Jerry Fiddler

Jerry Fiddler has helped create and grow numerous companies, as CEO, chairman, director, investor, educator, and advisor. He is the founder of Wind River and was for 23 years its CEO and Chairman. Established in 1981 in Fiddler’s Berkeley garage, Wind River grew to become the leading provider of device software worldwide, with over $450M in annual sales, and market cap well over $1B. Its operating systems control many millions of devices, from the commonplace (digital cameras, routers) to the mission critical (anti-lock brakes, defibrillators, nuclear plants, submarines) to the exotic (all the Mars Rovers and landers). While at Wind River, Fiddler gained an international reputation as an expert in the design and implementation of real-time systems, and an early pioneer in the internet of things. Wind River(Nasdaq:WIND) went public in 1993 and was acquired by Intel in 2009. After leaving Wind River in 2003, Fiddler became an angel investor and adviser, helping to create and fund numerous startups. He founded and became the principal of Zygote Ventures, which funds early-stage startups. He was chairman of Solazyme(Nasdaq:SZYM), the first biotech that used algae to create oil and foods, and served as a board director to numerous other companies in tech and biotech. He also acts as a “mentor” with several other venture funds, helping various companies and executives. He has worked actively both with students and in an advisory capacity at several universities, including University of California/Berkeley, Stanford, Wharton, and University of Illinois. He was Foundation Capital executive-in-residence, and adjunct professor at UC Berkeley, teaching entrepreneurship in the school of engineering. He served on the UC President’s advisory board on science and innovation, the foundation board of Chabot Space & Science Center, and is a trustee of The California Jazz Conservatory, and (emeritus) the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. Fiddler created his own unique path while completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He studied five different undergrad majors and finished with a double major in music and photography, followed by an MS in computer science. This led him to create The Jerry Fiddler Innovation Endowment Fund at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to foster those who have interests and passions that don’t fit within any existing major or school. While at New Trier West, Jerry was a middle-of-the-pack student, though he was photo-editor of the yearbook in 1969. He was only suspended once, for ditching a class to fly a kite on campus, which was totally worth it! Among his many wonderful teachers, he particularly loved Mr. Zibart (advisory and English) and Dave Curry (photography). He still plays and composes music, and does photography. Both can be seen on his web site.