Bill Younger

Bill Younger joined Sutter Hill Ventures in 1981 and spent more than three decades there as a Managing Director, making him one of the long-tenured partners at one of Silicon Valley's oldest venture firms (Sutter Hill was founded in 1964 by Bill Draper and Paul Wythes). Over his career he partnered with entrepreneurs to start and grow market leaders across both technology and medical fields, with named investments including COR Therapeutics, Forté Software, Ingres, Interventional Technologies, Omnicell, Primary Access and Vitria Technology. He is today described as a Retired Managing Director of Sutter Hill Ventures.

Before entering venture capital, Younger worked at Cummins Engine and the U.S. Public Health Service. He earned a B.S. summa cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business — a combination of deep engineering training and business education that shaped his role as a hands-on, technically fluent early-stage investor and board member.

Younger served on numerous portfolio company boards, including Omnicell (1992 to May 2012), Vitria Technology (1997 to November 2005), and Cardica/Dextera Surgical. Beyond his investing, he has held a series of industry and civic leadership roles: President of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, chair of the venture capital committees of the Stanford GSB Trust and the Duke Engineering School, and President of the Menlo Atherton High School Foundation. He has also served on the board of Stanford Hospital and Clinics as chairman of its investment committee.

In recent years his most visible role has been in philanthropy and family investing. He is Chairman of the Gladstone Foundation Board of Directors (and chair of its investment committee) at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, and Chairman of The Younger Family Fund. He and his family have been long-term supporters of cardiovascular research at Gladstone, including a $2 million gift backing the heart-research work of Deepak Srivastava and Benoit Bruneau.

• Backs early-stage / seed and founding-round companies in the Sutter Hill model of co-building businesses with entrepreneurs from inception rather than only writing later-stage checks.
• Dual focus across his career on enterprise/IT software (Ingres, Forté, Vitria) and healthcare / medical devices & therapeutics (COR Therapeutics, Omnicell, Interventional Technologies, Cardica).
• Prioritizes exceptional founders with a differentiated vision. In his own words: *"The way I approach philanthropy is much like my approach to venture capital over the last 30 years—I look for great leaders with a unique vision."*
• Operates as an active, board-level partner, holding long-tenured directorships (e.g., ~20 years on Omnicell's board) rather than passive investing.