Team Members
Tony Di Bona
Tony Di Bona is Chief Financial Officer and General Partner of Alloy Ventures and is a founding member of the firm. Tony is in charge of all finance, accounting, and computer operations for Alloy, and assists in financial due diligence. He also assists portfolio companies with their accounting, financial reporting, and computing systems.
Tony’s career in venture capital started in 1988, when he joined Craig Taylor and John Shoch at Asset Management Associates. When Craig and John co-founded Alloy Ventures in 1996, Tony di Bona became CFO and General Partner of the new firm. Previously, Tony served as CFO for an Australian firm, Dick Smith Electronics Inc., helping the company open its U.S. operation. Tony is an expert in the use of small computer systems, networks, and the Internet, and leverages his technology and financial expertise to help Alloy evaluate investment opportunities in computer-related markets. He received a BEc, majoring in accounting and law, at Sydney University (1982).
Scott Johnston
Scott C. Johnston joined Alloy Ventures as an EIR in 2008. He brings with him 16 years of operating experience, during which his functional responsibilities have ranged from software engineering and IT operations to product management, business development, and sales. He spent his first 12 years in the enterprise infrastructure industry at Sun Microsystems, Netscape, Cisco, and Loudcloud. More recently, he's served in leadership roles in early stage consumer Internet advertising and marketing start-ups, including Connexus and Adchemy.
In a prior life he worked for Booz-Allen & Hamilton and as a researcher for MITI in Japan. He presently serves as a volunteer for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a non-profit organization which delivers entrepreneurship education programs to youth in low-income communities. Scott attended Stanford University and earned BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering, an MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering, and an MBA.
His areas of focus at Alloy include IT infrastructure and Internet applications and services for both consumers and enterprises.
J. Leighton Read, MD
Leighton Read is a General Partner in four Alloy funds investing with us in companies from 2001-2007. Before joining Alloy, Leighton spent 14 years as a biotechnology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Affymax NV, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni, setting the stage for two successful spin-outs: Affymetrix and Maxygen. He founded Aviron, a biotechnology company best known as the developer of FluMist™, the intranasal influenza vaccine, where he served as Chairman and CEO until 1999 and Director until its acquisition by MedImmune in 2002. While at Alloy, he served as the first CEO of Avidia, a spin-out of Maxygen later acquired by Amgen. For over two decades, he has also been interested in the psychological principles that underlie successful electronic games and is currently devoting substantial time to his role as Chairman of Seriosity, a start-up leading in the application of game principles to the challenges of large enterprises. He received a B.S. from Rice University in Psychology and Biology (1973), an MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1976) and completed internal medicine training at Duke and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston where he held appointments at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health. His research dealt with applications of decision theory in medicine, cost-effectiveness analysis and policy regarding medical innovation.
Leighton is a director of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, AnaptysBio, Apptera, Cambrios Technologies, Genomatica, Opal Therapeutics, and Siluria. He also serves as a trustee or director of The BeneTech Initiative, BioVentures for Global Health, The UC Berkeley Foundation and School of Public Health Council and the Santa Fe Institute. His awards include several as co-inventor of technology underlying the Affymetrix GeneChip.
Dave Pidwell
David W. Pidwell has been a venture partner at Alloy Ventures since 1996. In 1987, he founded Rasna Corp., a mechanical design automation software company financed by the partners at Alloy. He was President and CEO until 1995 when Parametric Technology (Nasdaq: PMTC) acquired the firm. Prior to Rasna, Mr. Pidwell worked for ROLM Corp. for 14 years. He is currently a director of iPrint, Ensenda, Xactly, and Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA).He received a BS in electrical engineering (1969) and a MS in computer systems engineering (1970) from Ohio University and completed three years of work at Stanford University on a PhD in engineering economic systems.
David Pezeshki
David Pezeshki joined Alloy Ventures as Controller in July 2003. Prior to joining Alloy, David was a Tax Consultant at Ernst & Young. While in public accounting, David spent time working with public and private companies assisting them with tax, accounting and financial consulting. David is a CFA Charterholder and a Certified Public Accountant. He received a BA in Accounting (1999) and an MS in Finance (2001) from Louisiana State University.
Manu Lakkur
Manu Lakkur joined Alloy Ventures as an Associate in 2009. Prior to Alloy, Manu was a Consultant at Deloitte Consulting's Strategy & Operations division in San Francisco. There, he worked primarily with clients in technology and healthcare, advising them on issues including market entry strategy, software licensing, project management, and using Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Outside of Deloitte, Manu has experience building products and advising teams in the areas of mobile social networking and mobile applications, as well as a stint in engineering at Hewlett-Packard. Manu earned MS (2006) and BS (2006) degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he served as co-Editor-in-Chief of Stanford Scientific Magazine.
“Alloy partner Ammar Hanafi has been a hands-on board member from YouSendIt's earliest days. As one of our original investors participating in every one of YouSendIt's financing rounds up through our latest Series C, Alloy has continually provided not only the financial capital needed to rapidly grow our business, but the personal connections, strategic guidance and creative ideas that have helped make YouSendIt a leader in our market today.”
– Ivan Koon, CEO, YouSendIt
