Barbara and Thomas Stephenson say they apply the same principles to their charitable giving as they do to their financial investments: banking on strong organizations and individuals with a solid vision for the future. By those measures, the couple made a sound investment last summer when Condoleezza Rice was appointed the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank based at Stanford University.
"We are thrilled by this opportunity to support both an institution and an individual who can have a significant, positive impact on an emerging new world," the Stephensons said in a statement on July 18, only weeks before the Republican Convention in Philadelphia. At the same time, the couple was investing heavily in another of Rice's employers, George W. Bush, who later promoted the Stephenson Fellow to the post of national security advisor.
Barbara, who lists herself as a homemaker, and Thomas, a partner at Sequoia Capital, often gave nearly equal amounts to the same candidates on the same day. Both made the the maximum allowable contribution to Bush, and together contributed more than $440,000 in soft money to the GOP.
At Sequoia Capital, a high-tech venture capital firm, Thomas Stephenson specializes in service and software investments. He is chairman of Landacorp, a provider of Internet-based management software for health care providers. In a recent public filing, Landacorp noted the impact that pending federal privacy laws for health records could have on the company's bottom line. "While these laws may not apply to us directly," the company stated, "our products must comply with existing and future laws and regulations in order to achieve market acceptance. Such compliance may be difficult and expensive or even impossible to achieve." Sequoia Capital owns 19 percent of Landacorp's stock.
Stephenson is also a director of Adesso Specialty Services, Axis Personal Trainers, BenefitPoint, and PartsAmerica.com.
-- Michael Scherer
