(Source: MARKETWIRE)
CloudSwitch, Inc. today announced that it has added John McEleney as its Chief Executive Officer and President and completed a second round of financing from top-tier venture capitalist firms. Led by Commonwealth Capital Ventures, the $8 million series B round includes initial investors Matrix Partners and Atlas Venture and brings the Company's total funding to more than $15 million.
CloudSwitch (www.cloudswitch.com) is developing an innovative software appliance that delivers the power of cloud computing seamlessly and securely so enterprises can dramatically reduce cost and improve responsiveness to the business. With CloudSwitch, enterprises are protected from the complexity, risks and potential lock-in of the cloud, turning cloud resources into a flexible, cost-effective extension of the corporate data center.
John McEleney joins the Company after a highly successful tenure at SolidWorks Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dassault Systems S.A. (NASDAQ: DASTY), where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2001 to 2007, and as a Director since 2000. Under McEleney's leadership, SolidWorks grew to over 40,000 global customers, $350 million in revenues and a market valuation of $1.5 billion. McEleney joined SolidWorks in 1996, serving in several capacities including Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Americas Sales. Prior to joining SolidWorks, McEleney held several key management positions at CAD software pioneer Computervision.
"Cloud computing is a major platform shift and the CloudSwitch approach is unique in addressing the needs of enterprise applications and environments," said John McEleney. "I'm excited to join this world-class team. The level of interest we're seeing from prospects, partners and investors is a reflection of the strength of our value proposition and the exponential growth of the cloud market."
The addition of John McEleney as Chief Executive Officer rounds out a strong existing management team, with seasoned executives from market-leading enterprise software and systems companies including BMC, EMC, Netezza, RSA, the security division of EMC, and Sun Microsystems. McEleney also joins CloudSwitch's board of directors, which includes David Skok of Matrix Partners, Axel Bichara of Atlas Venture, Elliot Katzman of Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Jit Saxena, Andy Palmer and Ellen Rubin.
"Having worked closely with John McEleney for many years, we are excited to back him and the CloudSwitch team," said Elliot Katzman, Commonwealth Capital Ventures.
