Heather Gates

Heather Gates has more than 30 years of experience working in the startup and private company space, including 19 years at Deloitte. She is a master at cultivating and maintaining strong relationships throughout the private company and investor communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Heather serves as both the national Emerging Growth Company (EGC) practice leader and the Audit & Assurance Private Growth leader overseeing the firm’s EGC, Private Equity, and Deloitte Private teams. In her role as the national leader, she brings the power of the firm to practitioners in key markets throughout the US.

With her vast personal network and knowledge of the industry, Heather has unique insight into the people, institutions, and technologies that shape Silicon Valley. She regularly meets with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, and has significantly grown Deloitte’s stature, presence, influence, and service to leading companies based in the Bay Area and nationally. At  Deloitte, Heather was responsible for introducing the organization to LinkedIn in its early startup phase as a client of the EGC practice. 

Heather’s professional experience is drawn from years of nurturing her career in all aspects of the private company market. Prior to Deloitte, Heather was the chief financial officer for a telecommunications company where she wrote the business plan and led financing discussions and operations. Previously, she worked as an investment banker at Hambrecht & Quist, focusing on the software and internet industry and executing IPOs, M&A, and private equity opportunities. Heather launched her career with another Big Four firm where she spent nine years serving the technology sector and helped take several companies public, including early internet companies such as Yahoo.

Heather earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Colorado and is an active CPA in both California and Colorado. Outside of work Heather is dedicated to her two children, ages 17 and 16. She enjoys hiking and cycling and has traveled to New Zealand and France in search of the best pinot noir.