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Sanford “Sandy” Robertson, the pioneering Silicon Valley financier whose initial public offerings helped turn a sleepy Northern California peninsula into a global economic powerhouse, has died at age 93.
桑福德•“桑迪”•罗伯逊是开创性的硅谷金融家，他的首次公开募股帮助将一个宁静的加利福尼亚北部半岛变成了一个全球经济强国。他近日去世，享年93岁。
Robertson was one of the earliest bankers to sense the potential of technological innovations emerging from the suburbs south of San Francisco in the 1970s and 1980s, at a time when major New York investment banks evinced little interest in the high-risk and little-known inventions that would come to dominate every aspect of modern life.
在20世纪70年代和80年代，罗伯逊是最早意识到从旧金山南部郊区涌现出的技术创新潜力的银行家之一。当时，纽约的主要投资银行对高风险和鲜为人知的发明几乎没有兴趣，而这些发明后来占据了现代生活的方方面面。
He and a handful of like-minded money men launched boutique investment banks catering to the emerging industry, collectively becoming known as the so-called Four Horsemen firms that dominated technology stock market listings for almost three decades. Robertson’s firm, Robertson Stephens, went on to underwrite hundreds of technology companies, some of which would ultimately become household names: Pixar Studios, eBay, E*Trade, AOL and Dell among them.
他和一小群志同道合的金融家共同创办了为新兴行业提供服务的精品投资银行，被合称为所谓的“四骑士”公司，几乎统治了科技股票市场上的上市公司近三十年。罗伯逊的公司罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯(Robertson Stephens)随后承销了数百家科技公司，其中一些最终成为家喻户晓的名字：皮克斯动画工作室(Pixar)、eBay、E*Trade、美国在线(AOL)和戴尔等。
Frank Quattrone, whom Morgan Stanley sent in the 1980s to the Bay Area in pursuit of tech mandates, recalled Robertson’s stature.
摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)在20世纪80年代派遣弗兰克•奎特隆(Frank Quattrone)前往湾区追求科技项目，他回忆起了罗伯逊的威望。
“I admired him a great deal and he served as an inspiration for me to dedicate my career to tech banking,” Quattrone said in an email.
奎特隆在一封电子邮件中说：“我非常钦佩他，他成为我致力于科技银行业的灵感。”
Robertson introduced Tom Perkins and Eugene Kleiner at a 1972 breakfast meeting in Palo Alto where the pair decided to launch a venture capital firm together. That firm, Kleiner Perkins, would go on to become the perhaps the most storied VC in history.
1972年，罗伯逊在帕洛阿尔托(Palo Alto)的一次早餐会上介绍了汤姆•珀金斯(Tom Perkins)和尤金•克莱纳(Eugene Kleiner)，两人决定一起创办一家风险投资公司。这家公司，凯鹏华盈(Kleiner Perkins)，将成为历史上最著名的风险投资公司之一。
In 1995, Robertson Stephens led the IPO of Pixar, the animation studio. Years later, Stephens recalled the demands of Steve Jobs, the Pixar chief executive at the time, who offered precise views on the design of the prospectus and insisted on vegetarian-only meals during roadshow investor meetings.
1995年，罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯领导了皮克斯动画工作室的首次公开募股(IPO)。多年后，斯蒂文斯回忆起当时的皮克斯首席执行官史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)的要求，他对招股说明书的设计提出了精确的意见，并坚持在路演投资者会议期间只提供素食餐。
After selling Robertson Stephens in the dotcom frenzy of the late 1990s, Robertson reinvented himself as both a private equity investor and close adviser to Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff.
在20世纪90年代末的互联网狂热中出售了罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯之后，罗伯逊重新塑造了自己，成为一位私募股权投资者，并成为Salesforce联合创始人马克•贝尼奥夫(Marc Benioff)的亲密顾问。
Sanford Richard Robertson was born in 1931 in Chicago. His father had acquired a restaurant during the depression and Robertson spent his childhood helping his parents operate it. “I had an MBA before I got out of high school,” he would quip.
