Victoria Ransom

Victoria Ransom is a serial entrepreneur from New Zealand. She has developed three companies including Wildfire Interactive, a social marketing SaaS company, where Ransom was CEO until it was sold to Google in 2012.[1][2] Ransom currently resides in Palo Alto.[3]

Victoria Ransom
NationalityNew Zealander
EducationBachelor of Arts, Master of Business Administration
Alma materUnited World College, Macalester College, Harvard Business School
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Wildfire Interactive
Partner(s)Alain Chuard

Ransom was listed as one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs[4] as well as one of their 40 under 40 in 2012.[5] In 2015, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[6][7]

Education

Ransom was raised on an asparagus farm in Scotts Ferry, near Bulls, New Zealand.[8] In her final year at Whanganui Girls' College,[9] she won a scholarship to attend international high school United World College in New Mexico.[10][11] She then attended Macalester College, where she earned her BA in psychology and graduated summa cum laude in 1999.[11] Ransom received her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008.[10]

Career

After graduating from Macalester, Ransom moved to London where she worked as a business consultant. Later, she moved to New York City and worked for investment banking firm Morgan Stanley. She left the company in 2001 and founded Access Trips, an adventure travel company in New Zealand.[11] Ransom co-ran Access Trips for five years before returning to the US to attend business school.[12] While at Harvard Business School, Ransom co-developed a distributed booking system for small and medium size travel companies, resulting in a summer at Highland Capital Partners as an Entrepreneur in Residence.[13]

In 2008, Ransom founded Wildfire Interactive, a social marketing software company initially developed to help promote Access Trips.[1] Ransom ran Wildfire as CEO and grew the company to 400 employees in four years.[11] In 2010, she sold Access Trips.[14] In 2012, Google bought Wildfire for a reported $450 million and Ransom became the Director of Product at Google.[15][16]

She was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for New Zealand in 2011.[17][18] In 2013, she was invited to the White House by Barack Obama to receive a "Champion of Change" award recognizing her contributions as an immigrant entrepreneur.[19] In 2015, she was awarded the World Class New Zealander award along with former New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark.[20]

Personal life

In college she met Alain Chuard, also a Macalester student and Ransom's future business partner.[1][11] The two married in March 2013 and had a daughter in 2014.[21][16]

References
  1. Coster, Helen (October 19, 2012). "Victoria Ransom's wild ride". TIME Magazine. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  2. Bryant, Adam (January 26, 2013). "If Supervisors Respect the Values, So Will Everyone Else". New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  3. Barr, Alastair (May 12, 2015). "Google Shopping Leader Decamps for Jawbone". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  4. Sellers, Patricia (August 31, 2012). "Who are the 2012 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs?". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  5. "40 Under 40 2012". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  6. "Victoria Ransom Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Wildfire Google". World Economic Forum. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  7. "RANSOM Victoria Technology". National Business Review. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  8. "Rangitikei woman makes rich list". Manawatu Standard. 25 July 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  9. Scherer, Karyn (1 September 2012). "A king's ransom". The Listener. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  10. Clarke, Charlotte (October 8, 2012). "Ten Questions: Victoria Ransom". The Financial Times Limited. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  11. Rebeck, Gene. "The Winding Road To Wildfire". Macalester College. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  12. Mitra, Sramana (March 29, 2012). "From New Zealand To Silicon Valley: Victoria Ransom's Wildfire Journey". sramanamitra.com. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  13. "Next Woman List: Victoria Ransom". The NextWomen. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  14. Shinal, John (June 28, 2011). "The Spark That Fuels Wildfire Interactive". Entrepreneur Magazine. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  15. "Google World - Facts and Stats". LinkedIn Corporation. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  16. Dudding, Adam (June 21, 2015). "Google's Kiwi multimillionaire on how she did it". Fairfax New Zealand Limited. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  17. Bird, Kendall (March 18, 2013). "5 Women Who Are Revolutionizing the Tech Industry". Rasmussen, Inc. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  18. "Entrepreneur of the Year 2012". Co.OfWomen. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  19. "White House honors local immigrant innovators". MediaNews Group. May 29, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  20. Anthony, John (July 2, 2015). "Helen Clark wins Kea World Class New Zealand Award". Fairfax New Zealand Limited. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  21. Fletcher, Hamish (September 21, 2012). "NZ startups can thrive, says Ransom". NZME Publishing Limited. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
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