“We’re excited and proud to have a board of this caliber,” said Taylor Rhodes, CEO of Rackspace. “Each member brings a wealth of experience that will help Rackspace seize the huge opportunity in front of us as the leading provider of expertise and managed services across the multiple clouds that companies are using today.”
In November 2016, an investor group led by funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management acquired Rackspace and initiated plans to establish a new board of directors. Following are brief profiles on the current Rackspace board members, including its newest members, Jeff Benjamin, Tim Campos, Dhiren Fonseca and Mitch Garber:
Jeffrey D. Benjamin brings 25 years of investment banking, investment management and board experience to the Rackspace board. He has been a senior advisor to Cyrus Capital Partners since June 2008 and also serves as a consultant to Apollo Management. Jeff serves on the boards of American Airlines Group, Inc., and Chemtura Corporation. He is also chairman of the board of A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. He holds a Masters of Science in Management from the Sloan School of Management at MIT, and a B.A. from Tufts University.
Tim Campos was one of the early executives at Facebook and served until last year as CIO. During his tenure at Facebook, he was responsible for helping to double employee productivity while also supporting over 20x growth in Facebook’s business. Today, Facebook’s staff of more than 18,000 serves over 1.8 billion monthly users — about a quarter of the world's population. Tim recently started a new venture – Pulsra – where he is applying his two decades of experience in enterprise software, big data and machine learning to workforce productivity. Tim sits on the board of directors for Viavi (NASDAQ:VIAV) as well as at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. One of Tim’s personal passions is closing the opportunity divide. Tim has been a long advocate and board member for YearUp, a Bay Area nonprofit that serves urban youth.
Dhiren Fonseca is a partner with Certares LP. Most recently he served as chief commercial officer for Expedia, Inc. from 2012 through April 2014, and prior to that role, served as Expedia’s co-president, Partner Services Group from 2009 through 2012. Previously he served as senior vice president, corporate development and strategy from 2005, and prior to this held several roles responsible for development of external facing relationships and business development at Expedia, Inc. Prior to Expedia, Dhiren was a longtime Microsoft Corporation employee, and a member of the management team responsible for creating Expedia.com in 1995, while still part of the Microsoft Corporation. Dhiren currently serves on the boards of directors for Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE: ALK), and RentPath, LLC.
Mitch Garber is the CEO of Caesars Acquisition Co., which controls the World Series of Poker, and several casinos in Las Vegas, New Orleans and Baltimore. In 2016, Mitch engineered the sale of Playtika, an Israel-based mobile game developer, to a Chinese consortium including Alibaba founder Jack Ma, for $4.4 billion in cash, a 44x return since he acquired it in 2011. In 2015, he became an investor in, and chairman of, the world-famous Cirque du Soleil. This Canadian businessman began his career as a lawyer and sportscaster, and has successfully run public companies on the Toronto, Nasdaq and London stock exchanges. Mitch and his wife Anne-Marie are active philanthropists, with their giving focused on education, health care and clean water.
Darren Glatt is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners. Previously, he served as partner at Apollo Global Management where he focused on equity and credit investing in a range of industries that included technology, media and telecommunications. He has deep experience in financing, analysing, investing in and advising public and private companies. Darren sits on the board of Ocean Outdoor, an out-of-home media company, and is chairman of the board for 160over90, a branding agency. He graduated summa cum laude from George Washington University and holds an M.B.A from the Harvard Business School.
Taylor Rhodes is CEO of Rackspace, having previously held positions as president, senior vice president and chief customer officer. He also served as senior vice president and managing director of Rackspace's international operations, where he was responsible for developing strategic priorities and creating business growth in Europe, Asia and Australia. Before joining Rackspace, Taylor held a range of progressively more challenging leadership roles at EDS. He is a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer and received an M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
David Sambur is a senior partner at Apollo Global Management having joined in 2004. Prior to that time, David was a member of the Investment Banking division of Salomon Smith Barney, Inc. David also serves on the board of directors of AGS Capital, LLC (parent of American Gaming Systems), Caesars Acquisition Company, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Coinstar, LLC, Diamond Resorts International, Inc., EcoATM, LLC, and Redbox Automated Retail, LLC. David is also a member of the Mount Sinai Department of Medicine Advisory Board. David graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University with a B.A. in Economics.
Aaron Sobel is a principal at Apollo Global Management having joined in 2011. Prior to that time, Aaron was a member of the Investment Banking group at Goldman Sachs & Co. Aaron also serves on the board of directors of Endemol Shine Group. He graduated with Highest Honors from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan with a B.B.A. and concentrations in finance and accounting.
