Ron Bernal

Ron has a long career of starting, operating and financing high growth technology based companies.  Ron joined NEA in 2010 as a Venture Partner focused on information technology and energy technology investments.  He is also a director of Data Robotics and ProStor.  Prior to joining NEA, Ron was a Partner at Sequel Venture Partners where he focused on cleantech, enterprise infrastructure and enterprise software investments, and earlier was a partner at Sutter Hill Ventures, where he led the firm's investments in Data Domain (acquired by EMC), LifeSize (acquired by Logitech), Indicative Software (acquired by Nimsoft) and Redseal.

Ron worked for Cisco Systems as Vice President of Operations for the Product Technology Groups and the Service Provider Line of Business. He joined Cisco following the acquisition of Growth Networks in 2000, a fabless Internet switching fabric semiconductor company he co-founded and served as President and CEO.  Earlier in his career, Ron spent more than seven years with Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) in roles of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice president and General Manager of the $1 billion-plus server division and President of the MIPS group, the microprocessor subsidiary of SGI. He was also Vice President of Engineering and COO of Edge Computer, a computer company he co-founded in 1983.

A strong advocate of alternative energy technologies, Ron is a founding member and chairman of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association and serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Cleantech Open. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from DeVry Institute of Technology.