James G. Treybig is the founder of

Tandem Computers Tandem Computers, Inc. was the dominant manufacturer of fault-tolerant computer systems for Automated teller machine, ATM networks, banks, stock exchanges, telephone switching centers, 911 systems, and other similar commercial transaction proc ...

, which designed and manufactured the first

fault tolerant Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to maintain proper operation despite failures or faults in one or more of its components. This capability is essential for high-availability, mission-critical, or even life-critical systems. Fault t ...

computers, in 1974. These pioneering computers were marketed to

transaction processing In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations called ''transactions''. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it can never be only partially c ...

customers, who used them for ATMs, banks, stock exchanges, phone companies, 911 and military applications.

Early life and education

Treybig grew up in

Bellaire, Texas Bellaire is a city in southwestern Harris County, Texas, United States, within the metropolitan area.. Retrieved on January 24, 2010. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city population was 17,202. It is surrounded by th ...

, and attended Bellaire High School from 1956 to 1959. He then went to

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, where he received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in 1963 and a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1964; following that he went to

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it has been the most selective ...

, where he earned an MBA in 1968.

Career

Treybig's first job after graduating from Rice was as a salesman for

Texas Instruments Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American multinational semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It is one of the top 10 semiconductor companies worldwide based on sales volume. The company's focus is on developing analog ...

. After receiving his MBA, he worked for

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

(HP) in 1968, serving as marketing section manager on the

HP 3000 The HP 3000 series is a family of 16-bit computing, 16-bit and 32-bit computing, 32-bit minicomputers from Hewlett-Packard. It was designed to be the first minicomputer with full support for time-sharing in the hardware and the operating system, ...

project, the first commercial minicomputer with a full featured operating system with

time-sharing In computing, time-sharing is the Concurrency (computer science), concurrent sharing of a computing resource among many tasks or users by giving each Process (computing), task or User (computing), user a small slice of CPU time, processing time. ...

, released in 1973. In 1973, he joined

Kleiner Perkins Kleiner Perkins, formerly Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), is an American venture capital firm which specializes in investing in incubation, early stage and growth companies. Since its founding in 1972, the firm has backed entrepreneur ...

venture capital company. In 1974, he founded

, funded in part by Kleiner Perkins. Treybig served as CEO of Tandem Computers from 1974 to 1996. The business plan included detailed ideas for building a corporate culture reflecting Treybig's values, such as paid six week sabbaticals every four years for all employees, an annual gift of 100 shares of Tandem stock to all employees, a weekly all-employee party, and a world-wide closed circuit monthly telecast to keep employees informed. Under his leadership, Tandem delivered its first product in 1976, first issued public stock in 1977, and in 1980 was ranked by ''Inc.'' magazine as the fastest-growing public company in America. When Treybig left the company in 1996, Tandem was a $2.3 billion company employing approximately 8,000 people worldwide. He was succeeded by Roel Pieper. Tandem was acquired by

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

in 1997, and Compaq was merged with Hewlett-Packard in 2002. The product line was later merged into Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) when HP split.

Awards

Upside Magazine recognized Treybig as one of the 100 people who changed the world and The Silicon Valley Forum awarded him the Visionary Award of Silicon Valley Pioneers in 2002. Both Harvard University (1981) and Stanford University (1980) recognized him with their Entrepreneur of the Year awards. The Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’Rith awarded him the “Torch of Liberty Award” for outstanding service to the community (1983).

Post Tandem

Treybig was then briefly associated with

Austin Ventures Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus on ...

; and in August 2002, he became a venture partner at

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...

, an association that continues to the present. Treybig was featured in the documentary film ''

Something Ventured ''Something Ventured'' is a 2011 documentary film investigating the emergence of American venture capitalism in the mid-20th century. The film follows the stories of the venture capitalists who worked with entrepreneurs to start and build compan ...

'', which premiered in 2011.

Personal life

Treybig lives in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, and is active on

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

(

6-meter band The 6-meter band is the lowest portion of the very high frequency (VHF) radio spectrum (50.000-54.000 MHz) internationally allocated to amateur radio use. The term refers to the average signal wavelength of 6 meters. Although located in ...

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

W6JKV), a hobby he has enjoyed since high school.Jim Treybig's W6JKV website
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References

External links

Jimmy Treybig: NEA Bio
– New Enterprise Associates venture capital firm
More about Jimmy Treybig
– Jimmy Treybig website {{DEFAULTSORT:Treybig, James Amateur radio people Rice University alumni Living people American company founders 1940 births