Arnold Silverman, Founder and Managing Director

Arnold has a strong track record of identifying new market opportunities and working collaboratively with entrepreneurs to build market leading companies.  He was a founding board member of Oracle and a co-founder and investor in Business Objects. The experience of these successful collaborations drove Arnold to create Discovery Ventures in 1995 as a vehicle to help other entrepreneurs to create companies of lasting value.  Some of Discovery’s most notable investments include:   Informatica (NASDAQ:  INFA), Kiva Software (acquired by Netscape), Epiphany, and TimesTen Performance Software (acquired by Oracle).

Prior to his investment career, Arnold served as CEO of ICOT Corporation where he engineered a turn-around of the company and took it to leadership positions in the airline reservation systems and fraud detection markets.  He led the company’s acquisition of Amati Communications and ultimately the company’s strategic sale to Texas Instruments.  Previously, he worked for Dymo Industries, a New York Stock Exchange company, rising to become president of the company.  Earlier in his career, he held various engineering roles at Hewlett Packard.

Arnold was elected president of the AeA (American Electronics Association) in its 50th anniversary year.  He currently serves as a Trustee of the U.C. Berkeley Foundation and chair of the Finance Committee. 

Arnold graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from University of California, Berkeley and holds an M.B.A. from the Columbia Business School.