Powerlist paints portrait of industry

Our forthcoming Powerlist covering the 100 most powerful people in corporate venturing is due for publication on November 26 and makes for a fascinating insight into who are the key decision-makers in this growing industry.

Predominantly, the backgrounds of executives are corporate, with all-but-three of the list of 100 people having some form of large corporate experience prior to their appointment in the corporate venturing role.

Yet the industry has also rewarded some for their experience in the related fields of venture capital (VC), where 15% have worked, and entrepreneurship, where 18% have come from a small company.

Arguably, it would be nice to see more people from these backgrounds rise to the top spots at corporate venturing units because it reflects the challenges of dealing with entrepreneurs and other syndicate partners that are often VCs. But the executive challenges of leading a top corporate venturing unit requires professional managers that often have to translate the ideas seen by the deal-doers in the field into something used by the parent company.

Many of the top executives, therefore, need to have a clear understanding of the parent group’s strategy and its divisions (and politics) as well as being able to attract and retain a team of people with often specialist skills either in finding and striking deals and/or managing the portfolio companies and operating the group’s back office.

Examining the highly impressive biographies of those who have risen to head the corporate venturing unit from another corporate role, therefore, it is more easily understandable why these individuals have risen to where they are today.

In a trend echoing the generally low numbers of women in high positions in the corporate and technology worlds, 10 of the top 100 were women. Given corporate venturing is a progressive industry, playing a key role financing the future world-beating companies of tomorrow, and as most large corporations have active human resources policies to be neutral on gender and ethnicity,  it is likely that more women will occupy such leadership positions in future Powerlists. 

There may also be some form of nominative determinism in the industry – with an improbable four of the top five selected by us, having surnames beginning with S. Ten in the list had surnames starting with S. The most common first letter of surnames was C, representing 11 in the list.  

It was a privilege compiling this annual list, as the feats achieved by these executives during their careers are truly impressive. A bigger spotlight on those who work in corporate venturing provides an important service, as the executives in this list are arguably set to be some of the most important figures funding the development of innovation over the next decade and too often their service has been neglected in favour of other intermediaries, such as VCs, that spend more time and effort on their marketing and public relations strategies.

Congratulations to all who made our list, for helping set the tone of this flourishing industry and good luck to everyone for next year’s and please let us know who we should be considering and what we can do to further improve our understanding and coverage. See here for the top 20 and the link to the full list and ranking.