John Walker, An Engineer from London,
Comes to New York To Begin a Venture Capital Career

On Thursday, May 24, I had coffee with John Walker, a new acquaintance I met at the most recent meeting of the Management Committee of the Columbia Business School Alumni Club of New York.

John, an engineer by training, recently arrived in New York from London, taking a position as a technology specialist with Chart Venture Partners (CVP) (www.chartventure.com), a venture capital firm based in Rockefeller Center that is focused on investing in homeland security ventures. He has been in the Business School's Executive MBA Program (EMBA) for the past year, majoring in Finance.

A native of Scotland, John began the EMBA program while working in London as the director of technology for a London-based manufacturing company.

While CVP has been in existence as an advisory firm since 1994, it only closed on its first venture fund about a year ago. To date, the fund has invested in five homeland security-related firms, and is seeking additional investment opportunities.

In our conversation, John displayed a high degree of knowledge of defense-related technologies, which I am sure will help his new firm to identify potentially strong companies for the fund's
portfolio.

John has been to the U.S. previously, most recently several times in connection with his EMBA studies. He said that for some time, he had been seeking an opportunity that would enable him to come to New York on a longer-term basis. Living in the Soho-Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, he said he wants to absorb and enjoy the positive experiences of New York, as well as build his new career in the venture capital business.