Advisors»
Sam Kinney | Dr. Arthur Laffer | Ray Lane | William A. Sahlman
Sam Kinney
Sam Kinney is a multi-time entrepreneur who was part of the FreeMarkets founding team with Glen Meakem. He is currently leading product development for a web property of his own that will remain “stealth” until completing alpha user testing. In addition to pursuing his own new startup, Sam is an active early stage investor and advisor, primarily in the Seattle market.
Sam is currently on the board and was a lead investor in Shiftboard (www.shiftboard.com), a software-as-a-service web company providing a worker shift scheduling solution for organizations with flexible workforces. He is also on the board and was an early investor in Mindsite (www.mindsite.com), a web company whose online survey instruments provide valid diagnostics for up to forty mental health disorders. Sam served as an early investor and advisor to Kiva Systems (www.kivasystems.com), helping them to secure their Series A round of financing.
While at FreeMarkets (public in 1999 as FMKT, now part of Ariba at www.ariba.com), Sam and Glen worked closely on all elements of the early development of the FreeMarkets service operation and organization. Over the course of his tenure, he was deeply involved in aspects of the company’s technology development, including internal systems and new customer product prototyping. He was a co-inventor on many of the FreeMarkets auction technologies, was a frequent speaker at industry and government conferences, and was the acting CFO during the company’s 1999 record-setting IPO that raised over $200 million.
Prior to FreeMarkets, Sam did consulting stints in areas of operations effectiveness, post-merger management, human resource management, and business line strategy at McKinsey & Company and Booz-Allen & Hamilton. He also served as budget director at a division of Lucas Aerospace (now part of Goodrich Aerospace).
Sam holds an MBA with highest distinction from the Tuck School of Business, and an A.B. cum laude in economics from Dartmouth College. Sam has been a frequent guest lecturer at Tuck through the years, and served a term on its MBA Advisory Board.
Dr. Arthur Laffer
Chairman
Laffer Associates
Arthur B. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research firm that provides global investment-research services to institutional asset managers, pension funds, financial institutions, and corporations. Since its inception in 1979, the firm’s research has focused on the interconnecting macroeconomic, political and demographic changes affecting global financial markets.
Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence in triggering a world-wide tax-cutting movement in the 1980s have earned him the distinction in many publications as “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” One of his earliest successes in shaping public policy was his involvement in Proposition 13, the groundbreaking California initiative that drastically cut property taxes in the state in 1978.
Years of experience and success in advising on a governmental level have distinguished Dr. Laffer in the business community as well. He currently sits on the board of directors of several public companies, which include: MPS Group Inc. (MPS) and Oxigene Inc. (OXGN). He also sits on the board of directors or board of advisors of a number of private companies including: Nicholas Applegate Institutional Funds, Retirement Capital Group, Pillar Data Systems, LifePics, Jovian Holdings, Roth Capital, Atrevida Partners, Health Edge Partners, First Q Capital, The Mayfair Group, and Endovascular Instruments. In the past, he has served on the board of directors of: Veolia Environnement, Provide Commerce, Neff Corporation, Petco, Clarcor and Amplicon Financial.
Dr. Laffer is a founding member of the Congressional Policy Advisory Board, a select group of advisors who assist in shaping legislative policies for the 105th, 106th and 107th United States Congress.
Dr. Laffer was a member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms (1981-1989). He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Reagan/Bush Finance Committee in 1984 and was a founding member of the Reagan Executive Advisory Committee for the presidential race of 1980. He also advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on fiscal policy in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.
He was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He also held the status as the Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California from 1976 to 1984. He was an Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1976 and a member of the Chicago faculty from 1967 through 1976.
During the years 1972 to 1977, Dr. Laffer was a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz. He was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Mr. Shultz from October 1970 to July 1972.
Dr. Laffer received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in 1963. He received a MBA and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1965 and 1972 respectively.
Ray Lane
Managing Partner
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Ray Lane is a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, focused on helping entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team building, selling and managing growth. Since joining KPCB, Ray has sponsored several investments for the firm in enterprise and consumer technology, as well as clean and alternative energy. These companies include Ausra (solar concentrator), GreatPoint Energy (coal to gas conversion), Fisker Automotive (plug-in hybrid car), Th!nk NA (electric car), Luca Technologies (biologically enhanced gas recovery from fossilized hydrocarbons), Xsigo Systems (virtual I/O switch for datacenters), SpikeSource (open source platform for integration and testing), MEVIO (social media network) and Elance (marketplace for services). He also serves on the board of Quest Software.
Before joining KPCB, Ray was President and Chief Operating Officer of Oracle Corporation, the second-largest software company in the world and the leading enterprise software and services company. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle exhibited phenomenal revenue growth from approximately $1 billion in 1992 to over $10 billion. Ray led Oracle’s business expansion beyond its core database technology into enterprise applications and professional services.
Before joining Oracle, Ray was a senior partner with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, where he pioneered and led the Information Systems Group, a worldwide consulting practice targeted at helping senior management achieve better results from information technology. He also served on Booz-Allen’s board of directors and executive management committee. Prior to Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Ray served as division vice president with Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS). In addition, he spent ten years with IBM in various product-management, sales and marketing positions.
Ray received a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and an honorary Ph.D. in Science from West Virginia University (WVU). He was elected to the Academy of Distinguished Graduates of WVU and served as a director of the Foundation Board for the University. WVU has honored Ray by naming the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Ray was recently appointed to the WVU Board of Governors. Ray also serves on the board of trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. He has been an active campaigner and planner for Carnegie Mellon’s establishment of a Silicon Valley campus, and the co-creator of a High Dependability Computing Consortium with Carnegie Mellon and NASA. Ray serves as Vice Chairman of Special Olympics International and has served on the International Board of Special Olympics for several years. He also holds an honorary Ph.D. from Golden Gate University.
William A. Sahlman
Dimitri V. D’Arbeloff – MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
William Sahlman is the Dimitri V. d’Arbeloff – Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The d’Arbeloff Chair was established in 1986 to support teaching and research on the entrepreneurial process. The Chair honors the late Dimitri d’Arbeloff (HBS ’55), whose entrepreneurial skills helped make Millipore Corporation a world leader in its industry.
Mr. Sahlman received an A.B. degree in Economics from Princeton University, an M.B.A. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics, also from Harvard.
His research focuses on the investment and financing decisions made in entrepreneurial ventures at all stages in their development. Mr. Sahlman has written numerous articles on topics including entrepreneurial management, venture capital and private equity, deal structuring, and the role of entrepreneurship in the global economy.
In 1985, Mr. Sahlman introduced a new second-year elective course called Entrepreneurial Finance. That course has been taken by over 8,000 students since it was first offered. Mr. Sahlman and an HBS co-author, Paul Gompers, published a casebook in 2002 entitled Entrepreneurial Finance (Wiley). In 2000, he helped introduce and teach a new course in the first year called The Entrepreneurial Manager. In 2006, he and HBS co-authors, Michael J. Roberts, Howard H. Stevenson, Paul Marshall, and Richard G. Hamermesh, published a casebook entitled New Business Ventures and the Entrepreneur (McGraw Hill – Irwin). Mr. Sahlman also serves on the faculty for the Entrepreneurship Education Colloquium on Participant-Centered Learning in HBS executive education.
Mr. Sahlman is Senior Associate Dean for External Relations. He was co-chair of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit from 1999 to 2002. From 1991 to 1999, he was Senior Associate Dean, Director of Publishing Activities, and chairman of the board for Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. From 1990 to 1991, he was chairman of the Harvard University Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility. He is a member of the board of directors or board of advisors of several private companies and not-for-profit organizations.
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