Business Leader is pleased to introduce our 2007-2008 Impact Deal makers, a look at top Leaders who are making an impact in their industries and the Triangle community.

Triangle Impact Dealmakers in RTP

Business Leader magazine and The Park Guide are proud to announce the Impact Dealmakers in RTP for 2008. Each of the award winners exemplifies outstanding leadership not only in their professional field but in the community as well. This list includes venture capital firms, mergers and acquisitions leaders, and key players in business transactions throughout the area. In July, we will feature some of the people who make the Park a great place to work and live.

The Park Guide’s 2008 Impact Dealmakers are:

• Scott Albert, managing general partner – Aurora Funds
• Christopher Apolito, founding partner – Resonant Life Science Partners
• Jeffrey T. Barber, Raleigh office manager – PricewaterhouseCoopers
• Ben Brooks, founding partner – Southern Capitol Ventures
• D. Scott Coward, business law department partner – Kennedy Covington
• Graham Crispin, regional director – Murphy Business and Financial Corp.
• Tom Darden, CEO – Cherokee Investment Partners
• Bruce Deerson, president – Entrust Associates
• Robert Eubanks, founder and president – Franklin Street Partners
• Marco Frenegal, founder and CEO – Carpio Solutions
• Tim C. Gupton, senior partner – Hughes Pittman & Gupton
• Fred Hutchinson, founding member – Hutchinson Law Group
• David Kirkpatrick, founder and managing director – SJF Ventures
• Garheng Kong, general partner – Intersouth Partners
• Edward C. McCarthy, Raleigh office managing director – River City Capital Funds
• Norvell Miller IV, managing general partner – Southeast Interactive Technology Funds
• Peter Meath, founder, senior vice president, Southeast regional manager – Square 1 Bank
• Art Pappas, managing partner – Pappas Ventures
• David Rizzo, managing partner – IDEA Fund Partners
• Clay B. Thorpe, co-founder and general partner – Hatteras Venture Partners
  

Name:Scott Albert
Title:Managing General Partner
Company:Aurora Funds
Impact: The Aurora Funds currently manages more than $234 million in five venture funds, and has managed investments in more than 60 companies, resulting in five IPOs and eight M&As to date. Albert co-founded The Aurora Funds with Jeff Clark in 1994, after spending nearly a decade in the venture capital industry. Prior to forming The Aurora Funds, Albert was the CIO of the N.C. Technological Development Authority, Inc., a state-funded corporation that supports technology-based entrepreneurial companies. Prior to that, he was a general partner for a $30-million pool of capital at Criterion Venture Partners in Houston, Texas. He also has served as president of a venture-backed startup company. During his career, Albert has helped close more than 40 investment deals, including a broad range of IT and life sciences companies. He currently serves on the boards of several Aurora portfolio companies, including ALN Medical Management, Centice, StrikeIron and Trivirix.

Name:Christopher Apolito
Title:Founding Partner
Company:Resonant Life Science Partners
Impact: Resonant was founded in April 2007 and has rapidly achieved success advising clients on matters pertaining to M&A opportunities, market development approaches and financial exit strategy. Though relatively new, it already has consulting engagements in such promising areas as asthma/COPD, diabetes, coronary heart disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and oncology. Apolito has more than 10 years of experience in the life science arena spanning strategy consulting, business development and discovery research positions. While in discovery research at GlaxoSmithKline, Apolito’s accomplishments led to patent authorships and peer-reviewed publications, as well as innovations resulting in more than $30 million in company cost savings. In business development roles, he was responsible for successfully negotiating joint ventures and reviewing in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities for mid-size life science companies. His recent strategy consulting work has focused on pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients.

