David Shanberg

David M. Shanberg is the founder and CEO of Baker Pacific, Inc., a corporate development and M&A advisory firm he established in 2004 that specializes in corporate development strategy and mergers-and-acquisitions transactions for technology companies. Over a career spanning more than 30 years, he has led communications, internet, software, and other technology M&A, strategic alliances, venture investments, business development, and finance activities, completing transactions totaling more than $90 billion. He began his professional life with roughly four years in technology consulting as a consultant at Accenture.

Before founding Baker Pacific, Shanberg led corporate development, strategic business development, and carrier/venue partnerships at Cometa Networks — including Cometa's deals with Sprint and Toshiba. Earlier, he held senior corporate and business development roles at EarthLink and PeoplePC, where he led the sale of PeoplePC to EarthLink. From 1993 to 2000 he held positions of increasing responsibility at SBC Communications (now AT&T), serving as CFO of Pacific Bell's $4.5 billion consumer division and as Director of Corporate Development.

In his SBC/Pacific Bell tenure, Shanberg worked on transactions ranging from venture investments to multi-billion-dollar mergers, and was instrumental in SBC's acquisition of Ameritech, its acquisition of Pacific Telesis, its strategic investment in Telkom South Africa, and numerous data and internet deals.

He earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA in Computer Science and Management Science from the University of California, San Diego.

• Operates at the intersection of corporate development and investing: Baker Pacific's stated philosophy is "not to just do deals, but to do the right deals," reflecting "the impartiality and deeper industry understanding of an internal strategy and corporate development executive, as opposed to a transaction-oriented outside advisor." The firm notes it "is not afraid to advise against doing a deal."
• Focus areas per his firm: corporate development strategy and planning, mergers and acquisitions, sale of a company, and strategic partnerships.
• Sector concentration in technology — communications, internet, software, telecom, and data/internet infrastructure — mirroring where his operating and deal experience lies.
• Listed in investor databases as an angel investor active at the seed stage; his personal bio explicitly cites "venture investments" among the activities he has led. (Note: publicly disclosed personal angel check sizes and a named startup portfolio were not found in available sources.)