Seth David Neiman (born June 27, 1954) is an American computer industry businessperson and venture capitalist in California, and a professional racing driver.
Neiman is the team principal of Flying Lizard Motorsports, which participates in the United SportsCar Championship. He currently resides in San Francisco, California.
Early life Seth David Neiman was born in East Liverpool, Ohio and grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His mother was Judith Klapper Neiman and father was Ralph Bernard Neiman. The second child of four, he had two sisters and a younger brother.
Neiman graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor's degree in philosophy and did graduate work in computer science.
Business career Neiman was a system architect at Maxitron Corporation in Marin County during the mid-1980s, Bloomberg Businessweek.com: Seth D. Neiman, Executive Profile & Biography Google Books; Computerworld – Sep 1, 1986 – Page 51. (Maxitron Corp.) and then Vice President of Product Development at Dahlgren Control Systems in San Francisco. In 1988, he became Vice President of Product Development for the TOPS Division of Sun Microsystems, that was developing the TOPS network file server system.
In 1994, Neiman joined the venture capital firm Crosspoint Venture Partners, and becoming a general partner before departing. In 1995, he founded Brocade Communications Systems. Neiman served as a lead investor and board member of various broadband computer networking companies, including Foundry Networks, Avanex, iPass, Shoreline, Juniper Networks, and NexPrise.
Neiman has been Chairman of the Board of eSilicon Corporation since 2011, and a Director at AlephCloud Systems Inc. since 2013. He is also a Director at the facial expression recognition system company Emotient, Inc. San Francisco Business Times: Emotient Announces Series B Financing of $6M"; 6 March 2014.
Racing career Neiman formed Flying Lizard Motorsports team in 2003. In 2005, he competed in the ALMS GT2 class for the Porsche team as well as finishing third in GT2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He finished fourth at Le Mans the following year and finished 9th in ALMS GT2 points for the same team in 2006. He also drove in four SCCA World Challenge races in the Touring Car class.
In 2007, Neiman finished tenth in ALMS and the car failed to finish at Le Mans. In 2008, he captured a career best fifth place in ALMS GT2 points and finished sixth at Le Mans. In 2009, he again failed to finish at Le Mans and finished seventh in ALMS points.Seth Neiman, Driver Database, Retrieved 2010-07-22
Neiman returned to the Flying Lizards team he owns in 2010, and competed in his first 24 Hours of Daytona, finishing ninth overall and second in GT.Sulka, Mike. 2010 Daytona 24: Grand Am Final Race Results – Porche, Action Express Racing Win! , PaddockTalk, January 21, 2010, Retrieved 2010-07-22
24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps Flying Lizard Motorsports Johannes van Overbeek Lonnie Pechnik Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 323 13th 3rd Flying Lizard Motorsports Johannes van Overbeek Patrick Long Porsche 911 GT3-RSR GT2 309 18th 4th Flying Lizard Motorsports Jörg Bergmeister Johannes van Overbeek Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GT2 124 DNF DNF Flying Lizard Motorsports Jörg Bergmeister Johannes van Overbeek Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GT2 289 32nd 6th Flying Lizard Motorsports Jörg Bergmeister Darren Law Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GT2 194 DNF DNF Flying Lizard Motorsports Jörg Bergmeister Darren Law Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GT2 61 DNF DNF Flying Lizard Motorsports Darren Law Spencer Pumpelly Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GTEAm 211 DNF DNF Flying Lizard Motorsports Patrick Pilet Spencer Pumpelly Porsche 997 GT3-RSR GTEAm 313 27th 4th JMW Motorsport Abdulaziz Al-Faisal Spencer Pumpelly Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 GTEAm 327 27th 7th
IMSA SportsCar Championship results (key)(Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class) Year Team Class Make Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points 2014 Flying Lizard Motorsports GTD Audi R8 LMS ultra Audi 5.2L V10DAY 5SEB 5LAG 5DET 13WGI7MOS14INDELKVIRCOA 13ROA 12 22nd 167
References