Board of Directors

Jim Clardy
Chairman of the Board
Venture Partner, Austin Ventures

Jim Clardy joined Austin Ventures in 1998 as a venture partner and focuses on hardware investing. Previously, Jim was a co-founder of Crystal Semiconductor, which was financed by Austin Ventures, and was its CEO from its inception in 1984 until 1997. In 1992 he managed the merger of Crystal with Cirrus Logic and managed this wholly owned subsidiary until retiring. Prior to co-founding Crystal, Jim was a vice president of Harris Semiconductor, where he was responsible for worldwide operations, including manufacturing, engineering and administrative activities. Additionally, he spent 21 years with Texas Instruments as a senior manager.

Jim received his BS in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee. In 1995, Jim was selected as Entrepreneur of the Year in Austin, Texas, for his work at Crystal Semiconductor. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement in Technology Award in 1997 by the Austin Chapter of the American Electronics Association.

Venu Shamapant
General Partner, Austin Ventures

Venu Shamapant joined Austin Ventures in 1999 and focuses on hardware investing. Previously, Venu served as vice president of business development for Telecom Technologies, Inc. Prior to that, he was an engagement manager for McKinsey & Company and the engineering lead for Mentor Graphics.

Venu received his MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business, an MS in computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BS in electronics and communications engineering from Osmania University, India.

Bob Weinschenk
President & CEO, Britestream

Before joining Britestream Networks, Bob was president and CEO of Pixim, a premier supplier of innovative semiconductors and software platforms for digital image capture and processing. During his tenure, he raised over $55 million in rounds of venture capital financing and garnered strong press coverage on CNNfn, KTVU, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Red Herring Magazine and Electronic Business.

Previously, he had served as General Manager of the Microelectronics Division of Lucent Technologies, where he oversaw nearly $400 million in annual sales and $1.3 billion in product design.  Products included v.90/92 modems, DSL client solutions, 802.11 NICs, USB and 1394 adapters, and key chipset ASICs for Apple Computer and Sun Microsystems.

Weinschenk was also the General Manager of Advanced Micro Devices chipset organization a group he built from the ground up to a $55M/year business.  In this role he was responsible for all aspects of the business and secured major design wins at three of the top five computer OEMs.

Bob earned his Masters of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering and his Bachelor of Engineering Degree from the Steven’s Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ.

Eric Zimits
Managing Partner, Granite Ventures

After spending a long career in finance and investments with a focus on the communications sector, Eric Zimits joined Granite Ventures in 2000 to focus on investing in early-stage communications and components companies.

Prior to Granite, Eric was Managing Director and head of the Communications Research Group at Hambrecht & Quist (later Chase H&Q), where he sponsored several venture capital investments, including: Amber Networks, acquired by Nokia; InterNAP (NASDAQ: INAP); Paragon Software, acquired by Openwave; WavTrace, acquired by Harris Corporation; and VocalData, acquired by Tekelec.

Prior to H&Q, Eric launched a research effort in the telecommunications and wireless industries as a General Partner at Volpe, Welty & Company. He also held analyst positions at Rauscher Pierce Refsnes and Morgan Keegan & Company. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for AirTight Networks, Britestream Networks, RF Magic and Speakeasy.

Eric received a B.S.E. from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business.