In the analog world, logistics was all about transferring boxes and barrels, and Federal Express was king of moving those atoms. In the digital world, logistics means moving bits with equal finesse, so it's no surprise that startup Electron Economy wanted an old-school logistics pro to head up its charge. Two weeks ago, Jon Slangerup, former president of FedEx Canada, left the delivery company for the chief executive position at Electron Economy, which handles logistics for e-commerce companies including computer retailer Egghead.com and fashion site Style365.com.

"It's a chance to have a second turn at building a market-moving organization," says Mr. Slangerup. "It's similar to what it was like when I joined FedEx 20 years ago. The company was 1 percent of the size it is today."

In his career at FedEx, Mr. Slangerup moved around almost as much as the purple-and-orange FedEx delivery planes do. He started out in aeronautical maintenance, which lasted a mere four months before a new role in workforce communications came up.

Over the next seven years, Mr. Slangerup also took on logistics, executive training, and customer service jobs before being moved into the top slot as general manager of FedEx Canada in 1987. As it turns out, he inherited a very new-economy-like business unit: chock full of losses. "We were in serious financial straits," he says, confessing to a negative 25 percent profit margin. "The strategy was completely flawed, but I convinced the board and executive team that this thing was salvageable."

He salvaged it, all right: the company was turning profits by 1993, and Mr. Slangerup was bumped up to president by 1994. The international strategy he pursued for Canada turned out to be brilliant timing. "In the '90s the Canadian market took off as an export economy, we became the dominant international player in Canada, we remained union-free in a unionized environment, and we grew about five-fold during my tenure," he boasts, adding that FedEx Canada now controls about 58 percent of the market.

BALKANSKI GOES BENCHMARK

The boys at Benchmark Capital decided some old-world European know-how was in order when they took Alex Balkanski on board as general partner this week. Mr. Balkanski's appointment follows closely on the heels of Eric Archambeau's and George Coelho's, both chosen over the past few months to manage Benchmark's new $500 million European venture fund.

Mr. Balkanski, a French native who holds a masters in physics and a PhD from Harvard, says his experience as former CEO and cofounder of C-Cube Microsystems, a pioneer in MPEG digital video standards, makes him ideally suited to his new role. Under his leadership, C-Cube grew into a 1,200-employee, $400 million powerhouse, and Mr. Balkanski is clearly delighted at the prospects of his career switch. "I'm over the moon," he told Redherring.com by cell phone during a break in his unrelenting schedule.

Mr. Balkanski bristles at other VCs who snipe that recovering CEOs lack the nuts and bolts to be successful players. Quite the contrary, he argues. His new gig is "all about access. I'm bringing a fair amount of operating experience to the position, and what I look to contribute to Benchmark is both a high level of experience and empathy of what it takes to bring CEOs and VCs together."

Mr. Balkanski, 39, was born in Paris and moved to the States in 1979 to attend Harvard. He has lived here full time since then and periodically returns to France to visit his parents and brother. Mr. Balkanski will spend the majority of his time in Benchmark's Menlo Park, California, office, leaving the management of Benchmark's London office to Mr. Archambeau.

Other Benchmark partners are hoping for a healthy return on their newest investment. "Alex has a phenomenal background and a great track record as someone who built a multibillion dollar company," said Benchmark GP Kevin Harvey. "We look forward to having him here." In addition to his new chores, Balkanski also sits on the boards of C-Cube and PMC-Sierra.

MOVING UPSTREAM

In a few weeks, yet another investment banker is leaping into venture capital. Starting officially on May 15, Bob Grady of Robertson Stephens (RS) will move upstream in the dealflow to The Carlyle Group.

Mr. Grady is finishing up his stint as managing director of e-commerce investment banking on May 1, at the tail end of the firm's most successful underwriting year in its history. In 1999, RS lead-managed 44 IPOs and underwrote another 186 offerings. As e-commerce director, Mr. Grady was in the thick of the action, working on more than 150 deals in his seven years there, including Critical Path (an IPO, a secondary offering, and its acquisition of Isocor), and eGain's IPO in September.

He's got a strong stomach, the ultimate prerequisite for venture capital: he even led Healthstream to a healthy $45 million IPO last week, despite the stock market's sudden case of the flu. Mr. Grady adds that he's not concerned about what the jittery market means for the fate of VC. "VCs are just going to have to be more careful," he says. "It really presents an opportunity for the venture community, because it means that we might be able to make investments at lower asset prices."

At Carlyle, Mr. Grady will help the firm continue its focus on "highly regulated" industries like healthcare, telecom, and biotech. He's got the background for that, too. In addition to teaching a course at Stanford's Graduate School of Business on regulated industries, he's been on the regulation side himself: before joining Robertson Stephens in 1993, he served as an executive associate director in the Office of Management and Budget and a deputy assistant to the president.

TALENT POOL

Rosewood Venture Group nailed a few high-profile pegs into its board of directors this month. Included among the new directors: Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay; Mayo Shattuck, cochairman of Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown; and Robert Fisher, former president of The Gap.... One of the tech world's most sought-after board members, digi-guru Nicholas Negroponte, joined the advisory board of PrivateExpress, a private digital courier service. Mr. Negroponte is best known as founder of the MIT Media Lab, but he also pens columns for Wired magazine, writes books on digital culture, and sits on the board of directors at Motorola to boot.... Will Xerox executive Bill McDermott replicate his 17 years of success at the Gartner Group? Mr. McDermott joins Gartner as president, replacing Michael Fleisher, who remains as CEO.... Domain-name marketplace Greatdomains.com named three new execs this week, including Sean Downey as VP of marketing and communications. Mr. Downey was formerly brand manager for Nestle's Butterfinger, a $250 million business unit of Nestle USA.

Additional reporting by Richard Byrne Reilly.

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