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Summer 2004
Sanford Robertson Named 2004 Lifetime
Achievement in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award Recipient
By Marguerite Rigoglioso
If
all the companies Sanford (“Sandy”) Robertson
has had a hand in creating suddenly lit up at once, Silicon
Valley would be twinkling like the Milky Way. America Online,
Dell Computer, E*Trade Securities, Sun Micro-systems, 3Com
Corporation, Applied Materials, Siebel Systems — these
are just a handful of the more than 500 successful growth
technology companies that Robertson has been involved in financing
over the course of his illustrious career.
One of the moving forces in the creation and evolution of
Silicon Valley as a center of entrepreneurship and high-tech
enterprise, Robertson first came West in 1965 to assess the
area’s economic outlook for Smith Barney. The young
investment banker immediately perceived that technology, fuelled
by the semiconductor industry, was where the new growth lay.
He was excited — but Smith Barney was not.
“I tried to get them interested and I really was dragging
them, kicking and screaming, to the altar,” Robertson
told Business Week in 1997. “So after getting deals
turned down and having a hard time getting some done with
them . . . I just thought, well, I’d better start my
own firm.”
Robertson’s independent streak had rubbed off from
his father, who was something of an entrepreneur himself.
The day Robertson signed the papers on Robertson, Colman,
Siebel & Weisel (later named Montgomery Securities), a
firm he put together to help fund fledgling ventures, he called
his octogenarian elder. Robertson reported to Business Week:
“I said, ‘Dad, I’ve done what you always
wanted me to do, I have started my own firm.’ And he
said, ‘Oh, that’s good. I started a new company
this week myself.’ He was an entrepreneur to the end.”
In 1978, Robertson and Paul Stephens, Haas BS ’67,
MBA ’69, founded Robertson Stephens, further cementing
his commitment to high-tech investment banking. “Robbie
Stephens” developed a strong reputation for spotting
trends and knowing which companies to take public. The boutique
became a pillar of the Bay Area’s unique new venture
development economy and one of several specialty investment
banks that formed symbiotic financing pathways for the Bay
Area’s burgeoning high-tech economy. After backing winners
for 20 years, Robertson sold the company to BankAmerica in
1997.
The trailblazer subsequently co-founded Francisco Partners,
now the world’s largest technology buy-out fund. Focusing
on mature ventures and with $2.5 billion of committed capital
under management, Francisco Partners is a pioneer in the emerging
private equity category of technology buyouts.
Over the years, Robertson has also taken a hand in the political
arena. He has played a role in building bridges between Washington,
D.C. and the Valley. He is also active in TechNet, a bipartisan
coalition of Valley business leaders, which was energized
to defeat California’s Proposition 211 and has gone
on to tackle problems in education. Robertson currently serves
on the advisory board of the Tech Museum of Innovation in
San Jose.
Robertson is currently a director of the Democratic Leadership
Council, Dolby Laboratories, Pain Therapeutics, Inc., safesforce.com,
and the Schwab Fund for Charitable Giving. A graduate of the
University of Michigan, he has been active in support of both
his alma mater and the University of California, where he
was instrumental in creating the UCSF Mission Bay campus.
Dubbed by Business Week, “a Silicon Valley elder statesman,”
Robertson has remained one of the West Coast technology banking
industry’s most renowned figureheads. “This is
the most fascinating business in the world,” he told
Wired in 1998. “It’s changing constantly . . .
and behind it all is the heartbeat of a market going on, and
that really gives it an adrenaline factor.”
That means you’re not likely to find Sandy Robertson
retiring and swinging golf clubs any day soon. “It would
be the most boring thing in the world,” he told Wired.
Besides, he says, “Never had time to play.”
Now that’s professional dedication.
"The Bear"
Emblematic of the Lifetime Achievement Award
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