桑福德•理查德•罗伯逊(Sanford Richard Robertson)于1931年出生在芝加哥。他的父亲在大萧条期间买下了一家餐厅，罗伯逊在童年时期帮助父母经营。他常说：“我在高中毕业前就拿到了MBA学位。”
Robertson had planned to attend the hotel management school at Cornell and return to the family business. But his father was able to sell the restaurant and instead Robertson went to the University of Michigan where he earned an undergraduate and masters degree concurrently in the early-1950s.
罗伯逊原本计划就读康奈尔大学的酒店管理学院，并返回家族企业。但他的父亲成功出售了餐厅，于是罗伯逊在20世纪50年代初同时获得了密歇根大学(University of Michigan)的本科和硕士学位。
After three years in the US Navy, Robertson landed in Smith Barney’s corporate finance department. His coverage area included Nebraska, where at one point he helped a rising Omaha investor, Warren Buffett, take a large stake in American Express as the credit card company sought to recover from a scandal.
在美国海军服役三年后，罗伯逊进入了美邦(Smith Barney)的企业金融部门。他的业务范围包括内布拉斯加州，在某个时候，他帮助了一个崛起的奥马哈投资者沃伦•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)，帮助其在美国运通(American Express)中占据了大股份，因为该信用卡公司正努力从一场丑闻中恢复过来。
Robertson was set to take a spot leading Smith Barney’s office in Los Angeles but was instead sent to San Francisco to fill an unexpected hole. He was familiar with the city after landing in the Bay Area for a week’s stay upon his discharge from the navy.
罗伯逊原本打算领导美邦在洛杉矶的办事处，但却被派往旧金山填补一个意外的空缺。他在海军退役后曾在湾区停留一周，对这座城市非常熟悉。
His Smith Barney bosses expected him to be calling on the forestry companies, Chevron, and other old-line Northern California stalwarts. Instead, he believed the real action was 30 miles south of the city on the peninsula where the likes of Hewlett-Packard and Intel were ushering in the computing era.
他的美邦老板们希望他去拜访林业公司、雪佛龙和其他加利福尼亚北部的老牌企业。然而，他相信真正的行动发生在距离城市30英里的半岛上，那里的惠普(Hewlett-Packard)和英特尔等公司正在引领计算时代的到来。
“I realised the economic base of the city was the valley,” he later said.
他后来说，“我意识到这座城市的经济基础是硅谷。”
In 1968, Robertson broke off from Smith Barney to co-found Robertson, Colman and Siebel, a firm established to do trading and banking strictly for the technology sector. Thomas Weisel, another promising San Francisco banker, joined a few years later. But a conflict with Weisel would set off Robertson to form another firm, Robertson Stephens.
1968年，罗伯逊从美邦离职，与他人共同创建了罗伯逊、科尔曼和西贝尔公司(Robertson, Colman and Siebel)，这是一家专门为技术行业从事贸易和银行业务的公司。几年后，另一位前途无量的旧金山银行家托马斯•魏塞尔(Thomas Weisel)也加入了这家公司。但由于与魏塞尔的冲突，罗伯逊成立了另一家公司罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯(Robertson Stephens)。
Weisel would rebrand the previous firm Montgomery Securities. The Four Horsemen — Robertson Stephens, Montgomery Securities, Hambrecht & Quist and Alex. Brown & Sons — would go on to dominate technology dealmaking with their tight relationships in the clubby California tech scene.
魏塞尔将重新品牌化之前的公司蒙哥马利证券(Montgomery Securities)。四骑士——罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯、蒙哥马利证券、Hambrecht & Quist和Alex. Brown & Sons——将凭借他们在加利福尼亚科技圈内紧密的关系，继续主导科技交易。
“Sandy never raised his voice, never needed to pound the table and never oversold,” said Larry Sonsini, the eminent Silicon Valley lawyer.
“桑迪从不提高嗓门，从不需要拍桌子，也从不过度推销，” 知名硅谷律师拉里•松西尼(Larry Sonsini)说。
Stock trading remained a lucrative activity with wide spreads, and the firms carried large equity research staffs at a time when IPOs were considered the crowning achievement for growing companies.
