Lane Bess

American venture capitalist (born 1961)

Lane Bess

Born|  (1961-09-18) September 18, 1961 (age 63)

Neptune City, New Jersey, U.S.

Alma mater| Carnegie Mellon University
Known for| Investing, Principal and Founder at Bess Ventures and Advisory
Spouse| Letty Bess
Children| Cameron Bess

Lane Bess (born September 18, 1961) is a venture capitalist known for his work in technology. He has served as principal and founder of family fund Bess Ventures and Advisory, LLC, a strategic management, investment and marketing services firm, since February 2015.[1][2]

## Early life and education

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Bess graduated from Ocean Township High School in 1979.[3]

In 1983, Bess received a Bachelor of Science degree in Managerial Economics from Carnegie Mellon University. Bess has served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University since June 2019.[4][5]

## Career

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Bess held senior sales and marketing positions at NCR Corporation.[6]

Bess also served as President of Trend Micro.[7][8] In 2008, he became president and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, where in 2010 he was preparing the company for an initial public offering.[9] From 2011 to 2015, Bess was the COO of Zscaler.[10][11][12]

Bess serves on the boards of several companies, including Deep Instinct,[13][14] eSentire, TrueFort, ZeroFOX, PLUM (SPAC).[8][15][16][17][18][19][20]

## Spaceflight

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On December 11, 2021, Bess flew into space aboard Blue Origin NS-19.[21] Bess, along with the other members of Blue Origins NS-19, were the final recipients of the FAA Commercial Space Astronaut Wings,[22] an aviator wings-like badge created by the Federal Aviation Administration to encourage and draw attention to commercial space flight.

On February 25, 2025, Bess returned to space on Blue Origin NS-30.[23]

## Personal life

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Bess is married to his wife Letty.[24] His son Cameron Bess accompanied him to space aboard Blue Origin NS-19, making them the first parent-child pair to fly to space together.[3] Cameron is a furry, identifies as pansexual, and streams on Twitch.[25][26]

## References

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1. ^ "Lane Bess and Cameron Bess Slated for Dec. 9 Blue Origin Flight". Market Realist. November 23, 2021.
2. ^ Rafter, Darcy (November 23, 2021). "Who is Lane Bess as passengers on Blue Origin's next flight are revealed?". The Focus.
3. ^ a b "Ocean Township H.S. alum Lane Bess heading to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin", Asbury Park Press, December 6, 2021. Accessed December 13, 2021. "Venture capitalist Lane Bess, a 1979 graduate of Ocean Township High School, will fly."
4. ^ "Bess, Dempo Join CMU Board of Trustees - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
5. ^ "$10 Million Gift Endows Carnegie Mellon Deanship - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
6. ^ Bess, Lane (March 2, 2012). "Lane Bess: What do you do when you don't know what to do?". Fast Company.
7. ^ "TrueFort Unveils Board of Advisors Featuring Top Executives from Cyber Security, Financial and Telco". Bloomberg.com. October 16, 2019.
8. ^ a b "Former Palo Alto Networks CEO Lane Bess Joins ZeroFox". ZeroFox.
9. ^ Berndtson, Chad (June 25, 2010). "Palo Alto Eyes IPO, Distribution As Growth Goes Viral". CRN.
10. ^ "Lane Bess - Chairman at Deep Instinct". THE ORG.
11. ^ "Term Sheet — Wednesday, August 20". Fortune.
12. ^ "Deep Instinct appoints Lane Bess as CEO alongside Guy Caspi remaining as Board Chair and CPO".
13. ^ "AI Is Transforming Cybersecurity". www.wsj.com.
14. ^ "Deep Instinct Snags Former Palo Alto, Zscaler Exec as CEO". www.bankinfosecurity.com.
15. ^ "Lane Bess". Sepio. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
16. ^ "PLMIU Company Profile & Executives - Plum Acquisition Corp. I - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com.
17. ^ Caparroso, José (March 10, 2021). "Lumu recibe US$7.5 millones en ronda con SoftBank para su modelo de ciberseguridad". Forbes Colombia.
18. ^ "Cybersecurity Veteran Marios Damianides Joins TrueFort Advisory Board • TrueFort". Retrieved June 27, 2023.
19. ^ "Two Tech Industry Titans Join Salient Systems Board of Directors". finance.yahoo.com.
20. ^ Spiro, James (January 16, 2022). "Lane Bess joins Sepio as Chairman of the Board". CTECH - www.calcalistech.com.
21. ^ "Michael Strahan to Join Next Blue Origin Space Flight" New York Times. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
22. ^ https://www.faa.gov/space/human_spaceflight/recognition
23. ^ "Blue Origin Completes 30th Mission to Space". Blue Origin. Retrieved March 4, 2025.
24. ^ "Donor Story: Letty and Lane Bess : Our Impact : Archive : CASA of Santa Cruz County". casaofsantacruz.org.
25. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (December 12, 2021). "Pansexual astronaut Cameron Bess on launching with Blue Origin and why diversity matters in space". Space.com. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
26. ^ Griffin, Andrew (December 10, 2021). "The first ever furry is about to go into space". The Independent. Retrieved April 11, 2024.