Episode 18: Following A Stellar Career in Silicon Valley, An Exec Turns His Attention to Address Homelessness
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“I think that one of the things that keeps me engaged with life is learning and having new experiences. And quite frankly, I knew - we all can see, in front of us, visible signs of the homeless problem. You can travel anywhere in the Western United States and see plenty of visible signs of it. But getting below that photograph of the blue tarps and the tents and people wandering parks, and city sidewalks, and rivers, and places like that, getting below that just drew me in because the more I thought about and the more I read about some of the problems and issues, the more I realized that this is not only a very serious problem for many municipalities, but it is a serious problem for society.”
About the Interview
Ron Codd contributed to a series of “home run” Silicon Valley success stories, including being the CFO during the IPO of PeopleSoft, among his many accomplishments. Since moving to Northern Nevada, Ron has focused on addressing the homelessness crisis in that region. In this interview, Ron explains what he has learned and how he thinks we can better address homelessness. While not about investing in the traditional sense, this interview is part of our “table stakes” series, namely, problems we must address for any investment program to succeed in the long term.
Ron Codd
Capital Campaign Committee Member Nevada Cares Campus
Ron is an independent consultant and corporate director with over 35 years of experience working with high technology, high growth firms in financial and general management roles.
Ron has a Masters in Management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, graduating with honors and an emphasis in Finance and Management Information Systems. He also earned a B.S. in Business from the University of California, Berkeley with an emphasis in accounting. He has earned the following credentials: Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Managerial Accountant (CMA), and Certified Production and Inventory Management (CPIM). Of note, Ron received the Robert Beyer Gold Medal award in 1982 for achieving the highest score in the nation on the CMA exam. He was previously a member of the adjunct faculty of Golden Gate University both early in his career and later in his career. He has taught both finance and accounting courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Ron presently serves on the boards and audit committees of two public companies, FireEye, Inc, and Veeva Systems, Inc. He is the Audit Chair of Veeva Systems, and also serves on one or more other committees at each company including Compensation, Nom Gov and M&A committees. Previously Ron has served on over eighteen other boards including Agile Software, Inc., Data Domain, Inc., DemandTec, Inc., Interwoven, Inc. RocketFuel, Inc. ServiceNow, Inc. and Adept Technology, Inc. He commenced his board activities with ephiphany.com in 1997 and is now in his 25th year of board service. Ron is presently serving as a co-chair of Montreux Cares Committee, a philanthropic committee of the Montreux Golf and Country Club. He is also on the Washoe County committee focused on raising private donations for the Nevada Cares Campus, a new large community-based facility serving those who are presently homeless. Previously, he has also served on the board of the Mt Diablo Habitat for Humanity, a SF Bay area affiliate organization of Habitat for Humanity, International. He served there for 5 years and led various fund-raising events as well as provided financial oversite and advice to the Managing Director. He also participated in various construction projects there.
