my time,” said Jain, who also noted it would be ideal if the people screening the local deals were “aligned” with other investors.
Moore says he has the kind of contacts with out-of-town venture firms that comes from his 30 years of experience in various aspects of venture capital, technology, and the life sciences. He tells me he came out of General Atomics’ advanced technology group, and was a former managing director (and investment committee member) at HamiltonTech Capital, a San Diego venture firm that no longer exists. He also is the founding chairman of Southern California’s VC Roundtable (now in its 10th year), and led Morrison & Foerster’s venture network in the law firm’s San Diego office.
Moore also has recruited five prominent business and academic leaders for MVP’s board of advisors: Nicholas Binkley, a former Vice Chairman and board member at BankAmerica and a partner and co-founder of the private equity firm Forrest, Binkley & Brown; Dr. David Brenner, UC San Diego’s Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences and Dean of the UCSD School of Medicine; Robert Sullivan, founding dean of UCSD’s Rady School of Management; David Pyke, dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of San Diego; and Duwaine Townsen, a venture partner in the San Diego office of Mesa Verde Venture Partners.
“Our local economy will continue to languish and suffer for some time to come if we can’t bring more capital here,” Moore writes in notes he prepared as highlights about Moore Venture Partners. “Venture capital can play a major role in San Diego’s future successes by commercializing on more of the research and development in the region.
“As the venture capital industry undergoes a restructuring and ‘right sizes,'” Moore says, “my long-term vision is to create a new source of capital, locally and organically, to lead $3 million to $5 million investments in our top tech and life sciences companies.”
