Penelope Douglas, President, Silicon Valley Community Ventures

Penelope Douglas became the first president of Silicon Valley Community Ventures January 4, 1999. Douglas comes to SVCV with significant experience in business, as well as a track record of leadership in community-based organizations. Douglas has a strong reputation for leadership which is focused on creativity and human resources in conjunction with bottom line results.

Before joining SVCV, Douglas was senior vice president at Odwalla, Inc. Her responsibilities included marketing, human resources, communications, strategic planning, and legal matters. Douglas also served as the head of the company's crisis response team during their association with an outbreak of food-borne illness in the fall of 1996, and served as a central figure during their reemergence efforts. Previously, Douglas was chief administrative officer at Morrison & Foerster, and chair of the Morrison & Foerster Foundation. She was responsible for administration and operations of the firm's thirteen offices worldwide, as well as for the marketing, information resources, education and development, and human resources functions. During her tenure, Morrison & Foerster won the Catalyst Award for the firm's work on the retention and advancement of women. Douglas has also held senior management positions at Ernst & Young and Wells Fargo Bank. For the last fifteen years, Douglas has been involved with community-based non-profit organizations, serving as chair of Larkin Street Youth Center and founding chair of Ju-ma Ventures, a spin-off which develops businesses providing employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth. She is currently chair of the Children's Television Education and Resource Center, a developer of school curricula and interactive products aimed at developing pro-social skills in children. Douglas has also just been named chair of San Francisco Friends of the Urban Forest, which works to develop the urban forest through tree planting and maintenance, education and job training for youth.