ILLUMINATE - Key Persons
Board member Intuitive Surgical, CalAmp, and Ezzex; prior CEO and Board chair MarketTools, board member Mellanox Technologies, and Author-IT, founding General Partner Lightspeed Venture Partners, President of Baan NA, President of ASK and senior executive at IBM.
Job Titles:
- Board Member at Hubspot, Bay
Board member at Hubspot, BayBrazil, and World Affairs; Prior VP ISV & App partnerships at Google Cloud, executive at ServiceNow, Salesforce and multiple startups in the enterprise space, early career at Oracle and McKinsey.
Founder & CEO Stellar Solutions, Inc.; Board of Directors Simpson Manufacturing and Instrumental, Inc., Board of Trustees for University of Notre Dame and ACT; prior board member Foundry Networks.
Job Titles:
- CEO, Constituent Connection, Author
CEO, Constituent Connection, Author of The Adaptation Advantage, advisor to startups, Curator Newsgeist, Member & Vice Chair Alberta Research and Innovation Advisory Committee, Member of the Board of Thinktomi and La Foundation du Startup de Montreal; prior Executive Producer, DEMO Conferences, CEO Guidewire Labs.
Leveraging 25 years of high tech industry experience, Cindy Padnos is the founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures. She focuses primarily in the Enterprise/B2B cloud and mobile computing sectors, with a particular emphasis on SaaS applications and platforms, solutions leveraging data for business impact and new business models that accelerate customer acquisition. Cindy serves as a board director for Bid Ops, BrightEdge, CafeX, nFlux, and Pex. Her prior investment exits include Xactly (IPO then acquired by Vista), Coupang (IPO), Sense Platform (M&A Cloudera), Opsmatic (M&A New Relic), Red Aril (M&A iCrossing), WildPockets (M&A Autodesk), Allocadia (M&A Brandmaker/Rubicon).
Cindy has been an active member of the venture capital community for more than a dozen years where she has led/co-led dozens of Series Seed stage financing for B2B startups across North America. Prior to founding Illuminate, she was one of three investment professionals at a Series A-focused firm where she sourced and led investments in companies in the cloud IT infrastructure, Enterprise software/SaaS and mobile solutions spaces.
Venture Partner Walden International and Senior Advisor Illuminate Ventures; prior General Partner Vanguard Ventures and ComVentures (sample deals: AOL, Ciena, Digital Island, Xtera, Ygnition, Tellabs); former Managing Partner H&Q.
Job Titles:
- Special Limited Partner at Warburg Pincus, LLC
Special Limited Partner at Warburg Pincus, LLC; Board member at Varo Money, Inc., ModivCare, and Innovu; prior Managing Director, Member of the Executive Management Group and Vice Chairman, Warburg Pincus, Vice Chair J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Chairman and CEO BankAmerica Corporation.
Job Titles:
- Co - Chair
- Head
- Retired Partner
Donna Petkanics
Retired Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; prior Board of Directors and co-chair of the Compensation, Hiring, and Nominating Committee, head of WSGR Operations and Board of Directors of the WSGR Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Board Member at Backblaze, Central Pacific Financial Corp.
Board member at Backblaze, Central Pacific Financial Corp., Univ. of Hawaii Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship; prior boards Xactly Corp. and Hawaiian Airlines, prior Informatica CFO, Chief Customer Officer and EVP Services & Support. CFO at Omnicell, Inc., C*ATS Software, Inc., and Weitek Corp. Five-time Institutional Investor CFO of the Year.
EVP & COO Rimini Street, Advisory Boards of multiple SaaS start-ups; prior EVP and General Manager Rackspace Solutions and Services, EVP and Managing Director, Enterprise and Mid-Market Business Unit and IT Earthlink, and executive positions at Visa and Hewlett-Packard; BOD Mphasis.
Job Titles:
- Board Member for Synopsys, PTC
Board member for Synopsys, PTC, Informatica and CareerBuilder, Board of Visitors and Executive Committee Member, UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Business; prior Member Operating Committee of Ancestry.com, boards of International Game Technology and EFI, Group President Consumer BU, Symantec and VP/GM HP.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Benhamou Global Ventures
Partner, Benhamou Global Ventures, boards of ARM Holdings, RealNetworks, and Zebra Technologies, advisory board INSEAD; prior Managing Director at Mayfield Fund, President 3Com Ventures, SVP 3Com and MD/President of BICC Data Networks.
