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Mark Leslie

Mark Leslie
Lecturer in Management

Teaching Statement

Mark Leslie is a successful retired entrepreneur and continues to be active in the Silicon Valley community. In his relationship with Stanford GSB he focuses on course and case development in the areas of entrepreneurship, and he co-developed and teaches the school’s seminal course on sales organizations. His courses cover many topics related to the growth of Silicon Valley companies, as well as companies around the United States and abroad. He is an energetic and devoted teacher, and states that his aspiration is “…to impact all and to inspire a few."

Bio

Mark Leslie is a Lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where he teaches courses in Entrepreneurship, Ethics and Sales Organization. He is also the managing director of Leslie Ventures, a private investment company, and serves on the boards of two public companies, six private companies, and three nonprofit organizations.

Mark Leslie was the founding Chairman and CEO of Veritas Software. During his tenure as CEO, the company went from 12 employees to 5,500 employees deployed globally, and from a revenue base of $95,000 per year to $1,500,000,000 per year. In 2000, Veritas was the 10th largest independent software company by revenue, third largest by market capitalization, and achieved the distinction of becoming a Fortune 1000 company.

From 1980 until 1990 he served as president and chief executive officer of two Silicon Valley high-tech start-up companies. His prior experience included sales management, sales executive, systems engineer, and OS programmer.

Mark currently serves on the board of Model N Corporation (NYSE: MODN), and a number of privately held high-technology corporations, including Big Switch, Interana, Liquid Robotics, Nebula, Nutanix, PernixData, Pure Storage, Skybox Imaging, Model N Software (NYSE: MODN), SugarCRMa and Zerto.  Mark is on the boards of nonprofit organizations NYU Board of Trustees, Board of  Overseers, NYU Science Advisory Board (Chairman) and Leslie Family Foundation.

Mark received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and mathematics from New York University in 1966 and completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development (PMD)in 1980.

Academic Degrees

  • PMD Executive Management Program, Harvard Business School, 1980
  • BA, New York University, 1966

Academic Appointments

  • At Stanford University since 2001
  • Lecturer in Management Science and Engineering, Stanford School of Engineering, 2002
  • Lecturer in Business, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, 2001
  • Fellow at Judge Business School, Cambridge University

Professional Experience

  • Founder, President, CEO, and Chairman, Veritas Software, 1990-2001
  • Chairman, President, and CEO, Rugged Digital Systems, Inc., 1984-1989
  • Founder, President, and CEO, Synapse Computer Corp., 1980-1984

Publications

Journal Articles

Mark Leslie, Charles A. Holloway. Harvard Business Review. July 2006.

Courses Taught

Degree Courses

2013-14

GSBGEN 566 will be an elective course offered to 2nd-year MBA and Sloan students. The goal of this course is to improve students' judgment in confronting ethical situations encountered in the normal course of business activities. Classes use the...

This course is offered for students who at some time may want to undertake an entrepreneurial career by pursuing opportunities leading to partial or full ownership and control of a business. The course deals with case situations from the point of...

2012-13

GSBGEN 566 will be an elective course offered to 2nd-year MBA and Sloan students. The goal of this course is to improve students' judgment in confronting ethical situations encountered in the normal course of business activities. Classes use the...

2011-12

GSBGEN 566 will be an elective course offered to 2nd-year MBA and Sloan students. The goal of this course is to improve students' judgment in confronting ethical situations encountered in the normal course of business activities. The course will...

