IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Venture studio Cie, formerly Cie Digital Labs, today announced that it has appointed Trent Johnson as Senior Vice President of Corporate Ventures.
Earlier this year, Cie and Wavemaker announced a strategic partnership that introduced an innovative venture studio model to incubate new ideas and grow established startups. Johnson’s appointment deepens Cie and Wavemaker’s alliance—further empowering Cie to scale venture-building capabilities with an increased focus on private equity and corporate clients. At Cie, Johnson will leverage his prior corporate strategy, digital transformation, and venture creation expertise to help drive corporate innovation mandates.
“Trent’s contributions will bring Cie’s extensive entrepreneurial know-how to corporate leaders responsible for driving the innovation agenda,” said Anderee Berengian, CEO, Founder at Cie. “Cie will continue to build our track record of strong commercial outcomes for clients. We are confident that Trent’s combination of skills will further assist in growing our brand as the ‘venture studio of choice’ for enterprise.”
As large companies ‘future-proof’ their businesses, Cie’s start-up heritage leverages capabilities such as whitespace analysis, lean product (MVP) development, and signal detection to drive focus on the right opportunities. Once validated, new technology is quickly launched and brought to market for commercial success.
“Cie is a dominant force in serial entrepreneurial innovation,” said Trent Johnson, SVP at Cie. “Corporations are looking for new ways to reimagine their current business models which have been deployed for many years. Cie’s expertise and investment from our venture capital partners provide a new and efficient model of collaboration for companies.”
Johnson will continue to advise Wavemaker Partners portfolio companies in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Cie, Johnson drove key alliances with Wavemaker innovation partners like Cie to enable build, acquire, license, and fund strategies.
Johnson has also held several partner, senior director, and advisory roles at firms including Slalom, Avasant, ISG, and KPMG Consulting. At these firms, Johnson steered strategy and advisory assignments for global brands including Sony, Credit Suisse, and E*Trade, as well as private equity firms.
Johnson is currently a board member at Innovate@UCLA, a 40-year old organization offering networking, professional education, and insights on disruptive technologies. There, Trent drives industry collaborations between world-renowned UCLA faculty, Silicon Beach entrepreneurs and leaders within the SoCal technology community.
About Cie
Cie is a venture studio that serves as an innovation lab for visionary corporate partners and an accelerator for bold entrepreneurs who want to transform disruptive ideas into new technology ventures.
Cie blends Silicon Valley DNA with the business maturity of serial entrepreneurs, seasoned venture capitalists, and Fortune 500 executives. Combined with the team’s strategic and operational expertise in technology, product development, brand building, and customer acquisition, Cie consistently drives positive outcomes across a wide range of business challenges.
Cie’s venture portfolio includes Cie Games (acquired by Glu Mobile), Nativo, ASAP Tire (acquired by Tire Rack), Titan School Solutions, and a growing list of emerging start-ups. Cie’s leadership team has served key roles at transformational companies such as Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Overture and Internet Brands.
Visit www.ciedigital.com to learn more.
MEDIA CONTACT
Diane Anderson
Three Bears Marketing for Cie
[email protected]
(415) 254-9086
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