Craig Walker (businessman)

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Craig Walker is the CEO of Firespotter Labs, the company behind UberConference and NoshList, and was the first entrepreneur in residence at Google Ventures.[1] Walker had been the Group Product Manager for Real-Time Communications at Google, where he oversaw all of Google’s voice communications products, including Google Voice, Google Talk, and Google Talk Video.[2] He is also a technology entrepreneur and investor.[3]

Career

Walker has been involved in early stage technology companies for many years, in a variety of capacities. He started working in the Silicon Valley as a corporate and securities attorney, representing technology companies, venture capitalists, and investment banks at Gunderson, Dettmer et al. and at Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison. He was also a venture capital investor at both Sterling Payot and TeleSoft Partners, focusing on Internet and telecommunications investments.

In 1999, Walker became a founding investor in Dialpad Communications, one of the earliest companies to offer a VoIP soft client, and later joined as the company’s CEO in 2001. Yahoo! acquired Dialpad Communications in June 2005, and as part of the acquisition, Walker joined Yahoo! to become their Senior Director of VoIP.[4]

Walker left Yahoo! later in 2005 to start GrandCentral Communications with his business partner, Vincent Paquet. Walker served as the company’s CEO and Chairman until Google acquired it in July 2007.[5] GrandCentral re-launched as Google Voice in 2009.[6]

Education

Walker received his BA from UC Berkeley in 1988, and subsequently earned an MBA from Georgetown University[7] and a JD from Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley.

Philanthropic work

As CEO of GrandCentral, Walker started Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody) in 2006, with a goal of giving a local telephone number and voicemail account to every homeless person in the US. In 2008, Walker announced a pilot deployment of Project CARE in San Francisco with the Office of the Mayor of San Francisco.[8]

Walker is also very involved with the plight of Russian orphans and serves on the Board of Advisors to Ascent Russian Orphan Aid Foundation.

References

  1. ↑ "TechCrunch, Google Voice Founder Resigns, Joins Google Ventures as EIR". 
  2. ↑ "eComm 2010: Emerging Communications Conference: Craig Walker". 
  3. ↑ "ZDNET, GrandCentral founder: How to get over an App Store Rejection". 
  4. ↑ "GigaOm - Yahoo buys Dial Pad". 
  5. ↑ "Google Blog: All aboard". 
  6. ↑ "Google Blog: Here comes Google Voice". 
  7. ↑ "McDoonough School of Business: Alumni Entrepreneurs Turn Big Dreams Into Big Business". 
  8. ↑ "Google Blog: Project CARE in San Francisco". 

External links

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