The members of the MassVentures investment team are skilled professionals from the venture and finance industries. Our team has experience across numerous industries including software, healthcare IT, industrial automation & robotics, internet & digital media, and mobile applications and platforms.
Walter M. (Jerry) Bird, President
Jerry is the president of MassVentures, a firm he joined in 2005. He has over 25 years experience advising and financing entrepreneurial-driven companies, the past 15 in venture capital. Prior to joining MassVentures in 2005, Jerry was president of Boston-based Claflin Capital Management which he joined in 1996, becoming president in 2001. At Claflin, he led over a dozen investments in early-stage technology companies focused on software and Internet-enabled businesses. While at Claflin, he frequently co-invested with MassVentures becoming familiar with its team and its investment approach. From 1986 to 1996 he worked at Bank of Boston in their energy financing group, operations group and was a vice president of the international investment banking division. He is a frequent speaker on venture capital and entrepreneurship. Jerry earned his undergraduate degree in geology from Dartmouth college and his MBA from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business.
Throughout his professional career, Jerry has operated both as an investor and an active partner to entrepreneurs building their companies. His direct investment experience covers dozens of companies and in many cases as the lead or co-lead investor. Several of these companies were acquired by significant publicly-traded companies. Among the companies Jerry has been on the board of are e-Travel (acquired by Oracle), Andover.net (Nasdaq: ANDV, purchased by VA Linux), LinkSoft technologies (purchased by QuadraMed), NexCen Technologies (purchased by UCMS), and Bitpipe Inc. (purchased by TechTarget).
He currently is a board member or board observer at MassVentures’ portfolio companies Forerun, lifeIMAGE and uTest. He also serves on the advisory board of MassDevelopment’s Emerging Technology Fund, and the Board of the Mass Technology Transfer Center. He serves on the boards of Massachusetts Audubon, Crossroads for Kids, and the Massachusetts chapter of the Trust for Public Land. In his free time, Jerry loves to ski and bike.
Contact Jerry at:
jbird@mass-ventures.com
617-723-4920
Nicholas A. Pappas, Vice President
Nick Pappas has been working with early-stage technology companies for over 10 years, advising management teams and boards of directors on market expansion, capital raising and merger and acquisition strategies. Nick joined MassVentures in 2009 and is responsible for identifying investment opportunities and working closely with MassVentures’ portfolio companies. He currently manages MassVentures’ investments in Incentive Targeting, Ntirety, OwnerIQ, Harvest Automation, Courion, Segterra, Libboo, Vsnap and Clarity.
Prior to joining MassVentures, Nick was a senior technology investment banker with Oppenheimer & Co., SVB Alliant, and Canaccord Adams (formerly Adams Harkness) both in Silicon Valley and Boston. He holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from The University of Richmond.
Contact Nick at:
npappas@mass-ventures.com
617-723-4920
Jennifer Jordan, Vice President
Jennifer is an investor. Most recently she was a member of the Golden Seeds angel investor network, where she analyzed early stage investment opportunities, and worked with entrepreneurs in designing more effective business strategies. She has also provided start-up mentoring for entrepreneurs through Springboard and the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. She is the founder of the Reed College Start-Up Lab and has served as a first round judge for the MIT $100K and MassChallenge business plan competitions. She recently served as Entrepreneurship Lead for the MIT Accelerating Information Technology Innovation program sponsored by Google in Cali, Colombia, where she lead 30 young entrepreneurs in a six week lean start-up program to form ten new mobile technology companies, and connect them to mentors, angel and venture investors in the region.
Previously, Jennifer served as Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations at Cadence Design Systems and spent 10 years building an investment research practice in early search, ecommerce, mobile, Internet software applications, video game software and technical software as a Senior Vice President and Senior Equity Research analyst with Black & Company through its acquisition by Wells Fargo Securities. She is a black belt in the Indonesian Martial Art of Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen and holds the title Mas Goeroe.
Contact Jennifer at:
jjordan@mass-ventures.com
617-723-4920
George Aggouras
Controller
Contact George at: gaggouras@mass-ventures.com
Gail Cormier
Executive Assistant and Office Operations Manager
Contact Gail at: gcormier@mass-ventures.com
Mary Stack
Accounting and Portfolio Assistant
Contact Mary at: mstack@mass-ventures.com