Private Equity Insider
Kauffman Fellowships Extend Global Reach
The Center for Venture Education has expanded the scope of
its Kauffman Fellowship Program to encompass participants
in several new countries, and nearly two-dozen new firms.
The Palo Alto, Calif., organization finalized selections for
its 2009 class of Kauffman fellows in recent days, awarding
the coveted assignments to 27 aspiring venture capitalists at
26 hosting firms. It is also launching an initiative called the
Society of Kauffman Fellows that would serve as a networking
tool for graduates.
Of this year’s group, nine are working with
firms outside the U.S. Among them, five are in
places where no Kauffman fellows have been stationed
before: Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Mexico
and Palestine.
That represents the results of an effort by the
Center for Venture Education to give the Kauffman
program a more international flavor. Indeed, while
the operation usually names a few fellows outside
the U.S. each year, it hasn’t done so to this extent
until now.
Last year, for example, there were five non-U.S.
fellows from a class of 24. “There’s a desire to systematically
create new companies in all parts of
the world, and there’s a desire in those countries
to tap into Silicon Valley,” said Phil Wickham,
president of the Center for Venture Education.
The field of participating firms is also evolving
in another way: Of the 2009 fellowship recipients,
22 are putting in time with shops that
haven’t previously been Kauffman hosts.
The program pairs applicants with mentors
for two-year fellowships. The details of the
apprenticeships vary from firm to firm, but all of
the fellows play roles in the routine businesses of
the host shops. They also attend quarterly classes.
The assignments are highly sought after,
attracting several hundred candidates each year.
Some fellows are new to the firms where they
work, and are trying to gain a foothold in the
venture capital industry. Others are already
employed by their sponsors, and see the program
partly as a networking tool.
Among the fellows is Rodrigo Teles, a managing
director in the Sao Paulo, Brazil, office of Endeavor. Teles’ notfor-
profit host aims to encourage entrepreneurship, and he
applied for the Kauffman program in hopes of finding a way
to develop traditional venture capital financing in the country.
“Brazil is growing fast. We have a large, stable, growing economy,
a modern financial system,” Teles said. “One of my
dreams is to build the Silicon Valley of Brazil.”
Other new fellows include:
- Justin Fishner-Wolfson, a principal at San Francisco-based
Founders Fund whose projects have included an
investment in rocket maker SpaceX.
- Anna Brady-Estevez, a principal at Signal Lake of
Westport, Conn. She has also held a National Science
Foundation fellowship at Yale University.
- Rajan Kundra, a director at the not-for-profit Acumen
Fund. He works on the New York shop’s charitable missions
and heads fund-raising efforts for non-philanthropic
initiatives.
- Saed Nashef, a partner at the newly forming Middle East
Venture Capital Fund in Ramallah, Palestine.
The not-for-profit Center for Venture Education spun off
from the broader charitable efforts of the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation in 2003 to become a free-standing
organization. Its Society of Kauffman Fellows initiative is
meant to foster ongoing contact among past fellowship winners,
who currently number about 200 at more than 150 venture
capital firms around the world.
The center also formed a partnership last year with
Strayer Consulting of Los Gatos, Calif., to help expand the
curriculum for the fellowship program and to develop consulting
programs for outside organizations.
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PRIVATE EQUITY INSIDER: July 15, 2009, 5 Marine View Plaza, Suite 400, Hoboken NJ 07030. 201-659-1700