Ira Ehren­preis is Founder and Man­ag­ing Part­ner of DBL Partners.

Ira is a rec­og­nized leader in the ven­ture cap­i­tal indus­try, hav­ing served on the Board, Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee, and as Annu­al Meet­ing Chair­man of the Nation­al Ven­ture Cap­i­tal Asso­ci­a­tion (NVCA).  He cur­rent­ly serves as the Pres­i­dent of the West­ern Asso­ci­a­tion of Ven­ture Cap­i­tal­ists (WAVC) and as the Chair­man of the VCNet­work, the largest and most active Cal­i­for­nia ven­ture cap­i­tal organization.

Ira was recent­ly award­ed the 2018 NACD Direc­tor­ship 100 for being “one of the most influ­en­tial lead­ers in the board­room and cor­po­rate gov­er­nance com­mu­ni­ty.”  In 2007, he was named one of the “Top 50 Most Influ­en­tial Men Under 45″ and in 2014 was induct­ed into the Inter­na­tion­al Green Indus­try Hall of Fame.

Ira has invest­ed in a wide range of com­pa­nies, includ­ing SpaceX, and serves on the board of Tes­la Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) and numer­ous oth­er companies.

Ira has served as the Chair­man of the Sil­i­con Val­ley Tech­nol­o­gy Inno­va­tion & Entre­pre­neur­ship Forum (SVIEF) in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.  He is the Founder and Chair­man of one of the most promi­nent ener­gy inno­va­tion indus­try events, the World Ener­gy Inno­va­tion Forum (WEIF), which con­venes the who’s-who in the indus­try to dis­cuss the impor­tant ener­gy issues and oppor­tu­ni­ties of our time.  Ira also served for many years on the Advi­so­ry Board of the Forum for Women Entre­pre­neurs (FWE).

Ira is also an active leader at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, where he has served on the Board of Vis­i­tors of Stan­ford Law School and is cur­rent­ly an advi­so­ry board mem­ber of the Stan­ford Pre­court Insti­tute for Ener­gy (PIE) Advi­so­ry Coun­cil and the Stan­ford Glob­al Cli­mate and Ener­gy Project (GCEP).  Ira has also been a guest lec­tur­er, includ­ing help­ing to teach a course on Ven­ture Capital.

Ira received his JD/​MBA from Stan­ford Grad­u­ate School of Busi­ness and Stan­ford Law School, where he was an Asso­ciate Edi­tor of Stan­ford Law Review.  He holds a B.A. from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les, grad­u­at­ing Phi Beta Kap­pa and Sum­ma Cum Laude.

Con­nect on LinkedIn: www​.linkedin​.com/​i​n​/​i​r​a​e​h​r​e​n​p​r​e​is/

Fol­low Ira on twit­ter: @IraEhrenpreis