People in the news, April 2, 2007

Former Shopping.com CEO Ciporin joins Canaan

Dan Ciporin, former CEO of Shopping.com, has joined Canaan Partners as a venture partner focused on digital media opportunities. He will work out of Canaan’s Westport, Conn.-based office.

Ciporin led Shopping.com as CEO for six years until eBay bought the company in 2005 for about $620 million. He most recently was chairman of the Internet Lab, an Israeli incubator for early stage Internet consumer startups co-founded by Gemini Israel Funds and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Rho adds partner

has joined Rho Ventures as a Palo Alto, Calif.-based partner focused on late stage and growth equity financings for IT companies. He previously was a general partner with Sprout Group, an entrepreneur-in-residence with New Enterprise Associates and a managing director with One Equity Partners.

Radius hires principal

has joined Radius Ventures as a principal. He previously was with Burrill & Co., where he worked on such deals as diaDexus, Proventys, Endocyte, Neosil, Cardiokine and Arete.

Morits not to return to Google board

Mike Moritz, a general partner with Sequoia Capital, announced late last month that he will not seek re-election to the board of Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) at the company’s 2007 stockholder meeting in May. He says that his decision will allow him to focus more time on his responsibilities as a GP of Sequoia. Moritz has been a Google director since May 1999.

Intel promotes Kuppam

has promoted Sudheer Kuppam to managing director of India, Japan, Australia and Southeast Asia. He previously was director of the firm’s Flash Memory and Semiconductor unit.

TPG lures banker

last week announced that he has resigned as president of TD Ameritrade’s Client Group, to “relocate his family to San Francisco and return to the private equity industry.” Hirji’s destination is TPG, and is expected to formally join the buyout shop in May. Hirji will work in the firm’s operations department, according to a source. A TPG spokeswoman declined comment.

Hirji joined the online broker back in 2003 as chief information officer, after having been involved in Bain Capital’s sale of Datek to Ameritrade. He later was promoted to COO, and last year was put in charge of all TD Ameritrade’s institutional and retail businesses.

Warburg Pincus hires MD to focus on Asia

has joined Warburg Pincus as a managing director, effective April 10. He will initially be based in New York, but will later move to Mumbai to focus on opportunities in India and selected Asian markets. He previously was a director with McKinsey & Co. in India, where he was co-leader of the Asia financial services practice.

Essex Woodlands woos Wiggins

, founder and former CEO of Oxford Health Plans, has joined Essex Woodlands Health Ventures as an operating partner. —PE Week staff