Artifact Details

Title

Bertelsen, Mark oral history

Catalog Number

102740324

Type

Document

Description

Raised in Palo Alto from age two, Mark attended U C Santa Barbara and has remained good friends with fellow Palo Alto student Reese Duca who became a well-known venture capitalist (e.g. Learning Company). After an Army stint, he joined the young firm that soon would be known as Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, and Rosati—as the world of high-tech legal work moved to what soon would be called Silicon Valley. He describes the thrill of early assignments, truly asked to do important work rather than gopher work, and the associated learning it gave.

Eventually becoming the effective COO for the firm, Bertelsen describes how the firm was able to attract and retain Apple, ROLM, and many others early. He also describes his own IPO and underwriter history, starting with Tymshare, ROLM, LSI Logic, and moving on to Silicon Graphics, Cisco, and Amazon among many others. Bertelsen estimated that the firm has now done (by 2018) some 1,500 underwritings, half of them IPOs, and total valuation of $150 Billion.
He later cited Netflix and Tesla as well as Autodesk, Netscape, and Software Publishing (SPC).

Bertelsen then discusses the University of California system, and the role it has played and needs to continue for Californians. He is on the Board of Trustees for U C Santa Barbara and also on the Boalt Law School board at U.C. Berkeley. He closes with some strong personal history from his Norwegian ancestry.

Date

2018-04-24

Contributor

Bertelsen, Mark, Interviewee

House, Chuck, Interviewer

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, CA, USA

Extent

27 p.

Format

PDF

Subject

Duca, Reese; McCloskey, Pete; Wilson, John; Sonsini, Larry; Rosati, Mario; Tymshare; Unilever; Pertec; Advent Software; UC Santa Barbara; Boalt Law School

Collection Title

Oral History Collection

Credit