Betsy Atkins
Betsy Atkins is a highly acclaimed public company Board Director and author. Betsy has served on some of the world’s most visible Global public company boards. For 25 years, she has worked behind the scenes at companies like Lucent, HealthSouth, Wilmington Trust, Paychex Corp.
Betsy started her business career as an entrepreneur co-founding several successful high tech companies including blockbuster Ascend Communications, a NASDAQ company achieving $5.4B in revenue in 9 short years. Betsy has been CEO three times dramatically scaling, building, and repositioning businesses resulting in acquisitions and public offerings. She has a strong international and operational perspective encompassing the full range of experience from explosive growth to restructuring.
Betsy has been known for her venture capital firm Baja LLC’s technology investing acumen in companies such as Yahoo and eBay.
Corporate Board experience covers all industries including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, technology, retail and consumer products, etc. She has led many boards through complex issues: crisis, acquisition, mergers, liquidity crisis, etc. Her governance perspective is comprehensive and thoughtful based on firsthand experience.
Betsy is widely published in the Corporate Governance world including the Conference Board, National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), and Corporate Board Member. Betsy has also been nominated as Director of the Year by the NACD.
Betsy Atkins is also a recognized “expert witness” on Corporate Governance Best Practices testifying in the Adelphia bankruptcy case as well as before Congress on governance reform.
Currently serving on four public company boards: Polycom, Inc., Chico’s FAS, Reynolds American Inc. and SunPower Corporation, Advisor of British Telecom.
Academic Background and Organizational Affiliations:
University of Massachusetts, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Scholarship to Trinity College Oxford
Faculty Member, National Association of Corporate Directors
Trustee, Florida International University
Presidential Appointee, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
Member, Council on Foreign Relations
Member, British Telecom Advisory Board
Member, Nasdaq Nominating Committee
