Connie Martinez is the CEO of Silicon Valley Creates (SVC), a nonprofit group that showcases Silicon Valley’s creative culture, invests in innovative ideas, celebrates cultural heritage, catalyzes placemaking and increases access to the arts.
She is co-founder and former CEO of 1stACT Silicon Valley and former executive director of the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose. She has also served as director of strategic initiatives for the University of California, Santa Cruz, vice president for Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and deputy city manager, planning director and general services director for the City of Mountain View.
Connie currently serves on the board of SPUR and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She is the past chair of American Leadership Forum-Silicon Valley and the San Jose Arts & Culture Roundtable and a former board member of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation and School of Arts and Culture at MHP. She has a BS in finance and an MBA in information systems from the University of Colorado.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I live in downtown San Jose in a wonderful high rise and I lead SVCreates, a nonprofit working to accelerate our creative culture. This organization grew out of a merger between Arts Council Silicon Valley and 1stACT Silicon Valley.
I’m also proud to say that I co-founded SPUR in San Jose and served as vice chair of the board. I continue to serve on the board, and I am a member of the committee that will select SPUR’s next CEO.
When did you first become interested in cities?
Growing up in a farm community in southern Minnesota and attending a one-room school house, I traveled with my family to the “big Twin Cities” — Minneapolis and St. Paul — twice a year to visit my aunt and uncle. I was mesmerized by the buildings, the people, the traffic and the energy, and I knew then that I belonged in a city.
When and how did you first learn about SPUR?
Nine years ago, and within a two-week period, three separate people told me about SPUR. So, I attended the SPUR member party in San Francisco and was excited by the community that SPUR brought together and the energy the group created. The more I learned, the more I knew that San Jose needed SPUR, so I devised a strategy, raised seed money and recruited the first San Jose director and board members. Now we are six years into our three-city strategy, and I think it’s going brilliantly well.
What's your favorite city and why?
Barcelona, because I am drawn to the art (Miro, Picasso and Gaudi), the architecture, the waterfront and Catalonia culture. It’s a spectacular city that has inspired many artists, and its development has been greatly influenced by them.
Favorite view?
Watching the Symphony of Lights — a nightly light show on the buildings along Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor — while listening to jazz at Felix’s bar at the Peninsula Hotel. It’s magical.
Favorite book, work of art or film about cities?
The Death and Life of American Citiesby Jane Jacobs. I love the way Jacobs frames both her argument for what makes cities work and her argument that intellectual arrogance has often stood in the way of people-centered planning.