Private Equity
Braemar Energy Ventures has promoted Jiong Ma to the position of partner. She joined Braemar's Boston office in 2007, and has worked on such deals as Laser Light Engines, Convey Computer and Powervation.
3 min read · 17 November 2009
Jonathan Silver has been named executive director of the Department of Energy's loan program. He had been a co-founding managing director of Core Capital Partners, before leaving in 2008.
3 min read · 10 November 2009
John LaMattina, former president of Pfizer's global R&D efforts, has joined PureTech Ventures as a senior partner. PureTech also announced the promotions of Eric Elenko and Steve Muniz to partner.
4 min read · 10 November 2009
Earlier this year, Atlas Venture thinned its personnel roster after raising far less than it had hoped for its eighth fund ($293m compared to $500m target). Four partners either left or were demoted, while some younger staffers began to consider other options. So where are the departed? Martin Gibson: A London-based partner who focused on IT investments for Atlas, Gibson just recently reemerged as a venture partner with Accel Partners. Not bad timing, given that the firm's London office today is celebrating its agreement to sell Playfish to EA for up to $400 million. Gibson's Atlas portfolio companies had included DisplayLink, Phyworks and Zinwave. He also worked closely with Azea Networks, Icera Semiconductor, Orthogon Systems, RadioScape, Ubiquisys and xelerated. He does not yet appear to have done an Accel investment.
2 min read · 09 November 2009
1 min read · 09 November 2009
1 min read · 09 November 2009
Frazier Technology Ventures yesterday said that it would no longer make new investments, nor raise another fund. As part of that announcement, general partner Len Jordan said that he would be joining fellow Seattle-based venture firm Madrona. So we’ve got 5 Questions for Len: 1. When did you guys formally decide that Fund III just wasn’t going to happen? Earlier, in the first half of this year. The fund-raising environment was just very difficult, and I don’t think we foresaw it getting much better anytime soon. We’re a relatively new group, so we drew the conclusion that we should suspend. I want to emphasize, though, that it had nothing to do with our portfolio, which we feel very good about. I think we have a lot of value inside our 11 active portfolio companies, and had a very good exit last year when SNAPin was acquired by Nuance.
2 min read · 05 November 2009
Eric Shiozaki has joined healthcare-focused VC firm Apposite Capital as an associate director in its San Francisco office. He previously was with Burrill & Company.
2 min read · 05 November 2009
Earlier this afternoon, we reported that Cheng Tang was still employed as a financial consultant to 5AM Ventures, despite having recently been charged by the SEC with insider trading. 5AM general counsel Paul Stone just called to say that the firm has now terminated its contract with Tang, after apprising its LPs of the situation....
1 min read · 04 November 2009
Update: 5AM Ventures has terminated Chen Tang In April 2008, buyout firm Friedman Fleischer & Lowe learned that chief financial officer Chen Tang was under investigation for insider trading. The firm immediately suspended Tang, cooperated with the SEC and fired him two months later. What a contrast between FFL and 5AM Ventures, where Tang has been working for at least the past six months as a back-office consultant. 5AM has neither suspended nor terminated its agreement with Tang, even though he was formally charged last Friday with helping to reap more than $8 million in illicit profits via an insider trading scheme. 5AM has declined to say exactly when Tang began work, but we know that he's essentially been manning the books since VP of finance Amy Berliner left in early August to join Andreessen Horowitz. He also was with 5AM while Berliner was still at 5AM, but on maternity leave.
2 min read · 04 November 2009
