Europe including: RightPoint (acquired by E.piphany), MultiMania (IPO - acquired by Lycos Europe), and LibertySurf (IPO - acquired by Tiscali). His former investments/boards include: Meiosys (IBM), Akimbi (VMware), Pantero (Progress Software), ClearApp (Oracle) and Q-Layer (Sun Microsystems).

Nicolas received an MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, France and attended the International Management Program at both UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and Universität zu Köln, Germany.

Frank Maene
Managing Partner, Big Bang Ventures

Frank joined Big Bang Ventures in November 2000 as a Managing Partner during the capital raising process which led to the Big Bang Ventures I Fund. Frank has many years of high-tech operational experience, in both executive sales and general management positions, with software and services companies in Europe and the US.

Frank currently serves on the board of directors of Amplidata, PINS and Racktivity. He was the chairman of DataCenterTechnologies (acquired by Symantec) and Q-layer (acquired by Sun Microsystems) and a director on the board of Avinity (acquired by ActiveVideo Networks).

Prior to founding Big Bang Ventures, Frank was CEO of ExpertEyes, Inc. in Silicon Valley. He identified and secured investment and co-sourcing opportunities for US software and services companies' European expansion, developed their operations plans and evaluated funding options.

In 1998 Frank was CEO of Syfact International, where he was responsible for spinning off a team of developers from a systems integration company and creating an independent software company. In 1995, Frank created and was Managing Director of the Benelux distributor for Gentia Software. He sold the distributor to Gentia Software in 1997. Prior to Gentia, Frank worked as Sales Manager for Comshare Belgium/Luxembourg, after starting his career as consultant with the Cap Gemini Group.

Frank holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics and Accountancy from the University of Gent, Belgium.

Ashish Puri
Principal, Partech International

Ashish Puri has been with Partech International Partners since 2007. Passionate about technology, he actively focuses on the emerging trends in the high-tech sector.

He has previously worked at Sofinnova Partners and started his career as a Consultant at Computer Associates, working on international projects.

Ashish holds a double-masters with a MS in Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, US and a Diplôme d'Ingénieur from Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (SUPELEC), France. He also earned a Bachelor of Engineering with distinction in Telecommunications from Visvesvaraya Technological University, India.