Ken Goldman – On the Tech Industry, Board Roles/Lessons, and Running Eric & Wendy Schmidt’s Family Office

The Bob Johnston Podcast

My second guest of the new season is Ken Goldman, who currently serves as President of Hillspire, which is Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s family office. Eric, of course, being the former executive chairman of Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Ken is widely known in Silicon Valley and the broader business world, as well, having served as CFO of Yahoo, Fortinet, Siebel, and currently sits on a number of corporate, startup and non-profit boards.

Ken and I cover his high school days in Peabody, Mass. – where only 25% of his graduating class went to college, yet he managed his way to Cornell through grit and a competitive spirit – to his time at Cornell and Harvard Business School, and why he chose the technology industry as a career path at a time when it was an outlier. We also discuss why picking the right place to work when first starting out can make a huge difference (and the advice he gave his kids on this front).

Ken also provides his views on why Silicon Valley is still a meritocracy (hint: there’s a lot of money around for the right ideas) and industries where he feels entrepreneurs should consider creating new companies, such as the political arena. As a longtime observer of the political sector, I agree completely. Of note, there are nearly 100 “decacorns” roaming around – unicorns with over $10Bn in value – and this number is growing every quarter. As such, Ken discusses his own investment philosophy as an angel investor as well as the focus at Hillspire, ranging from environment to human rights to non-profits.

Finally, Ken and I dig into the notion of ethical businesses (and the importance of transparency with your boards), the non-profits that he’s involved in…what’s on his browser (fun fact: he’s a big weather buff)...and more.

PS: You’ll notice a trend with Ken and the conversation with my first guest of the season a few weeks ago, Mark Hawkins – both Ken and Mark have developed a widely respected personal and business ethos and have imbued this ethos in their teams, industry peers, and startups in which they invest. Dissecting this ethos is an overarching theme in both podcasts. Ken and Mark are leaders to whom other leaders look up. Lots of great learnings!

Ken’s Bio

Ken Goldman is the current president of Hillspire, a family office responsible for financial and administrative functions, along with real estate, aviation and maritime activities.
Goldman is the former chief financial officer of Yahoo. He joined Yahoo in 2012 and throughout his five-year tenure was responsible for Yahoo’s global finance functions, including financial planning and analysis, controllership, tax, treasury and investor relations.