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Founder-CEO Data by Lonergan Partners
In our recent survey of Silicon Valley board directors, over 80% said they felt the board director’s role was more challenging when working with a founder-CEO. Yet the data shows that a majority of Silicon Valley IPOs are going public with founders leading them. Chances are, if you operate out of (or in) Silicon Valley and sit on a public board, you will serve with a founder-CEO at some point in time. Founder-led companies benefit from their leader’s entrepreneurial spirit and clarity of vision. Founders have passion, focus, creativity and drive. But will investor interests be protected in companies where Founder/CEOs have voting control? And how can you as a board director be effective when the CEO “controls” it all?
This session will discuss good governance standards at founder-led public companies, strategies to consider when navigating this challenging terrain, and how to be a productive and impactful board member throughout the journey. We will be joined by some of our region’s most respected board members and also by the Wall Street Journal’s Maureen Farrell, co-author of the recent bestseller “The Cult of We.”
SPEAKERS
Maureen Farrell
Maureen Farrell is a reporter covering initial public offerings and capital markets for the Wall Street Journal in New York. She previously covered Wall Street, banking and M&A for the MoneyBeat blog. Prior to joining the Wall Street Journal in 2013, she worked as a reporter at various publications, including Forbes and CNNMoney. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in English literature and the Columbia School of Journalism.
Ken Goldman
Ken Goldman is the current president of Hillspire, a family office responsible for financial and administrative functions, along with real estate, aviation and maritime activities.
Goldman is the former chief financial officer of Yahoo. He joined Yahoo in 2012 and throughout his five-year tenure was responsible for Yahoo's global finance functions, including financial planning and analysis, controllership, tax, treasury and investor relations.
Prior to joining Yahoo, Goldman served as senior vice president, finance and administration, and chief financial officer at Fortinet, a provider of unified threat-management solutions, from 2007 to 2012. Goldman also served as senior vice president, finance and administration, and chief financial officer of Siebel Systems.
During a professional career spanning more than 40 years, Goldman served as chief financial officer of multiple public and private companies and helped take three companies public. In addition, Goldman's experience includes board director, audit committee chairman and financial advisory roles at more than 40 corporate boards, of which over 10 have gone public while he was a board member.
Goldman currently serves on the board of directors of NXP Semiconductor, Trinet, RingCentral, Zuora, GoPro and the SASB Foundation; other, nonprofit boards include Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Foundation Board and the RFK Human Rights Board.
Goldman was a member of the board of trustees of Cornell University from 2005 to 2013 and was subsequently designated as Emeritus Trustee; he is currently on the Harvard Business School California Research Center Advisory Board.
Goldman was appointed in January 2015 to a three-year term to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's standing advisory group, an organization that provides advice on the need to formulate new accounting standards or change existing standards. He was a member of the Treasury Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession over the years 2007 and 2008, a public committee that made recommendations to encourage a more sustainable auditing profession. From December 1999 to December 2003, Goldman served on the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council. In 2017 the Jewish Heritage Commission of the United States presented the Kind David Award to Goldman for his contributions to American society and Jewish heritage as a leader of exceptional impact.
Goldman holds a BS in electrical engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. In his spare time, Goldman enjoys skiing, windsurfing and kiteboarding and golf and resides in Atherton, California.
Christine Russell
Christine Russell’s career as a Silicon Valley technology CFO has included SaaS and open source software, hardware, and semiconductor IP companies. She served at six Nasdaq publicly traded companies and two PE backed firms. She completed two IPOs and executed on both buy and sell sides of M&A. Her most recent CFO assignment was with PDF Solutions, a SaaS delivered software platform for manufacturing data distribution at semiconductor fabs.
Current Board Directorships include AXT Inc. ( Nasdaq: AXTI), eGain (Nasdaq: EGAN) and QuickLogic (Nasdaq: QUIK).
She is Past President of Financial Executives International (FEI) Silicon Valley Chapter; Past President of National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), Silicon Valley Chapter; and Past President and Board Member of Silicon Valley Directors Exchange (SVDX).
Private company Board service includes Icoin Technology, a cold wallet cryptocurrency storage and security company and Bulamu, an NGO that deploys free pop-up medical camps in rural Uganda.
Ms. Russell holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Santa Clara.
Maggie Wilderotter
Maggie Wilderotter is a seasoned executive who, as CEO, has led both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups in her career. In addition, she has extensive Board leadership serving on over 36 public company and 15 private company Boards of Directors. Mrs. Wilderotter serves on the public boards of Costco Wholesale Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Sana Biotechnology, Lyft and is Board Chair at DocuSign. She serves on the private boards of Tanium, TripActions, Legends Hospitality and Sonoma Biotherapeutics as well as a number of non-profit organizations. Mrs. Wilderotter is also a Senior Advisor to the Blackstone Group, TPG, Sixth Street Partners, and Atairos Private Equity; Accenture and Okta.
Mark Lonergan, moderator
Mark Lonergan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lonergan Partners. He specializes in CEO and Board placements in technology companies. Since 1992, Mark has conducted over 500 technology company CEO, Board, and senior executive assignments.