Don Wood spent the first half of his career as a founder and operating
executive and has worked in the venture capital industry for the last 16
years. Don has been with DFJ since 2006 as Managing Director, and is now
a Venture Partner as of 2014. Don's primary investment focus has been
energy and sustainability, consumer web, and enterprise IT. Don has served
on 15 boards of both private and public companies. Don’s venture funds
(Vanguard and DFJ) have funded over 500 companies including Ciena,
Network Appliance, Vocera, Hotmail, Skype, Baidu, Tesla, Solar City,
Athena Health, SpaceX, and Box.net. Don has been an active volunteer at
Stanford and the Entrepreneurs’ Foundation, where he served as Board
Chairman. Don is on the faculty at the Stanford GSB as an instructor where
he teaches classes in entrepreneurship and sustainable energy.
Don's career began with his first post-college job at the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. He later became a ski instructor in
Vail, Colorado. After graduate school, Don became a consultant with
McKinsey and Company in their San Francisco and Sydney offices. Later
he was SVP of Sales and Marketing at International Power Technology that
designed, financed, installed and operated co-generation power plants. Don
ran marketing and service at Octel Communications (OCTL), the inventor of
and worldwide leader in voicemail systems. He co-founded Wood-Howard
Products with his patent for a laminated publishing format which he later
licensed to Simon and Schuster, FastMark, Rand McNally, and others; more
than 100 million products have been sold under these licenses. Don served
on the Board and was President of Metricom (MCOM), which provided
wireless smart grid systems to utilities and pioneered the first wireless meshnetwork Internet service known as Ricochet. In 1998, Don began his career
in venture capital.
Don earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Stanford
University, and a Masters in Business Administration degree from the
Stanford Graduate School of Business. Don won the "Nonprofit Board
Leader Award" from The Volunteer Center of San Francisco. Don is still
trying to improve his surfing, golfing, skiing, and windsurfing. Don is
married with two daughters and lives in Palo Alto.