Linda Yates is the founder and CEO of Mach49, the growth incubator for global businesses. She is a seasoned CEO with over thirty years of experience creating global strategy, building companies, and driving innovation for large multinationals worldwide. A native of Silicon Valley, Linda has an extensive local and global network. She has been a bridge between Silicon Valley and the boardrooms and C-suites of large multinational corporations throughout her career. < p/>
She launched Mach49 as the first Silicon Valley incubator/accelerator focused on helping global enterprises leverage their talent, ideas, brands, assets, competencies, capital, and customers to drive meaningful growth. Whether disrupting inside out — launching ventures, building venture factories, and seizing the Mothership advantage — or disrupting outside in — building world-class corporate venture funds, helping senior executives operate as top-tier VCs, maximizing the partnership value of external startups, and providing M&A support &mdash Linda helps global enterprises beat the startups at their own game. Focused 100 percent on execution, she is committed to developing clients' capability to create a pipeline and portfolio of new ventures on their own for the long term.
Linda spent a decade as a member of the board of directors for the NYSE-traded Sybase Inc. (now SAP) and has been a board member and advisor to many entrepreneurs and private companies. She was CEO of Strategos, pioneering the field of corporate innovation with the cofounder and chair, professor Gary Hamel. Prior to Strategos, Linda spent six years with the Mac Group/Gemini, where she was head of the San Francisco office and co-head of the high-tech practice on the West Coast and, later, Europe (based in Amsterdam). Her career began with two years at Smith Barney in corporate finance and M&A.
Linda has extensive global experience, having lived in, worked in, or traveled to over seventy countries. She is a Henry Crown Fellow with the Aspen Institute. She is an environmental activist who, with her best friend and husband, Paul Holland, built Tah.Mah.Lah, considered the greenest home in the United States. She holds an BA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia and an MA in international relations and comparative politics from Stanford University, where she guest lectures, She and Paul are blessed to have three amazing daughters, Kylie, Devon and Piper.
The Unicorn Within: How Companies Can Create Game-Changing Ventures at Startup Speed