CHRISTOPHER T. KEENE

Entrepreneur, Executive, Educator

Chris combines an entrepreneurial background as founder and CEO of a NASDAQ software company with business management expertise from McKinsey & Company. His key skills include:

• Building an entrepreneurial business
• Driving technology and innovation
• Creating collaborative business partnerships
• Insider's view of silicon valley culture

Building an entrepreneurial business

At his most recent software start-up, Persistence Software, Chris raised over $20 million in venture funding from Morgan Stanley Ventures, Intel Ventures and Cisco, took the company public on NASDAQ in 1999 and ultimately sold it to Progress Software.

After the stock market crash, he was responsible for restructuring the company, reducing costs by over 50% while growing revenues by 20% in a difficult business climate.

Driving technology and innovation

At Persistence, Chris helped pioneer the field of in-memory data management and holds several patents in this area. During this time, Chris led the company through several major technology transitions, from proprietary platforms, to standards-based platforms.

Creating collaborative business partnerships

As a industry visionary, Chris helped create multi-million dollar technology partnerships with companies like Cisco, Sun, Reuters, Fedex and Citigroup. He also drove technology outsourcing decisions, both for Persistence and for its partners.

Insider's view of silicon valley culture

Chris has written extensively on Silicon Valley, entrepreneurial management and technology and has appeared in forums ranging from Comdex to the Wall Street Journal. He has acted as a business advisor to technology start-ups and sat on several boards.

He is also a frequent lecturer at business schools, and has led courses on entrepreneurship at Stanford, the Berkeley Haas School of Business, and the London School of Business.

Currently, he is living in Paris and serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence and lecturer at INSEAD.

Education and background

Chris graduated with a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences with honors from Stanford University. He also earned an MBA from the Wharton School. Before Persistence, he worked for McKinsey and Company in New York and Hamburg. Before that, he worked at Ashton-Tate in California, at Hewlett-Packard in Germany and at a medical software startup, MEDAID. He is fluent in German.