Kate Purmal

Kate Purmal is a pathological optimist and accomplished visionary who brings out the brilliance in leaders and their teams. She has over 15 years of experience working as a CEO, COO and CFO to start-ups and privately held technology and life sciences companies. Kate previously served as a Senior Vice President at SanDisk and was on Palm Inc.’s founding management team. Kate regularly works with executives, leaders and their teams to initiate game-changing initiatives by launching Moonshots. She is co-author of The Moonshot Effect, Disrupting Business as Usual.

As a serial entrepreneur and expert in launching successful new companies, Kate co-founded and served as CEO of the software joint venture U3 (merged with SanDisk in 2007), co-founded Liquid Machines (acquired by Check Point Software Technologies in 2010), and was a member of the founding management team at Palm, Inc (acquired by US Robotics in 1995). She advises CEOs of startups backed by Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Sierra Ventures, the Omidyar Network and other top-tier investors.

Kate has personally coached and advised more than 100 global CEOs and executives in more than two dozen industries including computer hardware and software, semiconductor, cleantech, big data, medical devices, media, management consulting, publishing, consumer products, investment banking and private equity.

She is a frequent guest lecturer at leading business schools, including Stanford Graduate School of Business and the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Kathmandu University School of Management in Nepal.

As a speaker and business expert, Kate has shared her insights with audiences worldwide through keynotes and panel presentations at Silicon Valley Forum, The International Consumer Electronics Show, The Digital Life Conference, Women in Cleantech and Sustainability, Watermark Innovation Conference, the Professional Business Women’s Conference, the National Association of Women Business Owners, Women in Technology International, and DEMO. She was voted one of San Jose Business Journal’s Most Influential Women in Business, and has won two DEMOgod awards. Kate has been named to the Top 25 Women Redefining Success and has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Working Mother, Working Woman, and the San Jose Business Journal.