Discover our board’s members biographies
Yves Weisselberger
Yves founded and managed KDS from its inception. During the first phase of growth, KDS focused primarily on designing and developing its break through technology. In the following years, Yves further defined KDS’s strategic business development and product offering, and positioned the company as a leading global provider of business travel management solutions.
Yves held the position of CEO until 2011, when he passed the title to Dean Forbes. Yves remains actively involved with KDS as Executive Chairman, advising the company on industry developments and assessing target organisations for acquisition or partnership.
Before founding KDS, Yves was co-founder and sales manager of Klee Group, a consultancy specialising in systems integration and strategic e-Business applications for large corporations.Yves started his career as an engineer at Bull, a server and software vendor, where he held various executive positions. He was responsible for an operating systems development team and participated in various OS development projects.
Yves graduated as an IT and Telecommunications engineer from Ecole Polytechnique in 1979 and from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in 1984, two of the top French post-graduate engineering schools.
Barry Fidelman
Barry Fidelman is a Venture Partner in the technology group. He joined Atlas Venture in 1988 after working in executive positions for three venture-backed start-up companies (Data General, Apollo Computer, and Alliant Computer) that completed successful IPOs.
Barry served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Services at Apollo Computer (growing revenue from $3 million to $300 million in 4
years) and subsequently as President of the International Division of Alliant Computer. He started his career at Fairchild Semiconductor in Silicon Valley and afterwards joined Data General as its first Sales Engineer. He spent six years in Paris for Data General, where he was responsible for managing European operations from inception to $100 million in revenues and 1,000 employees before returning to the U.S. as General Manager of the Data General Information Systems Division.
Barry sat on the Boards of Isilon Systems, which completed an IPO in 2006 and was acquired by EMC in 2010; Icera, which was acquired by NVIDIA in 2011; and Arbor Networks, which was acquired by Techtronix in 2010. He was a founding investor in GeoTel, which completed an IPO in 1991 and was later acquired by Cisco in 1999; Revit, which was acquired by Autodesk in 2002; Vermeer, which was acquired by Microsoft in 1996; and PCs Compleat, which was acquired by COMPUSA in 1996. Barry has also served on the Boards of Castle Networks, acquired by Siemens in 1999; Omnia Communications, acquired by Ciena Corp. in 1999; FutureTense, acquired by OpenMarket in 1999; and Chipcom Europe, which completed an IPO in 1991 and was sold to 3COM in 1995.
Barry currently sits on the Boards of Atlas companies KDS, Lilliputian Systems, Ubiquisys and CLK Design Automation.
Barry has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSEE from MIT.
Harry Nelis
Harry joined Accel in 2004 and invests in both early and late-stage internet and software companies. He led Accel’s investments in, among others, Check24, an online price comparison service for consumer financial products in Germany; Gameforge, a developer and publisher of MMOGs; Kayak, an online search service for consumer travel; and Showroomprive, an online private sales club.
Before joining Accel, Harry was at Perry Capital, a $10bn hedge fund, where he invested in public communications, media and technology companies. Prior to this, he was at Goldman Sachs, where he advised businesses on corporate finance and M&A transactions.
Harry spent the first decade of his career in Silicon Valley, where he founded E-motion, a venture-backed software company. He started his career at Hewlett-Packard, where he held various engineering positions.
He is an active member of the World Economic Forum and serves on the Selection Committee of the WEF Technology Pioneers Programme.
Harry holds an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School and a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
Alex Ott
Alex Ott founded CrossContinentalVentures in 2002. He is a veteran in the enterprise software industry with operational and board level experience on four continents.
He has been partnering with many entrepreneurs in the US, Europe and Israel in building thought leading technology enterprises that seek to make a difference such as QlikTech whom he was an investor and is a current board member.
Before founding CrossContinentalVentures, Alex was a member of the Executive Committee of Siebel Systems, where he was responsible for building a major presence in EMEA as VP and General Manager, growing revenues, customer and employee base tenfold in just two years. He then ran the Americas geography, Siebel’s largest market with revenue responsibilities of over $1B.
Prior to Siebel Systems, Alex played key executive roles within SAP AG (member of the extended global board) and SAP America (Executive Committee member) for almost a decade. Latterly, he held the position of CEO SAP International and Senior VP of Latin America, dramatically growing revenue and profitability through a sustained increase in SAP's Latin American infrastructure and the establishment of new subsidiaries.
Alex holds a degree in Economics and Business Management from University BA of Mannheim, Germany.
Thibaud Viala
Born in 1960, Thibaud Viala is currently co-director of Klee Group, a French software publisher, integrator and consultant founded in 1987. Klee Group serves an international customer base in over thirty countries from its offices in Europe and the United States.
Thibaud studied at the French engineering schools “Ecole Polytechnique” and “ENST” (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications).
After working for the government as an engineer, he co-founded the Klee Group in 1987 and has devoted his career to its development ever since..
Thibaud Viala’s role is split between his upper management function with the Klee Group, direct management of Klee Consulting and Klee Integration, and his role as a board member of KDS (Klee Data System.)
