Advisory Council
Bud Colligan
Co-Founder and Chair Emeritus, Pacific Community Ventures
Bud Colligan is Founder and CEO of South Swell Ventures, a private investment firm in Santa Cruz, CA, and partner at Accel Partners, a global venture capital firm. Bud sits on the board of directors of lynda.com and Yodlee and is an investor in and adviser to Days of Wonder, Wheelhouse and NextSpace. Bud was an investor and Board Member at CNET Networks, acquired by CBS (NYSE: CBS); Brightmail, acquired by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC); and S3 Corporation, acquired by Via Technologies (TSE: 2388.tw). In 2013, Bud was honored as an Outstanding Director by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and San Francisco Business Times.
Prior to Accel, Bud co-founded Macromedia in 1992 through a merger of Authorware and Macromind-Paracomp. Bud headed Authorware as President and CEO from 1989-92. At Macromedia, Bud served as CEO from 1992-97 (taking the company public on NASDAQ in December 1993), and as Chairman until July 1998. During Bud’s tenure, Macromedia grew from a start-up to over $100 million in revenue. In 1996, Bud was named Software Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young. In 2005, Macromedia was acquired by Adobe Systems for $3.4 billion.
Prior to Macromedia, Bud worked at Apple Computer’s Macintosh division from 1983-85, where he assisted in the launch and development of the ground-breaking Macintosh personal computer. From 1985-88, Bud headed Apple’s higher education marketing, and grew this strategic market for Apple to more than a half-billion dollars in three years. Bud funded and sponsored Apple’s visionary Knowledge Navigator, which premiered at Educom in 1987.
Bud is Co-Founder, past Chairman and current Chairman Emeritus of Pacific Community Ventures, an organization focused on providing capital and venture services to entrepreneurs in low income areas throughout California. PCV was recognized in 2007 by the faculties of UCLA and UC Berkeley as one of the “25 brilliant California ideas of the last quarter century.” Bud is also a member of the board of trustees of Universal Giving, which connects volunteers and donors with international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), is past Chairman of the board of directors of JobTrain, a community-based job training center, and serves on the Leadership Council of Opportunity Fund, California’s leading micro-finance provider. In 2002, Bud was a finalist for the Thomas W. Ford Award for community service.
Bud served six years on the Board of Regents of Georgetown University (2003-09), and currently sits on the Board of Visitors for Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. In 2008, Bud co-founded, is past President and current board member of the Georgetown Technology Alliance, which connects Georgetown alumni and parents around technology and biotech issues in Silicon Valley. As a student, Bud led Students of Georgetown, Inc. (“The Corp”) for the 1973/74 academic year and founded Vital Vittles, which is today the centerpiece of one of the largest student owned and operated businesses on any campus nationwide. In 2013, Bud received Georgetown’s highest alumni honor, The John Carroll Award.
Bud has been featured in The New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Business Week, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Business Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, California Magazine, Georgetown University’s Witness to History Series, and many other publications.
Bud graduated cum laude Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University in 1976 with a BSFS in International Economics. In 1983, Bud received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.