Dave is an entrepreneur, business leader, education reformer, and investor. At the age of sixteen, he began working at Hewlett Packard. From the manufacturing workers that he sat beside, Dave learned about the remarkable founders of HP and their HP Way. Later in life, Dave came to learn that too few companies lived by similar values.

Dave founded four companies including Good Technology and Drugstore.com. He also worked for three venture capital firms, KPCB, TPG, and Interwest. In his capacity as an investor, he worked with many successful companies, including Google, Amazon, Successfactors and Autotrader. Dave also helped develop the business plan and recruit the leadership team for Newschools Venture Fund. He continues to serve as a founding board member.

Dave founded Tugboat Ventures in 2005, an innovative entity with the objective of helping entrepreneurs bring their dreams to life through a long-term commitment to promising enterprises.

A small angel investment prior to Tugboat eventually opened his eyes to seasoned entrepreneurs who wanted to build large, profitable, innovative businesses that they would run privately for their lifetimes. In late 2012, Dave began a process of interviewing a number of these entrepreneurs—eventually over 100. He loved their persistence and purposefulness, and came to see that many embraced a people-first value system very similar to David and Bill’s at HP. Yet, across the board they felt underappreciated and often ignored due to having no plans to raise VC or PE, sell or IPO. These inspirational conversations led to a gathering in Sun Valley in October 2013, and the beginnings of the Tugboat Institute and Tugboat Evergreen, under The Tugboat Group.

Mr. Whorton has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford. Dave enjoys spending time between innovative Silicon Valley and mindful Sun Valley, Idaho.

Dan is a finance professional with over 25 years of experience. His particular focus has been driving profitable growth in operating companies.

Dan has been involved in both growth and transition phases of companies such as Intel Corporation, Affymetrix Inc. and NuGEN Technologies Inc. As a key finance business partner, he provided strong analytics, leveraged system capability and drove operational efficiencies at all levels of the organization. Additionally, Dan’s experience and leadership include international finance as well as financial partnership for a large corporate venture arm.

The Tugboat Group provides an opportunity to have impact in partnership with a group of innovative leaders who have a passion to build meaningful, long-lasting and profitable businesses. Dan looks to provide finance and operational leadership in growing Tugboat.

Mr. Benetz has a BS in Math-Applied Science from UCLA. Dan is based in Silicon Valley.

Loida began her administrative career at Robertson Stephens where she spent 12 years in Corporate and Venture Services administering the Friends and Family program and stock distributions for the venture community. She has a wealth of experience and has worked with executives at top firms such as KKR and Worldview Technology Partners. Loida has been a member of the Tugboat team since 2007, providing comprehensive operational and administrative support for the organization.

Geraldine is the Chief Operating Officer of The Tugboat Group. Geraldine has over 15 years of extensive business, operational, strategic and analytical skills across industries from venture capital, biotech, cleantech, manufacturing, consumer and technology companies.

Maria is leading a working group of Tugboat Institute members and experts to develop a roadmap of improvements and enhancements to our Certified Evergreen program. She also spends time building awareness for the Evergreen movement by growing the Tugboat membership. Maria spent ten years working with The Advisory Board Company doing marketing, business development, and sales management before making the shift to public education. She recently served her community for eight years as a Governing Board Member for the Menlo Park City School District.

Annie joins The Tugboat Group after four years of full time ski racing. Born and raised in the Mountain West, Annie returned to Idaho in 2016 to compete, and stayed for the community she found there. She graduated from Middlebury College with a degree in Philosophy before completing the summer Bridge program at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business with a focus in marketing and communications. Before Tugboat, in addition to racing, she worked as a writer and marketing consultant for several national publications. You can find her on the trail or river no matter the season.

Diana Price joined The Tugboat Group as content manager with over 20 years' experience creating and editing consumer health and wellness, education, and lifestyle content across print and digital media. Diana is inspired by the stories of Evergreen companies and leaders that she is able to share through Evergreen Journal and additional content platforms. A native of Sun Valley, Idaho, Diana earned a degree in English from University of Montana.

Lindsey is an Idaho native, born and raised in Sun Valley. She joined the Tugboat team in the fall of 2018 after twelve years supporting design and business teams and senior executives at IDEO. Before joining IDEO, she spent three years in administrative support at hedge funds in Sun Valley and San Francisco. Prior to her administrative roles, Lindsey worked in the restaurant industry, which instilled an appreciation for extraordinary customer service and a passion for food culture. She holds a BA in Spanish and Urban Studies from University of San Diego. Lindsey lives in Sun Valley with her husband and two children.

Laura joined Tugboat after several years in the event planning industry in San Francisco, which instilled a deep commitment to professionalism, efficiency, and attention to detail. An Idaho native and avid hiker, camper, and snowboarder, Laura loves the mountain lifestyle and doesn’t see herself leaving the mountains anytime soon. She holds a BA in Communications with a Public Relations Emphasis from Boise State University.