Santa Fe Institute

Bio

Jerry Murdock is a co-founder of Insight Venture Partners and was a Managing Director of the firm until April 2011, when he joined the Executive Advisory Board.  Jerry played a leading role in defining the company’s investment strategy, and was primarily responsible for the development of many of the firms portfolio investments. and has spent his career investing in, and building, technology companies that change and positively impact businesses and social practices. Since Insight’s inception in 1995, Jerry has had a defining role in the Firm’s investment strategy and has been primarily responsible for the development of many of the Firm’s portfolio investments.

Jerry is a passionate advocate of:

• Social media and its impact on business and social interaction
• Innovative companies and disruptive business models
• Entrepreneurs
• Understanding the commonalities that link artificial, human, and natural systems
• Developing leaders for the next generation

Since 1999, seven of Jerry’s investments have achieved successful IPO’s on NASDAQ, several with market capitalizations in excess of a billion dollars. These include: Callwave (CALL, now named Fuzebox), Click Commerce (CKCM ); Convergent Group (CVGP acquired by Schlumberger Ltd); DivX Inc (DIVX acquired by Sonic Solutions (SNIC)); Illuminet (ILUM, acquired by VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN)); Quest Software (QSFT) and SeeBeyond Technology Corporation (SBYN). Several other companies have achieved successful strategic exits including Peace Software (acquired by First Data Corporation) and McKinley Group (acquired by Excite).

Jerry’s current investments include:

• Beatport – leading e-retailer of electronic and house music for DJs
• DriveCam – a driver risk-management solutions company
• FuzeBox – online collaboration solutions for high-definition content sharing
• Jirbo -  a developer of casual iOS games and premium mobile video ad-serving technology
• Twitter – the preeminent micro-blogging company

Jerry is also passionate about public service, using his network and capabilities to impact causes he believes in. In particular, Jerry plays a leading role as a member of the Board of Trustees at:

• The Aspen Institute whose mission is to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.
• The Santa Fe Institute which is a multi-disciplinary research and education center focused on understanding complex adaptive systems as a critical component in addressing key environmental, technological, biological, economic, and political challenges.

Jerry is a co-founder, along with John Doerr, of For the Forest, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the health of forests, with particular emphasis on promoting the long-term sustainability of Western forests by providing research, management, expertise and related resources.

Jerry Murdock graduated with a degree in Political Science from San Diego State University and subsequently worked at the Georgetown Center for Strategic & International Studies (now known as CSIS).