Rob Stavis, a partner in Bessemer’s New York office, joined the firm in 2000. He focuses on investments in the financial-services sector and in emerging software technologies. At Bessemer, Stavis has led the firm’s investments in, and sits on the boards of, the independent research companies Gerson Lehrman Group and Soleil Securities; online-lending marketplace Zopa; online creative-messaging service Smilebox; online-education website Knewton; wealth-management company United Capital Financial Advisers; market-data company ACTIV Financial Systems; consumer-Internet site Hunch; credit-ratings agency Kroll Bond Ratings; online wealth-management service Betterment; and Quadriserv, the stock-loan focused broker/dealer financial-services company. He also led Bessemer’s investment in leads-generator Yodle and was involved in Motilal Oswal Financial Services, an India-based financial-services and brokerage company, which has since gone public on India’s Bombay and National Stock Exchanges as MOSL. His exited investments include website security-rating firm SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee); home network management software provider Pure Networks (acquired by Cisco); pre-paid debit-card provider PRE Solutions (acquired by Incomm); financial-services analytics company LifeHarbor (acquired by Vestmark); CRM-software developer Portrait Software (LSE-AIM: PST); and Skype (acquired by eBay in 2005), where Stavis led the A round. Prior to joining Bessemer, Rob was an independent private-equity investor. He led the A round and served on the board of Arbinet (NASDAQ:ARBX), the world’s leading electronic market for trading routing and settling communications capacity. He also managed a portfolio of interests in a number of industries, including telecommunications, software, technology, and restaurants. Stavis entered private equity after a 15-year career at Salomon Smith Barney, where he was co-head of global arbitrage trading. He was a member of Salomon’s operating and risk-management committees and chaired the recruiting committee, in addition to managing a $100 billion balance sheet. Rob holds degrees including a B.A.S. from the engineering school of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S.E. from the Wharton School of Management. Stavis is on the Board of Overseers for Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He has published articles on derivatives pricing and risk management for financial-services companies. Stavis’s charitable work includes serving as president of the board of WJCS, Westchester County, New York’s oldest and most comprehensive social-service agency, and formerly as a director of The Kingswood-Oxford School and the Larchmont Temple.