Startups

Eric Schmidt is an investor and executive chairman of Google. The company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, recruited Schmidt from Novell to serve as CEO from 2001-2011. At Novell, Schmidt led that company's strategic planning, management and technology development as chairman and CEO. At Google, Schmidt focused on building the corporate infrastructure needed to maintain Google's rapid growth as a company and on ensuring that quality remained high while product development cycle times were kept to a minimum. Prior to his appointment at Novell, Schmidt was chief technology officer and corporate executive officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he led the development of Java, Sun's platform-independent programming technology, and defined Sun's Internet software strategy. Before joining Sun in 1983, Schmidt was a member of the research staff at the Computer Science Lab at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and held positions at Bell Laboratories and Zilog. Schmidt has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and a master's and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California-Berkeley.

Larry Page was Google's founding CEO and grew the company to more than 200 employees and profitability before moving into the role as President, Products in April 2001. After Eric Schmidt's tenure as CEO, Page stepped back into that role in 2011. The son of Michigan State University computer science professor Dr. Carl Victor Page, Page's love of computers began at age six. While following in his father's footsteps in academics, Page became an honors graduate from the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering, with a concentration on computer engineering. During his time in Ann Arbor, Page built an inkjet printer out of Lego. While in the PhD program in computer science at Stanford University, Page met Sergey Brin and together they developed and ran Google, which began operating in 1998. Page went on leave from Stanford after earning his master's degree. In 2002, Page was named a World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow. He is a member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and together with Co-Founder Sergey Brin, Page was honored with the Marconi Prize in 2004. He is a trustee on the board of the X PRIZE, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.

As senior vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Ken is responsible for all palmOne marketing activities, including product marketing. Prior to joining the company, Ken was the founder and chief executive officer of Riffage.com, a venture capital-funded music media company backed by Mayfield Fund, Bertelsmann and AOL. The management team he recruited built Riffage into a popular music site on the Internet, with 1 million unique visitors per month, signing major sponsors including Sony, Sega, Lipton's and Telocity. Before founding his own company, Ken was vice president of corporate marketing for Diamond Multimedia Systems, a leading PC peripherals company, where he managed all worldwide marketing functions, tech support, customer service and Internet marketing. Ken also led the introduction of the Rio portable MP3 player, which established the MP3 market and maintains a leading share today after the entry of Sony, Compaq, Philips, Samsung and Intel, among others. Previously, Ken headed marketing for Apple Computer's PIE (personal interactive electronics) division, overseeing all Newton marketing programs. Ken also has held key marketing roles at NEC Technologies, Cognitive Systems and Atari. He holds a master of business administration degree from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.

John L. Hennessy joined Stanford's faculty in 1977 as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. He rose through the academic ranks to full professorship in 1986 and was the inaugural Willard R. and Inez Kerr Bell Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 1987 to 2004. He served as chair of computer science from 1994 to 1996 and, in 1996, was named dean of the School of Engineering. In 1999, Hennessy was named provost, the university's chief academic and financial officer. As provost, he continued his efforts to foster interdisciplinary activities in the biosciences and bioengineering and oversaw improvements in faculty and staff compensation. In October 2000, he was inaugurated as Stanford University's 10th president. A pioneer in computer architecture, in 1981, Hennessy drew together researchers to focus on a computer architecture known as RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), a technology that has revolutionized the computer industry by increasing performance while reducing costs. In addition to his role in basic research, Hennessy helped transfer this technology to industry. In 1984, he co-founded MIPS Computer Systems, now MIPS Technologies, which designs microprocessors. Honored with many computing and engineering awards over his career, Hennessy is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Computing Machinery, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Hennessy earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and his master's and doctoral degrees in computer science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Dr. Donald Francis is currently doing research to develop a vaccine for HIV at Genentech, Inc. In February of 1992 he retired after 20 years in the U.S. Public Health Service. At the time of his retirement he was the Centers for Disease AIDS Advisor to the State of California and Special Consultant to Mayor Art Agnos in San Francisco. In the latter capacity he served as the Chair of the Mayor's HIV Task Force. Dr. Francis is a Californian having done his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his M.D. from Northwestern University and his Doctor of Science from Harvard. Before beginning his work on AIDS, Dr. Francis was involved in epidemic control around the world. He was instrumental in eradicating smallpox from Sudan, India and Bangladesh. He was also on the front line of the cholera epidemic in Nigeria in the early 1970's and the Ebola epidemic in Sudan in 1976. Dr. Francis also did some of the early developmental work on the hepatitis B vaccine, both in the United States and in the People's Republic of China. He began his work on AIDS in 1981. He was one of the first scientists to suggest that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent. As director of CDC's AIDS Laboratory Activities, he worked closely with the Institut Pasteur to prove that HIV was the cause of AIDS. He was also one of the earliest scientists to realize the impact HIV would have on the United States and has been an indefatigable advocate for a logical public response.

