Hussein Kanji joined Accel Partners in 2007, after having worked as a consultant for the firm since 2005. Hussein brings a strong background in software and internet infrastructure, and currently observes on the boards of The Cloud, Dapper, Njini, Playfish and United Mobile and was involved in the firm’s investment in Netvibes.
Prior to joining Accel, Hussein held several roles at Microsoft Corporation, where he was selected to the company’s leadership program for his work building the speech recognition business and launching Microsoft Speech Server 2004. During his three years at Microsoft, he also developed a new mergers & acquisitions practice inside the Corporate Strategy, Planning & Analysis team, and contributed to the company’s voice over IP and MSN strategies.
Before Microsoft, Hussein spent five years in the Bay Area at several startups. In 2002, he helped spin-out Safe-View (acquired by L-3 Communications) from Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Labs. Earlier in his career, he worked at Sun Microsystems in the Advanced Technology Group, and held marketing, product management and business development roles at Radiance Technologies, a venture-backed startup in Los Altos. Hussein was also a founding employee of Studio Verso, an early web consulting company acquired by KPMG, and helped publish a 1995 bestselling book on web design, Creating Killer Websites.
Hussein holds an MBA from London Business School, where he sits on the International Alumni Board, and did his undergraduate studies in Symbolic Systems and History at Stanford University.
