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Ann Winblad
Company: Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Home: San Francisco

As co-founder and managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in software companies, Winblad is Silicon Valley royalty. She’s been involved in entrepreneurship in the software industry for more than 30 years and is known as one of Silicon Valley’s savviest investors. Winblad began her career as a systems programmer at the Federal Reserve Bank, and in 1976 co-founded Open Systems, an accounting software maker, with a $500 investment. After six years of profitability, she sold the company for more than $15 million. Winblad served as a strategy consultant for prestigious clients including IBM, Microsoft, Price Waterhouse, and many start-ups. She’s also co-author of the book Object-Oriented Software and has published many articles. Winblad serves as a director for Voltage Security, Krillion, Mulesource, and Star Analytics. Winblad is also an advisor to several entrepreneur groups, as well as co-chair of SD Forum.