User:Jayphinn/sandbox

Jonathan P. Spira (born 1961 in Munich, Germany) is a finance and operations executive based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Specializing in high growth technology and internet companies, Mr. Spira served as chief financial officer at blinkx plc (LON: BLNX), Kapow Technologies, Packethop, Atrenta, ePeople, and Autonomy plc (LON:AU).

Jonathan P. Spira is unrelated to Jonathan Spira (born the same year) who is a researcher and industry analyst focused on collaboration, knowledge sharing and the problem of information overload and based in New York City.

Education
Spira received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics From Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and earned his MBA from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. While at Cornell, he co-founded the Cornell Community Volunteers Association (subsequently renamed the Johnson School Volunteers), which quickly grew to be the largest student organization at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Spira received Cornell University's presigious Robinson-Appel Humanitarian award in 1991.

Career
Following his graduation from Kenyon College, Mr. Spira started his finance career in the Merger & Acquisitions consultancy practice at Peat Marwick in Los Angeles and then served as a Credit Analysis Officer at City National Bank before returning to graduate school at Cornell University. He held senior finance and planning positions at Nestlé Food Company, California Pizza Kitchen (a division of PepsiCo at the time) and the interactive division of the Walt Disney Company where he served in finance and operations roles.

In 1997, Spira joined Autonomy Corporation (LON: AU) in its early stage as a private company and led its EASDAQ IPO in 1998. He has since served as Chief Financial officer of ePeople (an early entrant in web-based CRM solutions), Atrenta (developer of Electronic Design Automation applications), Packethop (a wireless networking company acquired by SRI in 2007), Kapow Technologies (a Web 2.0 mash-up application developer) and blinkx.com (LON:BLNX) which started as an Internet search engine for video and audio content and has developed into a diversified internet video monetization company.