Leader of Leaders
Steven West ’79 Uses His Experience to Help Others Succeed in Business
Steven West ’79 has learned by doing.
And for more than a decade, he has used his experience to help others start, manage and grow their own successful businesses.
West, co-founding partner of the San Francisco-based Emerging Company Partners LLC, has been a CEO, COO and board member at numerous high-growth, global businesses, from manufacturing to enterprise software companies. In fact, he was the CEO of Hitachi Data Systems for three years, and currently serves on the boards of billion dollar companies such as Cisco Systems and Autodesk. He has also started, built and sold companies. Now, he is guiding others on a similar path.
With more than 30 years of business experience in the technology field, he said his specialty is advising CEOs and executives of small start-up companies ($100 million or less).
“It’s a lot of mentoring,” West said of his work. “You have to have experience and be willing to work with people who don’t necessarily know what’s going on.”
Most of his days consist of travel (he operates out of what he calls a “virtual office”) and talking to people, either on the phone or in person at their business location. He said a good CEO is not born, but made.
“You really have to learn to interact with people. Listen to what they say. Pay attention,” he said of the common qualities of an effective business leader. “Those are things you get with real operating experience. It takes time and skill. It’s not something you’re born with.
