Penny Herscher

CEO/President, FirstRain

202 - The Fastest Track to the C-Suite

Penny Herscher is President and CEO of FirstRain, the leading provider of solutions that find and transform high-value, Business Web and Twitter content into actionable intelligence for sales and marketing professionals around the globe.

Previously, Penny was CEO of Simplex Solutions, an electronic design automation company serving the global semiconductor industry. As CEO, she grew Simplex from a few engineers in 1996 to a high-growth, profitable software company. She led the company to a very successful IPO, and through the sale of the company to Cadence Design Systems. Prior, Penny was an early employee and senior executive at Synopsys. She started her career in 1982 as an R&D engineer with Texas Instruments and then Daisy Systems.

Penny holds an MA with Honors in Mathematics from Cambridge University. She serves on the boards of JDSU and Rambu, and is also active in the non-profit world, serving on the boards of the Anita Borg Institute and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. She volunteers teaching business classes at Stanford Business School, Berkeley Haas School of Business, and Santa Clara University.