TechJournal South selected 25 of most influential people in the Southeast technology and entrepreneurial space from nominations by venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, and tech related organizations in its Nov. print edition. We’ll be running a selection of them daily for the next few weeks. Here’s the first three: Peter Barris, Randy Berridge, and Jack Biddle.
Peter Barris, Managing General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
Peter Barris joined New Enterprise Associates (NEA) the venture capital firm based in Reston, VA, that is on the Forbes “Midas” list of top VCs based on return on their investments, in 1992. He became a general partner the year before and managing general partner in 1999.
Barris shepherded Vonage and InnerWorkings to IPOs in 2006.
NEA, founded in 1972 is one of the Southeast’s oldest, largest, and most prestigious venture firms. It has a combined $8.5 billion under management, has invested in more than 500 companies, of which 155 plus went public and 220 were acquired.
Barris specializes in IT companies. Prior to joining NEA, Barris was CEO and president of LEGENT and a senior VP and general manager of the Systems Software Division of UCCEL. He also held various management positions between 1977 and 1985 at General Electric
His present board memberships include Boingo Wireless , Broadview Networks, Cyren Call, Hillcrest Labs, InnerWorkings (NASDAQ: INWK), Jobfox, MediaBank, Neutral Tandem, ProtoStar and Vonage (NYSE: VG). H.
He also serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association.
Randy Berridge logs thousands of miles a year for the Florida High Tech Corridor Council
The world of high tech isn’t full of retired folks, but then again Randy Berridge started young – and many joke that he looks and works like the youngest retiree they know. The former AT&T executive heads the Florida High Tech Corridor Council and logs thousands of miles each year traveling the triangle that connects the 23-county region to its three partners – the University of Central Florida in Orlando, University of South Florida in Tampa and University of Florida in Gainesville.
His mission: attract, retain and grow high tech industry to the region and develop the workforce to
support it.
His strategy: create a partnership that includes more than 20 local economic development organizations, 14 community colleges, 13 workforce boards and a host of companies whose executives serve on the Council to give advice and direction.
His philosophy: get everyone to leave their logos and egos at the door and pull together for the region’s common good.
The Council has a secret weapon in its Matching Grants Research Program … a unique concept that attracts companies to conduct research on the university campuses with faculty and graduate students working side-by-side with company technologists. Companies and the Council match their investment dollar-for-dollar and to date more than 250 companies have partnered with the Council on 800 projects for $150 million in sponsored research.
An initial study indicates that the total impact of that program on the region has been $500 million when the downstream value of those research projects is counted. And Berridge points to numerous companies employing the very graduate students who worked on their research projects. “That’s workforce development,” he says, “when you can keep bright graduates in the market.
“And there are many of those same students going on to create their own ventures, like UCF Alumnus Dan Rini whose Rini Technologies has created exciting thermal and laser cooling technologies.”
He says there are few regions in the country with three great universities willing to work together side-by-side this way, but his phone rings regularly from people wanting to know how they can replicate the Corridor Council model. “I tell them it requires unselfish leaders at the universities, at least the beginnings of industry clusters with executives willing to share, communities that recognize they all win when one wins, and a state legislature willing to invest in research as Florida’s has done.”
On the Web: www.floridahightech.com/
A.G. W. (“Jack”) Biddle III, General Partner, Novak Biddle Venture Partners
BETHESDA, MD—Jack Biddle brought experience as president and CEO of venture-backed InterCAP, merchant banking, and turning around a system software company along when he co-founded Novak Biddle Venture Partners in 1996.
NBVP is backed by a number of the country’s most prestigious limited partners, and has over $580 million under management.
InterCAP, where Biddle was CEO, was number 18 on the “Fast 50″ list of the mid-Atlantic’s fastest growing companies and was acquired by Intergraph in 1995. From 1987 to 1990, Biddle rose from senior associate to partner at Vanguard Atlantic, Ltd., a merchant banking group focused on M&A advisory work and control investments in software companies. At VAL, he served as turnaround CEO of a system software company and then as COO of an application software company.
Back in 1983, he began his career in Austin, Texas at Business Development Partners, an early stage venture capital partnership. Jack holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia.
Biddle currently serves on the Boards of Vision Chain, CorasWorks, Triumfant, eMinor, Digital Sports and Ztar Mobile. He’s also on the investment committee of the University of Maryland’s New Markets Growth Fund.
He is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship for the U.S. Department of Commerce, and has made presentations for them in Russia, China and Japan. He is a Director of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a member of Business Executives for National Security (BENS), and advises the U.S. Department of Defense on technology and innovation.
His partner, E. Rogers Novak, Jr., is equally well-known in the Southeast. He participated in President Bush’s High Technology Summit at the White House. The summit was a forum of the nation’s top business and technology executives, who discussed strategies for a national technology agenda. In April, Novak was appointed to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) board of directors. He was also recently named the winner of the 2007 Early Stage East (ESE) Sal Buccieri Memorial Venture Impact Award. The honor recognizes an individual who has clearly impacted early stage technology and fast growth venture opportunities.
On the Web: www.novakbiddle.com
TJS editor Allan Maurer can be reached at: allan@techjournalsouth.com
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