股票交易仍然是一项利润丰厚的活动，差价较大，而且在首次公开募股被视为成长型公司的巅峰成就时，公司会雇佣大量的股权研究人员。
The late 1990s brought threats and opportunities. The Wall Street bulge-bracket firms by then had realised the opportunity in Silicon Valley. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston and others would establish massive offices across San Francisco as well as south in Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
上世纪90年代末带来了威胁和机遇。当时，华尔街的大型投行已经意识到了硅谷的机会。高盛(Goldman Sachs)、摩根士丹利、瑞信(Credit Suisse)第一波士顿等公司将在旧金山以及南部的帕洛阿尔托和门洛帕克(Menlo Park)建立大型办事处。
At the same time, a frenzied stock market allowed Robertson and the others to capture the value they created, even if it meant their firms would be subsumed into behemoths.
与此同时，疯狂的股市让罗伯逊和其他人能够捕捉到他们创造的价值，即使这意味着他们的公司将被庞然大物所吞并。
In 1998, Bank of America acquired Robertson Stephens for $530mn. But the firm ended up in the hands of Fleet Bank and eventually shuttered in 2002.
1998年，美国银行(Bank of America)以5.3亿美元收购了罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯。但该公司最终被Fleet Bank接管，并于2002年关闭。
Robertson had left by 1999. With a Robertson Stephens colleague, he then set up Francisco Partners, a technology PE firm that today manages more than $40bn.
罗伯逊在1999年离开。之后，他与一位罗伯逊•斯蒂文斯的同事共同创立了弗朗西斯科合伙公司(Francisco Partners)，这是一家科技私募股权公司，如今管理着超过400亿美元的资产。
Around the same time, Robertson met Benioff, an Oracle executive, who had set up a company that offered a new business model, renting software to customers rather than selling licences.
大约在同一时间，罗伯逊遇到了甲骨文的高管贝尼奥夫，他创办了一家提供新商业模式的公司，向客户出租软件而不是销售许可证。
Benioff’s start-up, Salesforce.com, had less than $100mn in revenue when Robertson joined as an adviser and director. Eventually, Salesforce went public and Robertson served on its board until 2023 when its revenue approached $35bn.
贝尼奥夫的初创公司Salesforce.com在罗伯逊加入时的收入不到1亿美元，他担任顾问和董事。最终，Salesforce上市，罗伯逊一直担任其董事，直到2023年其收入达到350亿美元。
Robertson and his then wife Jeanne, like Benioff, would become important benefactors of the hospital at the University of California, San Francisco. Politics also rose as an important outlet for Robertson who counted fellow San Franciscans, Nancy and Paul Pelosi, as close friends.
罗伯逊和他当时的妻子珍妮，像贝尼奥夫一样，成为了加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校医院的重要捐助者。政治也成为了罗伯逊的重要出路，他把旧金山的朋友南希和保罗•佩洛西(Paul Pelosi)视为亲密朋友。
Robertson had been a life-long Republican until he met Bill Clinton in 1992 at an event at Apple where the Democratic Arkansas governor’s commitment to the North American Free Trade Agreement impressed him. Robertson hosted a fundraiser for Clinton soon thereafter, with the festivities spilling into the wee hours at Robertson’s home in the Russian Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco.
罗伯逊一生都是共和党人，直到1992年在苹果公司的一次活动中遇到了比尔•克林顿，当时这位阿肯色州的民主党州长对北美自由贸易协定的承诺给他留下了深刻印象。此后不久，罗伯逊为克林顿举办了一次筹款活动，在罗伯逊位于旧金山俄罗斯山社区的家中，庆祝活动一直持续到凌晨。
Robertson was a listed producer of nearly 30 Broadway shows including Hamilton, taking in the details of seats sold at what price. He also raised racehorses.
罗伯逊是近30部百老汇剧目的制片人，包括《汉密尔顿》，他负责销售座位的细节和票价。他还饲养赛马。
Benioff said Robertson was obsessed with understanding how to identify successful ventures whether they were start-ups, theatre productions or thoroughbreds. “He really loved winners.”
贝尼奥夫说罗伯逊对于如何识别成功的企业，无论是初创公司、剧院制作还是赛马，都有着执着的追求。“他真的很喜欢胜利者。”
Robertson is predeceased by wife, Jeanne. He is survived by wife Nancy, three daughters, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
罗伯逊的妻子珍妮已故。他现任妻子南希、三个女儿、六个孙子和两个曾孙仍在世。