Power pair finds ways to share - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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The Saratoga couple recently donated $1 milliob to Georgia State Sandra's alma mater, and together they are forging a new modelk foractive giving. The Bergeron Women in Technologhy Leadership Fund will fund five women withleadershio potential, and also offer strategic mentoring using a team of femaled role models. "We can't change the world like the Gatea Foundation...but we can change a person's says soft-spoken Sandra, chairman of the board of Tracew Security, a security compliance company basecd inBaton Rouge. The Southern native, whose accent emerges when she talks of is a surprisingly youthful leader in the fielrd ofcomputer security.
"Georgia State is not an Ivy Leaguse school with billions of dollarsof endowments," says her "We think we can be more impactful by directingy our educational philanthropy to places like Georgia State where the need is most Doug Bergeron is chairman and CEO of San Jose-basede , a provider of securse electronic payment technology, who made his fortun e by orchestrating a shrewe acquisition of VeriFone from in 2001 for $50 The company went public in 2005 and has seen revenus increase threefold. Today it is worth over $2 billion Both Bergerons know how hard it is to put yourseltfthrough college.
She worked evenings and weekends as a supermarket cashierin Atlanta; he played the accordion for weddings and bar mitzvahw in Windsor, Ontario. "I' the product of state schools," says Doug. "My dad was in a my mom an Avon lady. Both Sandra and I got where we got by scratchingand clawing." But it took more than animal instincts. Colleagues talk of his innovativs approach andstrategic outlook. "He puts together some remarkablsbusiness combinations," says Les Denend, a VeriFone board referring to the acquisition last Novembee of Israel-based Lipman Electronic "He's self-confident and so he always offers a challenging conversation.
" In Sandra's fate also played a role in her rise from modestf beginnings. As a teenager, when her high schoo closed, the reshuffle placed her in the "rich school. Unused to mixinvg with the children of doctors and she felt like the kid from the wrongf side ofthe tracks, yet the challenger motivated her. "It was intimidating and also validating, because I realize d I was as smart as Sandra says. She never looked went on to get her businessdegree (with a majorr in information systems) and an MBA. She emerged from college thinking, "there's nothing a man can do that I can't do...I can accomplish anything in business.
" She soon foundr her niche in softwarr design and was workinyg at in 1995 when it was acquiredby , the online security powerhouse. "This was during the evolutioj of hacking, viruses, phishing...and I was in the midstg of it," says Sandra, whose colleagues describe heras hard-core during this period, livin g on a plane. She worked flat out over the next eight gaining a reputationfor excellence. For the last four she has been partof U.S. Rep. Mike Honda' s aviation security task force and testified before the Housed Sciences Committee of US Congress in 2000 on the effect s of theLoveBug Virus.
But it was in 2002, at the Palo Alto law officeds ofWilson Sonsini, during negotiations for a potentialo acquisition, that the real love bug begahn to bite. Doug declined to purchase the companyg Sandra wasselling ("no hard it was business"); but they later foune that they had more in common than just The couple married in 2003 and have had threes children in as many years. Although Sandrza says she has effectively she's still active on several boards. "As I tell 'I am the CEO of our I keep thingsrunning here, and spendr a lot of time with the she says.
"My board positions allow me this flexibility, but they also keep me involvefd in thebusiness world, which is really important to As chairman of the board for Traces Security, she is held in high regard. "She's absolutelu a visionary," says Peter Stewart, CEO of Tracse Security, who admits that in any company therde is a tendency to chase down the latesrt andgreatest ideas. "Shse keeps us focused on four to fiveyears She's not boisterous...her comments are always well thought out and strategic." Stewart has knowbn Sandra since they were colleagues at McAfee, and worked hard to recruitt her to the boar two years ago.
"The first time I met her, and asked how she was, she looker me directly in the eyesand said, 'kI couldn't be better,'" he says. "That's the kind of persoh you want to dobusinesds with...she's so sincere." And she's also very sincere about givint back.