Name:Jeffrey T. Barber
Title:Manager – Raleigh office
Company:PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
Impact: Barber has more than 30 years of experience including extensive experience working with technology-based companies and large multinationals. He had numerous accomplishments in 2007 including: (1) leading the PwC team in assisting TranS1, a Wilmington-based medical device company, in the completion of its IPO; (2) leading the PwC team in supporting Misys Healthcare in divestiture of its hospital system subsidiary; (3) serving as co-chair of the CED’s Venture 2007; (4) leading the PwC team in supporting Motricity in the acquisition of InfoSpace mobile communications; and (5) being appointed by Governor Michael Easley to the State Board of CPA Examiners. Prior to coming to Raleigh, Barber spent two years in the PwC national office in New York, where he worked in the Accounting and SEC Group. He also spent six months working in national M&A. Other community involvements include serving as past-treasurer of NCTA (2006 Volunteer of the Year). In 2000, he received the CED Outstanding Service Award.

Name:Ben Brooks
Title:Founding Partner
Company:Southern Capitol Ventures
Impact: Founded in 2000, Southern Capitol Ventures provides venture capital to leading technology companies in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Some of the companies in its impressive portfolio include Art.com, Motricity and Double Positive. SCV is currently investing out of Fund II with initial investments ranging in size from $75,000 to $1 million. Typically, the firm invests $500K initially and $1.5 million over the life of the company. Brooks is one of the leading Research Triangle area investment executives and brings more than 20 years of experience in working with entrepreneurial companies. In addition to SCV, Brooks is currently director of strategy for Capital Investment Group, on the executive board of The Atlantis Group and on the steering committee for exeCConnect. He also served as a board observer for ChannelAdvisor and as a board member for FullSeven Technologies, which was acquired by Research Triangle Software. He formerly served as a senior vice president for Josephthal & Co., now Oppenheimer.5

Name:D. Scott Coward
Title:Partner – Business Law Department
Company:Kennedy Covington
Impact: With more than 15 years’ experience, Coward practices in the areas of general business and corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, life science and other technology transactions. His previous experience includes serving as general counsel and corporate secretary of Blue Rhino Corp. and associate general counsel for GE Medical Systems Information Technologies. Major accomplishments include representing Blue Rhino in connection with its $340-million merger with Ferrellgas. In 2007-08, he was named an N.C. Super Lawyer, Business/Corporate Law and a member of the Legal Elite for Corporate Law. He works for Kennedy Covington, which was named one of the largest law firms in the Carolinas in 2007, as well as one of the top private equity and venture capital firms in the U.S. by Private Equity Analyst. In June, the company was named an industry leader in six business practice areas according to Chambers USA Guide, America’s Leading Business Lawyers 2007.

Name:Graham Crispin, MBA
Title:Regional Director
Company:Murphy Business and Financial Corp.
Impact: Founded in 1994, Murphy Business and Financial Corp. has become one of the largest and most successful business brokerage firms in the nation. Since July 2007, Crispin has built the Murphy organization in North Carolina to four offices and six brokers. For the last 26 years, he has provided leadership in the technology and business management fields, in industries that include defense, education, telecommunication and IT. He is a founding member of the Carolinas Virginia Business Brokers Association and a 2008 board member. In the 1980s, as a member of the Australian Air Force, he played key roles in secure communications testing, radar, aircraft operational maintenance and aerospace engineering. He also served as a vice chairman of the Informational Industries Training Advisory Board in South Australia. He is a regular presenter of topics on exit planning strategy and positioning technology businesses for sale, and is the author of a forthcoming book on exit planning.

Name:Tom Darden
Title:CEO
Company:Cherokee Investment Partners
Impact: Cherokee Investment Partners is the largest private equity fund in the world that specializes in the acquisition, remediation and redevelopment of contaminated real estate. Since its founding in 1996, it has raised more than $2.1B and cleaned up more than 500 sites in the U.S., Canada and Europe. It is currently involved in a $150M productive reuse of the Burlington Industries Mill near Charlotte, and was a major player in the revitalization of North Hills Mall. Darden is both CEO of Cherokee and founder of its predecessors. Beginning in 1984, he served for 16 years as the chairman of Cherokee Sanford Group, the largest privately-held brick manufacturing company in the U.S. and previously the Southeast’s largest soil remediation company. Darden is on the boards of Woodberry Forest School, Shaw University and the UNC-CH environmental department. He was chairman of the Research Triangle Transit Authority and served two terms on the N.C. Board of Transportation.

