12.17.2013

Jim Breyer

Jim is passionate about investing, social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy, contemporary and modern art, photography, film, wine, and music. He actively supports numerous educational and environmental non-profit initiatives. In February, 2013, Jim was elected a fellow of the Harvard Corporation, Harvard University’s senior governing board.
Jim is a Partner at Accel and is the Founder/CEO of Breyer Capital, an investment and venture philanthropy firm. Jim has been an investor in over 30 consumer Internet, media, and technology companies that have completed public offerings or successful mergers. Several of these investments returned over 100 times their initial cost and many of these investments have returned over 25 times their cost to investors. In 2013, 2012 and 2011, Forbes ranked Jim #1 in its Midas List of top technology investors. Fortune Magazine also named Jim the #1 smartest investor in technology, and one of the 10 smartest people in all of technology. In October, 2012, Jim was named to the Vanity Fair New Establishment Hall of Fame, and in June, 2012, he received the Silicon Valley Lifetime Visionary Award. In December, 2012, he was named AlwaysOn Venture Capitalist of the Year.
Jim led Accel’s investment in Facebook (FB) in April, 2005, and served on the Board of Directors from 2005 until June, 2013. He was also the founding Chairman of the Facebook Compensation Committee. Jim served on the board of directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc (WMT) for more than a decade where he was the lead/presiding independent director until his recent departure from the board in June, 2013. He also served on the board of Dell Inc (DELL) since 2009. In October, 2011, Jim was elected to the board of News Corporation (NWS) where his focus has been on the 20th Century Fox film studios and digital/Internet strategies. In June, 2013, Jim became a member of the board of 21st Century Fox where he is Chairman of the Compensation Committee, and a member of the Nominating Committee. Previously, Jim served on the board of Brightcove (BCOV), where he invested in the Series A round in 2005, as well as Model N (MODN) where he also was a founding investor/board member. Jim also served on the board of Marvel Entertainment (MVL) up until their acquisition by Disney (DIS), and he was founding Chairman of Marvel’s Strategic Planning Committee.
Jim is currently the lead/co-lead Investor/Director in several privately-held companies such as Etsy (since 2008), and Legendary Pictures.
Jim is co-founder, and on the Strategic Investment Committee/Board of IDG-Accel China Funds and Accel-KKR, and was a Founding Insight Partner of Technology Crossover Investors (TCV). Earlier, Jim worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in New York, and in product marketing and management at Apple, Inc. and Hewlett Packard.
Jim is a former Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, and a former President of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a member of the Harvard University Global Advisory Council, and on the Board of the Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School, and former Chairman of the Harvard Business School California Research Center. He also serves as Chairman of the Stanford University Engineering Venture Fund, is on the board of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program; Epicenter, the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation.
He is a long-time Trustee of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), and on the Board of Advisors to the Chair of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In December 2005, Jim was appointed an Honorary Professor at the 1,000 year-old Yuelu Academy, Hunan University, China.
Jim graduated with Distinction from Stanford University with a BS and from Harvard University with an MBA, where he was named a Baker Scholar (top 5% of class).

Recent Milestones

Investments

Company Date Round Size Participants
Circle Internet Financial 110/2013Series A$9M3
Clinkle 26/2013Seed$25M20
Prismatic 312/2012Series A$15M2
Artsy 411/2010Angel$1.25M16

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