Laura Lauder is venture philanthropist in Silicon Valley, focused on leadership, education, and Jewish community areas. She joined her husband Gary in their venture capital partnership, Lauder Partners in 1992, specializing in Internet and cable-related investments.
Ms. Lauder now mainly focuses on their family foundation and nonprofit work, serving on nearly a dozen non-profit boards. She has served on the board of the National Public Radio Foundation, is active with YPO/WPO, in on the Board of the National Constitution Center of Philadelphia, and is a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.
At the Aspen Institute, she and Gary co-founded the Socrates Society in 1996, a program to develop young leaders, and she serves on the Leadership Council of the Franklin Project, a policy program of the Aspen Institute to launch a National Service Initiative to expand Americorps to 1 million young people, 18-28 through public-private partnerships.
She is the Vice Chair of the $1.6B Jewish Community Endowment Fund of San Francisco (JCEF), which distributes millions of dollars to the local Jewish community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ms. Lauder is also the founder of DeLeT, a Jewish “Teach for America” for Jewish Day Schools in the US, housed at Brandeis University and HUC-JIR.
She serves on the board of SV2, as well as the Advisory boards of Stanford University School of Education, and the New Schools Venture Fund. She is an avid cyclist and political junkie. She hopes to never run for political office but is willing to climb any mountain on a bike.