Kumar Malavalli is a co-founder, executive chairman and the lead investor in Glassbeam. He is a successful serial entrepreneur who did pioneering work at Brocade Communications as it’s co-founder. and CTO.
He is the co-author and driving force behind Fibre Channel, an evolutionary and disruptive technology that enabled the development of a multi-billion dollar industry based on storage area networks (SAN’s). Kumar holds several patents in Fibre Channel technology
After retiring from Brocade, Kumar became a private investor and philanthropist. He co-founded and invested in InMage Systems, a cloud infrastructure software company. Serving as InMage CEO and Chairman, Kumar drove the company’s acquisition by Microsoft which is now a major business unit there. Kumar has invested in more than two dozen technology companies, the major portfolios being C3DNA, Formation Data Systems, The Hive, The Fabric , PubNub, PowWow, Punch, Aparna Systems, Virtual Power Systems, TeleVital and NanoHorizons.
Kumar’s philanthropic work cover U.S. and India. He established the first Endowed Chair in Storage Systems Research at University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) and he pioneered the Data Science Initiative at UCSC. He serves on the Foundation Board of UCSC and Education Foundation Board of Trustees of California State University, East Bay, where he is involved in the promotion of STEM education. Kumar is the trustee of Indus Scholastic Management Services, which he co-founded to establish Indus International Schools in India based on IB curriculum of Switzerland.
In 2003, Kumar was inducted into Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame. In 2013, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science at California State University, East Bay. Kumar is a past board member and remains a charter member of TiE Silicon Valley, an organization which fosters and promotes entrepreneurship. In 2009 Kumar took the position of Development Chair and Director of the San Francisco/Bangalore Sister City Initiative, and joined the Board of Directors of the Asian Art Museum in 2012.
Kumar has degrees in electrical engineering and physics from the National Institute of Engineering in Mysore, India. Kumar and his wife Vijaya in Los Altos Hills, California.