Chris Lynch is Chairman of the Board at Azuki and a partner at Atlas Venture. He focuses on big data and disruptive infrastructure. Chris is also an advisor to many Boston area startups and is a mentor to many of the region’s entrepreneurs.He is the founder of hack/reduce, a newly formed non-profit community space in Cambridge focused on big data technology, for which he also serves on the board. Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Chris successfully drove growth and led several companies to exit, generating billions of dollars in proceeds. Most recently, Chris was president and chief executive officer of Vertica Systems, where he led the company from late stage startup to the top ranked big data company globally. Chris joined Vertica out of Atlas’ entrepreneur-in-residence program. HP acquired Vertica in March 2011, and following the acquisition Chris served as senior vice president and general manager of HP’s Database Business Unit. Previously, Chris was president and chief executive officer of Acopia Networks, which was acquired by F5 Networks. At F5 Networks, Chris served as senior vice president of data solutions where he was responsible for building the company’s vision in the data management space. Prior to F5 and Acopia, Chris led global sales and marketing for Arrowpoint Communications through its $5.7 billion acquisition by Cisco. Chris then joined Cisco as vice president of sales and marketing for its content management business. Chris’ track record of success continues back through Lucent, which acquired Prominet; Bay Networks, which acquired Wellfleet Communications; and Digital. In each of Prominet, Bay Networks, Wellfleet Communications, and Digital, Chris served in sales leadership positions. Chris received an MBA from the McCallum Graduate School of Business at Bentley University, and a BS in business administration from Suffolk University. He received an honorary doctor of commercial science from Bentley University. When he’s not working to establish Boston as the technical hub for big data, Chris supports St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to pediatric cancer research.