General Partner
Jacques has broad experience, having worked in large companies as well as in startups as small as three guys in a garage (literally). He has worked through IPOs and M&As for both small and large firms. A geek at heart, Jacques has worked in the depths of the semiconductor industry all the way to consumer-oriented software. The last decade his investment focus has been on cloud, enterprise software and security. He has held executive management positions, technical positions and sales and marketing roles over the course of his career and has been directly responsible for large bottom-line-generating revenue. The common theme he holds constant in his mind is how to execute the vision of the entrepreneur and leverage both his personal and USVP’s professional network contacts to accelerate growth and build significant and sustainable businesses. “My biggest satisfaction is to see on people’s desks products I was involved with, and then later to be able to call back the same people I worked with to help with the next generation of business.”
Jacques joined USVP in 2005. He has since focused on fostering USVP as an active investor in the Israeli market and in the IT markets in the U.S. Past USVP companies in which Jacques has taken a role include ClearShape (acquired by Cadence), Dune Networks (Broadcom), Epsagon (Cisco), Hellosign (Dropbox), Kenna Security (Cisco), Kilopass (Synopsys), Luminate (Symantec), Medigate (Claroty/Softbank), Plumgrid (VMware), Supplyframe (Siemens), Trusteer (IBM), Zerto (HPE), Zypmedia (Sinclair Broadcasting) along with executive chairmanships at Certess (Springsoft) and Synfora (Synopsys). Jacques currently sits on the boards or has an active role at AirEye, Cato Networks, Informed, Ionix, Human Interest, Hunters and Qnovo.
Before joining USVP, Jacques was President and CEO of Monterey Design Systems from 1999 until its acquisition by Synopsys (SNPS) in 2004. Prior to that, he founded and served as General Manager of the European subsidiary of Epic Design Technology, which went public in 1994 (EPIC) and became Vice President of Strategic Sales following its acquisition by Synopsys in 1997. Earlier in his career, Jacques held a number of research and management positions at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, at IBM’s Scientific Center in Haifa, Israel, and at STMicroelectronics in Grenoble, France.
Fluent in English, French and Hebrew, Jacques is an active global participant in the industries and topics in which he is involved. He regularly speaks on the topics of international investing as well as IT and is often found speaking on panels within the U.S. and Israel and paying forward through sharing his experience with various classes that he has developed. His seminar on Market Entry Strategy has been attended by over 1,800 founders and has influenced the course of many companies. Jacques holds a B.Sc. in computer engineering from Technion Israel Institute of Technology, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has published more than 30 technical papers and holds one U.S. patent.
Jacques is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Technion, Chairman Emeritus of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Technion Society, and on the Steering Committee of ICON (Israel Collaboration Network) and a past vice-chairman of the EDA Consortium (1999-2005) and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford on a number of topics. Jacques is an avid competitive sailor, a skier, a swimmer and, weather permitting, often seen on a motorcycle. Jacques has three grown children who bring him pride and happiness.