Name:Bruce Deerson
Title:President
Company:Entrust Associates
Impact: Unlike many business brokerage firms, Entrust Associates focuses exclusively on helping owners of small and medium-sized businesses in the Triangle area. Deerson has negotiated business sales with a total value of more than $760 million. A former attorney with 25 years of experience, Deerson served as vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. His achievements were recognized by the American Arbitration Association, which selected him to become an arbitrator on its Commercial Panel. He’s an expert negotiator and a Certified Mediator. Deerson founded Entrust in order to bring local business owners a level of professionalism that is usually available only to large corporations. Though Deerson does not act as a lawyer in his role as business broker, his extensive knowledge of legal issues combined with his sophisticated business experience allow him to creatively solve problems that may arise during the sales process – thus enabling a higher success rate in reaching closing.

Name:Robert Eubanks
Title:Founder and President
Company:Franklin Street Partners
Impact: Franklin Street Partners was founded in 1990 and currently has more than $2 billion in assets under management. In November 2006, the company raised $119 million to expand its Manager-of-Managers product, aimed at offering a diversified low-volatility option for high net worth investors. In the first half of 2007, the equity portfolio composite exhibited strong returns, outperforming the customer equity benchmark by about 180 basis points. The fixed-income portfolio composite generated a positive absolute positive return, performing in line with the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index. Franklin Street Partner founder Robert Eubanks was previously founder and president of McMillion Eubanks Capital Management in Greensboro. He has more than 40 years’ experience as an investment professional. His current community activities include serving as chairman of the Educational Foundation Investment Trust and as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Investment Committee. He was elected twice to serve as chairman of the UNC Board of Trustees.

Name:Marco Fregenal
Title:Founder and CEO
Company:Carpio Solutions
Impact: Given Fregenal’s strong record of success in building businesses such as Ultimus, HowStuffWorks.com and Pagenet Brazile, he was able to quickly attract individual investors and serial technology executives – Richard Holcomb (co-founder of Q+E, HAHT, StrikeIron), Tim Buckley (former COO of Red Hat and SVP at Visio Corp. that sold to Microsoft for $1.5B), and Gary Nussbaum of Palladium Equity Partners of New York – to put significant investment behind his latest venture, Carpio Solutions. Palladium typically provides $10 to $20 million of equity capital to middle market companies. This is Palladium’s first deal in the Triangle. Fregenal has been actively pursuing an M&A rollup strategy to acquire companies in North Carolina and Latin America that will allow the company to expand globally. His Pan American IT company uses an agile “dual shore” model to offer smarter technology outsourcing. The company plans to add up to 20 sales and software professionals to its RTP headquarters.

Name:Tim C. Gupton
Title:Senior Partner, Hughes Pittman & Gupton
Company:Hughes Pittman & Gupton
Impact: In 2007, Hughes Pittman & Gupton LLP, was named the largest locally-owned and managed accounting firm in the Triangle and the 6th largest in the nation. It is also a member of CPAmerica International, which has almost 1,000 offices worldwide. Gupton’s career at HPG is centered on entrepreneurial businesses that include investor-financed technology companies and owner-managed businesses. Along with Fred Hutchison, he founded Research Triangle Ventures, $10.3 million early-stage venture capital fund focused on companies in the Triangle area. A former chairman of the CED, he is currently director and treasurer of the N.C. Bioscience Organization. He has served as the startup CFO for at least seven biopharmaceutical companies in the Triangle. He is also an advisor to Hatteras HBM Capital, a director and chairman of the Audit Committee of Enhance Biotech and founder/president of Research Triangle Family Office.

