I am a technology company CEO and turn-around specialist, having helped grow four technology companies (two applied computer technology, one enterprise software, and a personal care/over-the-counter drugs business). Here’s my professional bio:

Mr. Beldock, an experienced turn-around entrepreneur and R&D executive, joined the ShotSpotter team in early 2003, when he was introduced by the Company’s lead investor. the company’s customer base has grown by a factor of six and annual sales have grown ten-fold. ShotSpotter is his third venture-funded or private equity-backed company, and he has raised in excess of $50m for companies he has led. Previously, he acted as chairman and CTO of WebPutty, an enterprise software company subsequently acquired by Charles River, of which he had previously served as the Company’s president and CEO. Prior to joining WebPutty, Mr. Beldock was Entrepreneur in Residence at SAC Capital where he performed turn-around and portfolio operations work at other portfolio companies. Previously, as president and CEO of Cogito Software, a company he founded in 1994, Mr. Beldock delivered software and managed technology projects for well-known institutions including Princeton University and Strang Cancer Prevention Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. He has also served as vice president for R&D and CTO at Primavera Laboratories, where he was responsible for product development of over-the-counter drugs and other regulated products generating retail revenues in excess of $300m. He holds patents in the fields of computer memory hardware, Internet business methods and information security and has published peer review articles in fields ranging from medical informatics to user interface design. He is a cum laude graduate of Yale University and has studied Computer Science at Columbia University. In 2001, Mr. Beldock was recognized as one of the country’s leading executives under the age of 45 when he was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. He is active philanthropically and a member of Business Executives for National Security (BENS).

And now for the fun stuff:

I am a born and bred New Yorker. I grew up on the Upper East Side (here), attending grade school and high school in the city, and then returned after college. Although I now live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m still a New Yorker. (It doesn’t take but a few minutes before people I meet out Left say “you’re not from around here, are you?”).

I’m an avid reader and bibliophile. In fact, it has become something of an obsession. At last count I have 11 bookcases in my 950 square-foot apartment, and they’re all full. Sometimes they keep me up late at night; sometimes they keep me in good stead during a cocktail party conversation in which I otherwise would have to plead ignorance; but mostly they just keep me good company.

I’m also a food lover and something of an oenophile, although I know a lot less about wine than I’d like to. But I do know about food! Moving to the West Coast in 2001 presented something of a challenge: sure, there’s plenty of good food out here, but why are there no good bagels?? What we lack in New York foodstuffs, though, we more than make up for in proximity to all that wonderful wine. So, all-in-all, I think it’s a wash.

Early in my career I taught High School in New Haven, and it had a profound impact on my life. I couldn’t be a stronger supporter, funder and supporter of education: I firmly believe that education makes the man. So what should you know about my education? I am supremely lucky to have had an education I thoroughly loved, and perhaps even more lucky to live in a society, in a time and in a career in which continuing to learn can be a daily reality. I attended one of New York City’s smaller private grade schools, St. Bernard’s School, which gave a very young boy a taste of “old world” education (French in Fifth Grade, Latin in Sixth, jackets and collared shirts every day, etc.). Then I attended Trinity School, on New York’s Upper West Side, for high school, which was hands down the best and most important educational experience of my life. This is a superb school, and it gets as much financial support as I can afford to give it. No other educational experience had such a profound and lasting impact on my life. I went on to study Latin and Greek (Classical Civilization) at Yale University, where I sang in an a cappella singing group called Out of the Blue and designed lighting or scenery for some forty undergraduate theater productions, many of them for the Yale Dramat and one or two at the Yale Rep.

Finally, I’m a strong supporter of the Aspen Institute, through which I’ve met many friends, some of whom have become colleagues. Aspen does many things (it is perhaps best known for its policy programs which attract world leaders, academics, politicians, Nobel Laureates and other luminaries), but I’ve been lucky enough to be a Henry Crown Fellow of the Institute since 2001 and also a regular attendee and seminar participant at the Aspen Institute Socrates Society, on whose Steering and Scholarship Committees I am lucky enough to serve. I’m also a newish member of Business Executives for National Security. Most recently, I’ve become involved with the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco and its Business Leadership Council.