CEO Quotes for the Powerlist Nominations

Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors: “Under Jon Lauckner’s leadership and vision, the GM Ventures team operates with an entrepreneurial spirit and clear direction to focus on technologies that matter most for our customers. The strategic investments GM Ventures is making in breakthrough technologies is helping us build the most valued automotive company.”

Thomas Rabe, chairman and chief executive of Bertelsmann: “Investments in young digital companies with innovative business models play an important role in the implementation of our strategy. Through these investments, we ensure the transfer of knowledge both about digital trends that support our transformation and about promising markets. Our investment fund Bertelsmann Asia Investments, in particular, is very successful.”

Christian Kullmann, chairman of the executive board of Evonik: “Investments in and partnerships with startup companies generate strategic value and growth opportunities. Our venture capital arm is a vital link to tomorrow’s technologies and way of doing business. Venture capital contributes in realising our vision to build the best-in-class specialty chemicals company. The team led by Bernhard Mohr has been instrumental in Evonik leveraging the value of corporate venture capital across the whole company.”

Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chairman and chief executive: “Under Amy’s leadership, Comcast Ventures has invested in some of the most innovative consumer and enterprise technology companies. We have worked together for nearly 30 years and I have always admired her passion and vision for identifying the next big idea. She has carried that through Comcast Ventures and has helped her team develop hundreds of value-creating partnerships.”

Bob van Dijk, chief executive of South Africa-based media and internet group Naspers: “Naspers has been investing in innovative businesses around the world for many decades, identifying leading companies addressing big societal needs in high growth markets. Naspers Ventures has taken us into several new sectors including food, education, health and more. Larry and his team are setting Naspers up for our next wave of growth, investing in leading businesses in new sectors that will mould our future.”

Mike Roman, CEO of 3M: “3M Ventures is an important tool to gather strategic insights into new adjacencies and accelerate our priority growth platforms. Ben has done an outstanding job leading our Ventures team, which includes implementing a new strategy that has enhanced the way we collaborate and create value with our portfolio companies. He’s an outstanding representation of the best of 3M and Corporate Venturing.”

Robin Hayes, CEO of JetBlue: “JetBlue has always been a forward-thinking airline and we want to stay ahead of new technologies to continue improving the entire travel experience for our customers. JetBlue Technology Ventures allows us to invest in and shape the future of our industry through the strategic partnerships the team is building with startups innovating in travel and hospitality – from solutions alleviating the pain of flight delays to affordable electric aircraft.”

Rose Marcario, CEO and president of Patagonia: “Tin Shed Ventures gives Patagonia an edge in innovation and provides a new source of capital to startups that are in business to save our home planet.”

Cher Wang, CEO of HTC: “As a leader in the spatial computing space, HTC/Vive takes its responsibility to build a healthy ecosystem very seriously. We have actively invested in the space to support worthy startups and nurture a wide range of innovation inside and outside the company. Alvin has taken a leadership role in driving our engagement with both the investment and startup communities for the last three years, delivering strong results and deep connections that solidify our position in the market.”

Joe Nelligan, CEO of Molex: “Our world is rapidly changing and to meet the needs of our customers and the marketplace we are driving transformative change by investing and partnering with innovative companies that offer new ideas, technologies and talent. Our Venture Program is one of the critical elements we need to support our solutions vision as we work to create the virtuous cycles of mutual benefit that will support our profitable growth in the future.”

Jim Loree, CEO of Stanley Black & Decker: “Larry brings a unique blend of independent visionary entrepreneurialism and corporate management experience which enables him to build productive relationships with all parties involved with corporate venturing. He has the ability to envision the art of the possible and marry it with the practical realities of business. His enthusiasm for the application of technology and extreme innovation is infectious and inspirational. Larry is beloved by our business leaders here at Stanley Black & Decker for his extensive contributions to our venturing transactions as well as our innovation ecosystem in general.”

Scott Serota, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield: “For the last 10 years Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners have advanced healthcare innovation, supporting entrepreneurs and a marketplace of new ideas. Thanks to John’s outstanding leadership, we continue to have successful outcomes and have seen a growing level of activity in new strategic investments, as well as increased participation from BCBS companies. As Plans collaborate to drive innovation, we look forward to the next 10 years, with Blue Cross Blue Shield taking on an even greater leadership role, advising on regulatory matters and expanding our involvement with global affiliates.”

Frank Stührenberg, CEO of Phoenix Contact Group: “With the Phoenix Contact Innovation Ventures we are much faster and flexible to interact and cooperate with startups and their ideas and technologies then in our core business. The establisehd ecosystem by our Venture Team, headed by Marcus Böker, is one of the key elements of our strategy to the Industry 4.0 and the industrial internet of things.”

