BWI: Yogesh Bansal, ApnaCircle Founder & CEO Joins Viadeo Board

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: ApnaCircle.com
Monday, September 21, 2009 01:17 PM IST (07:47 AM GMT)
Editors: General: People; Business: Accounting & management consultancy services, Business services, Information technology; Technology
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Yogesh Bansal, ApnaCircle Founder & CEO Joins Viadeo Board
Viadeo Strengthens Board of Directors with Four Industry and Financial Veterans

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Monday, September 21, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- Viadeo, one of the world's largest business social networks, today announced several key appointments to its Board of Directors. Joining the Board are Yogesh Bansal, founder and CEO of ApnaCircle, Sabeer Bhatia, director, ApnaCircle, William (Bill) Melton, co founder of VeriFone and early investor in AOL, Derek Ling, founder and CEO of Tianji.com, and Dan Serfaty, CEO of Viadeo commented, "I am very excited to welcome Sabeer, Bill, Derek and Yogesh to our Board as they are proven commodities with impressive track records in helping start-ups and established companies succeed. They are successful entrepreneurs, operators and investors, and provide us with unique perspectives of the India, China, European and US markets. I have no doubt they, along with the continued contributions of our existing Board members, and investors, Ventech and AGF, will help us further extend our market presence, while opening up new channels for growth."

"In just five years' time, Viadeo has grown to become the second largest professional and social networking site with over 8.5 million users worldwide. What has enabled this growth is the implementation of our 'Glocal' strategy; thinking global while acting local. Having local knowledge is a key asset when developing a worldwide professional network and truly adds value for our user communities," Serfaty concluded.

An MBA from University of North Carolina, Yogesh Bansal moved to India 2006 and started ApnaCircle.com. He started the company with a vision to make it a truly mega brand. Before starting ApnaCircle.com, he spent significant time in finding market intelligence by market research on the domain. As a professional he has played a critical role with different organizations across the globe and has been part of many founding teams of various businesses. Before shifting to India, he had founded couple of start ups both in USA as well as in India. Before becoming an entrepreneur, he worked with McKesson Inc, USA. Yogesh has been lauded by many industry leaders and countless publications for his visionary strategy, his ability to drive an entrepreneurial culture, and his warm-hearted, straight-talking approach.

Sabeer Bhatia-Director of ApnaCircle.com, is one of select group of people who have made it big in America's Silicon Valley. Born in Chandigarh, this angel investor did his schooling from St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore. He graduated from Caltech and went to Stanford to pursue his MS in Electrical Engineering. After completing his Masters, he joined Apple computers for a short duration and subsequently teamed up with his partner to create a web-based e-mail system-Hotmail. Microsoft bought Hotmail on December 30th, 1997, for a reported sum of $400M. After the success of Hotmail, Bhatia angel invested a number of entities like ApnaCircle, Arzoo Inc, Sabsebolo among others. In 2002, Mr. Bhatia was named by TIME Magazine as one of the "People to Watch" in International Business and has received several honors and awards throughout his career. He received his BS with honors and his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Mr. Bill Melton is the Founder and Chairman of the Board of Global Internet Ventures, an Internet Holding Company. For more than 30 years, Mr. Melton has been an entrepreneur bringing technology to the financial industry. He was the original founder of VeriFone Inc and an early investor in America Online and served on its Board of Directors for several years.

Additionally, he was an initial funder of Transaction Network Systems, Prio (sold to Infospace Inc.) and Maxager Technology. He was also the founder and CEO of CyberCash. Mr. Melton is currently an active investor and Board member of several early stage venture capital companies. He holds a Master's degree in Asian Studies and Chinese Philosophy.

Mr. Derek Ling is the founder and CEO of Tianji.com, the leading social networking service for professionals in China (acquired by Viadeo). He has held senior management positions at Motorola, Apple Computer and Sina.com and co-founded Qzone.com (sold to Yahoo!), one of the largest youth entertainment communities in China. Mr. Ling received his BA from Amherst College and MA from Stanford University. He was a PhD candidate at Stanford and had completed the "Executive Program for Growing Companies" at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

About ApnaCircle.com

Incepted in June 2007, ApnaCircle.com is India's first social and career networking site that has been a platform for passive job search. Its passive job seeking approach is not intrusive and in addition it offers the fun element as well. This localized and Indianized career and social networking site gives the right opportunity to users to express and share the relevant information that helps them to achieve recognition. In addition to providing Indian content, the networking site's merger with Viadeo, the leading professional networking site, will allow the Indian users to interact with more evolved consumers from Europe, China and other parts of the globe.

About Viadeo

Founded in June 2004, Viadeo quickly established itself as an essential tool for professional networking in Europe and beyond. Since then, with more than 8.5 million members, Viadeo is used by those who want to increase their business opportunities (to discover new clients, staff and business partners), enhance their visibility and their online reputation, and manage and develop their network of professional contacts.

Viadeo's members consist of business owners, entrepreneurs and managers from a diverse range of businesses both start-up and well established. Each day Viadeo attracts more than 10,000 new members; 40,000 new connections are made and over 1 million profiles are viewed. Based in Paris (head office), Viadeo also has offices and teams in the UK (London), Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Italy (Milan), China (Beijing), India (New Delhi) and Mexico (Mexico City). The company employs 200 staff worldwide. For more information, please visit us on the web at www.viadeo.com.


CONTACT DETAILS
Manisha Chaudhary, Value 360 Communications, + 91 9899797810, manisha@value360india.com
Manleen Kaur, Value 360 Communications, + 91 9810920020, manleen@value360india.com

KEYWORDS
PEOPLE, CONSULTANCY SERVICES, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, TECHNOLOGY

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