Bid to win lunch for 2 with Bill Draper, one of America's first Venture Capitalists and Co-Chair of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, in Silicon Valley!
With over 50 years of experience, William Draper was one of the first venture capitalists on the West. He was founder of Sutter Hill Ventures and during his twenty years as the senior partner, he helped to organize and finance several hundred technology companies. From 1981-1986, he served as President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank under President Reagan. In 1986, he became the head of the world's largest source of multilateral development grant assistance, the United Nations Development Program. He was the Co-Founder and General Partner of Draper Richards L.P., a venture capital fund focusing on early-stage technology companies in the U.S., and Draper International, a venture capital fund investing in private companies with operations in the U.S. and India. In 2011, he authored the book, The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs Currently, he serves as Co-Chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a venture philanthropy firm focused on start-up non-profit organizations promoting social change around the world. Mr. Draper also appears as a judge on the crowdfunding reality TV show, Meet the Drapers, started by his son, Tim Draper.
In addition to serving on many corporate boards of directors, he has served on the boards of the Atlantic Council, Harvard Business School California Research Center, Hoover Institution, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, World Affairs Council of Northern California, and the United Nations Association-USA. Mr. Draper formerly served as the Chairman of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, Chairman of the Institute of International Education, as a Trustee of Yale University and as Chairman of the Board of the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco; he was a former Board member of Population Action International, George Bush Library Foundation, the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the World Rehabilitation Fund in New York. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the President's Council on International Activities at Yale University. Mr. Draper received the Alumni Achievement Award from Harvard Business School in 1982. In 2005, he received the Visionary Award from the Silicon Valley Forum and was inducted into the Dow Jones Venture Capital Hall of Fame. He has received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Distinguished Service Award from the Institute of International Education. In addition, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Commonwealth Club of California, the International Business Forum, the Silicon Valley Fast 50, and the National Venture Capital Association. In 2015, Mr. Draper received the Business Leader of the Year Award from the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California. In 2017, he received a medal from the Foreign Policy Association. In 2020, he was honored by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Draper received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, and a Master of Business degree, with distinction, from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.