The Top 20: #18 Wendy Lung, partner, IBM Ventures

Wendy Lung, director of corporate strategy at IBM Venture Capital Group, is a rarity in corporate venturing: her talents have been recognised for two GCV Rising Stars awards by two different bosses.

As an IBM-lifer, having joined the US-listed technology company as a sales representative in 1989, Lung was selected for this year’s award by George Ugras, who became head of IBM’s corporate venturing unit last spring, as “an excellent choice”.

For the Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars 2016 awards, Lung was picked by Claudia Fan Munce, head until her retirement from IBM last year.

Lung has been a partner in IBM Ventures since 2008 “identifying disruptions to our business and our clients’ businesses and building, investing and scaling new business opportunities in IBM’s strategic areas,” she said.

And Lung added: “My greatest feeling of accomplishment comes from effectively rallying the resources of IBM to help a startup succeed. As anyone in CVC can attest, it is not always easy to corral the power of a large corporation for a startup to leverage.

“In the past, I had created and launched several first of a kind programs in IBM to help startups scale globally. Currently, I am finding greater impact in connecting startups with our largest clients to help them solve their biggest business problems. Creates a win-win-win scenario for everyone.”

Earlier, one of her greatest successes had been the creation of IBM’s first global programme for startups in 2010.

She said for 2016’s awards: “It was exciting to rally resources from across the company to engage and provide value to early-stage startups.”

The programme, IBM Global Entrepreneur, has grown to 40 international cities, 10,000 startup participants across 100 countries, 600 mentors in the network and $180m of venture investment in the companies since its inception in 2010.

Having previously been a director of marketing at IBM, she said she was excited at venture capital because she was an “intrapreneur”.

She added: “I have always been drawn to growing new and emerging business opportunities within the company. I helped build IBM’s first ‘net generation’ business focused on internet startups years ago. Since then, I have been involved in emerging business opportunities including wireless, digital media and network convergence. It was a perfect fit for me to join the venture capital group and further my passion in working with leading-edge innovators.”

And while she has countered the Silicon Valley trend of company-hopping to build a career, she remains aware of the challenges faced by others. “For the past five years, I have been part of a volunteer organisation that assists people who have come across life challenges to re-enter the workforce.”

By giving to others, however, she has typified another Valley mantra of trying to help the world become a better place.