William Frank Blount is an American businessman, and currently the chairman and CEO of venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

 firm JI Ventures, Inc. Blount previously served as chairman and CEO of Cypress Communications

Cypress Communications

Cypress Communications is a United States telecommunications firm and a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier . Cypress Communicaitons provides hosted voice, data VoIP and unified communications to small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises across the United States...

 Inc., and director and CEO of Telstra Corporation Limited

Telstra

Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....

 in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Early life and education

Blount received a B.S.

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 in Electrical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States...

 in 1961, an M.B.A. from Georgia State University

Georgia State University

Georgia State University is a research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves about 30,000 students and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities...

 in 1969, and a SM (master's degree)

Master's degree

A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

 in Management Science from the MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

 in 1971.

Career

Up to 1999 he served as Chief Executive Officer of Telstra Corporation in Australia and Group President of AT&T Corp. On 9 June 1999 he was appointed an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia

Order of Australia

The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...

 (AM), "for service to business, particularly as the Chief Executive Officer of Telstra".

In 1999, Blount became affiliated with The Jordan Company, L.P., a private investment firm that specializes in buying and building businesses in partnership with management.

Blount currently serves as a director of Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc.

Caterpillar Inc. , also known as "CAT", designs, manufactures, markets and sells machinery and engines and sells financial products and insurance to customers via a worldwide dealer network. Caterpillar is the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas...

, Entergy Corporation, Hanson plc

Hanson plc

Hanson plc is a British based international building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index for many years, the company was acquired by a division of German rival Heidelberg Cement in August 2007.-History:Hanson...

, ADTRAN

Adtran

ADTRAN, Inc. is a provider of telecommunications networking equipment and internetworking products.Its headquarters are in Huntsville, Alabama.The company is ISO 9001 and TL9000 certified.ADTRAN was a NASDAQ-100 Index stock from 1996 to 1998....

 and Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services...

.