Howard Cox (Greylock), HBS 1969, started his career in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the summer of 1968 and continued there through 1971. Part of a small team assigned to help extricate the U.S. from Vietnam, Howard realized then that his ability to influence decisions within such a large organization was limited. He wanted instead to "build small organizations into larger ones, rather than vice versa," so after finishing his service in government, he decided to pursue a career in venture capital. Howard joined Greylock, a private venture capital firm founded in Boston in 1965. He has been actively involved in healthcare, has served on numerous boards, and was a director of the Boston Globe when it was sold to the New York Times for over $1 billion, the largest price ever paid for a newspaper. He described his experiences in venture capital in an interview at HBS in July 2001.