Eileen Burbidge


Eileen Burbidge MBE is a British-American venture capitalist based in London, UK. She is a founding partner of Passion Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm that has invested in Monzo, Go Cardless, Round Treasury and Lulu, a private social network for single women.

Early life and education

Burbidge was born on 16 June 1971 in Chicago to a civil engineer father and a mother who worked in finance. She was educated at Naperville Central High School and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science.

Career

Burbidge started her career working as an engineering associate at GTE and Verizon Wireless. She then worked in marketing roles at Apple and Sun Microsystems. She had brief stints as business development director at Openwave followed by the 12 Entrepreneuring incubator. In 2004 she moved from the United States to London to pursue a career with Skype. After working at Skype, Burbidge launched Passion Capital, an early-stage London venture capital firm, with Stefan Glaenzer in 2008.
In 2015, Burbidge was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to entrepreneurship in the New Year honours list.
In July 2015, Burbidge was appointed as the British Treasury's "special envoy" for fintech.
In November 2018, Burbidge was named to the Financial Times list of the 'Top 100 minority ethnic leaders in technology'.
In January 2019, Burbidge joined the board of Currys plc as a non-executive director.
In October 2020, Burbidge was added to Computer Weeklys Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. This list is published annually to recognise women who have had a long career in the tech sector and/or made a lasting contribution to the sector.

Personal life

Burbidge has also used the names Eileen Tso and Eileen Broch, her maiden name and her name from a previous marriage, respectively.
Burbidge is twice divorced. She separated from her first husband around 2004. From her second marriage, she has three sons and a daughter, and with her current partner, she also has a stepdaughter.