NVCA Names Aragona Chairman

The National Venture Capital Association’s (NVCA) board last week named Joe Aragona as its chairman. Aragona, general partner and co-founder of Austin, Texas-based Austin Ventures, succeeds Jim Breyer, of Accel Partners, who completed his one-year tenure.

In his role as NVCA chairman, Aragona will help set the public policy agenda and overall strategic direction of the NVCA. “We will be diligent in our efforts to communicate with legislators on key regulatory issues such as Sarbanes-Oxley implementation, FOIA, and stock options expensing,” Aragona says.

The NVCA board also named six new directors, who will each serve four-year terms: Dan Broderick of Mason Wells; Tom Crotty of Battery Ventures; Dixon Doll of DCM-Doll Capital Management; Rob Soni of Matrix Partners; David Spreng of Crescendo Ventures; and Bess Weatherman from Warburg Pincus.

Amos Barzilay has resigned from his managing director position with Walden International, to form a new early stage venture firm with unnamed senior partners from other VC firms. He will continue to represent Walden on the boards of Business Signatures Corp., InQuira Inc. and Velosel Corp. Barzilay focuses on software and Internet services deals, while Walden recently disclosed its intentions to focus exclusively on the semiconductor space.

Casey Tansey has joined U.S. Venture Partners as a general partner focused on early stage opportunities in the medical device and biopharmaceutical spaces. He most recently served as president and CEO of Epicor Medical, a medical device company acquired last year by St. Jude Medical Inc. Before that, he was president and CEO of Heartport Inc., a public company that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2001.

Beth Seidenberg has joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as an executive-in-residence. She most recently served as senior vice president of global development and chief medical officer of Amgen Inc. She previously held senior executive positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Merck & Co.

Dennis Barsema has joined Benchmark Capital as a venture partner. He currently serves as chairman of Blue Lane Technologies Inc., and previously was CEO and chairman of Onetta Inc., which recently was acquired by Bookham Technologies. He also is the former president and CEO of Redback Networks Inc.

Chris Temple has joined Saddle Brook, N.J.-based private equity firm Friend Skoler & Co. as a director. He previously served as a managing director with Thayer Capital Partners.

Greg Jones has joined Newton, Mass.-based VC firm GrandBanks Capital as chief administrative officer. He previously was an attorney with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault LLP, representing venture capital firms. (For more personnel news about GrandBanks, see story, page 1.)

Charles Mixon has resigned from AIG Capital Partners, where he was a vice president focused on deal opportunities in Russia. The move came just days after AIG CP chief Peter Yu and AIG CP managing director Bill Jarosz were fired (see story, PE Week, 5/2/05).

Michael Glouchevitch has joined private equity firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden as a general partner. He previously was a managing director with Westar Capital.

Robert Walsh has left the general partnership of Summit Partners, which is currently raising a pair of new funds. No word yet on where he’s headed.