Margarita Quihuis

Current

• Director, RII Labs at Ricoh California Research Center
• Advisor at Tierra Natal
• Board Member at Instituto Pro Musica de California

• Advisory Board at MiraThis
• President & Chairman at Hispanic-Net
• Founder at Indigo Financiera
• Advisor at Merrill Lynch Latino Advisory Board
• Reuters Fellow 2004-2005 at Reuters Foundation
• Board Member at Women's eNews
• Board Member at James Burke Institute For Educational Innovation
• Board of Directors at Agent Software, www.agentsoftware.com
• Partner at Ingenium Ventures

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Past

• VP Business Development at m-Via
• Member of Microfinance Working Group at Business Women's Initiative on AIDS
• Board of Advisors at AcrossWorld, www.acrossworld.com

• Founder at 1st Wednesdays
• Executive Committee at Hispanic-Net
• Venture Partner at NewVista Capital
• Executive Director at Women's Technology Cluster (now known as Astia)
• Board Member at Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
• Head, New Media at IDEO Product Development
• Director, Information Technology at Horsley Bridge Partners

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7 more...

Education

• Stanford University
• Stanford University

Recommended

18 people have recommended Margarita

Connections

455 connections

Industry

Venture Capital & Private Equity

Websites

• My Website
• Reuters Digital Vision Program
• Hispanics & Tech

Margarita Quihuis’s Summary

A social entrepreneur and mentor capitalist, Margarita Quihuis's career has focused on innovation, access to capital and entrepreneurship. Her accomplishments include directorship of Astia (formerly known as the Women's Technology Cluster) where her portfolio companies raised $67 million in venture funding, seed stage venture capitalist, Reuters Fellow at Stanford and Chairman and President of Hispanic-Net.

Her current efforts include access to development capital through the productive use of remittances for the unbanked both in the United States and in developing countries through Indigo Financiera and developing and advising companies that tap into the market needs of transnational workers and their families. In 2004, Women's eNews named her as one of their '21 Leaders for the 21st Century' for her efforts in increasing access to capital for women entrepreneurs and was named as one of WITI's Women to Watch in 2003. In 2007 she was named 'One of The 100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley.'

Ms Quihuis has served as a consultant to the US State Department on entrepreneurship. She has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, US News & World Report, Forbes ASAP, Red Herring, CNN and CBS MarketWatch.

Ms. Quihuis is the founder of 1st Wednesdays, the network for women in venture capital. She is a past board member of NanoSig, a Northern California based organization dedicated to the commercialization of nanotechnology, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, and was a member of the screening and coaching committees for Springboard 2000, the venture capital conference for women. She sits on the boards of Agent Software, Women’s eNews, Instituto Pro Musica de California and the James Burke Institute and is a member of the advisory boards for MiraThis, Tierra Natal and Merrill Lynch’s Latino Advisory Council. She was also part of the founding working group for the Business Women’s Initiative on AIDS.

Margarita Quihuis’s Specialties:

business incubation, entrepreneurship, gender and technology, ICT for development, venture capital fund management, seed stage private equity, design, collaboration, social networks, microfinance, remittances, Latin America, transnational labor

Margarita Quihuis’s Experience

• Director, RII Labs

  Ricoh California Research Center

  (Public Company; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  2008 — Present (less than a year)

• Advisor

  Tierra Natal

  (Privately Held; Internet industry)

  May 2007 — Present (1 year 3 months)

  Tierra Natal is the first social networking site that reunites recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, hometown associations and their communities of origin. www.tierranatal.com

• Board Member

  Instituto Pro Musica de California

  (Non-Profit; Performing Arts industry)

  April 2007 — Present (1 year 4 months)

  The Coro Hispano de San Francisco is a San Francisco based performing arts non-profit dedicated to exploring and performing the choral literature of the peoples of Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Ranging from the 12th through the 20th century, this repertory embraces both classical and folk music from all parts of the Hispanic World, as well as ethnic music in Amerindian tongues. It is unique among performing arts groups in general and a jewel within the world of Hispanic arts groups. Coro represents the best and finest in Hispanic high culture.
  
  More info at www.corohispano.org

• Advisory Board

  MiraThis

  (Privately Held; Media Production industry)

  April 2007 — Present (1 year 4 months)

  New startup focused on user-generated video content for acculturated Hispanics

• President & Chairman

  Hispanic-Net

  (Non-Profit; Information Technology and Services industry)

  December 2006 — Present (1 year 8 months)

  Founded in 2001, Hispanic-Net is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization where Hispanic entrepreneurs, executives, innovators and investors come together to create market leading companies.
  
  More information about Hispanic-Net may be found on their website www.hispanic-net.org

• Founder

  Indigo Financiera

  (Privately Held; Financial Services industry)

  June 2005 — Present (3 years 2 months)

  Indigo Financiera works with hometown associations and other recently arrived immigrant groups to help them increase and leverage their remittances for economic devleopment.

