Given that Benchmark — one of Silicon Valley’s most famous venture capital firms —only had five general partners, the addition of any sixth partner would instantly catapult that selection into the upper echelon of tech investors.

That the selection was Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first female partner during a year of reckoning in gender equality, made her elevation all the more head-turning.

Tavel, a former senior employee at soon-to-IPO Pinterest, has yet to publicly unveil her first two investments at Benchmark. But fellow investors in the business talk about her as the future of the firm, which has been mired this year in the ceaseless drama of its most valuable portfolio company, Uber. If Benchmark is to recover reputationally and chart a post-Uber future, Tavel is positioned to be a leader.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.