Pluris Taps Ringo As Interim CEO

Apparently there is life after venture capital.

Two months after being laid off by Blueprint Ventures, Cynthia Ringo has landed as interim CEO of telecom equipment provider Pluris Inc. She began in the position today, and has already attended a board meeting in which permanent CEO candidates were discussed.

?Ever since [former CEO] Joe Kennedy left, the executive team has basically been running things,? says Gary Law, vice president of marketing with Pluris. ?The board of directors thought it would be best to bring someone in to help out while we looked for Joe?s replacement.?

Law adds that Ringo is not interested in the permanent position, nor is she in the running.

Ringo appears to have been chosen based on her past telecom CEO experience heading up CopperCom Inc. She does not have any official affiliation with the venture houses that currently sit on the Pluris board, although Crescendo Venture Management and J.P. Morgan Partners (JPMP) are investors in both Pluris and CopperCom.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Pluris last raised venture capital in February, when it closed on a $53 million deal co-led by Crescendo, JPMP and ComVentures. That deal was also marked by the investors who did not exercise their pro rata rights, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, RWI Group and Worldview Technology Partners. A possible explanation is that Pluris had already burned through most of the $162 million it had already raised over four previous rounds of venture funding.

The valuation of Pluris? Series E deal was not disclosed, but the company was pegged at $626.5 million when it closed a $104.8 million Series D offering back in October 2000.

Private Equity Week contacted all venture representatives on the Pluris board, but none responded to requests for comment on this story. Cynthia Ringo was also unavailable.

Dan Primack can be contacted at Daniel.Primack@tfn.com

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