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Adam Sterling: The Independent Director Initiative.
Description
0:00 -- Intro.
1:23 -- Start of interview.
3:32 -- Adam's "origin story". He grew up in southern California where he attended UCSD and graduated from UCLA. In college he became an activist focusing on the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and developed a "targeted divestment" model. After college he became a social entrepreneur based in Washington, DC.
4:06 -- His decision to pursue a JD/MBA from UC Berkeley. While in grad school "he fell in love with the startup tech scene" and during business school he tried to start his own startup but that's where he learned that "it doesn't matter how good your idea is when you don't have a good team and good execution." He then joined Gunderson Dettmer as a corporate associate supporting tech founders.
7:14 -- Adam's new role as Assistant Dean for Executive Education and Revenue Generation at UC Berkeley’s School of Law. How his initial work with 500 Startups with the BCLB sparked more executive education programs.
9:24 -- On the origin and mission of The Independent Director Initiative.
12:20 -- What makes corporate governance in private venture-backed companies different to public companies. Explaining VC University (a partnership between Berkeley Law, NVCA and Venture Forward).
15:42 -- The Academic Partners of the Independent Director Initiative:
- Berkeley Law Executive Education;
- Berkeley Law Center for Law and Business;
- Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School;
- UC Davis School of Law;
- UC Hastings Law Center for Business Law;
- Institute for Law & Economics at the University of Pennsylvania;
- Silicon Valley Executive Center at Santa Clara University;
- Rowling Center at SMU Dedman School of Law;
- Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University;
- Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School; and
- Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law & Policy at UCLA School of Law.
- University of Washington School of Law
The Organizational Partners of the Independent Director Initiative: