James Socas, a General Partner at Updata Partners, joined the firm in 2008 bringing significant operating, investment and advisory experience and relationships spanning Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C.  

Mr. Socas previously served as Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Development at Symantec, the world's fourth largest independent software company, leading Symantec's mergers & acquisitions practice, corporate venture investing and strategic, financial and technology alliances.  He conceived, negotiated and executed Symantec's highly publicized international joint venture with Huawei Technologies, one of China's leading technology companies, and drove the successful billion dollar acquisition of systems management leader Altiris, as well as several other major corporate acquisitions. 

Prior to Symantec, Mr. Socas was a Managing Director, Investment Banking in Credit Suisse First Boston's technology group, where he worked with many of the leading enterprise and consumer software companies on M&A, capital raising and restructurings.  He joined CSFB from Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which was acquired in 2000, and earlier, held similar technology banking roles at UBS and Goldman Sachs.  Mr. Socas also has experience as a software entrepreneur. 

Mr. Socas has served on the staff of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, and he is currently an appointed board member of the State of Virginia's Board of Corrections.  He earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

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