Friday morning, Rambus Inc. (RMBS), a developer of chip interface technologies, announced that it has appointed long-time board member Bruce Dunlevie as chairman of its board of directors, effective May 8, 2008. Dunlevie has served as a member of the Rambus board since the company was founded in 1990.
Dunlevie has been a general partner of the venture capital firm Benchmark Capital since May 1995, and was a general partner of the venture capital firm Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre, or MPA&E, between 1989 and 2000. Prior to MPA&E, Dunlevie served as general manager of the Personal Computer Division of Everex Systems, which he founded. He also worked in investment banking for three years at Goldman, Sachs & Co.(GS) and as a systems designer and programmer with Andersen Consulting. He is a former director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists.
Dunlevie holds a BA degree in History from Rice University and an MBA from Stanford University. In addition, Dunlevie serves on the board of several private companies.
Commenting on the appointment, Harold Hughes, president and chief executive officer of Rambus said, “Bruce is a recognized leader with years of experience working closely with the Rambus team. With his guidance, we’ll continue building our world-class portfolio of products and patented innovations that drive great value for our customers and stockholders.”
Last month, Rambus announced the resignation of Kevin Kennedy as chairman and a member of the company’s board of directors, effective July 1, 2008, unless a replacement board member was named earlier. Kennedy said that his planned departure was due to personal reasons. He had served as a director of Rambus since 2003, and Chairman since June 2006. He currently serves as chief executive of JDS Uniphase Corp. (JDSU).
From August 2001 to September 2003, Kennedy was the Chief Operating Officer of Openwave Systems Inc.(OPWV), a software corporation. Prior to joining Openwave Systems Inc., Kennedy served seven years at Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO), a networking corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President of the Service Provider Line of Business and Software Technologies Division, and 17 years at Bell Laboratories.
RMBS closed Thursday’s regular trading session at $22.90, down $0.34 on a volume of 1.38 million shares. In the 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $12.05-$26.41.
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