Venture Capital News
Jaime Guzman-Fournier Joins StepStone Group as Managing Director
Representatives of StepStone Group LLC, formerly known as Leucadia Capital Partners, announced that Jaime Guzman-Fournier has joined the firm as Managing Director. Mr. Guzman-Fournier will be based in La Jolla where he will be a senior member of the due diligence and research team, focusing on emerging and small to mid-size market funds. StepStone Group, launched earlier this year, provides customized private equity investment management and advisory services to institutional investors.
Guzman-Fournier served most recently as the Head of the United States Government's Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program. In this capacity, Guzman-Fournier managed the SBIC investment activities and staff of over 75 professionals, oversaw the $20 billion (USD) SBIC investment portfolio and served as chair and voting member of the SBIC Investment Committee and voting member of the Agency SBIC Licensing Committee. The SBIC program provides venture capital funding for small businesses across the US and its territories.
Guzman-Fournier will join Managing Director Jose Fernandez, former head of Pacific Corporate Group's emerging manager team, to form an Emerging Managers team with unmatched experience and market knowledge.
Prior to his position with the SBA, Guzman-Fournier was a Principal with Grupo Guayacan, Inc. in San Juan, PR where he was responsible for the management and operations of the Puerto Rico Venture Forum, the firm's entrepreneurial development affiliate. He was also involved in the management and operations of Grupo Guayacan's private equity fund of funds with total committed capital resources of $117 million (USD) invested in 33 private equity partnerships. Before that, Guzman-Fournier worked as an Associate at Citigroup's Global Corporate & Investment Bank in New York.
Guzman Fournier received a BA degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, an MA degree from The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Core Capital Partners Hires Grant Allen as Associate
Representatives of Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in a wide range of technology companies, announced that Grant Allen has joined the firm as an associate.
Mr. Allen comes to Core with nearly six years of strategy consulting and telecommunications industry experience. Most recently, Allen held positions at Liberty Associated Partners, a private investment partnership and at Microsoft Corporation. At Microsoft, Allen served as a product manager in the Mobile & Embedded Devices division, where he developed field-level compete strategy for Windows Mobile.
Previously, Allen was a consultant at Dean & Company where he assisted with transitioning telecom infrastructure providers to new growth sectors like wireless media and online gaming, as well as managing cost reduction strategies for wireline carriers.
Allen received his B.S.E. in Civil Engineering cum laude from Duke University and his M.B.A. with an individualized major in Private Equity and Venture Capital from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.
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Caris & Company Appoints Dr. Kenneth Rind as Senior Advisor
Representatives of Caris & Company announced the appointment of Kenneth W. Rind, PhD., as Senior Advisor. Dr. Rind will focus on the capital needs of the biotech and healthcare community from the investment bank's San Diego headquarters, and from its New York office, as well as playing a key role in developing Caris' international growth strategy.
Rind is an internationally recognized corporate financier with experience and expertise in advising/assisting healthcare and technology-related companies, and in helping countries launch science-based industries. Rind has been an investment banking/venture capital partner at Oppenheimer (now CIBC), a corporate development executive/strategic investor at Xerox, an advisor on public and private technology investments to the Rockefeller family, the portfolio manager of a top performing mutual fund focused on technology (Samson Fund) and a founder of eight venture capital funds. He has served on the Board of Directors of numerous corporations, including 15 that were public and over 25 more that he assisted in finding strategic investors/acquirers.
He was appointed by the U.S. government and currently serves on the boards of the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), chartered by Congress to grant cooperative funding to scientists and engineers in the former Soviet Union and beyond; and the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Foundation (USISTF), jointly funded by the U.S. and Israeli governments to foster international technology collaboration. He previously served as advisor to U.S. Trade Representatives Mickey Kantor and Carla Hills. In addition to the U.N. and the U.S., countries that have invited Rind to speak on fostering technology commercialization include: Holland, Belgium, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel.
Rind was a founding Director of the National Venture Capital Association, President of the Connecticut Venture Group, and a Director of a Scottish Trust (mutual fund) investing in world-wide technology companies (Baillie Gifford). He is currently a Director of the Venture Investors Association of New York (formerly the NYVCF).
