See Perkins live, in person, when he delivers the opening keynote address.
Since its inception, the NACF has been an active supporter of variety of Norwegian cultural activities in the Bay Area including Norway Day, Munch exhibit, Grieg jubilee, Jan Garbarek concerts, Roald Amundsen monument, Vebjørn Sand exbhibit, Northwest Passage Festival, The History of Norwegian Ski Jumping, Norwegian Instant Art, and many more.
Tom Perkins, one of Silicon Valley’s most noted venture capitalists and chairman of the board of the Norwegian American Cultural Foundation (NACF), will present the festival’s keynote opening address on Saturday morning.
The NACF was founded in 1993, with the objective of providing financial support for Norwegian cultural activities promoted by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General located in San Francisco.
Perkins’ Bio
Tom Perkins is one of Silicon Valley's pioneers, with a career spanning entrepreneurship, the management of major corporate activities and most importantly, venture capital. In 1972 he formed America’s premiere venture capital business with co-founder Eugene Kleiner. The partnership and the follow-on Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers series of partnerships have created some of the most interesting and innovative businesses in the world.
Prior to Kleiner Perkins, he started a company in the mid-1960’s (University Laboratories) to manufacture lasers based upon his original inventions in optics. The company was successful and merged into Spectra-Physics becoming a major part of that firm’s growth. Later he was the first General Manager of the Hewlett Packard Company’s computer divisions and is credited with establishing the foundation for the enormous growth which that business has enjoyed.
Tom Perkins is a graduate of MIT in Electronic Engineering and Harvard University in Business Administration. He has been a director of the following companies: Acuson (Chairman), Applied Materials, Compaq Computer, Corning Glass Works, Genentech (Chairman), Hewlett Packard Company, Hybritech, LSI Logic, Philips Electronics NV, Spectra-Physics, Symantec and Tandem Computers (Chairman). He is currently a director of News Corporation.
He is the author of a satirical novel “Sex and the Single Zillionaire” published in hardcover by Harper Collins in February ’06 – paperback ’07 and “Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins” published in hardcover by Gotham (division of Penguin) in November ’07 – paperback October ’08.
He is the designer and former owner of the world’s largest privately owned sailing yacht, named the Maltese Falcon which is the first “clipper yacht,” or fully automated square rigger. This vessel, which has been on the front cover of over twenty yachting magazines, is considered to be a pioneering break-through.