Dado Banatao is the managing partner of Tallwood Venture Capital. With his past experiences as an entrepreneur, Dado provides Tallwood with a unique perspective in technology investments. Tallwood invests in unique and hard-to-do semiconductor technology solutions for computing, communication, and consumer platforms.

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Prior to forming Tallwood, Dado was a venture partner at the Mayfield Fund. He co-founded three technology startups: S3 (SBLU), Chips & Technologies (INTC) and Mostron. He also held positions in engineering and general management at National Semiconductor, Seeq Technologies, Intersil and Commodore International. Dado pioneered the PC chip set and graphics acceleration architecture that continue to be two of the foundation technologies in every PC today. As an engineer, he is credited with developing several key semiconductor technologies and is regarded as a Silicon Valley visionary.

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He was honored with the prestigious Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award sponsored by Ernst & Young, Inc. magazine and Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services. He has been on Forbes Midas List multiple times. Dado received the highly respected Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is awarded to U.S. citizens who contribute significantly to an ethnic group or country. The Asian Business League of San Francisco bestowed its Distinguished Asian Leadership Award upon him for his leadership skills in the public, private and nonprofit sectors of the community. For his tireless efforts in spreading the importance of preserving and promoting the Philippines, President Fidel V. Ramos presented Dado with the Pamana Ng Filipino Award. He was featured by ABC KGO Television in "Profiles of Excellence" honoring outstanding Bay Area Asian Pacific Americans. President Gloria Macapagal conferred the Order of the Golden Heart, rank of the Grand Cross to Dado. He is also the Philippines' first Special Envoy for Science and Technology.

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Dado serves as Chairman of InPhi, and is on the board of directors of Wave Semiconductor. He also served as Chairman and led investments in SiRF Technology, acquired by CSR; (CSR); Marvell Technology Group (MRVL); Acclaim Communications, acquired by Level One (INTC); Newport Communications, acquired by Broadcom (BRCM); Cyras Systems, acquired by Ciena (CIEN); Stream Machine, acquired by Cirrus Logic (CRUS); and Wilocity, acquired by Qualcomm (QCOM).

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Dado and Maria Banatao are deeply committed to education and express their dedication in many ways. Both natives of the Philippines, Maria and Dado are passionate about giving back to the country. Today, most of their energy is focused on the Philippine Development Foundation (PhilDev) — a nonprofit with initiatives in STEAM Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. The long-term goal is to eradicate poverty by creating tech companies in the Philippines, thereby infusing investment, creating jobs and building economic sustainability for the country.

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In addition, Dado and Maria funded a fellowship grant for computer science and engineering faculty from the University of the Philippines to collaborate on research programs with counterpart professors at UC Berkeley on the Berkeley Campus. Through the Asian Pacific Fund, they have provided scholarships to assist California high school students of Filipino heritage in pursuing a college education in science and engineering, a field which Filipinos are currently under-represented. Recently, the Dado and Maria Banatao Institute for High Impact Research which they funded was unveiled at the University of the Philippines College of Engineering campus in Diliman.

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Through their personal vision and strong encouragement as well as their thoughtful guidance and generous philanthropy, they are enabling young people with talent to transform their lives and, quite literally, to make the world a better place.