In 1981, Rind co-founded Oxford Partners, an independent venture capital company which managed venture capital funds provided by over 25 corporate (strategic) and 20 financially-oriented investors and was a predecessor of Oxford Bioscience.He also co-founded the Nitzanim-AVX/Kyocera Venture Fund in 1993 and the Israel Infinity Venture Capital Fund in 1998, whose successor has formed the first on-shore venture fund in China.
Notable investees from Rind's venture history include: Intel, Apple, Coherent, Human Genome Sciences, Genetic Therapy, Geron, Martek, ESC Medical, Galileo, XTL Biopharmaceuticals, Shopping.com and Applied Data Research (the first company to sell software).
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Commonwealth Capital Ventures Adds New Associates to Investment Team
Representatives of Commonwealth Capital Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in software and software-based services, Internet and new media, communications technology, and instruments and systems, announced that Pat Noonan and Todd Higgerson have joined the investment team. As associates at Commonwealth, they will assist with investment identification and due diligence, and work closely with portfolio companies.
Pat Noonan joined Commonwealth in April. He comes to the firm from Capgemini, a global management consultancy. Basedfirst inCapgemini's Cambridge, MA offices andlater in itsLondon, UK offices, he worked for the strategy arm of the company, advising early-stage and Fortune 500 companies in the telecom, media, and entertainment industries. Noonan is a 2003 graduate of Harvard University.
Todd Higgerson joined Commonwealth in May. He comes to the firm from Chrysalis Ventures, a Louisville, KY early- and expansion-stage venture capital firm. As an Analyst on the Chrysalis investment team, he evaluated new investment opportunities and worked closely with management teams at portfolio companies including Construction Software Technologies and AfterBOT. Higgerson is a 2004 graduate of Yale University.
Commonwealth Capital Ventures serves as a trusted partner to its early and venture-growth stage technology entrepreneurs, providing strategic insight and advice through all phases of the portfolio company lifecycle. The firm recently closed its fourth fund, Commonwealth IV. Primarily targeted at early-stage and venture growth technology investments, the $250 million fund brings Commonwealth's total capital and commitments under management to $580 million.
Some of Commonwealth's recent exits include BuyerZone (acquired by Reed Business Information); Aberdeen Group (acquired by Harte-Hanks); Macgregor Group (acquired by Investment Technology Group, Inc.); and the initial public offering of medical device pioneer NeuroMetrix (NASDAQ: NURO), among others.
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US Technology Industry Weakens According To Forrester/ITAA Tech Sector Index
The health of the US technology sector took a dip in Q1 2007, according to the Forrester/ITAA US Tech Sector Index. The latest quarterly index from Forrester Research and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) dropped 2.6 points to 125.1, the first decline in a year. Overall, the index remains four points higher than it was one year ago.
A substantial drop in foreign trade was the leading contributor to the decline in the index as US technology exports tumbled 5.8 points. The weak performance came across the board as overseas demand for computer equipment, communications equipment, semiconductors, magnetic and optical media, and software all fell. That mirrored a continuing decline in domestic demand for US tech product, which dropped six points in Q1, the third consecutive quarter in which demand has fallen. The drop in the index had been both expected and predicted: First quarter results are historically lower than other quarters and forward-looking indicators in last quarter's index foreshadowed a downturn.
The Forrester/ITAA US Tech Sector Index is based on 11 indices measuring IT demand, IT supply, and the financial strength of US-based vendors. All of the indices are weighted evenly in the overall index score, which uses a 2002 quarterly average of 100 as the baseline. In Q1, six of the 11 underlying measures showed declines for the quarter. Highlights include:
CIO confidence tumbled 16.4 points, a larger-than-expected decline.
IT vendors' US revenues gained a scant 0.8 points year-over-year following strong annual gains of more than seven points each of the previous two years.
Venture capital (VC) investment and IT industry employment both scored gains: VC investment rose 2.1 points after dropping for two consecutive quarters while the US tech sector added 11,900 jobs, the highest level of employment since the close of 2002.
"While somewhat expected, the news is mixed for IT with some indicators down and employment up," said ITAA President and CEO Phillip J. Bond. "The expected first-quarter slowdown in the US hurts the industry's near-term outlook and underscores our reliance on trade. Meanwhile, increased venture investment is a positive for the longer-term."
The report "Forrester/ITAA US Tech Sector Index: Q1 2007" is currently available to Forrester RoleView™ clients and can also be purchased directly at www.forrester.com/Research/Document/Excerpt/0,7211,42417,00.html
