Tom A Alberg

Tom Alberg, a business leader with a vision for innovation in the tech world, who backed Amazon with one of its first investment checks at its inception and helped shape numerous companies and civic organizations in Seattle, died Friday August 5 2022 at 82 after suffering a stroke last month. Tom A. Alberg was a director of the Amazon since June 1996. Mr. Alberg has been a managing director of Madrona Venture Group, L.L.C., a venture capital firm, since September 1999, and a principal in Madrona Investment Group, LLC, a private investment firm, since January 1996. Tom currently served as a director for several Madrona portfolio companies: Impinj, ShopIgniter, SNUPI, and Mercent. In addition, he serves on the board of Amazon.com. He served as chair of the Seattle Foundation Investment Committee. He was also a board member of the national Executive Council of TechNet. Immediately prior to co-founding Madrona Investment Group in 1995, Tom served as president of LIN Broadcasting Corporation and Executive Vice President of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. Previously, he was chair of the Executive Committee and Partner in the Northwest's largest law firm, Perkins Coie, where he was principal counsel for The Boeing Company, Alaska Airlines and a number of early technology companies. Before that he was an attorney with Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. He is past chair of the Washington State Technology Alliance and the Discovery Institute, past chair of the Pacific Science Center and past president of Intiman Theater in Seattle. He was co-chair of the capital campaign for the Computer Science and Engineering Department's new building at the University of Washington. A graduate of Ballard High School, Tom attended Harvard College, where he graduated cum laude. He then received his law degree from Columbia Law School where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. Alberg is survived by his second wife, Judi Beck; five children: Robert, Katherine Anderson, John, Carson and Jessica; and four grandchildren.