John joined Venture Investors in May of 1985 and served as its Executive Managing Director from 2000-2021. He continues to serve as a Managing Director.

John has extensive experience as a director of portfolio companies, including his current directorships at Cellectar BioSciences, Delphinus Medical Technologies, and Health Scholars. He has experience in assisting companies from inception to public markets. He joined the Board of Third Wave Technologies when they had three employees and served through the initial public offering (subsequently acquired by Hologic), and he joined the Board of TomoTherapy when they had one employee and served through their public offering, which was the fourth largest healthcare IPO in the first decade of the millennium. Other notable past directorships included NimbleGen Systems (acquired by Roche), and Inviragen (acquired by Takeda).

Involvement in Community & Venture Ecosystem:

• Board of Directors, National Venture Capital Association
• Board of Directors, Wisconsin Technology Council
• Board of Trustees, Morgridge Institute for Research
• Advisory Board, Weinert Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship (WAVE), School of Business, University of Wisconsin – Madison
• Advisory Board, US Bank Wisconsin
• Associate Mentor for Health Stream for the Creative Destruction Lab – Wisconsin
• Chairman, Advisory Committee, Tandem University Press, School of Education, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Education & Certifications:

• B.S., Magna Cum Laude, Finance, University of Utah
• M.S., Marketing and Finance, University of Wisconsin – Madison
• Chartered Financial Analyst

Hobbies:

John is an avid bicyclist and cross country skier. He has completed 28 American Birkebeiners, and three other Worldloppet races in Europe.

John is a patron of the arts, and currently serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Tandem Press. His wife is an artist whose work utilizes multi-channel video projections, sound as environment, photography and sculpture. Together, they renovated an early 20th century downtown church building as a live/work space in Madison that serves as a project space for local artist events in aerial dance, theatre, music, film, and art.