Mr. Davidson is the Chairman of Fenwick & West. He advises technology companies, including networking, computer software and electronics companies as well as medical technology companies. His clients range from start-ups to Fortune 1000 companies, including: Cisco Systems, Inc. Electronic Arts, Inc. Intuit Inc. Macromedia Inc. Symantec Corporation Other clients include Barclays Global Investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Morgan Stanley and Sequoia Capital.

Before co-founding Fluidigm, as Mycometrix, Mr. Worthington held a variety of engineering, operations and marketing positions at Actel Corporation, which designs, develops and markets field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and associated design and development software and programming hardware. Mr. Worthington served in several departments during his tenure at Actel, including product engineering, R&D engineering management, program management, product planning, and strategic marketing. His last position at Actel was Director, Strategic Marketing and Product Planning. Mr. Worthington received his undergraduate degree in Physics and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Fern Mandelbaum, is a Partner at Monitor Venture Partners. Ms. Mandelbaum is an entrepreneur and CEO who specializes in creating and growing technology focused businesses. Since 1998, Ms. Mandelbaum has worked with CEO's helping them develop and refine their business concepts, recruit management teams, key advisors and board members, implement fund raising strategies and establish strategic alliances. Her portfolio includes: New Vine Logistics, CaseCentral, Informative, NapaStyle, WetFeet, Care2, and LiveAdvice (merged with Keen). She has worked with, and secured funding for her companies from many of the leading venture capital firms, including: Mohr Davidow; ATV; Kleiner-Perkins; Draper Fisher Jurvetson; ThomVest; and Carlyle Ventures. Between 1991 and 1998, Ms. Mandelbaum was co-founder and CEO of Skyline Products, one of the premier toy invention firms that was sold to IDEO Product Development, the largest design firm in the U.S., in 1998. Skyline achieved annual growth in excess of 200%, becoming one of the top toy invention firms in the U.S. She was responsible for all marketing, business development, financial, legal, and strategic planning aspects of the company, and licensed over 80 products to 50 companies during her tenure. Between 1988 and 1991, Ms. Mandelbaum was a General Manager at Metcal. She created and managed a division to develop and commercialize foodservice equipment incorporating Metcal's proprietary heating technology. Prior to, and while, attending business school, Ms. Mandelbaum worked at Bain and Company, SRI International as a research analyst in the financial industries center, Hewlett Packard, creating the used equipment vendor program, and the Kyoto Shinyo Kinko, managing the initial stages of a new product introduction. Ms. Mandelbaum received her M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1988 and her B.A. in Economics from Brown University in 1984. Fern was raised in New York City, and now calls Palo Alto, California home. She is married, and has two children, Miles 3, and Skylar, 9.

Ann Winblad is the co-founding Partner of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. She is a well-known and respected software industry entrepreneur and technology leader. Her background and experience have been chronicled in many national business and trade publications. Ann has over 25 years of experience in the software industry. She began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank. In 1976 Ann co-founded Open Systems, Inc., a top selling accounting software company, with a $500 investment. She operated Open Systems profitably for six years and then sold it for over $15 million. Prior to co-founding Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Ann served as a strategy consultant for prestigious clients such as IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse, and numerous start-ups. In addition, Ann has co-authored the book Object-Oriented Software and has written articles for numerous publications. Ann received a BA in mathematics and in business administration, as well as an MA in education and international economics from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. Ann also has an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of St. Thomas. Ann has served as a Director of start-up and public companies and currently serves as a director of Intacct, The Knot, Voltage Security, Krillion and Mulesource. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of St. Thomas and is an advisor to numerous entrepreneur groups.

