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Howard E. Cox is a pioneering leader in the American venture capital industry who helped shape its growth in the 1970s and 1980s, when it attained its current form. In 1971, he joined Greylock Partners, one of the industry’s oldest firms, and currently serves as a Special Limited Partner. He acted as an advocate for the industry as Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and as a member of more than two dozen portfolio company boards. Cox also has been a leader on national security issues, serving on the boards of In-Q-Tel, which brings new technologies to the U.S. intelligence agencies, and the Defense Business Board, which advises the Secretary of Defense on business management issues.

Cox had served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 1968 and 1969-71 as a member of a team assigned to assist in guiding the United States to the end of its participation in the Vietnam War. In addition, he is a philanthropist, currently serving on the boards or advisory committees of more than two dozen nonprofit organizations. In November 2021, Cox donated $20 million towards the expansion of the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium, renamed the Cox Science Center and Aquarium.

Early life and education
Cox was born in New York City on February 1, 1944 to Howard Ellis Cox, a partner in the New York law firm of Cox, Treanor & Shaughnessy, and Anne Crane Finch Delafield, a prominent fashion designer and patron of charities.

He is a grandson of Edward Ridley Finch, a judge of the New York State Court of Appeals and is a descendant of Robert R. Livingston, a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the United States Declaration of Independence, and Francis Lewis, also a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Cox attended elementary school at the Allen-Stevenson School in New York City and high school at Collegiate School in New York. He majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, graduating with an A.B. degree in 1964. He also is a Distinguished Military Graduate of Princeton’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. Cox is an alumnus of Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1967 with a J.D. degree, and Harvard Business School, from which he graduated in 1969 with an MBA degree.

U.S. Department of Defense
Upon his graduation from Princeton in 1964, Cox was commissioned a Second Lieutenant Artillery in the U.S. Army. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (Systems Analysis Office) during the summer of 1968 and in 1969-71, attaining the rank of Captain.

Among Cox’s duties as a member of the systems analysis organization was to serve as a member of a team assigned to assist in guiding the United States to the end of its participation in the Vietnam War. The team’s work resulted in National Security Staff Memorandum No. One, or NSSM-1, which was delivered to the incoming Nixon Administration. On the first working day of the new administration, National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger forwarded content from the memorandum to senior military and diplomatic officials as part of an effort to evaluate the situation in Vietnam and set national policy.

Venture capital career
In 1971, Cox joined Greylock Partners, one of the nation’s oldest venture capital firms and a partner in companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb, AppDynamics, Workday and Palo Alto Networks. Cox joined Greylock as just its fifth employee when the industry was in its infancy.

Cox’s first investment on behalf of Greylock was in powered surgical tools company Stryker Corporation, then a relatively small single proprietorship with about $8 million in annual revenues and now a multinational medical technologies enterprise with sales of $14.4 billion in 2020. Cox joined the Stryker board of directors in 1974, played an active role in its growth and expansion into other business lines and facilitated its IPO in 1979. Cox became director emeritus in 2018 after 44 years as a director.

In addition to Stryker, Cox has led Greylock’s investments in other companies including Share Development Corporation (for which Greylock later facilitated a merger with United HealthCare Corp. in 1985, creating what would become UnitedHealth Group, decades later ranked fifth on the 2021 Fortune 500). Cox also served as a director of CheckFree, the nation’s largest electronic payments company, a Greylock investment. CheckFree was acquired by Fiserv in 2007.

Other Greylock investments led by Cox include American Medical Systems (Acquired by Pfizer in 1985); Amisys Managed Care (IPO in 1995); Appex Cellular (acquired by EDS in 1991); Arbor Health Care (IPO 1993, acquired by Extendicare in 1997); BMR Financial (IPO 1988, acquired by SouthTrust in 1993); Centene (IPO 2001); HPR (IPO 1995, acquired by HBO & Company in 1997); ISSCO (IPO 1983, acquired by CA in 1987); Landacorp (IPO 2000, acquired by SHPS in 2004); Lunar (IPO 1990, acquired by GE Medical Systems in 2000); Meditech (private); OTG Software (IPO 2000, acquired by Legato in 2002); Promega (private); Rehab Systems (acquired by NovaCare in 1991); United Publishers (acquired by NYNEX Corporation in 1986); VHA Long Term Care (acquired by ServiceMaster in 1993); and Vincam Group (IPO 1996, acquired by ADP in 1999).29Other Greylock investments led by Cox include American Medical Systems (Acquired by Pfizer in 1985); Amisys Managed Care (IPO in 1995); Appex Cellular (acquired by EDS in 1991); Arbor Health Care (IPO 1993, acquired by Extendicare in 1997); BMR Financial (IPO 1988, acquired by SouthTrust in 1993); Centene (IPO 2001); HPR (IPO 1995, acquired by HBO & Company in 1997); ISSCO (IPO 1983, acquired by CA in 1987); Landacorp (IPO 2000, acquired by SHPS in 2004); Lunar (IPO 1990, acquired by GE Medical Systems in 2000); Meditech (private); OTG Software (IPO 2000, acquired by Legato in 2002); Promega (private); Rehab Systems (acquired by NovaCare in 1991); United Publishers (acquired by NYNEX Corporation in 1986); VHA Long Term Care (acquired by ServiceMaster in 1993); and Vincam Group (IPO 1996, acquired by ADP in 1999).

