As a background, I joined SVB upon graduating from Santa Clara University, my first month on the job was November 2001.  For those who recall, this was a terrible time for our country, we had the stock market collapse in March/April 2000 and was followed up by the tragic events of September 11, 2001.  The Bay Area economy was in terrible shape as the market downturn impacted tech companies, which was the main driver of local jobs.

Fortunately, SVB one of few companies that was actively hiring.  Ruth Ann Haro (RIP – a wonderful Woman & Mother & SVBer) took a chance on me and that was the beginning of my great experience here.  (See the picture on left of my first business card at SVB)

As I look back at my time at SVB, WE accomplished so many things:

• We opened offices in four global markets: India, China, UK and Israel
• We raised millions of dollars for various non-profits, mostly recently we raised $600K for Best Buddies; the amount time, energy and money that the employees/executives contribute to non-profits is really amazing, other companies should be as active
• One non-profit in particular that we support, BUILD, caught my attention and I volunteered there for four years. I had the chance to positively impact young students and those students also made a positive impact on my life
• Our stock price has gone up from ~$26 to ~$60
• Loans / Deposits grew from $1.7B / $3.2B then to $7.2B / $17.4B now
• We were ranked by Fortune as one of the best places to work
• Most recently, I’m proud of what our NYC office has accomplished, becoming an integral part of the tech community and doubling the number of clients (startups & VC/PE firms) that we support

There were so many colleagues that were a pleasure to work with including nine managers that I had a chance to learn from.  What really got me out of bed though, was working with innovative startups and the investors that support them.  The startup community (globally) is a special one and I can’t see myself ever leaving this ecosystem.