Dave is an entrepreneur, business leader, education reformer, and investor. At the age of sixteen, he began working at Hewlett Packard. From the manufacturing workers that he sat beside, Dave learned about the remarkable founders of HP and their HP Way. Later in life, Dave came to learn that too few companies lived by similar values.

Dave founded four companies including Good Technology and Drugstore.com. He also worked for three venture capital firms, KPCB, TPG, and Interwest. In his capacity as an investor, he worked with many successful companies, including Google, Amazon, Successfactors and Autotrader. Dave also helped develop the business plan and recruit the leadership team for Newschools Venture Fund. He continues to serve as a founding board member.

Dave founded Tugboat Ventures in 2005, an innovative entity with the objective of helping entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life through a long-term commitment to promising enterprises.

A small angel investment prior to Tugboat eventually opened his eyes to seasoned entrepreneurs who wanted to build large, profitable, innovative businesses that they would run privately for their lifetimes. In late 2012, Dave began a process of interviewing a number of these entrepreneurs—eventually over 100. He loved their persistence and purposefulness, and came to see that many embraced a people-first value system very similar to David and Bill’s at HP. Yet, across the board they felt underappreciated and often ignored due to having no plans to raise VC or PE, sell or IPO. These inspirational conversations led to a gathering in Sun Valley in October 2013, and the beginnings of the Tugboat Institute and Tugboat Evergreen, under The Tugboat Group.

Mr. Whorton has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford. Dave enjoys spending time between innovative Silicon Valley and mindful Sun Valley, Idaho.

Dan is a finance professional with over 25 years of experience. His particular focus has been driving profitable growth in operating companies.

Dan has been involved in both growth and transition phases of companies such as Intel Corporation, Affymetrix Inc. and NuGEN Technologies Inc. As a key finance business partner, he provided strong analytics, leveraged system capability and drove operational efficiencies at all levels of the organization. Additionally, Dan’s experience and leadership include international finance as well as financial partnership for a large corporate venture arm.

The Tugboat Group provides an opportunity to have impact in partnership with a group of innovative leaders who have a passion to build meaningful, long-lasting and profitable businesses. Dan looks to provide finance and operational leadership in growing Tugboat.

Mr. Benetz has a BS in Math-Applied Science from UCLA. Dan is based in Silicon Valley.

Carlie is a Hawaii native, who is always eager to learn and try new things. She has held various administrative support positions within different capabilities. She received her diploma from Menlo College with a BS in Business Management with a concentration in Marketing.

Not only is Carlie a dynamic administrative professional with vast knowledge in different fields, she is also an enthusiastic friend with a passion for knowledge and enjoying life’s experiences. Carlie brings over five years of administrative experience to the team. At The Tugboat Group, she will provide administrative support in various aspects of the company.

Loida began her administrative career at Robertson Stephens where she spent 12 years in Corporate and Venture Services administering the Friends and Family program and stock distributions for the venture community. She has a wealth of experience and has worked with executives at top firms such as KKR and Worldview Technology Partners. Loida has been a member of the Tugboat team since 2007, providing comprehensive operational and administrative support for the organization.

Sherylyn has vast knowledge in administrative support and communications within various industries. She graduated from Menlo College and received a BS in Business Management with an international concentration. She represented Menlo College through the growing collegiate sport of Women’s Wrestling and currently uses the sport as an outlet to advocate for the empowerment of young women.

Sherylyn has over three years of administrative experience and over a year of coaching and mentoring experience. She has served in multiple roles in the areas of recruiting, human resources, and administrative operations.

Geraldine is the Chief Operating Officer of The Tugboat Group. Geraldine has over 15 years of extensive business, operational, strategic and analytical skills across industries from venture capital, biotech, cleantech, manufacturing, consumer and technology companies.

Shannon is an entrepreneur and builder at heart. From building businesses to communities she is passionate about growing organizations for a greater purpose.

With over ten years of business development and communications experience in companies across education, media, and cleantech, she is currently Head of Membership in charge of strategic growth for Tugboat’s community of Evergreen CEOs. Working with the most innovative entrepreneurs, companies and products on the planet is why she loves what she does.

Her work at the The Tugboat Group is to re-introduce the vital importance of humans coming together to create and grow lasting, innovative businesses that make a dent in the universe and champion leaders who seek to run and scale their businesses privately for decades.