Kauffman Fellowship chief visits Wales
07/06/10
The head of the Kauffman Fellows Program, an international
initiative to identify and develop emerging global leaders in
venture capital, has met with key figures involved in supporting
and investing in early stage, technology-based businesses in
Wales.
Phil Wickham, CEO of the California-based Center for Venture
Education which runs the Kauffman Fellows Program, said the support
and investment network in Wales provided a solid foundation for the
early stage ecosystem.
His visit, led by Jocelyn Brown, the current Kauffman Fellow
assigned to Finance Wales as an Associate, included meetings with
management from Ocelus Ltd and Altech Software Ltd, which are two
Finance Wales investee companies. He also met David Jones, a xénos
business angel and Professor David Brooksbank of UWIC, the academic
research supervisor for the Finance Wales Kauffman Programme.
Brown is just one of 25 to 30 Kauffman Fellows taken on each
year throughout the world. Working full-time at a venture capital
company, each Kauffman Fellow engages in a practical, 24 month
apprenticeship, including professional coaching, mentoring by
senior partners, and quarterly sessions of industry and leadership
curriculum in California.
As members of the Society of Kauffman Fellows throughout their
careers, fellows join a trusted network across five continents,
linking together 500 individuals at 180 investing firms who are
actively deploying $40 billion (USD) in venture capital.
Wickham said: “To have a professional, connected organisation
like Finance Wales that supports your local entrepreneurs is a
distinctive Welsh competitive advantage. The Kauffman Fellows
Program is all about the Fellows and the firms that we recruit into
our global Society.
“Jocelyn, Steve and the team at Finance Wales have been a coup
for us, providing a vital link into a region that outside investors
and their companies are going to want to work with going forward.
Conversely, the global needs of Welsh entrepreneurs to reach new
resources and markets are in very good hands with Finance
Wales.”
Steve Smith, head of early stage investments at Finance Wales,
said early stage companies provided investors with an opportunity
to invest in businesses with significant growth potential and
return on investment.
“We are actively investing in IP rich, early stage businesses as
part of an ambitious investment strategy. Our portfolio is growing
through the expertise of our early stage team in identifying new
investment opportunities and our close working relationship with
universities and successful co-investors, such as Fusion IP at
Cardiff University.
“Our relationship with the Kauffman Fellowship programme has
added further value to this strategy, enabling us to identify and
foster strong relationships with the VC, university and business
support communities.”
Brown said the combination of working at Finance Wales and the
Kauffman Fellows programme allowed her to develop her expertise in
early stage VC investment.
“I feel privileged to have been placed within such a dynamic and
progressive investment house as Finance Wales through the Kauffman
Fellows Program. Finance Wales has helped me develop my experience
of all aspects of a transaction from origination through to
portfolio management, and it has been a joy to work within one of
the most active early stage investors in the UK at present.”
Media enquiries
E-mail: communications@financewales.co.uk
Telephone: 029 2033 8126