Steve Foster '84 is a Managing Director of SF Advisors, which invests in and advises early stage startups in energy and information technology. He also serves as a Venture Partner at 40 North Ventures (backed by Standard Industries) and Piva Ventures (backed by Petronas).
Steve brings over 30 years of technology and energy experience including 20 years in private equity and venture capital. He was most recently a Managing Partner at ClearSky Power and Technology Fund, a $275m fund focused on energy technology.
Prior to ClearSky, Steve was a partner with Altira Group, an energy focused venture capital fund based in Denver, CO. Steve also spent ten years with TPG (formerly Texas Pacific Group) helping to start their venture capital and growth equity funds. Prior to TPG, Steve was a partner with Crosspoint Venture Partners. Prior to joining Crosspoint, Steve led business development at 3Com and held several roles at Hewlett Packard.
Previous exits include Greensmith Energy Management Systems (sold to Wartsila). FusionIO (IPO then acquired by SanDisk) and LineRate (acquired by F5). Prior investments include Optium (IPO then acquired by Finisar), Cloudshield Technologies (acquired by SAIC), Sierra Logic (acquired by Emulex), Aristos Logic (acquired by Adaptec), Chromatis (acquired by Lucent), Juniper Networks (NASDAQ: JNPR), and Xtreme Networks (NASDAQ: EXTR).
Steve holds a Master in Management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Bachelor degree in Accounting from Santa Clara University.
He lectures on Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship at Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management and Santa Clara University. In addition, Steve mentors social entrepreneurs through the Miller Center at SCU. He serves on the Technical Advisory Board of CalSeed.