Investor, former CEO, and Entrepreneur
Austin, TX
Sara Clarke, a former CEO and entrepreneur, has been married for 38 years to her best friend, Jim, a proud Stanford alumnus (1980). Alternating trading off and balancing career opportunities with Jim, Sara has moved households more than 30 times since their meeting in business school. After a major epiphany mid-marriage, Sara took leave of the corporate path: Jim’s career sustained the spinning of the gold-plated hamster wheel and Sara turned to creating “upside.”
Working since she was 15, Sara launched her career in M&A and moved to telecom, then on to a major media company, early-stage internet companies, and enterprise software, selling a firm she turned around to Cisco. Not by choice, Sara took a lengthy hiatus to attend to a serious health issue experienced by her son. Sara returned to work in operations at a global investment bank from which she launched another start-up in 2014. She sold her business to a PE firm in 2021. In the ensuing few years, Sara traveled throughout Europe and the UK, seeking possible refuge outside the US, with a delicious 14-month stint in Paris studying Intensive French. It was hard. And humbling. And great fun.
Sara began college at UChicago, dropped out for 2-1/2 years to work in consulting, and transferred to Williams College, earning her BA in American Studies. She earned her MBA at Booth (UChicago). She and Jim have two adult children living in London and Seattle, respectively. Both thrive.
