Platform Equity is in the process of building a top team of professionals, and we will have additional announcements in the near future. We are always interested in talented people with diverse backgrounds who can bring new capabilities to our core team.

Investment Professionals

Jamie Daves – Founding Partner

Jamie is the Founding Partner of Platform Equity. Before founding Platform, Jamie partnered with former Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt to found and develop Current TV, a national cable network targeting young adults. As a founding partner of Current, he was instrumental in developing the innovative creative positioning and programming format, raising over $80M in financing, and completing the acquisition of Newsworld International from Vivendi Universal. In addition to his background as a business and creative executive, Jamie has had over a decade of experience in the public sector. During the Clinton Administration, he was Special Assistant for Policy and Communications under the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, William E. Kennard. While at the FCC, he advised the Chairman on a wide range of policy matters including the digital conversion of broadcast, broadband open access, and the implementation of the initiative to connect schools and libraries to the Internet. Prior to joining the FCC, Jamie served in a number of policy and political roles including National Field Director to the Democratic Leadership Council and National Youth Director for both the Democratic National Committee and the 1992 Clinton/Gore Presidential Campaign. Jamie is a nationally recognized leader in the non-profit sector and co-founded The Full Circle Fund, a venture philanthropy organization that has directed over $10M to Bay Area non-profits. He received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has a bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Stephen Smyth- Senior Advisor
Most recently Stephen held the position of General Manager, Media, Americas at Reuters. Stephen Smyth was responsible for Reuters Americas consumer business, driving revenue and audience for the online, mobile, interactive TV, digital signage and online syndication services. In addition, Stephen oversaw global business development as well as local programming and production, traffic and ad operations in the Americas. Prior to this role, Stephen led Reuters mobile, video, and digital signage business globally. He was responsible for maximizing revenues and brand value from the company’s presence on these platforms and oversaw relationships with key technology providers and distribution affiliates across the globe. In addition, he headed up Reuters Labs, a public showcase of the latest consumer product innovations from Reuters. Previously, Stephen was responsible for media strategy and business development for Reuters. Before joining the company in January 2003, he was Director of Business Development for Bertelsmann, the media group. At Bertelsmann, Stephen worked for a number of divisions including the RTL Group, Bookspan and the firms E-Commerce Group. Prior to this he co-founded a number of software companies. He received his B.A. and B.A.I. from Trinity College, University of Dublin and his M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Don Baer- Senior Advisor
Baer, who was a key member of the Clinton administration’s White House staff, has built an expertise in helping media and content companies extend their brands into the realm of digital media. In recent years, he helped lead Discovery Communications successful efforts to establish important initiatives in the new media space. During the last eight years, Baer was a senior executive at Discovery Communications, a $3 billion global media company that is the home of the Discovery Channel. In that time, Baer reported to the company’s CEO and managed overall strategy and development, including corporate partnerships, new ventures and acquisitions; new media business development and operations, and corporate affairs, communications, research and public policy. Baer led Discovery’s efforts to establish itself as a leader in the current affairs and contemporary history categories. Additionally he led numerous efforts to extend Discovery’s reach in partnership with major non-profit groups. From 1994 through 1997, Baer served as a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton. As White House Director of Strategic Planning and Communications and earlier as White House Director of Speechwriting and Research, he helped spearhead the Clinton administration’s efforts to coordinate and promote all domestic and foreign policy. He was a key member of the Clinton/Gore 1996 reelection team. From 1987 through 1994, Baer worked at U.S. News & World Report in Washington, first as a reporter covering the U.S. Justice Department and then as a national political reporter/writer, covering presidential politics and the White House. In 1990, Baer was named an Assistant Managing Editor in charge of several national and international sections of the magazine. Baer began his career as an attorney working in the New York City-based law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, where he specialized in media litigation for clients that included Dow Jones & Company and the New York Daily News. Baer earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and a M.A. in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Baer serves on various boards of directors, including the non-profit boards of City Year DC and The Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.

Robin Chan- Senior Advisor
Robin Chan is currently co-founder and CEO of XPD Media Inc. He was most recently the Director of VCAST at Verizon Communications, where he was responsible for multiplatform media strategy. He led business development partnerships for video, social networks, gaming, and virtual worlds. Prior to Verizon, he was Director of Strategic Distribution at HandsOn Mobile, a global mobile content publisher. Early in his career at Zagat Survey, he launched the award winning Zagat To Go, one of the first mobile internet sites in the world. He began his career in the Corporate Strategy group at Time Warner. Robin earned his B.A. in economics from Columbia University.