Job Titles:
- Partner, Hillsven Ventures
Partner, Hillsven Ventures; Board member Retail Zipline, ALW; prior co-founder & CEO Comergent, co-founder & EVP Qualix Group, executive at Sterling Commerce (AT&T), Sun Microsystems, Frame Technology and Compugraphic. Interim CEO/CEO Advisor including as CEO, SomersaultOrthopedics.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- B2B Software Executive
Jennifer is a Partner with Illuminate Ventures. In this role, Jennifer identifies and leads new investments (with a particular interest in companies in the Pacific Northwest), assists with due diligence efforts, and provides strategic and operational advice to Illuminate portfolio companies. In addition, Jennifer creatively fosters strategic relations with Illuminate's extended B2B Enterprise network - including our Advisory Council and business school interns. She currently plays a board role for Illuminate portfolio companies Hoopla Software and Pyze and as a board observer with several other companies.
Jennifer is an accomplished B2B software executive with over 25 years of experience building new categories, and executing product and go-to-market strategies in SaaS companies. Prior to joining Illuminate, Jennifer held executive positions in a string of companies where she helped deliver successful exits (PlaceWare acquired by Microsoft; DocuSign IPO, SmartSheet IPO, Flowroute acquired by West Corporation). She brings that experience set to the Illuminate team and portfolio. Jennifer received her MBA in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Studies from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Oregon.
Job Titles:
- Venture Partner at Altos Ventures
Venture Partner at Altos Ventures; prior founder and CEO CalmSea, Inc. Prior executive technology and operations management positions at Coupang, DemandTec, Vivant, Informix, and Siebel Systems.
Jim Yu - CEO, Founder
Founder and CEO BrightEdge; prior Director Product Management Salesforce, Venture Consultant Kleiner Perkins, and product leadership roles at Aether Systems and Mercator Software (now IBM).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Member, Board of Directors Ciena Corporation, Theatro Labs, MagicCube, and MBioDx, Inc.; prior Partner King & Spalding, EVP and General Counsel, Obopay Partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Founder and MD of Incubic Venture Fund and Laurel Advisers.
Founder & President, JRobinett Enterprises; prior Advisor Newpark Capital, MD Golden Seeds, CEO Senta Technologies and Medical Discoveries, Inc., Boards Magic Valley Medical Center, Universal Frozen Foods and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.
Former Managing Director Golden Seeds, board member DRY Soda, President and COO of E*TRADE Financial, Sr. Executive Charles Schwab, Jewish Community Federation of SF, Albert Schultz Jewish Community Center and Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School
President Hillspire, LLC; boards of NXP Semiconductor, Fortinet, RingCentral, Zuora, GoPro, Gigamon and other private companies. Cornell University Trustee Emeritus and Presidential Councilor, Prior CFO Yahoo! Inc., Fortinet, Siebel Systems, Exite@Home, Sybase, VLSI and Cypress Semiconductor.
Job Titles:
- Chief Innovation Officer at Ring Central, Board Member Calix
Chief Innovation Officer at Ring Central, Board Member Calix; prior co-founder & CEO Red Aril (acquired by Hearst Corp.), co-founder & CEO NebuAd, co-founder & EVP Octane (acquired by E.piphany) and VP Engineering at Scopus Technology (IPO).
COO, Ironclad, Co-Creator, Black Venture Institute, Boards of Proofpoint, UC Berkeley Coleman Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership, Girls Who Code; prior Partner, Operator Collective, General Manager and SVP Salesforce.com, product management and marketing roles at Primavera Systems, Evolve Software, Vivant and Eutron SPA.
Job Titles:
- Founder & Managing Partner, Abundance Hill, Board
Founder & Managing Partner, Abundance Hill, Board of Directors at McGrath Rent Corp, Fox Factory, and High Barr Media; prior CEO at Symmetricom, NxGen Modular, Jacent Technologies, QRS and NorthPoint, executive positions at US West and Pacific Bell; former board member at Symmetricom, Connexed, Quantum Corp and Ikanos.
CEO and co-founder National Center for Women & IT, Trustee Colorado School of Mines; prior Executive-in-Residence for the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado at Boulder, executive positions at AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Bell Labs and Avaya Labs and BOD of Gold Systems, Solidware and Upsource.
Board Member Intevac (NASDAQ:IVAC), Rockley Photonics, Aviat Networks, and Gridtential, CEO Jasper Ridge Inc; prior director of Applied Ventures (NASDAQ:AMAT), CEO and founder of Boxer Cross, High Yield Technology, executive at Knoll and Hewlett Packard.
Chairman of executive search firm, Kingsley Gate, Inc.; Prior board member VT&T, advisory board member Monitise; prior co-founder and Managing Director Pagemill Partners, founder and CEO Taylor Winfield, Inc. and senior executive at RCA.
