# Jerry Kennelly

> Jerry M. Kennelly co-founded Riverbed Technology in 2002 and spent 16 years building it from a two-person startup into a billion-dollar enterprise serving 30,000 customers across every Forbes Global 100 company. A finance executive turned visionary operator, Kennelly combined rigorous business discipline with Silicon Valley boldness - taking Riverbed public on NASDAQ in 2006, engineering nine acquisitions, and watching its market cap peak near $6 billion in 2011. After retiring from Riverbed in April 2018, he became Chairman and CEO of Scandic Capital LLC and joined the board of cybersecurity firm Tenable.

- **Role:** Chairman and CEO at Scandic Capital LLC; Board Member at Tenable
- **Organizations:** Scandic Capital LLC, Tenable, Riverbed Technology, Dominican University of California
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor's degree, Williams College, Master's degree (MBA), NYU Leonard N. Stern School of Business
- **Known for:** Co-founded Riverbed Technology in 2002 and grew it from $2M to over $1B in annual revenue, Served every Forbes Global 100 company as customers under his leadership, Led Riverbed's IPO on NASDAQ in September 2006 - described as 'a smashing success'

## Career timeline

- **1975** — Arrived in Silicon Valley
- **1980-1988** — Hewlett-Packard Company - Worldwide Sales and Marketing Controller, Tandem Computers Division
- **1988-1990** — Oracle Corporation - Finance Director, US Operations
- **1990-1996** — Sybase, Inc. - VP Corporate Finance (and multiple senior financial/operational roles)
- **1996-2002** — Inktomi Corporation - Executive VP, CFO, and Secretary
- **2002** — Co-founded Riverbed Technology (originally 'NBT - Next Big Thing') with Steve McCanne
- **2004** — Riverbed shipped its first product, SteelHead, to Environment Canada in April
- **2004** — Revenue grew from $2M; wide-area data services products launched
- **2006** — Led Riverbed's successful IPO on NASDAQ (September 21, 2006)
- **2006** — Revenue reached $90M
- **2010** — Advisor at Pelion Venture Partners
- **2011** — Riverbed's market cap peaked at just under $6 billion
- **2013-2017** — Board member of Nimble Storage, Inc. (acquired by HPE in 2017)
- **2014** — Named Glassdoor's #14 highest-rated CEO overall, #7 among tech CEOs (93% approval rating)
- **2018** — Retired from Riverbed in April 2018 after 16 years; succeeded by Paul Mountford
- **2018** — Founded Scandic Capital LLC as Chairman and CEO (April 2018)
- **2018** — Joined Tenable Board of Directors (May 2018)

## Achievements

- Co-founded Riverbed Technology in 2002 and grew it from $2M to over $1B in annual revenue
- Served every Forbes Global 100 company as customers under his leadership
- Led Riverbed's IPO on NASDAQ in September 2006 - described as 'a smashing success'
- Riverbed's market cap reached nearly $6 billion at peak (2011)
- Orchestrated nine strategic acquisitions including Mazu Networks, OPNET, and Aternity
- Riverbed SteelHead became world's #1 solution for WAN application optimization
- Glassdoor Highest Rated CEO 2014: #14 overall, #7 among technology CEOs with 93% approval
- Riverbed named top 20 Best Places to Work (Glassdoor) two years in a row
- Built Riverbed to serve 30,000 enterprise customers worldwide
- Captured over 40% market share in WAN optimization
- Board member at Tenable (cybersecurity) after Riverbed
- Trustee at Dominican University of California

## Latest updates

- **2018-05** — Joined Tenable's Board of Directors following retirement from Riverbed
- **2018-04** — Retired as co-founder and CEO of Riverbed Technology; succeeded by Paul Mountford
- **2018-04** — Founded Scandic Capital LLC as Chairman and CEO, investing in technology companies and commercial real estate

## Links

- Website: https://riverbed.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jerry-kennelly-85a4bb

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jerry-kennelly
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-16