David Katz- Senior Advisor
Head of Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Studios, Yahoo! Media Group: David Katz serves as head of Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Studios for the company’s Santa Monica-based media group. In this role, David drives the overall strategic direction for one of the Web’s leading sports sites, and also leads Yahoo! Studios, a new division that develops and produces original, user-generated and event-driven video content for all of Yahoo! Media Group’s properties. David joined Yahoo! in 2005 and reports to Yahoo! Media Group head, Lloyd Braun. Prior to Yahoo!, Katz served as Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning and Interactive Ventures, CBS Television, reporting to Leslie Moonves, Co-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, Viacom and Chairman, CBS and Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group. While at CBS, Katz was responsible for analyzing business trends and helping the Network divisions think through the evolving television landscape. In his Interactive capacity, he managed the CBS.com and UPN.com websites, video streaming subscription services, interactive television, wireless and other interactive initiatives. While in this role, he oversaw several groundbreaking online original programs, including: HOUSE CALLS: THE BIG BROTHER TALK SHOW, the first daily online television talk show, and SURVIVOR LIVE: THE INTERNET TALK SHOW. Under Katz’s direction, CBS.com became the most visited website among the broadcast networks, increasing traffic to more than one billion page views annually. In May 2004, CBS.com garnered more than 12 million unique visitors alone. Katz joined CBS’s New York office in 1997 as Director, Strategic Management, CBS Corporation. He relocated to Los Angeles in 1998 and was named Vice President, Strategic Networking Planning in 1999. He was promoted to SVP in 2001. Prior to CBS, Katz was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York (1995-97), serving a variety of Fortune 100 companies on business strategy. Katz earned a bachelor of science in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Dean’s “Most Outstanding Student Award,” finishing first in his class. He received a master’s degree in management from Cambridge University in England. In 2001, Katz was named to the Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Generation” list. He is also an Emmy Award-nominee in the category of interactive television for his work on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Star Search.”

Peter Leyden- Senior Advisor

Peter is a Senior Advisor, in part responsible for leading and managing Platform’s relationships with our extensive network of advisors and managers. He comes from Global Business Network, a futures research and strategic consulting firm which pioneered the use of diverse networks of high capacity individuals. He worked for years at the center of GBN’s network of more than 100 technologists, scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, business strategists, and artists. Peter previously worked as the managing editor at the original Wired magazine that helped drive the digital revolution and pioneered the early online new media. Peter has worked as a journalist in several newspapers and as a special correspondent in Asia for Newsweek magazine. He is the coauthor of two books, What’s Next? and The Long Boom, and has written for many publications, including The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Peter has two master’s degrees from Columbia University, and a BA from Georgetown University.

Adam Ware- Senior Advisor

Adam is a Senior Advisor, providing comprehensive analysis and identification of potential investment opportunities. He has extensive experience in all areas of the media business and has been a founding executive at Viacom’s UPN, Barry Diller’s Interactive Corp and Newscorp’s FOX television network. In addition, Adam has provided high level consulting services to America Online, Comcast, Liberty Media and NBA Latin America.

He is married with two children and currently serves on the board of Center for Premature Infant Health and Development at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Andy Rappaport – Special Limited Partner

Andy is a Special Limited Partner of Platform Equity. Andy has been a General Partner at August Capital since 1996 investing in such areas as open-source software, broadband communications, semiconductors, and computer systems. He has more than 15 years of experience as a founder, investor, and/or director of venture-backed start-ups, and has served on more than 30 public and private company boards. Prior to joining August Capital, Andy was involved in the formation and success of more than a dozen venture capital-backed start-ups, including Actel, MMC Networks, Silicon Architects (acquired by Synopsys), Transmeta, and Viewlogic. Andy attended Princeton University and holds a U.S. patent

Andy is a Special Limited Partner of Platform Equity. Andy has been a General Partner at August Capital since 1996 investing in such areas as open-source software, broadband communications, semiconductors, and computer systems. He has more than 15 years of experience as a founder, investor, and/or director of venture-backed start-ups, and has served on more than 30 public and private company boards. Prior to joining August Capital, Andy was involved in the formation and success of more than a dozen venture capital-backed start-ups, including Actel, MMC Networks, Silicon Architects (acquired by Synopsys), Transmeta, and Viewlogic. Andy attended Princeton University and holds a U.S. patent.