People 3-18-02

Stuart Collinson has been named a partner at Forward Ventures, a VC firm focused on life sciences and health-care investments. Collinson is the former chairman, president and chief executive of Aurora Biosciences.

Michael Zimmerman has joined Sydney, Australia-based Technology Venture Partners (TVP) from Altos Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif. At TVP, he will focus on evaluating investment opportunities in information technology and communications. While at Altos Ventures, Zimmerman worked on application and infrastructure software investments.

Ron Hunt and Wayne Nemeth have both been promoted to partner status at New York-based Sprout Group. Both previously were directors with the firm. Hunt, who joined Sprout in 1998, specializes in health-care technology, and sits on the boards of Epotec, Lathian Systems, Microban International, Protedyne and Space Fitters. Nemeth, who also came on board at Sprout in 1998, focuses on datacom, telecom and software investments. He holds seats on the boards of CyOptics, Internet Photonics, Optical Solutions and Silicon Access Networks.

Dan Gerrity has joined Staenberg Venture Partners as the Seattle-based firmís first consulting partner. Gerrity is the founding chief technical officer of Coinstar, where he most recently served as president and chief executive officer. As a consulting partner at Staenberg, he will source, structure and support investments and serve as a strategic initiatives consultant for select portfolio companies.

Paul Sestelli has been promoted to the position of principal at APV Technology Partners. He joined APV in 2000 as an associate.As APVís only principal, he will be responsible for identifying potential investments in the telecommunications space.