As General Manager of Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Studio, Nick Earl is responsible for the management of EA's Redwood Shores and Maxis studio operations. This includes overseeing programming, artwork, audio, research and development, quality assurance and strategy for top EA GAMES franchises as well as EA SPORTS franchises including: The Godfather, The Lord of The Rings, James Bond, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, and the highly- acclaimed Sims franchise, as well as new titles under development. Prior to his current position, Nick was Chief Operating Officer of the Redwood Shores Studio, responsible for day-to-day operations of the studio at corporate headquarters. Among other games, Nick produced the first Army Men games on PC and PlayStation. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

As the Chief Operating Officer for Electronic Arts Los Angeles (EALA), Arcadia Kim is responsible for overall operations, product development and strategic studio growth. Prior to her position as COO, Ms. Kim was the Director of Product Development at the Maxis Studios, the development studio behind the blockbuster franchises The Sims, The Urbz, and SimCity. As the Senior Development Director, she was responsible for the design, implementation and management of the product-creation process. Ms. Kim lent her talent to Maxis after shipping The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. As the Development Director of the Lord of the Rings franchise, Ms. Kim brought a unique blend of leadership, management, creative development and business acumen experiences to Electronic Arts and the franchise. Under Ms. Kim's direction, the franchise has sold over ten million copies worldwide. Before working on The Lord of the Rings franchise, Ms. Kim worked in EA's online division, as the Live Producer of Majestic, the critically acclaimed episodic online multimedia game. She started her career at EA in 2000 as the Producer at EA.com. Her first product was launching Pogo.com, a leading online game destinations that attracts approximately 3.6 million unique visitors a day. Ms. Kim earned a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. While at Harvard Business School, she focused her second year studies on New Production Processes in the Interactive Game Industry. Ms. Kim also graduated from Wellesley College and New York University, Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Film Production.

Turner is a producer at Electronic Arts specializing in action-hero titles. She is working on her second James Bond game and recently completed production on the Gameboy Advance version for release this November. Turner joined EA from another area of entertainment and technology: digital music. In 1999 she co-founded and led Gigabeat, a Kleiner Perkins company. Gigabeat provided music personalization and delivery technology and was acquired by Napster in 2001. Prior to Gigabeat, she worked on a series of projects in film and online music in Los Angeles. Turner holds a M.S. and B.A. from Stanford University.

David M. Kelley is a California-based entrepreneur, educator, engineer, and venture capitalist. He was featured by Fortune magazine as one of the "People to Watch" and was selected for the "I.D. 40" list of America's leading design innovators. In that listing he was described as "the most sought-after design engineer this side of Thomas Edison." He is the founder and CEO of IDEO Product Development, America's largest independent product design and development firm. In addition to his work at IDEO Product Development, Kelley is a tenured professor at Stanford University in the school's innovative Product Design program. As a faculty member, Professor Kelley is interested in new product development methodology from inception to production with an emphasis on user-centered design. He encourages broad understanding of product design methodologies, exposing his students to a variety of viewpoints in classroom discussions and project work. Professor Kelley's primary involvement is in the product design program, a joint program with the art department which emphasizes the blending of innovation, human values, and aesthetic concerns into a single curriculum. He also teaches in the Human Computer Interface program, which is a joint program with computer science.

Frank H. Levinson founded Finisar in April 1987 and has served as a member of our Board of Directors since February 1988 and as our Chairman of the Board and Chief Technical Officer since August 1999. Mr. Levinson also served as our Chief Executive Officer from February 1988 to August 1999. From September 1980 to December 1983, Mr. Levinson was a Member of Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories. From January 1984 to July 1984, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore, a provider of services and products to the communications industry. From April 1985 to December 1985, Mr. Levinson was the principal optical scientist at Raychem Corporation, and from January 1986 to February 1988, he was Optical Department Manager at Raynet, Inc., a fiber optic systems company. Mr. Levinson holds a B.S. in Mathematics/Physics from Butler University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Virginia.

Steve Jurvetson is a partner at DFJ. His current board responsibilities include SpaceX, Synthetic Genomics and Tesla Motors. He was the founding VC investor in Hotmail, Interwoven, Kana and NeoPhotonics. He also led DFJ's investments in other companies that were acquired for $12 billion in aggregate. Previously, Jurvetson was an R&D engineer at Hewlett-Packard, where seven of his communications chip designs were fabricated. His prior technical experience also includes programming, materials science research and computer design at HP's PC Division, the Center for Materials Research, and Mostek. He has also worked in product marketing at Apple and NeXT Software. At Stanford University, Jurvetson finished his BSEE in 2.5 years and graduated #1 in his class, as the Henry Ford Scholar. Steve also holds an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford. He received his MBA from the Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. He also serves on the advisory boards of SRI International, WAVC, STVP and SEVF. He was honored as "The Valley's Sharpest VC" on the cover of Business 2.0 and chosen by the SF Chronicle and SF Examiner as one of "the ten people expected to have the greatest impact on the Bay Area in the early part of the 21st Century." Steve was chosen by Forbes as one of "Tech's Best Venture Investors", by the VC Journal as one of the "Ten Most Influential VCs", and by Fortune as part of its "Brain Trust of Top Ten Minds."

