BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ignition Partners, an early stage, business software venture capital firm, today announced Bob Kelly has joined as a managing partner in the firm’s Seattle office. Kelly will be one of the firm’s four partners responsible for fund investments and overall firm strategy.
Kelly brings more than 20 years of experience with him from Microsoft where he held a variety of positions, most recently holding the position of Corporate Vice President for the Cloud + Enterprise Business Development and Strategy team where he drove the merger and acquisition strategy and coordination of cross-division strategic planning. During his tenure, Kelly played an integral leadership role in defining how Microsoft goes to market with server and cloud computing, and was instrumental in growing the Windows Server business from a relatively new product to a market leader, and helping to shape Microsoft's $20+ billion server and tools business. He was also instrumental in the early days of Microsoft Azure, helping it grow into one of the industry’s leading cloud platforms.
“We couldn’t be more pleased to bring someone of Bob’s caliber and experience on board as part of our team,” said John Connors, managing partner, Ignition Partners. “Bob has all the attributes we were looking for in a partner, including deep experience and scar tissue in enterprise and cloud computing, a vast knowledge base from working with tech startups over decades, customer and vendor perspectives on where enterprise computing is heading over the next five to ten years, and a person I have known for decades who is just a high-quality, value-add human being.”
Kelly is very active in the startup community as an investor and a mentor both in Seattle and San Francisco, and serves on the board of advisors at 9Mile Labs, a Seattle-based accelerator. He holds a master’s degree and doctorate in English literature from the University of Dallas, and a bachelor of arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences from Thomas More College of Liberal Arts.
“I am thrilled to be joining Ignition Partners and look forward to this next challenge. I have known the Ignition team for years and trust in their knowledge and expertise in venture investing,” said Bob Kelly. “Together we have the experience and passion to grow great companies and help business customers take advantage of the immense innovation happening in the industry today. I can’t wait to get started.”
About Ignition Partners
Ignition Partners helps entrepreneurs build innovative, category-defining businesses of lasting value. The firm, with offices in Bellevue, Wash. and Los Altos, Calif., specializes in early-stage investments in “consumerized” enterprise IT, cloud computing and big data. For more information, visit www.ignitionpartners.com.