William Hambrecht

William R. Hambrecht is an American investment banker and the founder and chairman of WR Hambrecht + Co, which he established in 1998. He previously co-founded the San Francisco-based investment bank Hambrecht & Quist in 1968, where he led the initial public offerings of major Silicon Valley firms including Apple Computer, Genentech, and Adobe Systems. He is best known for pioneering the OpenIPO model, which uses Dutch auction technology to allow the market to determine pricing and allocations in initial public offerings, and for advocating auction-based offerings as a means to level the playing field for investors and companies seeking public capital.