Ajay Bansal Joins Affinity Circles as Vice President of Engineering; Darshan Jani Promoted to Chief Technology Officer
Mountain View, Calif., November 30, 2006 – Affinity Circles, Inc., the leading provider of trusted social networks for membership organizations, today announced that Ajay Bansal, former vice president of engineering for LiveDeal, has joined the company as vice president of engineering. Bansal is responsible for managing the development of new features across all Affinity Circle products and running site operations. He succeeds Darshan Jani, who held the position for more than two years and was promoted to chief technology officer.
“The combination of technology vision and entrepreneurial skills that Ajay brings to his new role makes him a great fit for Affinity Circles,” said Steve Loughlin, president and CEO of Affinity Circles. “Additionally, his experience in large company development environments, where heavy process and release schedules are routine, will help us effectively plan and scale our technology platform to support a greater number of high-volume affinity circles.”
Bansal has more than 20 years of experience in software and hardware development He has managed software development teams in a hands-on role for more than a decade and worked in Internet and e-commerce management roles for the past six years. Most recently, Bansal was vice president of engineering at LiveDeal, where he was responsible for all development, operations, product management, quality and customer support.
Before LiveDeal, Bansal was director of product development at eBay, where he amassed a wealth of experience working with various applications within eBay, including search, listings, billing, fraud detection tools, SWAT team, build and release, source code control and monitoring tools. He also worked as senior director of engineering at Quova, Inc., and was a founder and vice president of software services for Datum Technologies, a software design and services firm. Bansal began his career at IBM Corporation.
“Social networking is a primary way people communicate and stay connected, and Affinity Circles’ platform puts organizations at the center of their members’ social and professional communications,” said Bansal. “I’m excited to be part of a company that will help define a social networking model that delivers value to organizations and their members.”
Bansal earned both his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering, and his Master of Science degree in computer engineering, from the University of Texas.
About Affinity Circles
Affinity Circles, previously known as Affinity Engines, is the leading provider of trusted social networks for membership organizations. Today more than 65 organizations, including alumni and student groups, professional trade associations and sports teams, use the company’s hosted social network platform to enable members to build and maintain personal and professional connections in dynamic, trusted online communities. For more information, visit www.affinitycircles.com.
Carleen LeVasseur
Affinity Circles Public Relations
(408) 264-6767
carleen@affinitycircles.com