Women Who Inspire Us
Tech Finance

Kim Polese

Kim Polese is president, chief executive officer and co-founder of Marimba, a leading provider of Internet infrastructure management solutions.

Prior to co-founding Marimba, Polese spent more than seven years at Sun Microsystems and was the original product manager for Java. During her tenure at Sun, she played a pivotal role in the strategic definition, direction and launch of Java. Prior to joining Sun, Polese worked for IntelliCorp Inc., consulting with companies in the development of expert system application frameworks.

Polese holds a B.A. in biophysics from UC Berkeley and has studied computer science at the University of Washington, Seattle. A noted and respected industry speaker, Polese has been named one of Time magazine's Top 25 Most Influential People in America, one of Red Herring's Top 20 Entrepreneurs, and one of Computer Reseller News' Top 25 Executives. Upside included her two years in a row in their Upside Elite 100; Network Computing called her one of the Top 25 Technology Drivers, and the San Francisco Business Times voted her one of the Most Influential Businesswomen in the Bay Area.

Polese is a member of the board of directors of TechNet, a bipartisan coalition of digital-economy executives focused on strengthening America's leadership in the new economy. She is also an advisory board member of Women in Technology International. In addition, Polese is on the board of Do Something, a nonprofit organization that inspires, trains, funds and mobilizes young people to become leaders in their communities.