Ray Rothrock

Venture Capitalist and Philanthropist

Ray is an American venture capitalist and philanthropist focused on securing energy solutions for the 21st century. Based in the Silicon Valley, his venture activities are focused on seed energy, cyber, and climate related projects. ​

Rothrock has had a 25-year career at venture capital firm Venrock (1988-2013) and a tour as a CEO of cybersecurity provider RedSeal. Rothrock authored the highly regarded book Digital Resilience: Is Your Company Ready for the Next Cyber Threat? (Harper Collins Leadership, 2018.) In addition to being an energy expert, he is frequently sought out as a cyber-related director/investor. Rothrock was twice selected for the Forbes Midas List and also served as the Chair of the National Venture Capital Association.

Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Ray attended Texas A&M University where he earn a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, in 1977. His original interest in nuclear power began with his achieving the Atomic Energy Merit Badge in the Boy Scouts when he was sixteen. After A&M he went to MIT for graduate work. There in 1978 he completed a M.S. in Nuclear Engineering under the advisory of Prof. Mujid Kazimi. He subsequently returned to grad school and earned an M.B.A. with Distinction from the Harvard Business School in 1988.

Rothrock joined Yankee Atomic Electric Company in 1978 as a nuclear engineer responsible for safety analysis and licensing support. After a lapse in the nuclear power industry, he moved to Silicon Valley in 1981, where Rothrock ultimately landed his first non-engineering position at a young Sun Microsystems. At Sun, he inspired engineering software companies to develop their software on the emerging Sun workstation. Venture-backed Sun went public in 1986, introducing Rothrock to the board and to the venture capital field.

Venture Capital In 1988, Rothrock moved to New York City to Venrock Associates, the technology venture investment arm of the Rockefeller family. He lead Venrock’s strategy to invest heavily in the newly emerging Internet, with early investments Spyglass, Check Point Software Technologies, DoubleClick, and FogDog yielding dozens of public companies. In his 25 years at Venrock, Rothrock led investments in 53 early-stage technology companies, resulting in eight IPOs including CloudFlare. Over this same period, climate concerns drove the venture industry to start investing in energy technology startups. With his nuclear energy roots Rothrock led the energy charge at Venrock, recruiting a team, setting a strategy, and driving the firm to invest in ten energy companies. In 2014 he formed FiftySix Investments, a seed fund focused on cyber, energy, and climate entrepreneurs. With seed capital, Rothrock often assists these entrepreneurs with their Series A pitch, early strategy, and access to the extensive venture capital network. To date, FiftySix has seed positions in over fifty companies. Today Rothrock is a member of several venture LPACs and advises other venture firms with formation and strategy. He is a venture partner with Shield Capital (Burlingame, CA) and serves on the corporate boards of Check Point Software Technologies (CHKP), Roku Inc. (ROKU), Centrus Energy (LEU), Shine Technologies, and The Aerospace Corporation (FFRDC).