Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: #10 Karen Kerr

One challenge in corporate venturing is finding ways to convert insights on technological trends into a method for business unit executives to enact.

Karen Kerr, senior managing director for advanced manufacturing and enterprise software at GE Ventures, did that in early December by hosting a “huge advanced manufacturing summit in DC with agency heads, senators, and key executives”, according to insiders at US-listed industrial conglomerate General Electric.

Sue Siegel, CEO of GE Ventures, said: “Karen is helping transform the world of industrial productivity. A true scientist at heart, Karen applies a unique perspective on making investments and developing partnerships in the advanced manufacturing ecosystem for GE and its customers. She is a dynamic leader garnering trust from those around her through her ability to combine directness and transparency, all with a lively sense of humour.”

Kerr came to GE Ventures three years earlier with two decades of experience in developing technology based businesses and venture investing.

Previously, she was senior director of new ventures and alliances at University of Southern California (USC) Stevens Centre for Innovation.

Before joining USC, Kerr led business development at Intellectual Ventures, a patent development firm set up by Nathan Myhrvold after retiring from his position as chief strategist and chief technology officer of Microsoft, and was a managing director at Arch Venture Partners, a venture capital firm spun out from University of Chicago.

She had started with a part-time stint with Arch while completing her doctoral work in physical chemistry at University of Chicago, and then turned down a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral fellowship to join the charter class of Kauffman Fellows, which trains venture capitalists.

Kerr said: “The thing that most excited me about venture investing is the opportunity to build truly great companies. I was an investor in Illumina when I was at Arch Venture Partners and brought in several of our limited partners [the VC fund’s investors] who had CVC arms in that deal. It would be great to do a few more Illuminas [which now has a market capitalisation of about $20bn following its flotation, and set up a $100m corporate venturing unit last year].”

She now has the opportunity to fund similar deals again at GE Ventures. Kerr said: “I was extraordinarily impressed by the team at GE Ventures that Sue Siegel had assembled, many who had come from financial venture firms. I was also impressed by the executive support that Sue and the GE Ventures program had from Jeff Immelt [CEO] and Beth Comstock [vice-chairman].

“Finally, the opportunity to help transform an iconic company like GE was particularly compelling. I am really proud of the team we have built and the culture that we have co-created on the team.

“We have built a great portfolio that we can already see being impactful at GE. We started investing in drones, robotics, augmented reality, 3D printing, manufacturing analytics, warehouse logistics, and next-generation sourcing, sales and human resources software. GE is already making use of the products of our portfolio companies to improve productivity and safety and to offer new services to our customers.

“Our first investment [in November 2014] was in Airware, which is in the drone space. A lot of folks asked ‘what does that have to do with manufacturing?’, but we realised that it was another way to collect data that could be used in our products’ digital thread and to help us improve the efficiency of our field serves.

“We were out in front on that one, but now several of the businesses have teamed up with our new business creation team to build an inspection service business.

“We made an investment in Sight Machine, which does manufacturing analytics [in March last year]. They are now helping us to transform our first five factories [out of 450 around the world].”

Immelt, in September 2015 when creating the GE Digital function, said the move “will make GE a digital showsite and grow our software and analytics enterprise from $6bn in 2015 to a top-10 software company by 2020”.

Kerr’s team now has 15 portfolio companies and “we could tell a similar story [to that of Sight Machine] about 10 of them”.

She recommended more of her corporate venturing peers “lead more deals and focus on making the deals successful post-investment within and beyond our corporation, as it will enhance our reputation”.

However, these success stories carry a level of what Kerr calls “overhead that comes with doing venture in one of the largest, most globally distributed corporations in the world”. She added: “While GE Ventures is more nimble than the rest of GE, it is less nimble than a VC. This is the first time that I have worked in any corporation. I used to lead the new business and alliances team at University of Southern California and serve on a number of government advisory boards. I always wondered where is the hardest to get things done – academia, government or large corporations.”

Kerr’s government work includes being on the board of the Centre for Venture Education, the National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR Advisory Committee, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Visiting Committee on Advance Technology.

Despite the responsibilities, Kerr’s feet have stayed on the ground and her humour intact, in part through her hobbies kept over the years.

She said: “I played tennis for my high school and college teams. I still play competitively today for my club team. I have lost a step but have a better sense for the court. I also used to play chess for my high school team. Occasionally, my husband and I will play in chess tournaments. Its humbling when a kid sitting on a phone book beats you.”