Tom Alberg

Former Chairman of the Board, Discovery Institute, and Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group

Tom Alberg served as Discovery Institute's founding board chair for over a decade and later co-chaired Cascadia Center's ACES Northwest Network initiative. Prior to co-founding Madrona Venture Group in 1995, Mr. Alberg served as President of LIN Broadcasting Corporation and Executive Vice President of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. He currently serves as a director for Madrona portfolio companies, including Impinj, and Wireless Services. In addition, he serves on the boards of two public technology companies, Advanced Digital Information Corporation and Amazon.com, located in the Northwest.

Previously, Mr. Alberg was Chairman of the Executive Committee and Partner in the Northwest's largest law firm, Perkins Coie, and was previously an attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. Mr. Alberg is Chair of the Washington State Technology Alliance, past Chairman of Discovery Institute, past Chairman of Pacific Science Center and past President of Intiman Theater in Seattle. He was co-chairman of the capital campaign for the Computer Science Department of the University of Washington.

A graduate, cum laude, of Harvard College, Mr. Alberg received his law degree from Columbia Law School where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Archives

The Benefits of Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Technology

Jay Richards Interviews Tom Alberg at COSM
Tom Alberg
August 28, 2020
Jay Richards interviews Tom Alberg, Founder, Madrona Venture Group and Co-chair of the ACES Northwest Network, about ACES’ efforts to bring Automated, Connected, Electric, and Shared vehicle technologies to the Puget Sound region. Alberg dismisses the idea that these new technologies will lead to job loss because innovation has always created more opportunity, not less.

Will the Rise of the Eastside Eclipse the Seattle Boom?

Tom Alberg
February 18, 2019
The Eastside has long been eclipsed by Seattle. Now, however, it is challenging the big city on several fronts. The reasons are many: Microsoft’s revival; global tech companies opening engineering offices on the Eastside; the openness of Eastside local governments to new technologies; Seattle’s problems of homelessness, crime, traffic and subpar public schools; and the Seattle City Council’s hostile actions and rhetoric directed at tech companies. For much of Seattle’s history, the Eastside provided bedroom communities for Seattle. The only top-ranked local university and all the major cultural institutions, headquarters for businesses, banks, law firms and best restaurants were located in Seattle. Forty years ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who grew up in …

TVW Video, Shai Agassi: “Transforming Transportation Globally”

Tom Alberg and Shai Agassi
September 6, 2008
Here is the link to video as aired on TVW of the September 5, 2008 luncheon keynote address by Better Place CEO and founder Shai Agassi at Cascadia Center’s “Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation” conference held at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash. campus. Agassi’s topic is electric vehicle systems development, renewable energy, and breaking dependence on foreign oil. He is introduced by Tom Alberg, of Madrona Venture Group. To view, use link above or click on screen embed below. Background: “Driven: Shai Agassi’s Audacious Plan To Put Electric Cars On The Road,” Wired, 8/18/08. Other TVW web video segments are linked below, under “More Sept. 5 ‘Beyond Oil’ Conference Video.” For air times of Sept. 5 Beyond …

Needed: A Tax Cut that Helps Small Tech Firms Bounce Back

Tom Alberg
April 10, 2002
President Bush’s tax-cut proposal is commendable. But at the threat of finding a cloud in its silver lining, it misses one key ingredient: reform aimed at spurring growth where it is most lacking ? in small business, particularly technology business. This sector of our economy, so well represented in the Northwest, has proven critically important in spearheading past economic recoveries. It will do so again, given the capital to fuel it. To do so, the president and Congress should raise the income-tax deduction on capital losses from $3,000 a year, as it currently stands, to $100,000, so long as the additional amount deducted from income is reinvested in a qualifying small business within the same calendar year. This proposal is not to be confused with unconditional …

Can a Virtual School Help Improve Learning?

From Discovery's Inquiry
Tom Alberg
August 15, 1994
It probably is true, indeed, that computers and educational software, by themselves, will never equate to a great or even a good teacher. But if today's networked computing is enlisted, the possibilities become more promising.