Geoff Graber has been a senior executive, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and leadership adviser in high technology and digital media over the past twenty years.
As a student at UCLA in the late 1980s, Geoff began his career at Bank of America where he developed a business plan to attract large Asian corporate clients and then as a financial analyst in the bank’s corporate lending group. After graduation, he moved into the bank’s venture capital arm where he was a member of a three-person team managing a $1 billion portfolio. Wanting to be a part of an early-stage business, Geoff joined IDG China Ventures, the first VC in China, in 1994 prior to its launch. There he developed a strategy to bring US high-tech companies to China and invest in joint ventures formed with local and government partners. Among the first companies Geoff attracted to this approach was Electronic Arts, the largest independent video game publisher.
In 1995, EA recruited Geoff to lead its entry in China. As the first video game publisher and one of the earliest foreign media companies of any kind operating in China, Geoff developed a strategy and structure that enabled EA to become the dominant market leader for the next several years and become profitable after just one full year of operations. With the business running smoothly, Geoff left EA in 1998 to help start Muse Communications Corp., a pioneering 3D, multi-user software platform. Geoff raised US$ 12 million to support the company’s goal to create a definitive enabling technology for the next-generation Web.
The dot-com implosion and delay of broadband deployment in the US contributed to Muse’s inability to realize its vision and, in 2002, Geoff left the company to pursue opportunities in mobile entertainment. He worked first as a consultant to Nokia and ringtone provider Moviso, among others, and then joined Yahoo!. There he developed crucial partnerships with global leaders in wireless communications like AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm, and Nokia. Geoff also created the company’s first mobile games offering and shortly after became the General Manager of Yahoo! Games. Under his leadership, Yahoo! Games grew substantially to more than 23 million unique monthly users and revenues tripled.
Soon after Geoff left Yahoo! in 2005, he shifted his focus to uncovering the potential for businesses to be vehicles for societal betterment, not just profit-making entities. To further his understanding of how to support others who share this vision, Geoff joined Axialent, a global consulting firm that specializes in advising leaders, teams and organizations in the human dimension of business. There, he coached executives, facilitated team development and strategic planning workshops, and managed client relationships with Microsoft, Sony, and others. Geoff left Axialent in 2009 to begin work on a new business that he expects to launch in the near future.
A graduate with honors from UCLA with a degree in East Asian Studies and Business, Geoff also studied at Soochow University in Taiwan, at the East-West Center of University of Hawaii, and at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is the author of All In (HarperCollins, 2005), a book about applying skills and strategies from Texas Hold ‘Em poker to business and career. He is active in a volunteer men’s support organization, the ManKind Project, and is on the Board of Directors of UKRO, a foundation that supports research for kidney disease.
In addition to enjoying a game of poker, Geoff likes skiing, cooking, photography, wine, and writing. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife Cathy, daughter Genevieve, and yellow Lab, Pinot.