Our Renaissance Venture fund has a new CEO and Fund manager, Christopher Rizik. The venture fund, our “Fund of Funds” is helping to grow our region’s entrepreneurial capacity, and Chris’s experience and skill set make him the perfect candidate to run the operation. Chris is a passionate and talented individual who formerly was a co-founder, partner, and board member of Ardesta LLC, the nation’s first accelerator for the nanotechnology and microtechnology field.

Chris successfully led negotiations and closings of over twenty venture capital transactions for Ardesta, following his time as a managing director for Avalon Technology, LLC—where he secured over 30 venture capital transactions in a three-year period.

The Renaissance Venture fund was formed from one of our six Road to Renaissance objectives to accelerate the growth of new and expanding companies in various sectors. The ultimate goal is $100 million capitalization of the fund, with $57 million in investments secured to date. We’re excited to welcome Chris on board, and look forward to his official start date of Oct. 13, 2008.