Board Members

Eric has been involved in various capacities with SoftBank Capital’s investing activities since 1995, and joined SoftBank Capital in 2000 from SoftBank’s former subsidiary, Ziff-Davis. He has served as a media industry CEO, having spent over 25 years in senior management positions at large media companies. Eric joined Ziff-Davis in 1989, and he became Chairman and CEO in 1993. In 1995, SoftBank acquired Ziff-Davis, and Eric continued in the role of CEO until 2000, when the company was sold.

During his career at Ziff-Davis, Eric was early to recognize the trend toward on-line media. Under his stewardship, ZDNet became one of the few successful examples of a strong on-line business model evolving from traditional magazine content, and he was instrumental in SoftBank’s first investment in Yahoo! in 1995. Eric was also responsible for founding ZDTV, a cable channel dedicated to technology and the Internet, and an early success in integrating television and the Web. He also directed several successful magazines and marketing service launches in the technology and Internet field.

Eric was President of SoftBank International Ventures, where he established SoftBank’s international private equity funds and expanded them into Europe, Latin America and Asia. He was also SB Capital’s board representative for its direct investments in industry leading companies, such as Yahoo!, Geocities and CNET.

He is experience prior to joining Ziff-Davis includes senior executive positions at International Data Group.

Eric serves on the boards of several public and private companies, including Yahoo!, Danger, Odimo (diamond.com/ashford.com), Insider Pages, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, National Leisure Group, Perpetual Entertainment, and Beliefnet. He is also on the investment committee for the SB Asia Infrastructure Fund.

He graduated from the Lycee Francais de Londres and attended the Sorbonne University in Paris.

Are Traasdahl is founder and CEO of Thumbplay, an award-winning company that he and co-founder Evan Schwartz established in 2004 and have already grown into one of the top mobile entertainment services in the U.S. In recognition of the remarkable growth and accomplishments of the organization, he was named one of 2008's "Top Mobile Executives" by Billboard magazine, and was named "Best Emerging CEO" by the Executive Council of New York in 2007. Are has been on the leading edge of wireless communications throughout his career. In 2002, Are co-founded and led the launch of Telenor Interactive (nasdaq: teln), a U.S. Subsidiary of Telenor Group, the first company to launch cross-carrier premium messaging in the U.S. In 1999, Are helped establish Carrot Communications, a leading wireless company in Scandinavia and one of the first companies to sell wireless content directly to consumers. He has spearheaded wireless entertainment campaigns for such companies as NewsCorp, Disney, ABC, Univision, Telemundo and Fuse and with wireless carriers like Verizon, AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile.

Earlier in his career, Are worked as a journalist for one of the largest media concerns in northern Europe and as a strategy consultant for a leading global management consultancy based in the UK.

He is a graduate of the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH), Trondheim, Norway.

Ajay is a Managing Director at Bain Capital Ventures where he focuses on early stage software, wireless, and consumer internet investing. Ajay serves on the boards of aPriori, Memento Security, Kiva Systems, Skyhook Wireless, Inrix, Thumbplay, Rave Wireless, and vmLogix. Ajay also served on the board of mQube which was acquired by Verisign in May 2006. Before joining Bain Capital Ventures, Ajay spent over seven years as a senior executive at Trilogy Software, a privately-held enterprise software company based in Austin, Texas. As head of Sales and Marketing, Ajay grew Trilogy's annual revenues to $300 million and led Trilogy's product direction. Prior to Trilogy, Ajay was a consultant with the Los Angeles office of McKinsey & Company. Ajay holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.