Claire Lee
Global Ambassador | GIC
Global Brand Ambassador | SVB Capital
California
Claire is the first Global Brand Ambassador at SVB Capital, having led SVB's early stage startup group from 2014 to 2020. In her new role, Claire will increase awareness of our platform, bring a global perspective to the investor community, cultivating new relationships and partnerships within the Limited Partner community to support SVB Capital Investor Relations.
Claire joined SVB in January 2014 from Microsoft where she spent a decade working in emerging markets, with emerging technologies and emerging businesses (startups). She co-created and led the Local Software Economy initiative with the Chairman of Microsoft Europe, engaging government, academia and private sector partners.
Later, in Microsoft’s Emerging Business group, Claire was part of the team that brought Microsoft BizSpark and Microsoft Ventures (now Microsoft for Startups) to market. In 2011, she moved to Mountain View, CA. and now resides in Palo Alto with two Labradors and two children.
So far, Claire’s career as an ambassador has taken her to 60 countries, and she lived and worked in 10 of those. Passionate about education and inclusion, about global affairs and about democratizing access to capital and opportunity, Claire has served as a mentor to groups such as Seedcamp and Astia, university programs, accelerators and corporates.
As a long-standing advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Global Partnerships, Claire and partners in industry landed the very first DEMO Africa event under the leadership of Secretary Clinton.
Claire also worked with the White House during the Obama administration and was part of President Obama’s delegation to Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015 – later going on to be a core partner in Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held at Stanford in 2016 with the President, notable leaders like Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, and inspiring entrepreneurs from 140 countries.
Claire sits on the board of directors of the FreeFrom organization – a group devoted to supporting victims of domestic violence – and is an active donor to programs that enable more girls access education, more women in politics, and gender parity as a whole. Born in Dublin, Claire’s career began with IBM in Ireland. She almost completed a Bachelors of Music at Trinity but pivoted as the life of a struggling artist didn’t appeal.
Claire joined SVB in January 2014 from Microsoft where she spent a decade working in emerging markets, with emerging technologies and emerging businesses (startups). She co-created and led the Local Software Economy initiative with the Chairman of Microsoft Europe, engaging government, academia and private sector partners.
Later, in Microsoft’s Emerging Business group, Claire was part of the team that brought Microsoft BizSpark and Microsoft Ventures (now Microsoft for Startups) to market. In 2011, she moved to Mountain View, CA. and now resides in Palo Alto with two Labradors and two children.
So far, Claire’s career as an ambassador has taken her to 60 countries, and she lived and worked in 10 of those. Passionate about education and inclusion, about global affairs and about democratizing access to capital and opportunity, Claire has served as a mentor to groups such as Seedcamp and Astia, university programs, accelerators and corporates.
As a long-standing advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Office of Global Partnerships, Claire and partners in industry landed the very first DEMO Africa event under the leadership of Secretary Clinton.
Claire also worked with the White House during the Obama administration and was part of President Obama’s delegation to Nairobi, Kenya, in 2015 – later going on to be a core partner in Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held at Stanford in 2016 with the President, notable leaders like Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, and inspiring entrepreneurs from 140 countries.
Claire sits on the board of directors of the FreeFrom organization – a group devoted to supporting victims of domestic violence – and is an active donor to programs that enable more girls access education, more women in politics, and gender parity as a whole. Born in Dublin, Claire’s career began with IBM in Ireland. She almost completed a Bachelors of Music at Trinity but pivoted as the life of a struggling artist didn’t appeal.
Affiliations
