Five years ago, Harvard Business School launched its entrepreneurs-in-residence program to help students with advice on how to start new ventures. The program has expanded every year and now and includes 5 private equity and venture capital professionals for the 2010-2011 academic year.
It’s a “win-win” experience for both students and industry insiders. The students, of course, get an insider’s perspective on how to launch their new venture in the marketplace, as well as valuable contacts. The private equity pros get first dibs on promising new technologies. Gwill York, Co-Founder of the venture capital firm Lighthouse Capital Partners in Cambridge, Mass., said she has lined up seven appointments for reviewing ventures in her first week on campus, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Six of this year’s nine business leaders in Harvard’s entrepreneur-in-residence program have experience in the private equity and venture capital sector. They include:
– Jeffrey Bussgang (MBA ’95), a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm;
– Jeffrey Glass (MBA ’94), managing director at Bain Capital Ventures and cofounder and former president and CEO of m-Qube, Inc., a provider of mobile messaging services for entertainment, retail, telecommunications, and consumer packaged goods companies;
– Christopher P. Michel (MBA ’98), founder of Military.com and Affinity Labs. He is also currently managing director of Nautilus Ventures.
– Jeffrey C. Walker (MBA ’81), chairman of Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending poverty. He is former chairman and CEO of CCMP Capital, the successor to JPMorgan Partners, the bank’s private equity arm;
– Gwill E. York (MBA ’84), cofounder of Lighthouse Funds, where she directs the firm’s east coast and life science investments;
– Royce Yudkoff (MBA ’80), cofounder and managing partner of the private equity firm ABRY Partners, LLC.
Question: do you know of programs around the country that provide guidance for young people wanting to work directly at private equity firms? Add your comments below, and we’ll publish them in a future article.
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