Ben Bayat brings more than a dozen years of experience in high-tech product design, engineering management, business development, and sales to his role as a member of the investing team with Illuminate. Ben focuses on originating, evaluating, and managing Illuminate’s enterprise SaaS investments.

Prior to joining Illuminate, Ben was the head of West Coast sales for IBM’s networking accounts, where he led his division to two consecutive Sales Eminence awards. As IBM’s site executive in Nagasaki, Japan, Ben led the joint development of Sony’s Playstation 3 microprocessor, earning the CEO-selected Gerstner Award for Client Excellence. Previously, Ben was the founder of an early IIoT startup where he learned the challenges of matching product vision with market realities. Ben earned his MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Physics and Electrical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.