Martín Casado was born around 1976 inCartagena,Spain.[1] He received his bachelor's degree fromNorthern Arizona University in 2000.[2] In 2017, he received an honorary doctorate from the same university.[3] Casado was a researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1998 until 2003.[4] While at LLNL, he ran large-scale computer simulations for theUnited States Department of Defense.[5]
Casado attendedStanford University, earning both his Masters and PhD in computer science in 2007.[6]While at Stanford, he began the development of OpenFlow,[7] an open-source protocol that enabledsoftware-defined networking. His Ph.D. thesis, "Architectural Support for Security Management in Enterprise Networks,” under advisorsNick McKeown,Scott Shenker andDan Boneh, was published in 2008.[8]
In 2007, Casado co-founded Nicira Networks along with McKeown and Shenker, aPalo Alto, California based company working on network virtualization. Casado also served as Nicira’s chief technology officer.[9]
Along with McKeown and Shenker, Casado promoted software-defined networking.[7] His Ph.D. work at Stanford University led to the development of the OpenFlow protocol, which was promoting using the termsoftware-defined networking (SDN).[10] McKeown and Shenker co-founded theOpen Networking Foundation (ONF) in 2011 to transfer control of OpenFlow to a not-for-profit organization.[11]
Casado left VMware and joinedventure capital firmAndreessen Horowitz in February 2016 as its ninth general partner.[15][16][17] Andreessen Horowitz had been one of the investors in Nicira, contributing $17.7 million to the start-up venture.[13]
