Mark Leslie, who was the founding chairman and CEO of Veritas Software, is currently the managing director of Leslie Ventures, is a Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and serves on a number of public, private and non-profit boards.

Mark Leslie: A True BUILD Supporter

Mark Leslie, one of Silicon Valley’s leaders, is a key supporter of BUILD. He first heard about BUILD from a teacher at East Palo Alto High School. That teacher was very impressed and recommended it as a high impact program. Mr. Leslie’s family foundation was looking for grant-making opportunities in the area of education, and through the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley he learned a little more about BUILD and found that it matched his family foundation’s goals.

Mr. Leslie says that he has learned from his experience with nonprofits. He states that they tend to be very much a function of their leader – the successful ones have a leader who is very energetic and charismatic. He saw that BUILD had a very intelligent, dedicated, charismatic and exceptional leader in Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, and she inspired him to get involved with BUILD. Mr. Leslie visited BUILD headquarters when it also housed the Peninsula incubator, and he was impressed by the students’ enthusiasm and energy – it was very obvious to him that the students loved being in BUILD. He was so inspired by his visit that he signed up to be a BPC judge in 2005.

As an interested donor he meets regularly with Suzanne and was one of the people that influenced her to expand locally as well as nationally. He was delighted with the news of the opening of BUILD’s DC office. He goes on to say, “The bigger the footprint, the bigger the impact.”

To the BUILD students, he has this advice:
You have a great opportunity in BUILD, the ability to change your life in a positive way. Take it seriously and this will last a lifetime – what you learn here will be with you forever.


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