Kim Smith is co-founder and CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, which she established in 1998 to transform public education by supporting education entrepreneurs. In NewSchools, Kim created a new "hybrid" approach to investing in social entrepreneurs. NewSchools uses grants, loans and equity investments to support a portfolio that includes nonprofit and for-profit entrepreneurs who are building sustainable, scalable education ventures. Kim began her career as a consultant specializing in business-education partnerships. In 1989, she became a founding team member of Teach For America (TFA). She then put her TFA experience to work in the post of founding director of BAYAC AmeriCorps, a consortium of nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area working to develop young leaders in education. Kim's background includes marketing experience with Silicon Graphics' Education Industry Group, where she focused on the online learning industry, and her role as the founding director of a trade show venture. Kim holds a bachelor's degree in political science and psychology from Columbia College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2001, Kim was featured in Newsweek's report on the "Women of the 21st Century" as "the kind of woman who will shape America's new century." She is a member of the 2002 Class of Henry Crown Fellows of the Aspen Institute. Kim has also served on many education venture and advisory boards; these currently include EdVoice, the National Council on Teacher Quality, and the Stanford University School of Education.

Paul G. Yock, M.D. is the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, by courtesy. Dr. Yock is Co-Chair of Stanford's new Department of Bioengineering and Director of the Stanford Program in Biodesign. Dr. Yock is a Stanford cardiologist internationally known for his work in inventing, developing and testing new devices, including the Rapid Exchange balloon angioplasty system, which is the dominant angioplasty system in use worldwide. Yock also invented a Doppler-guided hypodermic needle system, the Smart Needle and P-D Access. Dr. Yock is Director of the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Interventions, a Stanford facility that develops and tests new technologies in cardiovascular medicine. The focus of Dr. Yock's research program is the field of intravascular ultrasound. He authored the fundamental patents for intravascular ultrasound imaging and founded Cardiovascular Imaging Systems, now a division of Boston Scientific resulting from a 1994 acquisition for over $100M. In 1998 Dr. Yock developed a new interdepartmental and inter-school program at Stanford, the Medical Device Network (MDN). MDN helps stimulate and guide the process of biomedical technology innovation within the University. Recently MDN has been expanded under Dr. Yock's leadership into a broader research and educational initiative, the Stanford Program in Biodesign. MDN is now BDN, the Biodesign Network. The primary mission of Biodesign is to promote the invention and implementation of new health technologies through interdisciplinary research and education at the frontiers of engineering and the biomedical sciences.

Judy Estrin is CEO of JLABS, LLC, formerly known as Packet Design Management Company, LLC. She is the author of Closing the Innovation Gap, published in September, 2008. Prior to co-founding Packet Design, in May 2000, Estrin was chief technology officer for Cisco Systems. Beginning in 1981 Estrin co-founded three other successful technology companies: Bridge Communications, Network Computing Devices, and Precept Software. In 1998 Cisco Systems acquired Precept, and she became Cisco's chief technology officer until April 2000. Estrin has been named three times to Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 most powerful women in American business. She sits on the boards of directors of The Walt Disney Company and FedEx Corporation as well as two private company boards - Packet Design, Inc. and Arch Rock. She also sits on the advisory councils of Stanford's School of Engineering and Stanford's Bio-X initiative. She holds a B.S. degree in math and computer science from UCLA, and an M.S. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

SpaceX is the third company founded by Elon Musk. Prior to SpaceX, he co-founded the electric-car maker Tesla Motors, and before that, PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, serving as the company's chairman and CEO. PayPal has over twenty million customers in 38 countries, processes several billion dollars per year and went public on the NASDAQ under PYPL in early 2002. Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. Before PayPal, Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and the Hearst Corporation. He served as Chairman, CEO and Chief Technology Officer and in March 1999 sold Zip2 to Compaq for $307 million in an all cash transaction. Musk's early experience extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries, from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in high-energy density-capacitor physics and materials science at Stanford.

Jerry Kaplan is widely known in the computer industry as a serial entrepreneur, executive, technical innovator, and author. Most recently, he was co-chairman of Egghead.com, Inc. Previously, Mr. Kaplan served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of online auction company Onsale, Inc., which he co-founded in 1994. Prior to Onsale, he was co-founder and chairman of GO Corporation, which developed PenPoint, a pen-based operating system. Mr. Kaplan wrote a best-selling book about his experiences at GO Corporation entitled "Startup--A Silicon Valley Adventure", published in May 1995 by Houghton-Mifflin. Before founding GO, Mr. Kaplan was the principal technologist at Lotus Development Corporation, where he co-authored Lotus Agenda, the first personal information management software. In 1981, he co-founded Teknowledge, a public company specializing in artificial intelligence. Mr. Kaplan received a Bachelor's degree in history and philosophy of science from the University of Chicago (1972), a Doctorate degree in computer and information science from the University of Pennsylvania (1979), and was a research associate in Computer Science at Stanford from 1979 to 1981.

