Ann Winblad Age, Boyfriend, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Quick Info→

Education: Honorary Doctorate Of Law

Age: 70 Years

Husband: Alex Kline

Bio/Wiki
Full name	Ann L Winblad ^[1]Bloomberg
Profession	Venture Capitalist and Tech Coach
Famous For	being the co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Physical Stats & More
^[2]Wired Height	in centimeters- 159 cm in meters- 1.59 m in feet & inches- 5’ 2.75”
Eye Color	Blue
Hair Color	Blonde
Career
Awards & Achievements	• 1998: Ranked 24th in Fortune's 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business • 1998: Ranked 22nd in Time's Cyber Elite 50 • 1999: Ranked 64th in Upside Elite 100 list • 2000: Inducted into the Fortune Small Business Hall of Fame • 2013: Innovation Catalyst Award • 2017: Exemplary Women honoree at 4th Annual Global Women in STEM Conference (WiSTEM) • SVForum Visionary Award
Personal Life
Date of Birth	November 1, 1950 (Wednesday)
Age (as of 2021)	70 Years
Birthplace	Red Wing, Minnesota, US
Zodiac sign	Scorpio
Nationality	American
Hometown	Red Wing, Minnesota, US
College/University	• St. Catherine University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US • St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US
Educational Qualification(s)	• BA in Mathematics and Business Administration from St. Catherine University, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US (1973) ^[3]Ann Winblad - LinkedIn • MA Education in Economics from the University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US (1973-1975) ^[4]Ann Winblad - LinkedIn • Honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, US ^[5]Meetup
Ethnicity	She is of Swedish descent, with her great-great-grandparents being Swedish immigrants in the US. ^[6]Star Tribune
Hobbies	Traveling, Biking & Fly Fishing
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Married
Affairs/Boyfriends	• She had a boyfriend in high school. • Bill Gates (1984-87) • Alex Kline (San Francisco-based private investigator)
Marriage Date	December 16, 2015
Family
Husband/Spouse	Alex Kline
Parents	Father- Wilbur Winblad (Basketball, Baseball, and Football coach at Rushford High School and later a History Teacher, Guidance Counselor, Basketball Coach, and Athletic Director at Farmington High School) Mother- Elizabeth Stark (Nurse)
Siblings	Brother (younger)- Dave Winblad Sister(s) (younger)- Mary Regenscheid, Susan Shields, Patty Jorgenson & Kathy Winblad-Polk
Favourite Things
Dessert	Cinammon roll
Drink	Kool-Aid
Film	This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
TV Shows	Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
Money Factor
Properties	• A beach house in North Carolina’s outer banks ^[7]Wired • a house in Florence, Italy ^[8]Wired

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ann Winblad

Ann Winblad is an American tech coach and venture capitalist who is the co-founder of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. She is famous for being the former girlfriend of American business magnate Bill Gates.

Ann Winblad grew up in the Minnesotan cities Rushford and Farmington.

She started her first job, which was strawberry picking, at the age of seven. Her employer allowed her to work in the field only for a few hours as she was very young. She received ten cents for a plant. ^[9]Fresh Dialogues

She was a high school cheerleader and valedictorian. She even participated in a regional track event only because her boyfriend taught her long jump once.

During her sophomore year of graduation, she trained in Fortran programming language.

While pursuing her graduation, she had three jobs. She was employed as a cocktail waitress at a joint (where the bartenders called her Sunshine), a bookkeeper at a hardware store, and a customer service representative for Northwestern Bell. She continued to work until she graduated in 1973.

In 1973, she started her career by working as a system analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. She quit her job at the bank after two years and launched her company Open Systems, Inc. in 1976; she launched it with the help of three other employees of the bank. The company was sold to Dallas-based UCCEL Corp. for $15 million in 1984. ^[10]St. Thomas

In 1984, she moved to California. At the same time, she also began working as a tech consultant for IBM and Microsoft.

Ann has been the director for many software companies like Central Point Software (1990-93), Oracle Hyperion (1991-96), Net Perceptions (1996-2001), Intrinsa (1999-2003), Liquid Audio (1996-2003), Xo Group (then (The Knot)1999-2005), Krillion (2006-11), Star Analytics (2007-2013), Karmasphere Inc. (2010-14), Voltage Security Inc. (2002-15), MuleSoft (2006-18), Sonatype (2010-19), and OptiMine Software, Inc. (2014-Present).

Other companies for which Ann has been the director are – PR and communication-based company Marketwired (2000-2006), non-profit organization Silicon Valley Forum (1998-2004), and advertising analytics company Ace Metrix (2008-2020).

In 1987, she had her first encounter with former NBA player John Hummer with whom she later started a business firm.
John Hummer

After she met John Hummer, they collected funds for two years. They received investments from IBM and other St. Paul companies and launched a venture capital firm called ‘Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ (HWVP) in San Francisco in 1989. In its starting years, the company supported and launched atleast sixteen startups.
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners’ logo

In 1990, she co-wrote a book titled ‘Object-Oriented Software’ with Samuel D. Edwards and David R. King.

She is also a trustee of the University of St. Thomas (her alma mater) since January 2000 and Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation since 2014.

She is also a public speaker who gives tech-related coaching in various conferences and meetings. She has also addressed audiences in TED conferences.
Ann Winblad during a TED conference

In 1984, she ran into Bill at the Ben Rosen-Esther Dyson computer conference, and soon, they began dating. In 1987, they separated because Ann was more than ready for marriage and Bill wasn’t. After their breakup, they remained friends.

While she was dating Bill, she went on vacations with him to various places. When they traveled to Brazil, they studied bioengineering together. When they traveled to Santa Barbara ranch in California, they took tapes of Richard Feynman’s lectures and studied physics. When they were vacationing in Zanzibar Island, they took knowledge of human evolution and were helped by the anthropologist Donald Johanson. Each year, they went on beaches for bonfires and games with other couples; they played a game called sing-down, which featured couples competing by singing a song that highlights a given word.
An old picture of Ann Winblad with Bill Gates

After Bill married Melinda Gates, Bill made a pact with his wife of keeping alive his tradition of vacationing with Ann from their dating years. According to the tradition, Bill and Ann spent every spring’s long weekend at her beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with each other. They rode dune buggies, hand-glide, walked on the beach, and shared their thoughts about the world and themselves. It is uncertain whether the tradition is maintained by them or not.

Ann, in an interview, talking about Bill’s impression on her as a fellow businessperson, said,

Bill and I went for a walk on a beach and Bill tells me, ‘I can see my way, if I really squint, to $500 million in revenue.’ In 1984 there was not yet a software company that had achieved $100 million in revenue. Bill was a great influence on me and I was thinking, wow, you can actually build a company that big in the software industry? Are you kidding me? I remember making him take a stick or a rock and drawing the numbers out on the sand for me. How was he going to get there? He then said, ‘What troubles me is I can’t see how I am going to get past $500 million.’ I thought, ‘You’re troubled about that?’ I was jazzed that someone could think their way through to $500 million. There was a lot of inspiration from each other back then because there was so little collective wisdom.”