Robert Bearden

• Entrepreneur-in-Residence
• Former President and COO of SpringSource

Biography

Rob Bearden has made significant contributions in the open source community both advising and running successful companies throughout the years. Until its recent acquisition by VMware, Bearden was President and Chief Operating Officer of SpringSource. He was also COO for OpenSpan, a desktop integration software provider. Previously Bearden served as President and COO for JBoss, the world’s leading open source middleware company, where he helped architect and execute the company’s business model, managed its worldwide operations, and orchestrated its successful acquisition by Red Hat in 2006.

Bearden joined JBoss from i2 Technologies, a leading supply chain solutions company, where he served as President of the Americas, overseeing i2’s business in the United States, Canada, Latin America and Mexico. He was responsible for driving business development, sales performance and customer satisfaction for the Americas region, and spearheaded sales and consulting strategy around vertical markets. Prior to i2, Bearden served as senior vice president of worldwide sales for Manhattan Associates. He also spent six years at Oracle Corporation in various executive sales positions, including group vice president of Western Operations and area vice president of the Southeast. Bearden started his career at Data General and ERI. He holds a BS in Marketing from Jacksonville State University.