Matt Marshall is the editor and CEO of VentureBeat which he founded in 2006. He covered the venture capital and startup beat for the Mercury News from 2001-2006. Matt significantly expanded the newspapers coverage of venture capital and startups during that time, in daily articles and a weekly column called the VC Insider, and then online with his blog SiliconBeat from 2004. Matt was awarded Journalist of the Year by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists in 2002, and the James Madison Freedom of Information award in 2003. These awards were for a series of articles he wrote in conjunction with two successful Mercury News lawsuits, in part instigated by Matt, against California?s public pension fund (CalPERS) and the University of California. The lawsuits sought disclosure of the financial performance of venture capital and other private equity funds that CalPERS and UC had invested in, arguing that state taxpayers and retirees had a right to know these results. As a result of these laws suits, public employees now have full access to information on the performance of their retirement investments. Matt was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 through 1998. In 1999 he wrote a book while in Germany, ?The Bank: the Birth of Europe?s Central Bank and the Rebirth of European Power? (Random House, 1999). He has also written for the Washington Post and several other publications. Matt has a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University.