R. Brad Lane and Governor Tom Ridge Expand RIDGE-LANE Limited Partners Team Across Education, Sustainability, Information Technology, and Capital Markets

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Sep 16, 2019, 11:00 ET

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Governor of Pennsylvania and first Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Thomas J. Ridge, and financier R. Brad Lane expand the team at RIDGE-LANE Limited Partners.

Girish Varma – Managing Partner, Information Technology: former President of Global IT/Managed Services and New Market Development at CenturyLink, the second largest enterprise telecom and internet provider in the world, where he also served as Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer. Dr. Varma is the founding LP investor and member of the Investment Committee at The CXO Fund, which invests in early stage companies, focused on artificial intelligence/machine learning, security, and internet of things.
Robert Caret – Partner, Education: former Chancellor of the University System of Maryland (USM), where he oversaw 12 universities, 3 regional centers, and its online degree program University of Maryland Global Campus, which collectively serve ~200,000 students. Prior, he served as President of the University of Massachusetts System (UMass), President and Provost of Towson University, as well as President of California State University at San Jose. He serves as the vice chair of the National Association of System Heads and the chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Gregory Kats – Partner, Sustainability: former Managing Director of Good Energies, a venture capital fund where he invested $1.5 billion in ~50 clean energy and low carbon technology companies. Prior, he served as Director of Financing for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. He founded the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP), and the Smart Surface Coalition.

Jetta Wong – Partner, Sustainability: former Director of Technology Transitions at the United States Department of Energy, where she established the Office and advised the Secretary of Energy on Department-wide policies and programs to commercialize new technologies. She co-chaired the White House’s National Science and Technology Council’s Lab-to-Market initiative focused on creating economic impact from Federally funded R&D.

Stuart Macmillan – Partner, Sustainability: former Chief Scientist at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Department of Energy lab dedicated to research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. He held executive management positions at Sun Microsystems, where he oversaw engineering, research, acquisitions, investments and strategy initiatives. Dr. Macmillan is Precourt Energy Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Stanford University.

John MacWilliams – Venture Partner, Capital Markets: former Associate Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, serving as Chief Risk Officer to advance Secretarial priorities of enterprise-wide approaches to innovative finance, risk management, project management, nuclear and cyber security. He was Vice Chairman, Investment Banking at JP Morgan Chase, a Partner of JP Morgan Partners, and head of the structured finance group at Goldman Sachs & Co.

Charles Myers – Venture Partner, Capital Markets: former Vice Chairman of Evercore Partners and member of the Executive Committee and Investment Committee. He was the founding partner of Evercore's Institutional Equities business. Prior to, he was a Global Head of Equities at Fox-Pitt Kelton, where he was a Board member and responsible for research, sales and trading of all equities products across the United States, Europe and Asia.
Bill Beyer – Venture Partner, Information Technology: former Partner at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where he was one of the initial founders of Deloitte’s Federal practice, with responsibility for the 20 most strategic accounts across Civil Government, Defense, and Homeland Security. He spearheaded Deloitte’s efforts with VCs, incubators/accelerators, and emerging start-ups, and as a key leader in Deloitte’s national innovation group, where he played an integral role in bridging private sector innovation with public sector acquisition.

Jim DuBois – Venture Partner, Information Technology: former Corporate Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Microsoft Corporation, where he was responsible for the company's global security, infrastructure, IT messaging, and business applications. Prior to this role, Mr. DuBois spent 20 years with Microsoft and has held several key positions, including; General Manager of IT and Vice President of Microsoft Products and Services IT.
Andrea L. Thompson – Venture Partner, Information Technology: former Under Secretary, U.S. Department of State, responsible for cyber security, space, emerging technologies, as well as foreign military sales, nuclear non-proliferation and arms control policy. Previously, she served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States. Ms. Thompson also served as the National Security Advisor for the Chairman, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security and Senior Military Advisor to the Chairman, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Aamir Hussain – Venture Partner, Information Technology: is Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Verizon. Prior, he was the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for CenturyLink, where he was responsible for overseeing worldwide network, technology transformation, architecture and innovation roadmap, including Product Development, IT Operations, Cyber Engineering, Physical/Network Security and Global Cloud and Managed Services Development functions.
Donna Morea – Venture Partner, Information Technology: former President of CGI Technologies and Solutions, where she led 15,000 professionals, and served on the Board of Directors. She currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of SAIC, the Board of Directors of SunTrust Banks, Inc. and as Operating Advisor to The Carlyle Group where she is a Member of the Board of Directors for three portfolio companies: NetHealth, KLDiscovery and Accelerated Learning.

Armando Olivera – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former Chief Executive Officer of Florida Power & Light Company, and President of NextEra Energy Capital Holdings Inc. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for Lennar Corporation, First Industrial Realty Trust Inc., Harris Bank N.A, Harris Financial, Fluor Corporation, and Consolidated Edison Company (ConEd).

Reuben Sarkar – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Transportation for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), where he oversaw the $600 million annual applied R&D program, with a portfolio included advanced batteries, electric vehicles, smart mobility, light-weighting, fuels & advanced combustion, hydrogen, fuel cells, and biofuel programs across all vehicle markets.