Name:Fred Hutchison
Title:Founding member
Company:Hutchison Law Group
Impact: Hutchison founded Hutchison Law Group in 1996 and has represented more than 200 entrepreneurial companies in his career. In 2007, Hutchison represented InnerPulse in their $50 million preferred stock financing deal and Merrion Pharmaceuticals in their initial public offering in Ireland. His practice focuses on venture capital, technology and life sciences companies in the Southeast, with a client list that includes RTI International, SchoolDude.com and Hosted Solutions. Hutchison has served as a general partner in Research Triangle Ventures, a $10.3 million early-stage venture capital fund focused on companies in the Triangle area. As chair of the First Flight Venture Center, he helped bring the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hutchison was recently named to North Carolina’s Legal Elite and has been noted as one of the 25 most influential people in the Southeast. He received a B.A. in business administration from UNC-CH, Phi Beta Kappa, and his law degree from the University of Virginia.

Name:David Kirkpatrick
Title:Founder and managing director
Company:SJF Ventures
Impact: SJF Ventures is a venture capital partnership with $45M under management, 20 portfolio companies, and offices in Durham and New York City. It focuses on cleantech, technology-enhanced services and premium consumer products. SJF’s second fund has $28M under management and was closed at the end of the first quarter of 2007. Among its 2007 achievements were leading a $1.5 million Series B equity financing round in Rustic Crust, Inc. and participating in a $10 million Series B financing round for goSolar. Kirkpatrick was named the national 2005 Practitioner of the Year by the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance. Previous to SJF, he founded and managed KirkWorks, an environmental investment research firm, and SunShares, a solar energy and recycling company. He earned a B.A. in physics and history from Duke University and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. He serves on the board of groSolar, B.B. Hobbs, Edmap, the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association and the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership.

Name:Garheng Kong, M.D., MBA, Ph.D.
Title:General partner
Company:Intersouth Partners
Impact: Intersouth Partners has invested in more than 100 companies since its founding in 1985. It now manages $780 million in seven venture capital limited partnerships, making it the largest venture capital fund in North Carolina and one of the largest in the Southeast. Kong focuses primarily on Intersouth’s life science portfolio, serving on the boards of directors of six Intersouth companies and working with most of the portfolio. He has worked with companies from seed stage through exit across a wide variety of industries. He serves on the board of the N.C. Medical Device Organization and the SEBIO organization, and has served on the Duke University Medical Center Institutional Review Board. He received three degrees from Duke University – a Ph.D. in biomechanical engineering, a medical degree (top of the class) and an MBA (top of the class). He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and a B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University.

Name:Edward C. McCarthy
Title:Managing director, Raleigh office
Company:River City Capital Funds
Impact: River City Capital Funds, with locations in both Raleigh and Cincinnati, is one of the most experienced venture firms in the Midwest and Southeast, with $350 million under management and more than 70 investments over 13 years. Local firms in its portfolio include SciQuest of Cary, one of CED’s top growth companies in 2007, and Convey Systems of Charlotte. McCarthy heads the Raleigh office, where he maintains an extensive network of contacts through the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. His background includes executive positions with venture capital firms in both Virginia and North Carolina. He began his career in the information systems sector of the Harris Corp. in Florida, where he spent 12 years in engineering and product-line management. He has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies and is a past-president of the Southern Regional Association of Small Business Investment Companies.

Name:Norvell E. Miller, IV, CFA
Title:Managing general partner
Company:Southeast Interactive Technology Funds
Impact: Miller has been with SEInteractive since 1997. The company made approximately $25 million in new investments in 2007, including the sale of Arsenal Digital Solutions to IBM and of Dental Care Partners to private doctors. Miller also serves as general partner of Covestco Seteura. In addition, Miller serves as managing director of EMS Financial Inc., an investment holding company, a position he has held since 1981. He currently serves or has served on the boards of several privately-held companies, including Allconnect, Arsenal Digital Solutions, BuildLinks, MediaSpan Group, Inc., Pixel Magic Imaging and VisionAIR. Previously Miller co-founded and worked with a number of growth companies, including DentalCare Partners, the Mobius Group and Affordable Care. He served as director of investments for the University of North Carolina from 1980 to 1986. Miller is a Chartered Financial Analyst and received an MBA and B.A. with honors from Duke University.

