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Roger McNamee
American businessman and venture capitalist
Roger McNamee (born May 2, 1956) is an American businessman, investor, venture capitalist and musician. He is the founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born May 2, 1956.1
About
Prior to co-founding the firm, McNamee co-founded private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and headed the T. Rowe Price Science and Technology Fund.
He is also a touring musician, first as a founding member of the Flying Other Brothers, and more recently in that group's follow-on band, Moonalice. Counting two groups, McNamee estimated that he had played 800 shows as of 2009.
He served as an executive producer on the 2026 film The Social Reckoning, Aaron Sorkin's companion piece to The Social Network that dramatizes the 2021 Facebook Files whistleblower case, and a fictional character (Charlie Garrigan, played by Bill Burr) is loosely based on him.
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
- Elevation PartnersFounder14
- Silver LakeFounder15
Early life and education
McNamee was born on May 2, 1956, in Albany, New York. His father, Daniel, was an investment banker. He was the president of the Albany chapter of the Urban League. Barbara, his mother, was a feminist during the 60s. When McNamee was 12 years old, he protested against the Vietnam War, and volunteered for Eugene McCarthy's campaign for president. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Career
Occupation: opinion journalist, writer, guitarist, financier, business manager, musician, investor, entrepreneur.6
- Date not recordedFounded Silver Lake4
- Date not recordedFounded Elevation Partners5
Known for: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.7
McNamee has worked for numerous employers during his career.
T. Rowe Price
McNamee joined T. Rowe Price as an analyst in 1982, after receiving his M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business.
By 1989 he was leading the firm's Science & Technology Fund, a period when the fund returned about 17% annually to investors. In a move atypical for mutual funds, he made venture capital investments in Electronic Arts (which went public in 1989) and Sybase (which had its IPO in 1991).
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Integral Capital Partners
In 1991 McNamee co-founded Integral Capital Partners with John Powell and venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins to invest in expansion stage private companies and growth-stage public companies.
Silver Lake Partners
In 1999, McNamee was one of the founding partners of leveraged buyout firm Silver Lake Partners.
Elevation Partners
In 2004, McNamee co-founded Elevation Partners along with a number of other investors including U2 frontman Bono. He currently serves as its managing director. Elevation Partners investments have included Palm, Inc., Forbes, and Facebook.
Music career
McNamee is also a musician. He played in the band Flying Other Brothers from 1997 to 2006. His current band, Moonalice, formed in 2007 after acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett approached McNamee about creating a new band in the spirit of the San Francisco psychedelic era. Roger has written for, and played guitar, bass, and vocals in the band since 2007, using the stage persona of "Chubby Wombat Moonalice." In 2014 he formed a duo with Jason Crosby called the Doobie Decibel System. In 2015, The Doobie Brothers sued the band over the name.
McNamee appeared in the 2021 award-winning documentary, The Tale of the Dog, which chronicles the outsized historical impact that the Denver music venue, The Family Dog Denver, had on the changing city.
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
Relationship with Wikipedia
According to The New York Times, McNamee has been instrumental in arranging at least two $500,000 donations to the Wikimedia Foundation. Roger McNamee is a member of the Wikipedia Foundation's advisory board.
McNamee has been married to the musical theorist and singer/songwriter Ann McNamee since 1983. The couple founded an elephant sanctuary in Tehama County, northern California, now known as Tembo Preserve.
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Legal issues and controversies
An early investor in Facebook, McNamee became very critical of its impact on society and democracy, as expressed in his op-eds for USA Today and The Guardian. Earlier, on CNBC, he said that he had tried to warn Facebook about the impact of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. elections. He has also been interviewed by NPR on the topic. As part of this effort, McNamee joined the Center for Humane Technology as a founding advisor.
In May 2019, he appeared before the House of Commons privacy and ethics committee in Ottawa, calling for governments to temporarily shut down Facebook and other social media sites until they reform. On 25 September 2020, McNamee was named as one of the 25 members of the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", an independent monitoring group over Facebook.
From Wikipedia’s article on Roger McNamee (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataRoger McNamee on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaRoger McNamee on Wikipedia
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- 11WikidataRoger McNamee: X, on Wikidata
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- 14WikidataElevation Partners, Founder
- 15WikidataSilver Lake, Founder
- 16Wikimedia CommonsRoger McNamee photo by Web Summit, CC BY 2.0