Alison Berkley Wagonfeld
Operating Partner
Alison Berkley Wagonfeld joined Emergence in March 2013 as an Operating Partner. She is working with the Emergence team and its portfolio companies on marketing, talent/recruiting, resource development, and other ways to add value to Emergence portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Emergence, Alison was the Executive Director of the Harvard Business School California Research Center located in Menlo Park, California. In this role, she was responsible for developing and writing business cases and research materials about West Coast companies, with a particular focus on new ventures and enterprise software. Alison has also worked closely with the Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at HBS and the Harvard Innovation Lab. From 2009-2013, she helped design and lead a Silicon Valley immersion program for Harvard students.
Prior to Alison’s role with HBS, Alison worked at Intuit, where she co-founded the company’s home-loan business, QuickenLoans. Alison was also the senior vice president of marketing and business development at Greenlight.com, an online car sales company, incubated by Kleiner Perkins, which was later acquired by CarsDirect (Internet Brands). She joined Greenlight.com as the second employee. Alison has also worked in the mergers & acquisitions group at Morgan Stanley (in New York and Hong Kong), and she worked as a product manager at Microsoft.
Alison received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. Alison is chair of the board for My New Red Shoes, a local non-profit focused on providing brand new shoes and clothing for homeless children. Alison is an avid reader and enjoys playing competitive tennis.
