Felda Hardymon

Felda Hardymon, a partner in Bessemer’s Cambridge, Mass. office, joined the firm in 1981. He focuses on investments in the software, communications and storage sectors. He serves on the boards of Vertica (acquired by HP), Streambase (acquired by TIBCO), Goal.com (acquired by Perform), Endeca and SVB Financial Group (aka Silicon Valley Bank).

Past investments include superconducting materials company American Superconductor (NASDAQ: AMSC); telecommunications providers Cascade Communications (acquired by Ascend) and Sirocco (acquired by Cascade); Celcore, a maker of switches for wireless-telephone networks (acquired by DSC); African telecommunications provider Celtel (acquired by MTC, now called Zain); Parametric Technology, a provider of product cycle-management software; sporting-goods chain Sports Authority; office-supply company Staples; and Axis Networks (acquired by ACE) a 4G, wireless-remote radio head supplier.

Since 1998, Felda also has taught and done research at Harvard Business School where he holds the appointment of MBA Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice. He is currently on leave from Harvard and is a visiting professor of finance at The London School of Economics. Prior to joining Bessemer, Felda worked at BDSI, the original venture subsidiary of General Electric, where he was an investor in Ungermann-Bass, Stratus Computer and Western Digital. Prior to that, he taught mathematics and served as director of systems and research at Duke University.

Felda has a B.S. from Rose Polytechnic, an M.A. and Ph.D from Duke and an MBA from Harvard.