John Svoboda

Managing Director at Svoboda. John co-founded Svoboda Capital Partners (“SC”) in January 1998 with Michelle Collins. John serves on the boards of SC portfolio companies BPI Media, Sonoma Creamery, Kenway Consulting, Clarion HealthCare, Marcus Thomas, and The Variable. Before co-founding SC, John worked in the Corporate Finance Department of William Blair & Company LLC (1983-1997), where he managed Business Development and became a Partner in 1988. John graduated from Williams College with a BA in 1979 and received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1983. John serves as a trustee of the University of Chicago Medical Center as well as for the Otho S. A. Sprague Memorial Institute. He is a Board member of the Pat Tillman Foundation and the Better Government Association. He is an honorary trustee of Marwen and a life trustee of the Francis W. Parker School. John previously served on the Advisory Council of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, served on the Steering Committee for the Stanford Campaign, and recently served on the GSB’s Racial Equity Task Force. John is a Commercial Club of Chicago member, serves on the Global Council of the American Ballet Theatre, and is the former Board Chair of Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre.