Board Member Spotlight - Dr. Brien Walton
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Board Member Spotlight - Dr. Brien Walton
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Our second feature in the Board Member Spotlights Series!
We will introduce one of our Board members to share a little bit more about their experience and the perspective they bring to Maine Venture Fund.
The MVF Board is made up of 11 volunteers, all appointed by the Governor of Maine, and each with specific expertise that enables MVF as an organization to thoughtfully evaluate the best way to support Maine companies. The MVF Board is responsible for making all investment decisions.
This installment features Dr. Brien Walton, our Board Chair
MVF Board member since 2020
Can you share a little bit about your professional experience?
I am a corporate tax attorney by training and have also been licensed as a business broker and commercial banker in multiple states, which are diverse, but complementary skill sets I have used to create and manage two international incubators, a national accelerator, and three venture capital funds over the past 20 years.
I have also developed a customizable, certificate program for aspiring entrepreneurs at Husson University’s College of Business that can be taken as a part of a degree program or as a standalone certificate for adult learners, and professionally, I work on retainer for several companies as an “outsourced CXO“, which is just a fancy way of saying companies hire me to confidentially fill various C-suite roles (e.g., CEO, CFO, COO, or CSO) on an interim basis until the company achieves or re-achieves profitability.
What is a professional accomplishment you are most proud of?
Aside from being the first African-American chairman of the Maine Venture Fund, I would have to say that I am most proud of being the founding Chief Executive Officer and founding Chief Investment Officer, respectively, at the 1st and 2nd venture capital funds in the U.S. directly affiliated with a major university’s graduate school of education, and at my fund affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, I also led the design and construction of an award-winning, shared space incubator facility at Oxford Mills in a distressed area of downtown Philadelphia.
Specifically, the incubator and fund I co-created with the University of Pennsylvania grew to have more than 300 applicants per year from across the world, was ranked as a “Top Northeastern Incubator” by Crunchbase, and most importantly, invested in 31 portfolio companies over four years with $200+ million in follow-on investment that has resulted in 11 exits (35% success rate) as of 2022, which is ~250% more than the average venture capital fund.
What is one of your favorite restaurants?
Mason’s Brewing Company in Brewer is my favorite place for gourmet burgers and pizza, and it is family-friendly. I usually get the "Sweetest Mess" burger or their "Best Pepperoni Pie" - either is outstanding and I like to save half to take to the office for lunch the following day.
Can you share one thing you always consider in the diligence process for companies pursuing investment from MVF?
As a professional incubator and accelerator developer and manager for 20+ years, one tool that I use every time I consider a potential investment for MVF is testing the Emotional Intelligence (EI) of the executive team, which was the subject of my doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania and my research demonstrated that the success of a business executive can be predicted with up to 92% accuracy.
Different C-suite roles require different combinations of EI traits so I had to create a dynamic algorithm to adapt to industry variables and market conditions, which I constantly tweak to this day as if it were a “hobby.”
In my experience, it is very common for an innovator to come up with a brilliant business idea, but it is very rare for that same person to build a team able to launch and grow a scalable business, so I leverage EI to find those rare teams, or at least identify who can be mentored to build a successful team.
How do you recharge?
This is a tricky question because my “job” is both my hobby and my passion, and I would describe my job as the perfect combination of playing Monopoly, chess, and building jigsaw puzzles all day, so my work isn’t really “work” because I’m having too much fun doing it.
As a result, I don’t feel the need to recharge in the “traditional” sense, but when I do take a break, I enjoy spending time with my daughters doing water sports in Spring and Summer, such as kayaking and surfing, or playing arcade games in our basement in the Fall and Winter, such as air hockey and foosball - my daughters are super-competitive and keep me on my toes, which is a good distraction.
About Maine Venture Fund
Maine Venture Fund invests in dynamic businesses that have the potential for significant growth and impact in Maine. For more information, visit maineventurefund.com.
Inquiries:
Terri Wark
Maine Venture Fund
(207) 924.3800
terri@maineventurefund.com
