Ann L. Winblad (born November 1, 1950) is an American businesswoman. She is a founding partner of

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Hummer Winblad Venture Partners is an American software and web focused venture capital firm based in San Francisco, California. Its founders include John Hummer and Ann Winblad. The firm was an early investor in Napster, the first popular file ...

Early life and education

Winblad was born on November 1, 1950, in

Red Wing, Minnesota Red Wing is a city in Goodhue County, Minnesota, Goodhue County, Minnesota, United States, along the upper Mississippi River. The population was 16,547 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Goodhue County. This ...

."Ann Winblad talks Kool-Aid, green tech and Bill Gates"
December 16, 2008, Audio interview, freshdialogues.com Born to father Wilbur Winblad and mother Elizabeth Stark, she and five other siblings grew up in Rushford and

Farmington Farmington may refer to: Places Canada *Farmington, British Columbia * Farmington, Nova Scotia (disambiguation) United States *Farmington, Arkansas *Farmington, California *Farmington, Connecticut *Farmington, Delaware * Farmington, Georgia * ...

. During her high school years, she was a cheerleader and student valedictorian. Winblad earned her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in Mathematics and in Business Administration from

St. Catherine University St. Catherine University (St. Kate's) is a private Catholic university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was established as one of the first institutions of higher learning specifically for women in the Midwest and was known as the College of St. C ...

and her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Education from the

University of St. Thomas St. Thomas University or University of St. Thomas may refer to: *Saint Thomas Aquinas University, Colombia *Saint Thomas Aquinas University of the North, Tucumán province, Argentina *St. Thomas University (Canada), Fredericton, New Brunswick *St. ...

in St. Paul, Minnesota. She received the John F. Cade Award for outstanding entrepreneurship in 1997. With her master's degree, Winblad joined the

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

where she worked for 13 months.

Career

After earning her graduate degree, Winblad and three co-workers left the Federal Reserve to found Open Systems Inc. The accounting software company was eventually sold for over $15 million six years later. After the company was sold, Winblad became a tech consultant from IBM and Microsoft; she also invested in Microsoft. In 1989, Winblad and

John Hummer John Hummer (born May 4, 1948) is an American venture capitalist and retired professional basketball player who was an original member of the Buffalo Braves after starring for the Princeton Tigers men's basketball team. He also led his high scho ...

co-founded the venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. It took nearly two years, however, to raise enough funds to launch it, with IBM and

The St. Paul Companies The Travelers Companies, Inc., commonly known as Travelers, is an American insurance company. It is the second-largest writer of U.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer of U.S. personal insurance through indepen ...

as primary investors. In its fledgling years, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners launched 16 startups. In 2000, Winblad was inducted into the Fortune Small Business Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Winblad is the ex-girlfriend of

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

. She met Gates at a Ben Rosen-

Esther Dyson Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951) is a Swiss-born American investor, journalist, author, commentator and philanthropist. She is the executive founder of Wellville, a nonprofit project focused on improving equitable wellbeing. Dyson is also an ang ...

computer conference in 1984 and they dated until 1987. They have remained friends ever since. When Bill Gates was to marry

Melinda Gates Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French; August 15, 1964) is an American philanthropist and former multimedia product developer and manager at Microsoft. French Gates has consistently been ranked as one of the world's most powerful women ...

, he had an arrangement with her that he and Winblad could keep one vacation tradition alive from their dating years. Every spring, as they had done for over a decade, Gates would spend a long weekend with Winblad at her beach cottage on the

Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, where they would ride dune buggies, hang-glide, walk on the beach, and share their thoughts about the world and themselves.

Honors

*2017 Award for Exemplary Women honoree. *SVForum Visionary AwardSVForum
, 1999 Visionary Awards.

References

Bibliography

* Lambert, Laura. (2005). "Ann Winblad." in ''The Internet: A Historical Encyclopedia. Part 1, Biographies.'' Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 238–242. {{DEFAULTSORT:Winblad, Ann 1950 births Living people American computer businesspeople University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) alumni St. Catherine University alumni