2 min read · 12 May 2009
1 min read · 12 May 2009
David Danielson is leaving venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners, in order to join the U.S. Department of Energy, peHUB has learned. Danielson will move to Washington DC to become part of the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E), a program created by Congress in 2007 to support transformational energy research projects. Kind of like what DARPA does for the Department of Defense, but with a much larger and more collaborative "client" base. Only problem -- and it's a big one -- is that Congress' mandate wasn't coupled with any actual funding. In fact, the Bush Administration didn't even have DOE set up an ARPA-E office. That has finally begun to change under the Obama Administration, with $400 million allocated to ARPA-E as part of the economic stimulus package. Not terribly surprising, given that the program's original architect was new DOE Secretary Steven Chu.
2 min read · 11 May 2009
Stephen Moseley has stepped down as president of private equity consultant The StepStone Group, after being identified in news reports as a player in the New York kickback saga. In his letter of resignation, Moseley said: “I have been assured by the Attorney General of New York that I am not a target of the ongoing industry investigation. However, press reports have raised my name, creating an unfair and unnecessary distraction for all of us." The reports Moseley refers to include a May 3 piece by Pensions & Investments, which claims Moseley was the unidentified Pacific Corporate Group executive named in state indictments against David Logisci and Hank Morris. It reads, in part:
2 min read · 08 May 2009
Yesterday I moderated an ACG Boston panel discussion for younger private equity pros, titled "Managing Your Career in a Recession." Near the end, panelist Jay Jester (managing director w/ Audax Group) made a comment about the importance of "building your brand." He was referring to behavior within a firm -- things like leading by example, not worrying about getting credit and being helpful to others when possible. All good advice, but I began thinking about it in a more external sense. Namely, why don't more young PE professionals take a page from the VC world, and begin blogging?
2 min read · 08 May 2009
In the wake of New York’s kickback scandal, public pension funds have been bending over backwards to declare their independence from placement agents. Some new policies have been reasonable (see CalPERS), while others have been reactionary (see New York City and New York State). Overall, however, they’ve been diversionary. Simply put, placement agents are well down on the list of things that are wrong with public pension systems, vis-à-vis their investments in private equity. Here are five more destructive issues – none of which are being publicly addressed by elected officials or their mouthpieces. 1. Politicians There is no greater source of corruption in public pension systems than the elected/appointed officials charged with being those systems' fiduciary. Not just Treasurers and Comptrollers, but also Trustees and other such officeholders. I'm not saying they're all rotten, but far more of these people have taken kickbacks than have private equity portfolio managers. Some of the kickbacks are Hank Morris-esque, while the majority come in the form of campaign donations or other favors. All of them, though, result in downward pressure on PE portfolio managers to pay special attention to certain investment prospects. "When I took over ," one former manager told me, "I was informed that I was responsible for 80% of our private equity investments. When I asked about the other 20%, I was told not to worry about it." I've heard that same story repeated over and over, sometimes with the percentages flipped.
4 min read · 07 May 2009
What follows are six VC deals culled from recent Regulation D filings with the SEC. They have not been otherwise disclosed: Enphase Energy Inc., a Petaluma, Calif.-based developer of micro-inverter systems for the solar industry, has raised $22.57 million in new VC funding, according to a regulatory filing. No investor info was disclosed, but the company's website identifies three investors: Appplied Ventures, Rockport Capital Partners and Third Point Management. www.enphaseenergy.com Tokai Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based maker of drugs that focus on focus on endocrine treatment, has secured $10 million
2 min read · 07 May 2009
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation's largest public pension system, has just issued a deeply-detailed policy on the use of placement agents. I'm still reading through it but, in the meantime, here you go (yes, Scribd has become a dear friend this week): CalPERS Placement Policy CalPERS Placement Policy peHUB Publish at Scribd or explore others: career policy
1 min read · 07 May 2009
VKernal Corp., a Portsmouth, N.H.-based provider of virtual appliances for managing virtual server environments, has raised $7.06 million in second-round funding, according to a regulatory filing. It had previously raised $4.6 million from Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners. peHUB has learned that Longworth Venture Partners led the round. Also worth noting that Doug McNary, former CEO of Onaro, has joined the vKernal board of directors. Not sure yet if he's representing Longworth. www.vkernal.com
1 min read · 07 May 2009
New York City Comptroller/mayoral candidate William Thompson was on CNBC earlier today, and discussed the placement agent ban. Here's the key quote: "In some cases, are doing everything from the doing the PPM to almost the presentations to helping market around the country. Because a lot of these private equity funds, particularly the smaller ones and the mid-sized ones don't have marketing sides, don't know how to reach out. So in some instances, you could say it helps. We're just going to beef up our staffs and work alone with our outside consultant to try to create better access." In other words, they're useful but we're banning them because of a few rotten apples. As I've said before: If you want greater transparency, just provide a detailed timeline of how a fund was first introduced to the pension system, and where the due diligence went from there. And, remember, a corrupt placement agent is only one half of a transaction; he still needs someone on the inside to accept the bribe... Video after the jump
1 min read · 06 May 2009
