Don Listwin, Board’s Director, Violin Memory

Violin Memory, Inc. announced that Donald J. Listwin has been elected to its board of directors, effective December 1, 2015.

“I’m delighted to welcome Don to the Violin board,” said Dr. Richard Nottenburg, COB. “His experience, insight and ownership will be instrumental to our decision making as we navigate the very large opportunity presented by the disruptive technology transition from data stored on disk to data stored in flash.”

Don Listwin currently serves as the CEO of the Canary Foundation, a non-profit organization focused on the early detection of cancer. He previously served as the CEO of Sana Security and of Openwave Systems. He also held the number two position of EVP of Cisco Systems from June 1997 to September 2000, a period in which their revenue grew from $6 billion to $19 billion. In addition to Violin Memory, he currently serves on the boards of directors of Calix, D-Wave Systems, Plumgrid, Teradici, and the Canary Foundation. He  also serves as a consulting professor of radiology at Stanford University.

“Transformation to an all flash data center is being adopted by the world’s largest companies, presenting a huge opportunity for Violin Memory to capture a multi-billion dollar business,” said Listwin. “Due to the company’s technology leadership, patents and history of innovation in flash storage, I have decided to personally invest both time and money to ensure its success in capitalizing on this opportunity.”

Listwin earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. An honorary Doctor of Laws degree was also conferred upon him by his alma mater in 2001.

Listwin beneficially owns 2,450,000 shares of the common stock of Violin Memory, representing approximately 2.5% of the issued and outstanding shares of the company. All of these shares were acquired through open market purchases made prior to his election to the Violin Memory board of directors.