# Forest Baskett

> Forest Baskett is a Special Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in Menlo Park, California, where he has been investing in technology companies since 1999. A systems-level computer scientist by training, he co-designed the original Sun workstation with Andy Bechtolsheim, designed the operating system for the Cray-1 supercomputer, founded DEC's Western Research Laboratory, and served as CTO of Silicon Graphics during the formative years of 3D graphics. He earned a BA in Mathematics from Rice University and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, later becoming a professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1994. At NEA, he has guided dozens of technology investments to successful IPOs and acquisitions, backing companies across semiconductors, storage, cloud security, robotics, and AI.

- **Role:** Special Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA)
- **Organizations:** New Enterprise Associates (NEA), National Academy of Engineering, UT Austin Computer Science Advisory Council
- **From:** Texas, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA in Mathematics, Rice University, PhD in Computer Science, University of Texas at Austin
- **Known for:** Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1994, Co-designed the original Sun workstation with Andy Bechtolsheim, Designed the operating system for the original Cray-1 supercomputer

## Career timeline

- **1971** — Joined Stanford University as Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
- **1975** — Co-authored the seminal BCMP networks paper in Journal of the ACM (with Chandy, Muntz, and Palacios)
- **1980** — Became Principal Scientist at Xerox PARC, conducting VLSI research
- **1982** — Left Stanford; founded and directed DEC's Western Research Laboratory in Palo Alto
- **1982** — Co-designed the original SUN workstation architecture with doctoral student Andy Bechtolsheim
- **1986** — Left DEC to join Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI)
- **1994** — Elected to the National Academy of Engineering for vision and leadership in high-performance workstations
- **1999** — Joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as General Partner
- **2004** — Formalized as General Partner at NEA, leading technology investing
- **2018** — Led NEA's $10M Series A investment in Smartcar alongside Andreessen Horowitz
- **2016** — Recorded oral history at the Computer History Museum
- **2024** — Continuing as Special Partner at NEA, serving on boards including Timescale and Built Robotics

## Achievements

- Elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1994
- Co-designed the original Sun workstation with Andy Bechtolsheim
- Designed the operating system for the original Cray-1 supercomputer
- Co-introduced BCMP networks (queueing theory), a foundational contribution to computer performance analysis
- Founded and led DEC's Western Research Laboratory; created a RISC machine that outperformed the VAX
- Pioneer in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)
- Served as CTO and Senior VP of R&D at Silicon Graphics during the formative years of 3D graphics
- Doctoral advisor to Andy Bechtolsheim (Sun Microsystems co-founder) and Alan J. Smith
- Professor at Stanford University's Computer Science and Electrical Engineering departments (1971-1982)
- Over 50 investments at NEA including successful IPOs: Atheros Communications, Tableau Software, Data Domain, Fusion-IO, Audience
- Maintained 25+ year investing career at NEA across multiple tech cycles

## Latest updates

- **2024-07** — NEA announced its latest funding round, with $468M+ in additional capital; Forest continues as Special Partner
- **2024-01** — Serving on boards of Timescale (Tiger Data/TimescaleDB) and Built Robotics among other NEA portfolio companies
- **2023-01** — Active at NEA focusing on semiconductors, hardware, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and enterprise computing investments

## Links

- Website: https://www.nea.com/team/forest-baskett-phd
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/forest-baskett-a5813413
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/fbaskett
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NEAvc

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/forest-baskett
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-18