During his career at Greylock, Cox led more than 30 investments. He currently is a Special Limited Partner at Greylock, marking his 50th year with the firm in 2021.

Cox serves as an advisory trustee of the Strategic Advisers® Income Opportunities Fund and other Fidelity mutual funds.

Personal
Cox married Julia Bolton Dempsey in 1970. The couple divorced in 2005. In 2020, Cox married Winifred (Wendy) Wasson Bingham.

His family members include his brother, Edward Ridley Finch Cox, husband of Tricia Nixon Cox, and his sister, Mary Ann (Mazie) Livingston Delafield Cox.

Cox is a jet aircraft pilot, a lifelong interest in aviation that grew out of his experience as head of the Princeton Flying Club.

Philanthropy, community and civic activities
Cox serves on the boards or advisory committees of approximately two dozen nonprofit organizations.

Among the charitable and cultural institutions on whose boards he has served are the Commercial Club of Boston, one of the nation’s oldest commercial organizations, the Foundation Board of the Forum of Young Global Leaders, the Norton Museum of Art and the Population Council. He is president of the Clermont Foundation and a director of the Southampton Hospital Association, which supports Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

In 2021, the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium was renamed the Cox Science Center and Aquarium in Cox’s honor. He has been a longtime supporter of the Science Center, and led a capital campaign to fund the Center’s expansion beginning in 2022.

Cox has served on the investment committees of nonprofit institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Kleberg Foundation and the former Partners Healthcare.

He has been active in national security issues, serving on the boards of the Brookings Institution (on whose investment committee he served), and Business Executives for National Security (BENS), an organization of senior business and industry executives who collaborate on a nonpartisan basis to address challenges faced by national security agencies. He is a longtime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the President's Leadership Council of The Asia Foundation.

Through the years, Cox has been a supporter of Harvard University schools and programs, including serving on various advisory boards at Harvard Business School, the Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.

He is a founding donor of the Harvard Business School Online Learning Program and of the Harvard Kennedy School’s “Young Global Leaders: Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century program,” which provides the World Economic Forum's select Young Global Leaders with a deeper understanding of public policy issues.

In 2019, Cox conceived and funded the Secretary’s Leadership Seminar, a six-month executive education offering for midcareer foreign and civil service State Department staff inspired by his experience in the Department of Defense and conducted in partnership with Harvard Business School.

Cox gave a $10 million gift to Harvard Business School in 2022 to support the School’s Health Care Initiative with the goal of improving the quality and driving down the cost of healthcare in the U.S. ,

Cox is listed on the honor roll of donors to the Campaign for the Harvard Kennedy School. He also initiated and funded the Harvard Business School Health Initiative.

Corporate board service
In addition to directorships held in connection with Stryker and other Greylock portfolio companies, Cox is a past director of Affiliated Publications (parent company of The Boston Globe).

Cox serves on the Board of Directors of Brown Advisory Inc., a private, independent investment and strategic advisory firm.

In addition to serving on business boards, Cox has served on public-private partnerships such as the board of In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital firm which brings new technologies to the U.S. intelligence agencies. He has chaired its Finance and Investment Committee for the past two decades.

Cox also was a member of the Defense Business Board, which provides the Secretary of Defense and other senior leaders of the Department of Defense with independent advice on best business practices.

In addition to his board service, Cox has long been a leader in the venture capital industry, and is a past Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, the industry’s primary advocacy organization.

Accolades
In 2022, Cox and his wife, Wendy Bingham Cox, were named Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients, presented annually to those who have shown an outstanding commitment to serving the U.S. either professionally, culturally or civically.

In 2020, Cox received the National Venture Capital Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Venture Capital Award.

In 2003, Cox, together with Greylock’s Founding Partners William Elfers, Daniel Gregory and Charles Waite and fellow General Partner Henry McCance, received the 2003 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of their work at Greylock.

In 2002, Cox was the recipient of the Leaders and Best Award for Excellence in Growth Capital Investment from the University of Michigan’s Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance.