What it Means to Be a Public Company Board Chairman in Silicon Valley
Exploring the changing nature of the independent Chairman’s role. What does a strong Chairman of the Board do to support his/her board and company?
Chuck Robel
Chairman of the Board of Directors, GoDaddy
Chuck Robel is currently the Chairman of the Board of GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar and one of the world's largest web hosting providers for consumers and small businesses. Previously he was the Chairman of the Board of McAfee Inc. prior to its approximately $8 billion acquisition by Intel. In addition, he was the Lead Director of Informatica, Inc., the largest independent data integration company prior to its acquisition by the Permira private equity group for $5.5 billion in 2015. In 2016 he was Chairman of the Audit Committee of Blue Coat, a leading security vendor, assisting with its proposed IPO prior to its sale to Symantec for approximately $4.7 billion. Until early 2017 he was the Lead Director for AppDynamics during both its IPO listing process and subsequent $3.7 billion sale to Cisco. Previously he had served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Audit Committee at Palo Alto Networks, Borland, Adaptec, Jive Software, Model N and DemandTec.
From 2000 to 2005 he had served as a general partner and chief operating officer at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, a venture capital fund focused on early stage software company investments. Hummer Winblad managed approximately a $1 billion investment portfolio during his tenure. Mr. Robel began his career in 1974 at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, from which he retired as a partner in 2000. From 1985 to 1995 he managed the PWC Software Services group in Silicon Valley and from 1995 to 2000 he managed the Technology Mergers and Acquisitions group.
Chuck Robel graduated from Arizona State University in 1971 and in 2014 was inducted into the WP Carey School of Business Hall of Fame at his alma mater.
Dan Siciliano
F. Daniel Siciliano is a successful technology entrepreneur, an independent director on the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and a recognized expert in corporate strategy and governance, capital financial markets, technological disruption (including fintech, AI and cybersecurity), and executive compensation.
From 2000 to 2015, Siciliano was co-founder, CEO and ultimately Executive Chairman of LawLogix Group, Inc. – a global software technology company named 9 consecutive times to the Inc. 500/5000, several times ranked as one of the Top 100 fastest growing private software companies in the US, and named to the US Hispanic Business 500 (largest) and Hispanic Business 100 (fastest growing) lists for 2010 and 2011. In 2012 he sold a majority stake of the company to PNC Riverarch Capital, continued as Executive Chairman, and led the sale of the company to Hyland Software/Thoma Bravo in 2015. Total aggregate returns to all investors exceeded $100,000,000.
Siciliano is qualified as an audit committee financial expert under NYSE Manual Section 303A.07(a). He has served on the audit and finance committees and is currently chair of the governance committee of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBSF). The bank, with total assets in excess of $100 billion, is one of the largest liquidity providers and public debt issuers in the world. Though FHLBSF is subject to SEC public company filing requirements (NYSE rules), it is structured as a federally regulated private bank mutual cooperative owned by both publicly traded and private banking institutions.
Siciliano is a Fellow at Stanford Law School (CodeX), Emeritus Co-Director of Stanford’s Directors’ College, prior Co-Chair of the We Robot Conference on AI/Robotics, Law, and Policy, and is the immediate past faculty director of the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. Along with Professors Joe Grundfest, Larry Kramer, Dave Larcker and Rob Daines, he co-founded the Rock Center in 2006 and, as a Professor of the Practice and Associate Dean at Stanford Law School, led the Center until 2017. His teaching includes Finance, Corporate Governance, and Venture Capital. He has served as faculty director for dozens of custom executive education programs in more than 20 countries including extended engagements and involvement with Fortune 1000 executives and board members throughout Asia, the Middle East, Latin America (including South America) and Europe. His work has included expert testimony in front of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives and for 2009, 2010, and 2011, alongside leading academics and business leaders such as Ben Bernanke, Paul Krugman, and Carl Icahn, Professor Siciliano was named to the “Directorship 100” – a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.
Siciliano is a co-founder, board member, and Chairman of the Silicon Valley Directors’ Exchange (SVDX), Chairman of the national non-partisan American Immigration Council, past-President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council #1057, and an active member of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Association and board member of the Latino Corporate Directors’ Education Foundation. In 2017, Siciliano founded Optemy, a new type of technology consultancy that trains and advises boards and executives on topics of disruption/change management, the impact of autonomous (AI/ML/robotic) systems and innovations, related executive compensation and multi-generational talent management strategies, corporate compliance, and technological competitiveness and security. As CEO of Optemy, he leads more than a dozen affiliated experts and academics who serve clients in 10 countries across four continents. Individually and through Optemy, he has served as a strategy consultant and trainer to the Board of Directors of more than a dozen Fortune 1000 companies (including Google, Microsoft, Fedex, Disney, Entergy, Tesla and Applied Materials), is an early stage investor in cooperation with Heroic Ventures and a consultant to several firms and companies in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, India, and Latin America. He is a native Spanish speaker and his personal interests include general aviation and space sciences, the culinary specialties of the Oaxaca region of Mexico, and marine biology. He lives in Los Altos, California with his family.
Maggie Wilderotter
Board Chair at DocuSign
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 35 public company and 14 private company Boards of Directors.
Today, Mrs. Wilderotter serves on the public boards of Costco Wholesale Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cadence Design Systems, Lyft and is Board Chair at DocuSign. She serves on the private board of Tanium as well as a number of non-profit organizations. Mrs. Wilderotter is also a Senior Advisor to the Blackstone Group, Okta, and Atairos Private Equity.
Mrs. Wilderotter was Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Communications from November, 2004 to April, 2015, and then Executive Chairman of the company until April, 2016. During her tenure with Frontier, the company grew from a regional telephone company with customer revenues of less than $1 billion to a national broadband, voice and video provider with operations in 29 states and annualized revenues in excess of $10 billion.
Previously, Mrs. Wilderotter was Senior Vice President of Global Business Strategy and ran the Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft. Before this, she was President and CEO of Wink Communications Inc., Executive Vice President of National Operations for AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Chief Executive Officer of AT&T's Aviation Communications Division, and a Senior Vice President of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.
Mrs. Wilderotter previously served on the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) as both Vice Chairman and Chairman during her 4-year tenure ending in 2014. Mrs. Wilderotter also served until January, 2017 on the President’s special Commission responsible for a recommendation report to the new President of the United States on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.
Mrs. Wilderotter holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross. She has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Rochester.
MODERATOR
Mark Lonergan
Mark Lonergan is the Founder and Managing Partner of Lonergan Partners. He specializes in CEO and Board placements in technology companies. His recent CEO and senior executive assignments include such clients as: Model N, Gigamon, Brocade, Xilinx, Infinera, Fortinet, Infoblox, Marketo, ShoreTel, Goldman Sachs, and many other technology companies. Since 1992, Mark has conducted over 500 technology company CEO, Board, and senior executive assignments. He was formerly Chairman of the Board of the Silicon Valley Directors' Exchange (formerly the SVNACD), working with the Stanford University Rock Center for Corporate Governance to educate corporate boards in the Silicon Valley.