Rob Genieser joined Vertex in 2002 as Managing Partner. Prior to joining Vertex, Mr. Genieser was a Managing Director of Hambrecht & Quist, which he joined in 1996 in their San Francisco office. While in Silicon Valley, he managed the Firm's wireless, optical and communications software practices. In this capacity, he sponsored the Firm's investments into Chromatis (acquired by Lucent), Paragon Software (acquired by Openwave) and Wavtrace (acquired by Harris). Additionally, Rob executed the IPOs of Portal Software, ONI systems, Corvis, Openwave and INET, amongst others. In the M&A field, Rob assisted VisionTech on its sale to Broadcom, I-compression on its sale to Globespan, Herrmann Technology on its sale to Lucent, Terayon on its acquisition of Telegate and MoreCom on its sale to Liberate. Shortly after Hambrecht & Quist's merger with JP Morgan at the end of 2000, Mr. Genieser moved to London to run the company's emerging technology practice for Europe and Israel. Earlier in his career, Mr. Genieser worked as a consultant for Bain & Company in San Francisco, where he focused on the telecommunications industry. Prior to receiving his MBA, he worked for Morgan Stanley in both New York and Hong Kong as a member of the corporate restructuring group. Mr. Genieser received both his AB (cum Laude) and MBA from Harvard University.