OVP Venture Partners said today that Mark Ashida joined the venture capital firm's investing team to lend his expertise in security, networking and infrastructure.

Most recently, Ashida was general manager of Microsoft's Windows Enterprise Networking.

"Mark is the best of all worlds -- a strategic thinker with operational experience. He has a deep understanding of technology, markets and competition but at the same time can maintain a high-level strategic focus," said OVP's General Partner Chad Waite. "We're thrilled to have him join our team."

Before joining OVP, Ashida was responsible at Microsoft for its networking infrastructure and security servers, a $450 million business. He was also responsible for Network Access Protection, a new feature included in Vista and in the upcoming Windows Longhorn Server.