Managing Partner, SmartForest Ventures
Debi Coleman, Managing Partner of SmartForest Ventures , is one of the most recognized female executives in technology management. Debi stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Merix Corp. (NASDAQ: MERX) in September 2001, having served as Chair since October 1999, and serving as both CEO/Chair since its spin-out from Tektronix, Inc. in March 1994 (IPO: May, 1994). Prior to that she was Vice President Materials/Operations for Tektronix. She is perhaps best known for her career achievements with Apple Computer, Inc. where she held the positions of Vice President of Operations, Chief Financial Officer, and Vice President Information Systems and Technology.
Coleman serves as an advisor to three venture funds: PacRim Partners (CA); Utah Ventures; and Alexander Hutton Ventures (Seattle). She has been an active angel investor since 1995 and is a founding member of the Portland Angel Network.
Coleman graduated from Brown University with a BA in English Literature in 1974 and received her MBA from Stanford University in 1978. She also received an honorary Ph.D in Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1987. Coleman was named a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute in 1997.
Coleman devotes time and energy to several organizations including the Committee of 200 and International Women.s Forum. She currently serves on the boards of Applied Materials Inc.; Synopsys, Inc.; Kryptiq; Neopad; Teja; and Phoseon.
Officers
- Telle Whitney, – President and CEO
- James Beck, CPA & CMA, Managing Director & CFO, Mayfield Fund – Treasurer & Vice President
- Deanna Kosaraju, Corporate Secretary
Corporate Counsel
- Allison Spinner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Staff
- Telle Whitney, President and CEO
- Deanna Kosaraju, Vice President Programs
- Jody Mahoney, VP of Business Development
- Jerri Barrett, VP of Marketing
- Kirk Ross, Director of Finance
- Caroline Simard, VP of Research and Executive Programs
- Kathy Gee, IT Project Specialist
- Kim McLeod, Leadership Development & Academic Initiatives Program Manager
- Rachelle Siskin, Program Logistics Manager
- BJ Wishinsky, Communities Program Manager
- Christine Chiu, Program Content Manager
- TBD, Office Manager
Our Founder
Board of Trustees
- William Wulf, Ph.D., Former President, National Academy of Engineering, Board Chair
- Bill Unger, Partner Emeritus, Mayfield Fund – Vice-Chair
- Robin Abrams, Investor
- Prith Banerjee, Senior Vice President, Research, and Director, HP Labs, HP
- James Beck, CPA & CMA, Managing Director & CFO, Mayfield Fund – Treasurer & Vice President
- Francine Berman, Vice President of Research and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Mark Bregman, CTO, Symantec
- Debi Coleman, Managing Partner, SmartForest Ventures
- Nora Denzel, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Payroll, Intuit
- Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Research and Systems Engineering, Google
- Shanna-Shaye Forbes, graduate student, UC Berkeley
- Eugenia Gabrielova, student, Northwestern
- Penny Herscher, President & CEO, firstRain
- Kathy Hill, Senior Vice President, Development Strategy & Operations, Cisco Systems Inc.
- Leah Jamieson, John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, and Ramsburg Distinguished Professor, Purdue University
- Maria Klawe, President, Harvey Mudd College
- Ike Nassi, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, SAP
- Brian Pawlowski, CTO, and Senior Vice President, NetApp
- Richard Rashid, Senior VP and VP Research, Microsoft
- Justin Rattner, Senior Fellow & CTO, Intel
- Telle Whitney, President & CEO, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
- Linda Bernardi, Emeritus (Term: 1996 -2006)
- Greg Papadopoulos, Emeritus (Term: 1996 -2006)
Individual and Organizations
Board of Advisors
- Rebecca Norlander, Partner Engineering Manager, Microsoft Online Advertising Platform, Microsoft Corporation – Co-Chair of Advisory Board
- Ann Redelfs, Redelfs LLC – Co-Chair of Advisory Board
- Frances Allen, IBM Fellow Emerita, IBM
- Pamela Arya, VP, Business Development, Harris Crucial Security Programs
- Nina Bhatti, Principle Scientist, HP Labs
- Anne Condon, Professor of Computer Science, University of British Columbia
- Katy Dickinson, Director, Business Process Architecture, Sun Microsystems
- Catherine Didion, Senior Program Officer, National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
- Carole Dulong, Google
- Allan Fisher, Vice President, Laureate Education
- Mark Guzdial, Professor in the School of Interactive Computing,
Georgia Institute of Technology - Robin Jeffries, Google
- Chandra Krintz, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara
- Ellen Lapham, Entrepreneur & Designer, Innovation Ventures
- Sarah Loos, PhD Student, Carnegie Mellon University
- Carol Muller, Department Manager for Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder & COO, BlogHer
- Tracy Prentiss, Vice President, SAP
- Nancy Ramsey, Author, The Futures of Women: Scenarios for the 21st Century
- Kathy Richardson, Consultant
- Ruth Stergiou, Principal, Planning Dynamics, Inc.
- Sarah Revi Sterling, Faculty, University of Colorado, Boulder