Name:Peter Meath
Title:Founder & SVP, Southeast regional manager
Company:Square 1 Bank
Impact: Meath was part of the founding team of Square 1 Bank, established in the summer of 2005 with a $105-million capital raise, one of the largest de novo banking startups in history. Square 1 is a national venture bank focused primarily on venture capital-backed emerging growth companies in the IT and life sciences sectors. Prior to Square 1, Meath completed his MBA at Duke University in 2005. While there, he provided consulting services to Amphora Discovery Corp. and Duke’s Office of Science and Technology, and served a one-year Venture Capital Fellowship with Intersouth Partners, a $500 million venture capital firm in Durham. At Intersouth, he was responsible for business plan review and due diligence on new and existing opportunities. He was also an integral part of the establishment of the RTP office of Silicon Valley Bank, and worked within the first Southeast office of SVB in Atlanta.

Name:Art Pappas
Title:Managing partner
Company:Pappas Ventures
Impact: Pappas Ventures manages more than $250 million and oversees investments in more than 40 portfolio companies. Major achievements in 2007 include co-leading $17 million Series A financing for LEAD Therapeutics, and being a major player in providing $37 million in startup capital to Optherion Inc. Prior to founding Pappas Ventures in 1994, Pappas held senior-level leadership positions at several multinational pharmaceutical companies. He was an executive member of the board of directors of Glaxo Holdings plc, for which he was responsible for international operations including R&D and manufacturing. He previously was vice president of Commercial Operations for Abbott International Ltd., and he held various executive operating positions with Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and the Dow Chemical Company, in the United States and abroad. Among the companies for which he currently serves as a director are: AtheroGenics, BrainCells and Genstruct. He also was the founding CEO and is currently the chairman of CoLucid Pharmaceuticals.

Name:David P. Rizzo
Title:Managing partner
Company:IDEA Fund Partners
Impact: IDEA Fund Partners provides seed and early-stage equity funding, along with company building expertise to IT, materials technologies and medical device companies throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic. Rizzo brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in general management, strategic planning, acquisitions and divestitures, and corporate finance and investment in technology-based business environments. He left a thriving 13-year career at IBM to found Osprey Systems in 1992. He grew the company to 225 employees with $30 million in annual sales. He also served as president and CEO of MCNC, where he strategically realigned the company into three separate organizations to better focus its resources – including the creation of MCNC Ventures, which was renamed NC IDEA in 2005. Rizzo has held numerous leadership positions with civic and professional associations, including director of Unitive Technologies, Inc; CED; the Kenan Institute’s Center for Entrepreneurship; Chorus Systems; STI TechInventures; Radarfind and Affinergy.

Name:Clay B. Thorpe
Title:Co-founder and general partner
Company:Hatteras Venture Partners
Impact: Hatteras Venture Partners focuses on biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and related opportunities in human medicine. It has more than $120 million under management in three funds. Some of its 2007 accomplishments include leading a $2.6 million Series B round of funding for Clinipace and co-leading a Series A financing round for Viamet Pharmaceuticals. Thorpe founded Hatteras in 2001 with the launch of seed-stage Hatteras Venture Partners l L.P. The fund has returned more than 100 percent of its capital to its limited partners. Under HVP I, Thorpe served as CEO and chairman of Synthematix, Inc., which was acquired in April 2005 by Symyx Technologies for $13 million, a seven-fold return on the fund. Thorpe was also co-founder and former chairman of Phase Biosciences Inc. and co-founder and head of corporate development for Novalon Pharmaceutical Corp., where he was head of business development until Novalon’s sale to Karo Bio for $106.7 million.