Walter G. Kortschak joined Summit Partners in 1989. Prior to Summit, he was a Vice President and an Associate at Crosspoint Venture Partners.
Walter has served as a director of more than 40 companies including 20 public companies. He has invested in several industry-defining companies, notably E-TEK Dynamics (NASDAQ: ETEK, later merged with JDS Uniphase in a transaction valued at over $18 billion), an early leader in optical networking; as the initial investor in McAfee (NYSE: MFE, later acquired by Intel), an anti-virus and network security firm and one of the pioneering companies using the Internet business model for distributing software; and HMT Technology (NASDAQ: HMTT, later acquired by Komag) and Diamond Multimedia Systems (NASDAQ: DIMD, later acquired by SONICblue), both early technology buyout and recapitalization transactions in Silicon Valley. Other notable technology investments include AltoCom (acquired by Broadcom), Finisar (NASDAQ: FNSR), NetCom Systems (acquired by Bowthorpe), and Xylan (NASDAQ: XYLN, later acquired by Alcatel).
He received a BS in civil engineering, with Honors and High Scholarship, from Oregon State University, an MS in civil engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and an MBA with Honors, from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Walter is a founder and advisory board member of the USC Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity at the University of Southern California and a member of the Board of Trustees at the California Institute of Technology. He is also a past director of the National Venture Capital Association.