Chris Norris is the Executive Director of the Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Business Institute at Santa Clara University, where he leads university-wide efforts to help students develop an entrepreneurial mindset and build ventures that create both economic and societal value. He also teaches in the Leavey School of Business.
At SCU, his work centers on helping students think beyond startups as an endpoint and instead see entrepreneurship as a way of engaging with the world—grounded in empathy for stakeholders, comfort with uncertainty, and a focus on creating broad prosperity. He has built the Bronco Venture Accelerator, interdisciplinary fellows and scholars programs, and a range of curricular and co-curricular offerings, all designed to give students hands-on experience turning ideas into action.
Chris brings more than 40 years of Silicon Valley experience as an engineer, executive, CEO, and investor. He has led companies from early stage through exit, including raising over $100 million for Alta Devices and guiding its acquisition. He has also advised entrepreneurs on strategy and fundraising as a Venture Partner at BlueRun Ventures. Chris was the President and CEO at MicroDisplay, and served as Vice President and General Manager at Cypress Semiconductor after starting his career at Intel, where he worked in both manufacturing and development. He has 7 issued patents, a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s in Computer Engineering.
Outside of work, he’s a proud supporter of his wife and four sons, plays guitar, and is an avid homebrewer. Together with his two Shih Tzus, he’s preparing to begin a DPhil at Oxford focused on sustainable urban development, exploring how innovation-driven economies like Silicon Valley shape economic and societal outcomes.
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