Steven Jonathan Spinner (born July 17, 1969) is an American business executive who is known for his work as an angel investor and adviser to

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Count ...

startups and his volunteer work as a fundraiser for President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. He previously served as a stimulus adviser for the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United Stat ...

and was peripherally associated with the Department of Energy loan to a failed solar company,

Solyndra Solyndra was a manufacturer of cylindrical panels of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin film solar cells based in Fremont, California. Heavily promoted as a leader in the sustainable energy sector for its unusual technology, Solyndra w ...

Education

Spinner was born and grew up in

North Woodmere, New York North Woodmere is an unincorporated hamlet in the Town of Hempstead, New York, located in far western Nassau County on the South Shore of Long Island in the Town of Hempstead. History Prior to its development in the late 1950s, the land st ...

. He received his BA from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the c ...

in 1991, where he majored in economics and classics. At Wesleyan he ran

cross country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

for four years, was elected a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and won the school’s Maynard Award as the top scholar-athlete. He received an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...

in 1996 where he served as Vice President of the Harvard Graduate Council.

Business

Early career and Olympics

After graduating from Wesleyan, Spinner worked in

McKinsey & Company McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...

’s Hong Kong office as a

Henry Luce Scholar A Luce Scholar is a recipient of a cultural exchange and vocational fellowship sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation, a private foundation established by Time, Inc. founder Henry R. Luce. The program Founded in 1974, The Luce Scholars Program ...

. Spinner turned to serving the U.S. by working to develop marketing partnerships in connection with the

1996 Summer Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. As Program Manager for Atlanta Centennial Olympic Properties (the official joint marketing program of the USOC and the host city), Spinner managed a marketing evaluation strategy that led to $655 million in corporate sponsorships, including $426 million of official domestic sponsorships. His forecasting models in connection with the 1996 Olympics led to the largest TV rights purchase in U.S. history to that date. Between 1996 and 2000 he worked for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

attaining the position of Senior Vice President of strategic partnerships."Steve Spinner"
at

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The president and chief executive of ...

. He then served as Senior Vice President at NotifyMe Networks.

Entrepreneurship

Spinner has spent more than 15 years advising startup companies in technology, media and retail, as well as founding a small business. In 2002 he founded the company

Sports Potential Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can ...

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the so ...

which offers a test called SMART to assess the mental and physical qualities of children and guide them to appropriate sports. Candidates are tested on a variety of physical skills, ranging from speed to balance. More recently, Spinner has become an active angel investor in addition to his role as advisor to startup companies and small businesses in the greater San Francisco area. He is known as a "connector" within Silicon Valley, introducing venture capitalists to other entrepreneurs, and currently serves as an angel investor and advisor to more than 10 companies. Spinner is a speaker at various think tanks and has spoken as an expert at university entrepreneurship forums.

Public service

Policy

Spinner was a senior fellow and served as energy policy adviser with the

. Spinner publicly advocated for energy policies that support clean, renewable energy.

Politics

As an early, prominent supporter of Senator Obama from the technology sector, Spinner was one of the Obama campaign's authors for its innovation agenda announced at

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

's headquarters in November 2007. After election day, Spinner was asked to serve on the Obama-Biden Transition Project in its Technology, Innovation & Government Reform Working Group (focusing on "Innovation and National Priorities" initiatives). During the President's 2012 reelection campaign, Spinner served as a California finance chair and founded "Technology for Obama" (T4O). He also prominently supported

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senat ...

by spearheading the Obama campaign's effort to raise funds to retire Clinton's 2008 Presidential election campaign debt. On April 2, 2013, Spinner was announced as Campaign Chair for

Ro Khanna Rohit Khanna (; born September 13, 1976) is an American politician, lawyer, and academic serving as the U.S. representative from California's 17th congressional district since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated eight-term incumb ...

for Congress in his effort to represent

California's 17th congressional district California's 17th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California that is currently represented by Ro Khanna. It is located in the South Bay and East Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area. The distri ...

(south Silicon Valley) Working with Jeremy Bird, Larry Grisolano and other senior Obama 2012 campaign veterans, he said "the goal in bringing together the best talent from the Obama team is to run a campaign in a strong Democratic district that operates like a battleground state in a presidential election".

Public service

Seeking to help the country in the

economic recovery An economic recovery is the phase of the business cycle following a recession. The overall business outlook for an industry looks optimistic during the economic recovery phase. During the recovery period, the economy goes through a process of ec ...

, Spinner served as a stimulus adviser for the

. Spinner was hired to bring Silicon Valley experience to a Washington bureaucracy. Spinner acted as a liaison between the Recovery Act Office and the Loan Programs Office. Spinner started as a loan program advisor to Energy Secretary

Steven Chu Steven ChuDOE's lead representative on the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...

Business Council, White House Innovation Cohort, and White House Automotive Communities Task Force. In 2011, he was peripherally involved in the Solyndra loan controversy and it was reported that he pushed a loan "across the finish line" ahead of a September groundbreaking ceremony. According to the Department of Energy, Spinner "played no role in the decision-making on or evaluation of individual loan applications" and his role in Solyndra was limited to the timing and production of the ceremony itself. Public documents released by the White House that detail Spinner's emails to Department of Energy officials confirm this limited role. On June 26, 2015, Spinner was announced by President Obama as a Member to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.

Personal

Spinner met his wife, Allison, in Silicon Valley with whom he has two young boys. He is a board member of the Las Lomitas Education Foundation. He competed in and finished the 2003 Ironman Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spinner, Steve 1969 births American business executives Angel investors Harvard Business School alumni Living people Obama administration personnel People from North Woodmere, New York Wesleyan University alumni