Jeffrey J. Rothschild, BA’77, MS’79

Jeffrey J. Rothschild has had a 40-year career as an entrepreneur, engineer and technology investor. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology in 1977, then changed direction and earned his master’s degree in computer science in 1979.

After leaving Vanderbilt, Jeff worked briefly at Honeywell and Intel before launching his career as an entrepreneur. His first projects weren’t necessarily successful, but they were all invaluable learning experiences. Jeff has co-founded two public companies: the storage software company Veritas Software, which reached nearly $2 billion in yearly revenue in the 1990s, and the online gaming company Mpath Interactive. Jeff joined Facebook as vice president of infrastructure engineering in 2005 and spent 10 years focused on the scalability and performance of the site.

Since leaving Facebook in 2015, Jeff has been working as an investor and mentor to entrepreneurs and is on the board of Pure Storage and Scuba Analytics. Jeff also serves as vice chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust and is a member of the board of Stanford Health Care. Jeff’s philanthropic and impact investment areas include medical research, scholarships for disadvantaged students, open space preservation, a shoe company in Guatemala, and an ophthalmologic hospital and a dairy cooperative in Kenya.