Engineering the Future
A Conversation With Bruce Leak
Date: Thursday, April 30
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall
This event is free and open to the public with a general admission ticket.
Bruce Leak is a leading tech-industry investor, engineer, digital multimedia pioneer and co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Playground Global. His work has helped define key moments in modern computing, from early multimedia software to today’s most ambitious deep tech companies.
He is a founding partner at Playground Global, a Palo Alto, California-based venture firm that supports entrepreneurs working at the frontiers of science and engineering. Playground backs technical founders tackling complex challenges across the future of computing, automation, energy and engineered biology.
Leak worked on the first version of Microsoft Word while still an undergraduate. He began his career at Apple, where he led development of key Macintosh graphics technologies that helped lay the foundation for QuickTime, the most widely adopted digital video platform.
He later helped build several influential startups at the intersection of computing, media and communications, including General Magic and WebTV, the latter of which brought internet services to the television and was later acquired by Microsoft.
His entrepreneurial work reflects a career defined by building teams that are passionate about inventing the future.
At Playground, Leak supports efforts spanning from humanoid robots and AI brain surgeons to reengineering photosynthesis and using the ocean as a grid-scale battery.
When not in the office, he can be found kayaking and paddleboarding on coastlines near and far, looking for rare flora and fauna.
Leak graduated from Stanford University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.
