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Dr. William M. Coughran Jr. is a technologist boasting over twenty years of expertise in large-scale computing and networking infrastructures. He is recognized for his impactful role as an executive in Silicon Valley, mentor, and investor, aiding ambitious startups in evolving into transformative enterprises.
Coughran initiated his professional journey at Bell Labs, playing a vital part in numerous key initiatives, including the advancement of distributed systems and applications for modeling and validation techniques. He later ascended to the position of vice president at the Computing Sciences Research Center, which was crucial in the creation of C and C++ programming languages as well as the UNIX, Plan 9, and Inferno operating systems. He co-founded Entrisphere, which was subsequently acquired by Ericsson, and held the position of CEO until 2002. In 2003, he became part of Google, advancing to senior vice president for research and systems infrastructure, supervising the creation of Chrome, YouTube, Google Maps, among several other projects. Since 2011, he has been associated with Sequoia Capital as a partner and mentor for technology startups. While at Sequoia, he also acted as an advisor to Google until 2015.
Coughran earned BS and MS degrees in mathematics from Caltech and MS and PhD degrees in computer science from Stanford. He has participated and continues to participate on various academic boards, including Caltech’s IST Advisory Council; corporate boards such as Quantum Circuits, Lilt, Alkira, Graphiant, Oso, Stairwell, and Prelude; and the board of the San Francisco Opera. He has occupied diverse adjunct and consulting faculty roles at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH Zurich), Duke University, and Stanford University. In 2024, he was honored with Caltech’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
Coughran and his spouse, Bridget, live in Los Altos Hills and have celebrated over 50 years of marriage.
Here, he responds to inquiries regarding his mentors, insights on his career, and his first encounter with Caltech.
Who are some university professors who had a significant impact on your life?
John (Jack) Todd at Caltech and Gene Golub at Stanford. [Todd was a mathematician and a trailblazer in computing and mathematical analysis. He and his spouse, number theorist Olga Taussky-Todd, joined Caltech’s faculty in 1957. Golub became part of the Stanford faculty in 1962. His significant contributions to numerical analysis include the formulation of algorithms and software that allowed large engineering and scientific computations to be executed efficiently by computers.]
What insights have you gained throughout your career that you believe others should understand?
Engineering is straightforward; working with people is challenging.
Do you believe taking risks in life is essential? Why?
Yes, many scientists tend to be too narrow-minded. Strive to be a problem solver.
How did your interest in Caltech develop?
I aimed to study physics. I was astute enough to become a computer scientist.
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