Job Titles:
- Board Member, Verb Technology, Teen Success
Board Member, Verb Technology, Teen Success, Inc., First Place for Youth, SV2 - Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, Senior Fellow American Leadership Forum; prior SVP, General Counsel and Secretary Apple Computer, VP, General Counsel and Secretary NeXT, attorney Tandem.
Job Titles:
- General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures since 1993, Board Member Shutterfly and Several Private Companies Prior Engineering Management Positions at HP, Software Publishing Corp and Sun Microsystems
Board member Lea(R)n, The Concord Consortium, Learning Equality; prior board member Khan Academy, VP, Global SMB Solutions Dell, EVP Juniper Networks, VP/GM Cisco, VP Engineering Adaptec, exec positions at Apple, Grid Systems, Ungermann-Bass and Intel. Holder of 3 patents.
CEO iMerit Technology Services, Santa Clara University - Center for Science Technology and Society; prior CEO Anudip Foundation, CEO SupportSoft.com, GM Hewlett Packard, EIR Simmons School of Management, Boards of Interplast, C.E.O. Women.
VP of Software - Personal Systems HP, Boston University Board of Overseers; prior Venture Partner Illuminate Ventures, Co-founder & CEO Health 123, Microsoft Executive - General Manager Online Ad Platform, Technical Assistant to the Chief Software Architect.
Founding partner and prior chairman Gunderson, Dettmer, Stough, Villeneuve, Franklin &Hachigian, LLP; Board of Directors Theravance, Inc.; Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Advisory Board; Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.
SVP, DocuSign, Global Alliances & Partners, formerly SVP, Digital Sales & Marketing; prior VP Marketing, Caring.com, other positions at Intuit, Digeo, AltaVista, Odwall, and Clorox; Board member at Acumatica.
CTO Xactly Corp; prior VP Engineering Quova and Lithium Technologies, CTO & VP Engineering KnowNow, SVP Engineering and Operations Digital Impact, VP The Santa Cruz Operation, Architect/Senior Engineer, Computer Language Lab HP.
Job Titles:
- VP, Global Head of Print Software, HP
VP, Global Head of Print Software, HP; prior SVP & GM at TiVo, VP Ericsson, GM/CVP Microsoft; inducted into the Women of Technology Hall of Fame in 2018, holds many patents in hardware and software.
CEO, Horn Strategy, LLC, board member 4CRisk.ai, KloudGin, Boston University Alumni Council, Dieu Donné, Dogly.com, German Accelerator Group; prior Managing Partner, US Technology Practice Finn Partners, Founder, President and CEO of Horn Group, positions at Blanc & Otus and Edelman.
Job Titles:
- VP & General Manager at Hitachi Vantara, Board
VP & General Manager at Hitachi Vantara, Board of Advisors at Aviso.ai, Abzooba; prior management roles, HP Enterprise, Oracle, Qwest Communications, and Hewlett-Packard in Asia.
CEO Nextdoor, Boards of Walmart and Slack; prior CFO and Operations Lead Square, SVP of Finance and Strategy Salesforce.com, Managing Director Technology Business Unit Leader and lead software analyst at Goldman Sachs, and previously with McKinsey & Company. Prior board member of Spark, ModelN, New Relic, Inc.
Job Titles:
- Cofounder and CEO Modsy, Inc., Prior Partner Google Ventures, Cofounder and CEO Wild Pockets ( Acquired by AutoDesk ), Cloud Product Line Manager Autodesk
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner
- Member of the Board
Sharon Vosmek
Managing Partner of the Astia Fund; Board member at Ozo Innovations, Pagedip, and On Second Thought; prior management positions at American Express and in the office of U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini.
Director Crescent Capital BDC, Inc., Nominating & Audit Committees, Co-Founder and Managing Partner Albany Road Real Estate Ptrs., board roles with numerous companies and several non-profits; prior Managing Director and Co-Founder of WestBridge Ventures, ARAMEX Co. Ltd., technology investment banker with Morgan Stanley, DLJ and Merrill Lynch.
President, Duly Health and Care; Boards of SPS Commerce, Avalara; prior Chief Marketing & Experience Officer of UnitedHealth Group, Executive Vice President Optum (acquired by UnitedHealth Group), EVP, CMO and CFO for the Windows Division at Microsoft; prior CFO of Great Plains Software (acquired by Microsoft).
Partner, FoundersX Ventures; prior Fenwick and West Consulting Professor, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Dept. of Mgmt. Science and Engineering, Stanford University. Teaches Global Entrepreneurial Marketing; Technology Entrepreneurship; New Venture Creation.
Associate Client Partner Korn Ferry Advisory Services; prior Managing Director Executive Education, UC Davis Graduate School of Business, CEO of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.