Martin Casado is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz leading the firm's infrastructure practice. A Spanish-born computer scientist and entrepreneur, he pioneered software-defined networking (SDN) by inventing the OpenFlow protocol during his Stanford PhD. He co-founded Nicira Networks, which VMware acquired for $1.26 billion in 2012, where he then scaled the networking and security business to $600 million in annual revenue. An ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award winner, Casado now invests in cutting-edge infrastructure and AI companies, serving on boards of over a dozen startups while shaping the future of enterprise technology and AI regulation policy.
Robert Norton Noyce co-invented the monolithic integrated circuit in 1959 - the foundational technology behind every modern chip - and then co-founded Intel in 1968, where he also invented Silicon Valley's flat, equity-sharing management culture. Nicknamed 'The Mayor of Silicon Valley' and 'Rapid Robert,' he was a physicist, pilot, hang-glider, and former pig thief who transformed both how the world computes and how technology companies are run.