John W. Thompson is chairman of the board of directors at Symantec Corporation, where he served as CEO from 1999-2009. During that period, Thompson led the transformation of the company from a consumer software publisher to the global leader in information security solutions for individuals and enterprises. With global operations in more than 35 countries, Symantec offers a broad range of software, appliances and services designed to help customers secure and manage their IT infrastructure. Under Thompson's leadership, the company has defined a new category of information security software for consumers and has made a number of strategic acquisitions to enhance its ability to serve the rapidly changing security and management needs of large global enterprises. In September 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Thompson to the National Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NIAC), to make recommendations regarding the security of the critical infrastructure of the United States. In addition, Thompson has served as the chair of the Silicon Valley Blue Ribbon Task Force on Aviation Security and Technology to identify and evaluate technology-driven solutions to improve the security and efficiency of national and local aviation. Prior to joining Symantec, Thompson had a distinguished career with the IBM Corporation where he held senior executive positions in sales, marketing and software development. In his last assignment, he was general manager of IBM Americas and a member of the company's Worldwide Management Council. Thompson is a member of the board of directors of UPS, NiSource, Inc., and Seagate. He completed his undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University and holds a master's degree in management science from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

As senior vice president of product, development, and architecture at eBay, Lynn Reedy oversees the entire product development process. Her more than 700-person organization is responsible for all of the initiatives that pertain to the company's work in software development, product specification, user interface design, usability testing, and release management. Lynn joined eBay in 1999 as vice president of product development. That year, she and her team developed the processes and architecture that increased eBay's output fourfold. Prior to joining eBay, Lynn was senior vice president and chief information officer of Miller Freeman, Inc., a leading media company and the largest trade show producer in the world. At Miller Freeman, she implemented strategic business systems and developed the company's Internet strategy for more than 200 Web sites. Previously, Lynn spent nine years at Amdahl Corporation and seven years at Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) in a variety of management roles. Lynn has a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and computer science from the University of Illinois and a Master of Business Administration from Santa Clara University.

Stephanie Tilenius is vice president and general manager for merchant services at PayPal, an eBay company. PayPal enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. An eBay employee since early 2001, she is responsible for the strategy, growth, and financial performance of PayPal's merchant services group, the business unit providing payment solutions to small and large e-commerce merchants. Before eBay, Tilenius was senior vice president of sales and marketing for PlanetRx.com, a company she co-founded and took public on the NASDAQ in 1999. Previously, she was vice president of business and product development for Firefly, a software start-up that was sold to Microsoft Corp. in 1997. Early in her career, Tilenius spent several years as an investment banker at Deutche Bank Alex Brown, primarily focusing on software and telecom. In this capacity, she worked on the Initial Public Offering for America Online in 1992, and she subsequently decided to join its corporate development group where she managed mergers, venture investments and strategic partnerships. Tilenius graduated with high honors from Brandeis University where she earned both her bachelor's degree in economics and her master's degree in international finance. She also received her master's in business administration from Harvard Business School. Tilenius also spent time as a presidential management intern through a two-year fellowship with the U.S. government where she worked for Treasury Secretary Brady and Carla Hills on Japan-U.S. trade negotiations.

David Neeleman is Chairman and CEO of JetBlue Airways Corporation. JetBlue, which began operations in 2000, serves 23 U.S. cities with 57 new Airbus A320 aircraft. JetBlue is Neeleman's third successful launch in the aviation business, His goal is to bring people back to air travel by offering low fares, friendly service and a high quality product. JetBlue was rated "Best Domestic Airline" at Conde Nast Traveler's 2003 Readers' Choice Awards for the second consecutive year, and was runner-up for "Best Domestic Airline" at Travel & Leisure magazine's 2002 and 2003 World's Best Awards. Neeleman's career in the airline industry began in 1984 when he co-founded Morris Air. As president of Morris Air, he implemented the industry's first electronic ticketing system and pioneered a home reservationist system that is now the foundation of JetBlue's call center. Neeleman sold Morris Air and took the electronic ticketing to Open Skies. He sold Open Skies to Hewlett Packard in 1999. During this period, Neeleman acted as a consultant to WestJet Airlines, a successful Canadian low-fare start-up airline.