Stanford Case Studies

E480A | Blue River Technology A
Mark Leslie, Russell Lewis Siegelman, Austin Kiessig2013
E480B | Blue River Technology B
Mark Leslie, Russell Lewis Siegelman, Austin Kiessig2013
E453 | Sage Networks
Mark Leslie, Kirk Bowman, Sara Rosenthal2012
E395 | Progreso Financiero: Growing Sales
Arar Han, James Lattin, Mark Leslie2011
E409 | SeaMicro
Mark Leslie, Sara Rosenthal2011
E428A | Traction Ventures - Part A
Mark Leslie2011
E428B | Traction Ventures - Part B
Mark Leslie2011
E428C | Traction Ventures - Part C
Mark Leslie2011
E391 | Kevin Donnelly at New Wave Ventures
Mark Leslie, Andrew Rachleff2010
E382A | Mary Simmons (A)
Jocelyn Hornblower, Mark Leslie2010
E382B | Mary Simmons (B)
Jocelyn Hornblower, Mark Leslie2010
E377 | Note on IPO Share Allocation
Mark Leslie, Claire Magat, Michael Marks2010
E385A | Valley Systems (A)
Jocelyn Hornblower, Mark Leslie, John Morgridge2010
E385B | Valley Systems (B)
Jocelyn Hornblower, Mark Leslie, John Morgridge2010
E152B | Vocera Communications (B)
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Brett Lang2010
E349 | Better Place
Jocelyn Hornblower, Mark Leslie2009
E360 | Jive Software
Mark Leslie, Mark Stevens, Claire Magat2009
E350A | Levi Strauss & Co. (A)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose2009
E350B | Levi Strauss & Co. (B)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose2009
E350C | Levi Strauss & Co. (C)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose2009
E350D | Levi Strauss & Co. (D)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose2009
E296 | Mercado
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Bethany Coates2008
E263 | NetApp, The Day-to-Day of a DM
Mark Leslie, Patrick Arippol2007
E267A | XenSource (A)
Mark Leslie, Katherine Bose2007
E270 | Xsigo Systems
Mark Leslie, Andrew Rachleff, Victoria Chang2007
E232 | Clearion Software
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Mike Harkey2006
E200 | Connetics and Relaxin
Robert Chess, Mark Leslie, Joshua Spitzer2006
E230 | Nektar Therapeutics
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Joshua Spitzer2006
E209 | Presidio Solutions
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Joshua Spitzer2006
SM147 | Scalix Corporation, The Evolution of a Sales Model
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Mike Harkey2006
E184A | Avaya (A) - How To Go To Market
Mark Leslie, Alex Tauber2005
E184B | Avaya (B), Implementing The New Go-To-Market Model
Mark Leslie, Alex Tauber2005
E213 | Bausch & Lomb Sales Force Reorganization
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Angie Strange2005
M311 | Implementing Sales Force Automation at Quantium Technology
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Dana Nunn2005
E186 | Lundberg Systems, 3 Vignettes
Mark Leslie, James Lattin, Mike Harkey2005
E177 | OuterBay and EMC
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Alicia Seiger2005
SM120B | Veritas 1999 (B): Integrating Sales Forces
Tom Federico, Mark Leslie2005
SM120C | Veritas 1999 (C): Integrating Sales Forces
Tom Federico, Mark Leslie, Erin Yurday2005
E172 | ComStar, Reinventing The Channel
Mark Leslie, Alicia Seiger2004
E169 | Crystal Decisions
Mark Leslie, Alex Tauber2004
E183 | Philip Reade
Mark Leslie, Alicia Seiger2004
E157 | Inkra Networks
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Jamie Earle, Robert Magowan2003
E163A | Med-Mart, Transitioning The Business Model (A)
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Erin Yurday2003
E163B | Med-Mart, Transitioning The Business Model (B)
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Erin Yurday2003
E163C | Med-Mart, Transitioning The Business Model (C)
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Erin Yurday2003
E161 | OuterBay Building a Sales Force
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Alicia Seiger2003
SM120A | Veritas 1999 (A): Integrating Sales Forces
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Erin Yurday2003
E149 | VMware
Mark Leslie, Jamie Earle2003
E152 | Vocera Communications
James Lattin, Mark Leslie, Jamie Earle2003
OIT37 | Zaplet
Jeff Eisen, Charles Holloway, Mark Leslie2003

Stanford University Affiliations

Stanford GSB

Service to the Profession

Board of Directors

  • Wall Street Systems, 2008-present
  • Sugar CRM, 2008-present
  • Xsigo Systems, 2007-present
  • NetApp, 2004-present
  • ModelN Software, 2001-present