• Advisor

  Merrill Lynch Latino Advisory Board

  (Public Company; Investment Management industry)

  December 2004 — Present (3 years 8 months)

• Reuters Fellow 2004-2005

  Reuters Foundation

  (Public Company; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  June 2004 — Present (4 years 2 months)

  Reuters fellow at Stanford University; fellowship focus is to develop an investment bank for the unbanked using remittances as a source of capital following the Working Assets business model. Subject matter expertise on cross-border remittances, transnational migration & markets, diasporas for developments, Hispanic hometown associations, financial innovation and microfinance broadly defined. Additional work on hybrid social entrepreneurship models, application and design of technology for developing country needs.

• Board Member

  Women's eNews

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)

  June 2004 — Present (4 years 2 months)

  Women's eNews is the definitive source of substantive news--unavailable anywhere else--covering issues of particular concern to women and providing women's perspectives on public policy. It enhances women's ability to define their own lives and to participate fully in every sector of human endeavor.
  
  Head of technical subcommittee, responsible for organization's internally and externally facing IT infrastructure.
  
  http://womensenews.org

• Board Member

  James Burke Institute For Educational Innovation

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

  July 2003 — Present (5 years 1 month)

  Founded by James Burke, the author, host, and narrator of the acclaimed television series Connections, the Institute exists to encourage innovative uses of educational technology.
  
  www.k-web.org

• Board of Directors

  Agent Software, www.agentsoftware.com

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  October 2002 — Present (5 years 10 months)

• Partner

  Ingenium Ventures

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  May 2001 — Present (7 years 3 months)

  Advise and sit on the board of seed and early stage technology companies. Technology interests include semantic web, XML, materials and nanotechnology and appropriate technologies for developing world. Have advised on creation of venture capital industry for developing countries; nanotechnology as source of foriegn direct investment.
  
  Incubate or maintain special interest in companies that have sustainability, triple-bottom line or a BOP focus as part of their overall market or objective.
  
  Current companies include MiraThis, Tierra Natal and Cielo Networks.

• VP Business Development

  m-Via

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Financial Services industry)

  July 2006 — March 2007 (9 months)

• Member of Microfinance Working Group

  Business Women's Initiative on AIDS

  (Partnership; 11-50 employees; Pharmaceuticals industry)

  October 2004 — July 2005 (10 months)

  BWI is the united vision of Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Ireland, and Mary Ann Leeper, President and Chief Operation Officer of the Female Health Company. Discussions at the World AIDS Conference this summer noted that there are a considerable number of women mobilizing to tackle the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS but that there is a discouraging lack of business women leaders actively engaged in the fight. Robinson and Leeper believe that the unique abilities of women corporate leaders could fill a major gap in helping to bring prevention, care and treatment to women in the developing world.

• Board of Advisors

  AcrossWorld, www.acrossworld.com

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  December 2002 — 2004 (2 years)

  • Collaborated and moderated discussions between AcrossWorld, Silicon Valley thought leaders and the World Bank Institute via the WBI’s Global Development Learning Network (GDLN)
  • Consulted on World Bank economic development proposals for Sri Lanka and Madagascar
  • Coordinator for Global Virtual Assistant Network project focused on providing 10,000 women $10/day income providing internet-based services
  • Project manager for Nepal Country Gateway proposal to InfoDev, a bi-national project that linked Silicon Valley based Nepalese diaspora to Nepal to foster growth of high tech services in Nepal

• Founder

  1st Wednesdays

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  March 2002 — 2004 (2 years)

  1st Wednesdays is networking lunch exclusively for women VC's so we can meet, build stronger relationships, improve our deal flow and be a force to be reckoned with. Success in this business is dependent, in large part, on the strength, breadth, and depth of our networks. First Wednesdays was created to facilitate more frequent interaction between us in a casual setting. The list has grown to over 190 members, ranging from Managing Directors, Partners, VPs and Associates with representation from Seattle, Silicon Valley, Southern California, the Midwest and the East Coast.

• Executive Committee

  Hispanic-Net

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  September 2002 — July 2003 (11 months)

• Venture Partner

  NewVista Capital

  (Partnership; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  March 2001 — May 2002 (1 year 3 months)

  Led the due diligence efforts for new investments in the enterprise software, internet infrastructure, wireless and educational software markets, and held board member or board observer status of several New Vista portfolio companies, including Epicentric, Reach Communications, BridgeStream, Broadware and ZNYX.
  
  Oversaw the creation for the firm’s best practices, creating LP reports, supervising quarterly reporting process and participating in the fundraising process.
  
  Worked along with a placement agent on firm's fundraising efforts, established the firm’s relationships with fund managers, gatekeepers and institutional investors.

