Nilofer Merchant, CEO, Rubicon Consulting, is a sought after global high-tech industry thought leader and trusted strategic advisor for companies such as Adobe, Symantec and VMWare. As Rubicon’s CEO, she has built a distinguished team of fellow strategists, who collaborate with a wide range of Silicon Valley executives at client firms such as Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, Pinnacle, Openwave, SAP, Symantec and others.Rubicon’s proprietary methodology continuously delivers significant material results to clients, driving revenue growth, market share-price and profits. This approach resulted in an additional $28 million in profit over 6 months for one industry leader.Merchant founded Rubicon in 1999 after gaining fifteen years of operational experience in key leadership positions at notable technology firms such as Apple, Autodesk, and GoLive (later acquired by Adobe). The experience she gained in pricing, product management, the channel, sales, marketing and revenue generation prepared her for the interdisciplinary deep listening and precision questioning that are at the heart of Rubicon’s work today.Through her many successes (and some losses), Nilofer has honed her multidisciplinary approach for assessing a business situation clearly, applying critical wisdom, and defining a strategic direction. Her ability to put business history in context enables her to discern the right future moves. Her writing and ideation abilities have led to syndication with major business publishing entities. At conferences, the energetic, approachable and pragmatic keynote speaking style helps people connect to her vision whether their role is that of a board member, grad student, an engineer, marketer, or a business leader.Nilofer holds an M.B.A. from Santa Clara University, a B.S. in Economics from University of San Francisco, and is an Interaction Associates-certified Instructor of Facilitative Leadership.Nilofer contributes to her local church’s strategy and stewardship plans, and has held the Chair of Community Fundraising position as a Board Member of the Cupertino YMCA. Early on, she was a Governor-appointee to the California Community College Board of Trustees — a position she held for an unusually long 3-year term. Nilofer and her husband enjoy the challenge of integrating the complexities of their respective high tech careers and personal interests with the demands of parenting.
