Peter C. Wendell is the founder and a Managing Director of Sierra Ventures, a Menlo Park, California technology-oriented venture capital firm that has invested more than $1.5 billion over the past 25 years in a wide variety of successful technology companies. Mr. Wendell also teaches “Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital," a popular course at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. Mr. Wendell has held a faculty appointment at Stanford since 1991 and has taught more than 1,300 Stanford MBA students. Mr. Wendell has been recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 best technology venture investors in the United States and named one of the 15 venture capitalists on Upside magazine’s Elite 100 list of influential U.S. leaders in technology, finance, and business.

In addition to his activities at Sierra, Mr. Wendell has a variety of other professional responsibilities. He serves on the Board of Directors of Merck & Co., Inc (MRK-NYSE) where he recently finished a four-year term chairing the board’s audit committee and currently serves on the compensation and research committees. Previously he has served as a member of the board of directors of more than 25 companies, including 10 public companies. Mr. Wendell also currently serves as a Senior Advisor to and Director of WestBridge Capital Partners, a 10-year old Bangalore-based investment firm which, in July, 2011, raised a new $500 million fund for investment in Indian public and late-stage private companies. He also serves as the Senior Adviser to the family office entities of the Schmidt family. Mr. Wendell serves on the Board of Managers of Living Spaces Furniture, a company founded by two of his Stanford students which is now the largest furniture retailer in California.

Sierra focuses its investments in early stage and emerging growth technology-related opportunities, often working with companies from their inception. Mr. Wendell has originated and managed Sierra’s early stage investments in Intuit – maker of “Quicken” software (INTU-NASD); Fatbrain (FATB-NASD; purchased by Barnes & Noble); On Assignment (ASGN-NASD); Teradata (TDC-NYSE); and KnowledgeNet (purchased by Thomson Learning). He served as Chairman of the Board of Sierra’s investment in Centex Telemanagement (CNTX-NASD; purchased by MCI). He has also helped originate and manage Sierra’s investments in a variety of healthcare service businesses including Amerigroup (AGP-NYSE), Clinical Partners (purchased by Visible Genetics), Healtheon (HLTH-NASD; merged with WebMD), Intensiva Healthcare (INTN-NASD; purchased by Select Medical) and NovaMed (NOVA-NASD). Sierra was an early or originating investor in all eleven of these companies.

Mr. Wendell’s partners at Sierra Ventures have led Sierra’s investment in an even broader array of successful companies including Active Software (ASWX-NASD; purchased by WebMethods); Authentec (AUTH-NASD); ConvergeNet (Purchased by Dell); FrontBridge (purchased by Microsoft); Greenplum (Purchased by EMC); InvenSense (INVN-NASD), MakeMyTrip (MMYT-NASD); MicroMuse (MUSE-NASD; purchased by IBM); OnLink (Purchased by Siebel); Quinta (Purchased by Seagate); SourceFire (FIRE-NASD) and StrataCom (STRM-NASD; purchased by Cisco). Sierra was a major (and often originating) investor in each of these companies.

Globally, in addition to his work with WestBridge Capital Partners in India, Mr. Wendell serves as a Special Advisor to the Investment Committee of Gobi Partners, an early stage China-based technology oriented venture firm with offices in Shanghai and Beijing. Sierra Ventures is a strategic investor in Gobi along with co-investors IBM, NTT DoCoMo, the McGraw Hill Companies, and Walt Disney Company. He also advises Seedfund, an early stage India-based technology oriented venture firm with offices in Bombay and Bangalore. Sierra Ventures is a strategic investor in Seedfund along with co-investors Google, Motorola, Reliance, and others.

Prior to founding the first Sierra fund in 1982, Mr. Wendell was employed by IBM for 10 years in a variety of sales and management positions. During an educational leave from IBM, Mr. Wendell attended Harvard Business School where he received an MBA with distinction. During this time, he also worked for McKinsey & Company management consultants. Mr. Wendell holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree, magna cum laude, from Princeton University. He has received awards from both Harvard and Princeton for his leadership and service on their behalf.

Mr. Wendell is a Charter Trustee emeritus of Princeton University and also served as one of the two officers of the Board of Trustees. He has been re-elected to again join the Princeton Board of Trustees as a Charter Trustee serving through June, 2020, beginning in September, 2012. He also recently completed a 10-year term as a member of the board of directors of the Princeton University Investment Company (Princo), the organization responsible for Princeton’s endowment. During the six years Mr. Wendell chaired the Princo board, Princo’s professional staff grew the University’s endowment from $8 billion to over $16 billion. He also serves as a Trustee of ARTstor, a Mellon Foundation initiative chaired by Harvard’s former president Neil Rudenstine.

Mr. Wendell has served as an officer and member of the board of directors of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, as a member of the venture capital committee of Stanford University's Athletic Investment Endowment, as a member of the Visiting Committee at Harvard Business School, as a director of San Francisco's Exploratorium, and on the board of St. Luke's Parish School in San Francisco. He has received the National Venture Capital Association’s American Spirit Award for applying his business skills in a manner that has created outstanding contributions to society. He enjoys jogging, squash and lacrosse and has completed the 26-mile New York City marathon.