• Executive Director

  Women's Technology Cluster (now known as Astia)

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  May 1999 — March 2001 (1 year 11 months)

  Recognized as one of the top incubators in the country by Red Herring and eCompany, the WTC specializes in helping launch woman-founded tech and life science companies. As the first Director for the WTC, Ms. Quihuis’ responsibilities were comprehensive in scope, ranging from the physical set up of the incubator, development of the ongoing entrepreneurial curriculum, evaluation and selection of companies for admission, mentorship and coaching to the resident companies and access to the VC community.
  
  Through her highly visible work with the WTC, Ms. Quihuis emerged both as a national advocate for women’s entrepreneurship in high technology and an expert on new models for high tech economic development, entrepreneurship and venture funding. The WTC emerged as a key ‘go-to’ laboratory for economic development and was used as an example for incubation efforts in Asia, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. During her tenure, WTC portfolio companies raised $67 million in capital.

• Board Member

  Forum for Women Entrepreneurs

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  January 1996 — January 2000 (4 years 1 month)

  • Launched Venture Briefing Series, a monthly meeting between a small group of qualified entrepreneurs seeking funding and a seed stage venture capital group. Line up venture capitalists, select entrepreneurs.
  • Organized FWE’s eSeries program, two series of 8 seminars for early stage entrepreneurs with CEOs, venture capitalists and attorneys as featured speakers. Arranged all speakers, reviewed entrepreneur applications.
  • Organized a monthly breakfast series where entrepreneurs have met with corporate securities, labor- and immigration-law attorneys, experts on branding and positioning, and members of the angel community.
  • Advised entrepreneurs on business plan development, market research, company formation issues and facilitate access to relevant service providers and potential seed and early stage investors.
  • Webmaster of www.fwe.org website and technical lead of www.fwe.org site redesign.

• Head, New Media

  IDEO Product Development

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Design industry)

  April 1996 — January 1998 (1 year 10 months)

  Led New Media development for IDEO Product Development. While there she grew and ran the group in its mission to evaluate how the Internet could be leveraged most effectively for IDEO’s business. She led IDEO's initial efforts in the use of video on the internet through the Monday Morning Media project.
  
  In addition, Ms. Quihuis led studies on gender and technology in product design for interactive on-line services and consumer level information appliances; and she also created new models for multimedia oriented knowledge management systems.

• Director, Information Technology

  Horsley Bridge Partners

  (Partnership; 11-50 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

  April 1990 — April 1996 (6 years 1 month)

  • Directed all information technology strategies and activities for a privately held venture capital investment firm. General management and budget responsibility for IT and data analysis teams.
  • Led client/server database development team for enterprise-wide investment application which captured investments, stock distributions, portfolio accounting, resulting in 2-4x productivity gains across the company and a 4x increase in capital under management.
  • Deep domain expertise on venture capital and venture capital fund-of-funds process

Margarita Quihuis’s Education

• Stanford University

  Visiting Scholar, Reuters Digital Vision Fellow, 2004 — 2005

• Stanford University

Additional Information

Margarita Quihuis’s Websites:

• My Website
• Reuters Digital Vision Program
• Hispanics & Tech

Margarita Quihuis’s Interests:

Emerging markets, remittances for economic development and productive investment, financial innovation and microfinance broadly defined, increasing access to capital, base of the pyramid, demographics, diaspora for development, technology, nanotechnology, venture capital, private equity, fund of funds, women's issues, economic development, media, incubation, innovation, Latin America, Hispanic markets, Latinos, crossborder development, crossborder payment, transnational labor, transnational migration, political policy

Margarita Quihuis’s Groups:

Hispanic-Net, Astia (formerly known as the Women's Technology Cluster), Women's eNews, Coro Hispano, James Burke Institute, Angels Forum, VC TaskForce

•    ReutersDVF member
•    Astia Community member
•    Hispanic Net member
• Forbes.com San Francisco Group member
• Forbes.com Entrepreneurs member
•    jaxtr user group member

Margarita Quihuis’s Honors:

100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley, 2007
21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Women's eNews 2004
Women to Watch, WITI 2003

Press:
Stanford Social Innovation Review:
http://www.ssireview.com/pdf/2005FA_WhatWorks_Micro.pdf

100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley
http://www.hispanic-net.org/hispanic-net/opencms/schemas/news_data/news_0001.html

Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century:
http://womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1639#Quihuis

SJ Business Journal:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/04/25/focus1.html

San Jose Mercury News:
http://rdvp.org/archives/2005/05/02/forging-links-from-women-to-wealth/

Wired News:
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2000/03/35255

Christian Science Monitor:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0308/p13s01-wmgn.html

Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2000/0529/186_print.html

US News & World Report:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/000515/archive_017174.htm