Victor Mendez – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation, where he was the Chief Operating Officer, responsible for day-to-day operations of the 10 modal administrations and the work of more than 55,000 USDOT employees nationwide and overseas. Prior to, he was the Administrator of the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.

John Moavenzadeh – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former Head of Mobility and Member of the Executive Management Committee at World Economic Forum, where he led global public-private initiatives to transform systems of mobility, including autonomous vehicles, drones, airspace, integrated transport, and the future of manufacturing. He is Executive Director of the Urban Mobility Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Robin Johnston – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former Deputy Chief Technology Transfer Officer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she oversaw day-to-day IP management and licensing activities for the Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO). She manages JBEI industry interactions and intellectual property, which includes technology transfer and partnerships, negotiating licenses and collaborative research terms, and incubating startups.

Peter Tseronis – Venture Partner, Sustainability: former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), where he held key leadership roles, including Federal IPv6 Task Force chair, the Energy.Data.Gov co-chair, and the Cloud First Task Force chair. He made critical improvements to the acquisition process resulting in changes to policy, mandates, and new challenges. Prior to, Mr. Tseronis served as the CTO for the U.S. Department of Education.

Phil Hoffman – Venture Partner, Education: former Chief Corporate Finance and Strategic Development Officer of Pearson Education, including prior roles as Executive Vice President and Global Chief Collaboration Officer. He also served as CEO of Pearson’s consumer education division, and President of Pearson’s North American operations, as well as Chief Financial Officer of Pearson North America. Mr. Hoffman served on Pearson’s executive committee for ~15 years, and was responsible for over 100 acquisitions, JV’s, and venture investments in excess of $20B.

Daniel Hamburger – Venture Partner, Education: former CEO of Renaissance Learning, the foremost education analytics company, which he led to acquisition by Francisco Partners. Prior to, he served as President and CEO of Adtalem Global Education, a $2B provider of educational services with 18,000 employees and 140 locations in 36 countries. He served as Chairman and CEO of Indeliq, an education software company backed by Accenture Technology Ventures.

Judah Karkowsky – Venture Partner, Education: former SVP, Corporate Development and Global Head of M&A at Cengage. He held leadership positions in notable education companies, including: President of Americas at Learnosity, Senior Vice President at Amplify, Executive Director at Wireless Generation, and Director at Tutor.com, where he ran operations, business development, strategy, and corporate development.

Steven Guttentag – Venture Partner, Education: former President of Pearson Online & Blended Learning K–12, where he navigated the organization through an evolving marketplace, spearheaded diversification of business lines, and implemented new processes and functions to support growth. Dr. Guttentag was part of the founding team of Connections Academy, where he crafted the company’s initial business strategy, product design, and built the business to a global leader in virtual learning.

Terry Grier – Venture Partner, Education: former Superintendent of Houston Independent School District, and San Diego Unified School District, as well as Guilford County Schools, where he oversaw multi-billion dollar budgets, leading improvements in organizational structure for maximum efficiency and effectiveness in supporting schools with high-quality instructional teams and programs focused on student academic growth, to achieve bold and measurable goals.

Pam Moran – Venture Partner, Education: former Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools, recognized nationally as a leader for contemporary education options that expand access and equity of opportunity to all learners. Dr. Moran serves as Executive Director of the Virginia School Consortium for Learning (VaSCL), an organization representing more than 70 school divisions. She was a gubernatorial appointee to the State Higher Education Council for Virginia and is a past president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.

Tom Kambouras – Venture Partner, Education: former Chief Technology Officer of New York City Department of Education, the largest school system in the country, leading a group of over 400 senior IT leaders, supporting the learning environments for 1.1 million children and 140,000 educators and administrative staff, where he was responsible for strategic planning, budgeting, and purchasing of all enterprise infrastructure and education technologies utilized in the classroom.

Deborah Karcher – Venture Partner, Education: former Chief Information Officer of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the fourth-largest school district in the US. During her 15-year tenure with M-DCPS, she managed information technology operations and procurement 37,000 employees and 340,000 students, including leading the District’s IT strategic vision and long-range planning.
Lenny Schad – Venture Partner, Education: former Chief Information Officer of Houston Independent School District (HISD), the seventh-largest school district in the US, where he managed information technology operations and a network infrastructure for 283 schools, more than 40,000 employees and 215,000 students. Mr. Schad advises Superintendent and Chief Academic Officers across the country through the American Association of School Administrators.

“The collective knowledge and networks of these distinguished leaders is uniquely valuable,” said R. Brad Lane, CEO of RIDGE-LANE LP “especially as the fourth industrial revolution accelerates, where the speed and scale of innovation is having profound effects on how our society evolves. We have the privilege of leading a private sector effort, focused on improving quality of life for humans, communities, and governments, globally.”

RIDGE-LANE Limited Partners is a venture development firm – focused on root-cause solutions to grand challenges in Education, Sustainability, and Information Technology – with a team of General Partners, Venture Partners, and Senior Advisors who have served at the highest levels of finance, government, and the military.

We create value for our clients and society by bridging the gaps between private-sector innovation, investment capital, policy and procurement – across the Federal, State, and Local levels: an innovation ecosystem, providing corporate development to commercialize and scale novel technology companies.

Innovators tackling grand societal challenges: [email protected]

For more information visit: www.RIDGE-LANE.com

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