AOL’s Chamath Palihapitiya quits, joins Mayfield
Not even 30, yet has a mature head on his shoulders directing a va va vroom career. What could be the secret? It’s poker, reveals Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Vice President and General Manager of the Desktop Messaging group at AOL who is joining the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Mayfield Fund as Principal. “Have been playing poker for almost 10 years and it is something that I continue to want to become better at. At its core, poker demands comfort with risks and unknowns, calculations of odds and probabilities, trusting one’s instincts, making reasonable guesses and understanding human dynamics and emotions. These are all skills that have helped me in the business world,” reveals Palihapitiya. Mayfield Fund has more than $2 billion under management with focus on communication, consumer and enterprise software arenas. Founded in 1969 Mayfield has raised 11 funds, made nearly 425 investments and taken more than 150 companies public.

<>iBivio Networks welcomes Harbrinder S. Kang as VP of business development
Bivio Networks, a U.S. venture funded firm announced the appointment of Harbrinder S. Kang as Vice President of business development. Kang joins Bivio Networks with more than 20 years of technology experience in networking, telecommunications and security at a wide spectrum of companies that include Cisco, Network Appliance and a number of Silicon Valley startups. Goldman Sachs, InterWest Partners, Storm Ventures and Venrock Associates have backed Bivio Networks. With the software-driven network market expected to exceed $10 billion by 2007 and increasing demands for intelligent deep-packet processing of multi-gigabit network traffic, Bivio Networks has a lot to look forward to with revenues having tripled in the past year.

Sunil Manglore promoted as CEO, Datacraft India Limited
Sunil Manglore, now promoted to Chief Executive Officer, of the 550 strong Datacraft India Limited, an IT solutions and services company was previously the General Manager of Western India in the company. Datacraft is a recognized player in the systems integration and solutions space. Manglore has over 16 years of experience in the telecom and hardware industry. Datacraft, a member of the Dimension Data Group, had a turnover of $362.3 million for the financial year 2004-05. It is listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange, and is a component company of the Straits Times Index. Headquartered in Singapore, Datacraft spans more than 50 major offices across 13 Asia Pacific markets.

Rakesh Chopra joins as Country Manager - Customer Care, Convergys
Convergys Corporation, a BPO company, has appointed Rakesh Chopra as Vice President and Country Manager for Convergys’ customer care operations in India. In this position, Chopra will be responsible for overseeing the operations of Convergys’ seven contact centers and approximately 8,400 customer care employees in India. Prior to joining Convergys, Chopra served as Country Manager for EXL Services in India. The Cincinnati, Ohio based Convergys with revenues of more than $2.5 billion in 2004 employs 66,000 people in their contact centers worldwide. Convergys serves clients in communications, financial services, technology, employee care and other industries.