Founders

Reid Hoffman
Chief Executive Officer
Immediately prior to founding LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman was EVP at PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL), where he was in charge of all external relationships and payments infrastructure. Reid serves on the board of directors for Grassroots.com, JumpStart Technologies, SixApart, and Vendio. Reid is an angel investor in Ironport, Friendster and Nanosolar. Earlier in his career, Reid worked at Apple Computer, Fujitsu Software Corporation, and SocialNet.com. Reid graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a B.S. in Cognitive Science and from Oxford University with a master’s degree in philosophy. Reid won the Dinkelspiel Award and a Marshall Scholarship while at Stanford. LinkedIn users can view Reid’s full profile here.

Allen Blue
Vice President of Product
Allen was formerly Director of Product Design at SocialNet.com, a social networking service covering dating, recreational and professional activities, where he was responsible for product design and implementation of SocialNet’s member-data focused business model. Previously, Allen has worked as a contract web designer and developer for a variety of clients including PayPal, Stanford University, and Microsoft’s Virtual Worlds project. Allen also lectured in Drama for three years at Stanford, where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Drama and a B.A. in English, and was winner of the Golden Medal for creative excellence. LinkedIn users can view Allen’s full profile here.

Konstantin Guericke
Vice President of Marketing
Konstantin most recently served as VP of Marketing at Presenter, where he led product marketing, public relations and corporate marketing. Prior to Presenter, Konstantin was responsible for the initial public launch of social software pioneer Blaxxun as VP Sales & Marketing. Other executive roles included EVP at Caligari and Project Director with P&L responsibility for a $10 million product unit of publicly-traded Micrografx. At Beresford Partners, Konstantin helped the CEOs of over two dozen high-tech startups develop their positioning and marketing strategy. He graduated with distinction from Stanford University with a B.S. and B.S. in Engineering. LinkedIn users can view Konstantin’s full profile here.

Eric Ly
Chief Technology Officer
Previously Eric was CTO and founder of Netmosphere, which developed enterprise project collaboration software and was sold to Critical Path (Nasdaq: CPTH). Eric was later CTO of Enact, which reacquired and improved the Netmosphere technology for major customers including Sun, Cisco, NASA, Nokia, i2, Dell, and Lycos. He was also President and co-founder of Tresidder Networks and has held software engineering positions at Sun Microsystems, General Magic, Stanford University, and IBM. At various points in his career, Eric has served as a consultant to numerous companies including Sony Pictures and eGroups. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and received an B.S. in Media Arts & Sciences from MIT. LinkedIn users can view Eric’s full profile here.

Jean-Luc Vaillant
Vice President of Engineering
Most recently, Jean-Luc was Director of Engineering for Video Services at Logitech (Nasdaq: LOGI). He was previously Director of Software Development at Spotlife, a provider of online personal video services acquired by Logitech. Before that, Jean-Luc was Director of Technology at SocialNet.com and later served as VP of Development of MatchNet, which acquired SocialNet. Jean-Luc has also held various engineering management and software development positions at Fujitsu Software Corporation, SOPHIS, France Telecom Research Labs, Imagine Technologies, and AT&T Bell Labs. Jean-Luc completed his studies in France, with an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Marseille and a post-graduate degree in Network Engineering from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST). LinkedIn users can view Jean-Luc’s full profile here.

Founding Team

Stephen Beitzel
Senior Software Engineer
Prior to LinkedIn, Steve worked as a software engineer at IG Studios, an incubator of early-stage consumer Internet companies. He was formerly CTO of Envolved, which developed donor-aggregation software for nonprofit organizations. Previously in his career, Steve served in a variety of software development roles for iOwn (acquired by Citigroup), Salamander Interactive, and Apple Computer. Steve graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a B.A. in Drama.

David Eves
Technical Operations Manager
David has been building online hypertext systems since before there was a World Wide Web and is still excited by the potential for computer mediated communications to improve human relations. He has previously worked at a variety of companies, including Spotlife and SocialNet.com.

Lee Hower
Director of Corporate Development
Before joining LinkedIn, Lee was Director of Financial Services at PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL), where he was responsible for strategy and business development with external banking partners. He also served as Product Manager of PayPal’s international and wireless services. Previously he worked in strategy consulting at Treacy & Company and investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney. Lee attended the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a B.A.S. in Systems Science from the School of Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from the Wharton School, and was selected as Wharton’s Commencement speaker.

Ian McNish
Senior Systems Architect
Ian assists people and companies in understanding, implementing, and maintaining computer and network related technologies. This is most often accomplished with a hammer and riding crop. Ian has worked both as an employee and consultant for numerous companies including Hotwire, SocialNet, Sprint, Cisco, and VERITAS. He is a ferocious TiVo advocate, and hopes someday they will create a TiVo advanced enough to watch his favorite shows for him.

Yan Pujante
Senior Software Architect
Prior to LinkedIn, Yan was Senior Software Engineer at Reuters (formerly TIBCO Finance) where he developed a highly scalable system for delivering news and stock alerts to any device. He has previously held various software development positions in both the US and Europe at SocialNet.com, Trema Labratories, S.I.P., the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), and Thomson Consumer Electronics. Yan received an M.S. in Computer Science from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) and has contributed to a variety of open source projects and technical journals.

Chris Saccheri
Web Developer
Chris wears loud polyester shirts, eats club sandwiches on sourdough, and codes his HTML by hand (just like his Italian ancestors during the Renaissance). As a freelance web designer & developer, Chris has worked for a variety of clients from online direct marketing companies to nonprofit organizations. He helped design and implement the website for the Center for Independence of the Disabled, which won first place honors in the 2002 Accessibility Internet Rally (AIR) California. Previously, he was Associate Editor at SocialNet.com. Chris received a B.A. in English from Stanford University.