Federman, Irwin oral history | 102738152

Description

Irwin Federman grew up in a poor household of Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, NY. His mother died in his teen years, which forced him to work while going to school to contribute to the household finances. He attended Brooklyn College, because it was local and free. He continued to work full-time while earning a BS in Economics in 1956.
Irwin married shortly thereafter and took a job with S. D. Leidesdorf & Co., the leading accounting firm in the NYC at the time. Although he was quite successful in the firm, he decided his long-term prospects in New York were not to his liking and he decided to move to San Francisco to test his fortunes there. This turned out to be a good move, as he was quickly hired by a local accounting firm. By 1961, he felt there some exciting things happening a few miles south in what became Silicon Valley. As a result, he placed an ad and found a job working for a technology company, Optics Technology.
As soon as he accepted this new position, his Army Reserve unit was activated, and he had to serve on active duty for the next 18 months. Upon his return, he was able to take his job at Optics, where he stayed until the early 1970’s, at which point he and two friends decided to start their own company. That company did only modestly well and was eventually sold.
As his startup was winding down, he was hired as CFO of Monolithic Memories. When the company ran into production and financial trouble, he was promoted to CEO. Although he was not a technologist, he was able to marshall the remaining resources of the company, changed the culture, fixed the manufacturing issues and returned the company to profitability. The company continued to grow under his leadership and was eventually sold to Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for $400M+.
He subsequently moved into venture capital – first with Dillon, Read & Co, then with US Venture Partners. Joining USVP in 1990, he and his partner, Phil Young, turned around this struggling firm and turned it into one of the leading venture firms in Silicon Valley. Federman is currently senior advisor to the firm.
Irwin served two terms as Chairman of the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association and also served on the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association. He serves as a trustee of San Francisco Ballet, Brooklyn College and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Date

2016-05-24

Contributor

Dennis, Eric, Camera person

Federman, Irwin, Interviewee

Hendrie, Gardner, Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Menlo Park, CA

Extent

50 p.

Format

PDF

Subject

USVP; US Venture Partners; Dillon, Read & Co.; Monolithic Memories, Inc. (MMI); AMD; Moore, Gordon; Bowers, Ann; Noyce, Robert; Programmable Array Logic (PAL); Birkner, John; Chua, H. T.; Young, Phil

Collection Title

CHM oral history collection

Credit

Computer History Museum

Lot Number

X7811.2016

Artifact Details

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