Lamar McKay, deputy CEO of BP Group: “BP Ventures is playing an increasingly important role in tackling the dual energy challenge – both by identifying technologies that improve the productivity of our current businesses and by helping us transition to new reduced emissions models for heat, light and mobility provision. With a half billion dollar investment, and access to $200m capital every year, we have set up BP Ventures to build the future BP.”

Stein Olav Drange, chief technology officer of Equinor: “Equinor Technology Ventures is an important tool to find and accelerate new innovations from startups, helping Equinor in our ambitions to shape the future of energy.”

Om Nalamasu, executive vice-president and chief technology officer of Applied Materials and president of Applied Ventures: “For over a decade, Applied Ventures has been investing in and collaborating with startups to transform disruptive possibilities into reality by leveraging the materials engineering expertise of Applied Materials. Rajesh has played a critical role in identifying and accelerating venture investments across many inflections, where our leadership in materials engineering is enabling new growth markets like AI, AR and VR, life sciences, 3D printing, and batteries. With his passion to address a significant pain point for deeptech startups, Rajesh closely worked with executives from Applied Materials and the state of New York to enable the establishment of an $850M state-of-the-art semiconductor fab in upstate New York. I am proud of Rajesh and his Applied Ventures team’s progress in enabling successful initiatives and partnerships with startups across the globe, and look forward to many more accomplishments near-term.”

David Doft, chief financial officer at MDC: “Jessica has operationalised MDC Ventures to provide real strategic value to our investments, our business and our clients. Her efforts have put MDC Partners on the front lines with the innovations and technologies that can meaningfully improve performance for our client base, and she has served as a catalyst for innovation and experimentation in partnership with our broad network of advertising and marketing agencies.”

Jan Kees de Jager, KPN’s chief financial officer: “KPN initiated the KPN Ventures investment fund mid-2015 to boost outside-in-innovation, creating more opportunities to closely work together with new, innovative technology companies, while also creating financial return on investments. Herman has been instrumental in executing on this plan. After three years under the leadership of Herman, KPN Ventures has grown its portfolio to 13 relevant direct investments, with one great exit, and five fund-in-fund investments. KPN Ventures is actively supporting the portfolio companies in their growth and in creating cooperations with KPN and its ecosystem partners, as an increasingly important instrument in KPN’s transformation, alongside R&D, New Business and M&A.”

Thomas Kusterer, chief financial officer at EnBW: “Crispin is building and leading EnBWs Corporate Venturing arm since its inception 2016. EnBW’s venturing activities are an open innovation platform, driven by financial return and focusing on scaling smart infrastructure startups, that could make a difference in the future. EnBW New Ventures is the platform that enables EnBW to cooperate fruitfully with entrepreneurial teams, while at the same time all efforts of our New Ventures team are focused to support the entrepreneurs to build sustainable and profitable businesses. EnBW’s ability to work closely with the successful entrepreneurs of the future will define EnBW’s own success in new sectors, that are not our home turf as of today. Two cooperation examples, where the open innovation is already showing strong growth is the Yello solar decentral rental product for residential photovoltaic and storage with DZ-4 as well as the digitisation of our parking spaces with Cleverciti. Crispin and his team act as translator and moderator between the dynamic startups and EnBW and as flexible tool to enable future growth options for EnBW.”

Ashok Belani, executive vice-president of technology and chief technology officer at Schlumberger: “The Schlumberger venture group is an integral part of the technology development ecosystem, which comprises science, engineering, universities, manufacturing, technology lifecycle management and startup companies. It has been a successful business venture, not only having led to commercial products and services, but it has also given Schlumberger a deep insight and network into a broad range of potentially impactful new technology domains outside of our traditional business areas.”

Rajan Naik, senior vice-president of strategy and innovation at Motorola Solutions: “Motorola Solutions Venture Capital (MSVC) has been investing in and partnering with startups for 20 years, helping drive technology leadership, innovation and business growth for Motorola Solutions. Brad joined our venture organisation four years ago as the company was beginning to expand its offerings in services, software and video. Leveraging his extensive venture capital experience and network in the VC industry both in the US and Israel, Brad has re-shaped MSVC’s portfolio to align with Motorola Solutions’ growth platforms and has created unique business models for go-to-market and technology licensing that enable venture stage companies to be successful with enterprises.”

Wolfgang Krips, vice-president corporate strategy at Amadeus: “Over the last five years, Amadeus Ventures has interacted with thousands of entrepreneurs in the travel technology space and invested in 10-plus high potential startups highly relevant for our customers. The team constantly shares observations and brings startup collaboration ideas to the rest of the organisation. All our business units now have incorporated startup as part of their activities, as solution partners, and as an emerging customer segment. Amadeus Ventures has become known as one of the top strategic investors in the space of travel and transportation technology. I congratulate Suzanna to be on the GCV Powerlist once again this year and look forward to an exciting 2019.”

GCV Powerlist 2019 Contents

GCV Powerlist 2019 PDF download