Steve Westly

Steven Paul Westly (born August 27, 1956) is an American venture capitalist, entrepreneur, educator, and politician.

Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Westly received an A.B. in history from Stanford University in 1978, where he served as student body co-president.

A member of the Democratic Party, Westly worked for Congressman Leo Ryan in 1978 as his first job out of college.

Later that year, after Ryan's death on foreign soil at the hands of the Peoples Temple cult, he worked in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Solar and Conservation under President Jimmy Carter until 1980.

After working in the Carter Administration, he joined the California Public Utilities Commission as Special Assistant to CPUC President John Bryson.

While at CPUC, Westly had two books published on renewable energy and the future of the utility industry.

At age 23 in 1981, he was elected as Northern Treasurer of the California Democratic Party, the youngest party officer ever.

He received an M.B.A. from Stanford's Graduate School of Business in 1983.

In 1983, Westly became the New Business Manager at Sprint Telecommunications.

He was subsequently elected State Controller of the California Democratic Party in 1983, Northern Chair of the California Democratic Party in 1985, and Vice Chair of the California Democratic Party in 1987.

In 1986, he became an investment banker at Valentine and Company (later called Bridgemere Capital) in San Francisco.

In 1988, Westly became President of Codd & Date, a leading relational database consulting & services firm.

Despite that loss, Westly continued his activism within the party by being elected to the Democratic National Committee in 1988, as the highest vote getter, and was reelected in 1992, 1996, and 2000.

In 1989, he was defeated as State Chair of the California Democratic Party by Jerry Brown.

In 1991, Westly became the Deputy Director of the City of San Jose Office of Economic Development and began teaching at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he taught for five years from 1991 to 1995.

Steve Westly also served as a lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business from 1991-1995.

In 1994, he became the Director of Netcom, one of the early large internet service providers and in 1995, became Vice President of WhoWhere?, then the largest Internet directory.

He married Anita Yu (Chinese: 余慧雯), an immigrant from Hong Kong, in 1997.

They have a daughter, Christina, and a son, Matthew.

His brother, Dean Westly, practices law in the Silicon Valley region of Northern California where he advises high tech companies.

Steve Westly is the founding partner of the Westly Group, one of the largest venture funds in North America focused on smart energy, mobility, and buildings.

The Westly Group has 22 of the world's largest energy, water, and transportation companies as investors, and has had nine IPO's including Tesla Motors where Westly served on the Board.

The Westly Group has had three companies go public over $8B valuations in 2021 (SentinelOne at $13; Procore at $12.4B; and Luminar at $8.2B).

The Westly Group has $750M under management and raised its fourth venture fund in December 2021.

In 1997, Westly joined eBay as one of its early executives.

He began as Vice President and subsequently gained the title of Senior Vice President for Marketing, Business Development, and International.

He retired from eBay in 2000 when he and his wife, Anita Yu, established the Steve and Anita Westly Foundation.

Westly ran for California State Controller in 2002 against State Senator Tom McClintock and won by a margin of 22,730 votes (out of 7,258,758 votes cast).

Westly garnered 3,289,839 (45.4%) votes while McClintock won the support of 3,273,028 (45.1%) people.

He was the State Controller of California from 2003 to 2007 and was one of the top candidates in the Democratic primary for Governor of California in the 2006 election.

He was defeated in the Democratic primary by California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who later lost to Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the November 2006 elections.

In February 2007, Westly joined the board of Tesla Motors, a pioneering northern California manufacturer of electric cars.

He is now a Managing Partner and founder of The Westly Group, one of the larger venture funds in the US focusing on smart energy, mobility, and buildings.

The Westly Group has had nine companies go public on NASDAQ including Tesla Motors.

During the 2008 Presidential Election, Westly served as California Campaign Co-chair for Obama for America and also as a member of Obama for America's National Finance Committee.

Westly was briefly considered for a cabinet-level position in the Obama administration.

Currently, Westly is a Managing Partner at The Westly Group, a clean technology venture capital firm which he founded.

Westly was born in Arcadia, California.

He returned to teach a new course at Stanford Business School called “The Policy, Politics, and Finance for Solving Global Warming” in Spring of 2020 and 2021.

In addition to his professional career, Westly has maintained a concurrent career in the Democratic Party.