Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a venture capitalist known for his work in technology. He has served as principal and founder of family fund Bess Ventures and Advisory, LLC, a strategic management, investment and marketing services firm, since February 2015.[1][2]
Lane Bess | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 18, 1961 Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Known for | Investing, Principal and Founder at Bess Ventures and Advisory |
| Spouse | Letty Bess |
| Children | Cameron Bess |
Early life and education
Bess graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1979.[3]
In 1983, Bess received a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. Bess has served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since June 2019.[4][5]
Career
Bess held senior sales and marketing positions at NCR Corporation.[6]
Bess also served as President of Trend Micro.[7][8] In 2008, he became president and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, where in 2010 he was preparing the company for an initial public offering.[9] From 2011 to 2015, Bess was the COO of Zscaler.[10][11][12]
Bess serves on the boards of several companies, including Deep Instinct,[13][14] eSentire, TrueFort, ZeroFOX, PLUM (SPAC).[8][15][16][17][18][19][20]
Spaceflight
On December 11, 2021, Bess flew into space aboard Blue Origin NS-19.[21]
Personal life
Bess is married to his wife Letty.[22] His son Cameron Bess accompanied him to space aboard Blue Origin NS-19, making them the first parent-child pair to fly to space together.[3] Cameron is a furry, identifies as pansexual, and streams on Twitch.[23][24]