Advisors
Illuminate benefits from a world-class Business Advisory Council made up of more than 40 of the most successful members of the global high tech ecosystem - all of whom work closely with the firm and with the founding teams in our portfolio.
Advisory Council members come from four categories of experience – each with relevance to our enterprise tech focus:
- Tech entrepreneurs that have achieved large, successful outcomes in the enterprise space
- Corporate executives and board members of market-leading enterprise technology companies
- Investors and service providers experienced in achieving strategic exits
- Educators and non-profit Execs that mentor, educate and fund tech entrepreneurs, with a focus on diversity
Nancy Albertini
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.
Paulette Altmaier
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.
Radha Basu
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.
Gerard Brossard
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.
Janice Chaffin
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.
Caretha Coleman
Dignity Health board (prior Chairman) and member of the Board Emeriti Silicon Valley Community Fdn. Coleman Consulting; prior executive roles at HP, Interval Research, and Software Publishing, founding member of The Angels' Forum.
David Coulter
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.
Jim Dai
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.
Claudia Fan Munce
Venture Advisor NEA, NVCA Corporate Venture Advisory Board, chairwoman of Global Corporate Venturing, American Advancement of Science Lemelson Fellowship Advisor, boards of Bank of the West/BNP Paribas, Best Buy; prior IBM Managing Director, Venture Capital Group, VP Corporate Strategy, & Research Division Exec.
Liz Fetter
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.
Sarah Friar
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.
Earl Fry
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.
Ken Goldman
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.
Nancy Heinen
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.
Cliff Higgerson
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.
Roz Ho
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.
Sabrina Horn
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.
Amal Johnson
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.
Robin Joy
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.
Don Keller
Board of Overseers Boston College Law School; prior Partner and Exec Committee Member, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe where he advised clients on hundreds of IPOs, acquisitions, and venture financings, partner Venture Law Group.
Tom Kosnik, Ph.D.
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.
Jean Kovacs
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.
Kathy Levinson
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
Amy Millman
Prior Co-founder, President & Board of Springboard Enterprises, advisor for Enterprising Woman, Belle VC, NY Fashion Tech Lab Executive Committee, George Washington Univ. Office of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Exec. Director, National Women’s Business Council.
Carol Mills
Board of Directors Entertainment Partners, Zynga; prior Board Chair/Director Xactly, WhiteHat Security, Alaska Communications, Ingram Micro, Adobe, Blue Coat, Tecelek, EVP of Juniper Networks, CEO of Acta Technology and GM at HP.
Rebecca Norlander
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.
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.
Ron Rasmussen
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.
Tami Reller
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).
Judy Robinett
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.
Sanjay Sadhu
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.
Avanish Sahai
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.
Lucy Sanders
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.
Nancy Schoendorf
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.
Leyla Seka
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.
Chris Shipley
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.
Steve Strandberg
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.
Shanna Tellerman
Cofounder and CEO Modsy, Inc., prior Partner Google Ventures, Cofounder and CEO Wild Pockets (acquired by AutoDesk), Cloud Product Line Manager Autodesk.
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.
