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Trustee, Singularity University

Asad Jamal is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ePlanet Ventures. Mr. Jamal founded ePlanet Ventures in 1999 with a first-mover focus on global venture capital opportunities. Mr. Jamal articulated, developed, and executed ePlanet’s global, innovation-driven investment philosophy while building ePlanet’s office and business presence throughout the world’s major innovation centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Mr. Jamal is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investment portfolio, developing exit strategies and assisting entrepreneurs with growing their businesses. He has been ranked amongst the “Top 20″ venture capitalists worldwide by FORBES for three consecutive years (2007, 2008, 2009), and has been given the accolade “Pioneer of Global Venture Capital” by FORBES (2007). Red Herring Magazine featured him as the “Hottest VC in the World” in 2006.

In 2009 Mr. Jamal set up Good Planet, the social venture investment arm of ePlanet Ventures. Good Planet’s vision is to address major social issues by identifying and empowering exceptional agents of change. Good Planet will focus on major social causes such as poverty alleviation, illiteracy and disease prevention. Under Mr. Jamal’s guidance, Good Planet has helped in the set-up of Singularity University, whose aim is to develop exponential technologies and solutions to address 1 billion people in 10 years. Mr. Jamal sits on the Corporate Board of Trustees of Singularity University. Mr. Jamal is also a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and has committed to fund CGI social initiatives through Good Planet.
Since 1999, Mr. Jamal has led and sponsored the ePlanet Ventures’s investments in multiple sectors covering a wide range of industries such as Advertising & Media, Communication & Wireless, Computing Software, Consumer Internet, Clean Energy, Enterprise Software, Financial, Life Sciences, Network, Optical, Security and Storage Networks. A number of these companies have been listed via NASDAQ IPOs such as Chinese companies Baidu (BIDU), Kong Zhong (KONG), Focus Media (FMCN). Others have been acquired such as Skype (EBAY), Cyanea (IBM), Safeview, End2End, and First Hop. The “Top 3″ companies backed by Mr. Jamal achieved an aggregate market valuation of $20 Billion (vs. aggregate private valuation at time of investment of $200 million). Mr. Jamal has served on the boards of directors of numerous technology companies including Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), FRIENDi Mobile, Intrapace, IXI Mobile, and the Visto Corporation. He has over 25 years professional experience in Asia, Europe and the United States. He previously worked in a senior executive capacity with Peregrine Investment Holdings, a Hong Kong merchant bank. He was also the Head of Principal Investing at the Interest-rate Derivatives Trading Unit of the Chase Manhattan Bank in London. Mr. Jamal graduated with a B.Sc. (Honors) from the London School of Economics and is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. Mr. Jamal is a charter member of the entrepreneurship organizations TIE Silicon Valley and OPEN Silicon Valley, a Trustee of the Singularity University, and a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.