The phrase “rising star” is often applied loosely in finance. In corporate venturing it has a more specific meaning: people who make things happen. The early-career investors selected each year for GCV’s Rising Stars list share a defining trait. They do not observe CVC from the sidelines. They plunge in.
Though still relatively early in their CVC careers, these 50 professionals are having an impact in their organisations.
Many distinguished themselves long before holding an investment title. Roxane Diesing, now a venture manager at PwC, first encountered startup investing while running the student startup society at her business school in Lisbon. Laura Gomez Cadena channelled a passion for healthcare innovation into co-founding a podcast that brought together founders, operators and investors, before moving to Healthworx Ventures. For such individuals, convening communities and creating momentum came naturally.
Others learned by doing. Antonio Chen at Sopra Steria Ventures and Ralph Wilson at Arup Ventures spent time working at startups, helping friends turn novel ideas into functioning businesses. That exposure to the messy realities of company-building leaves a mark. Given the chance to create something new, a typical Rising Star rarely resists getting involved.
In some cases, that instinct has placed them at the centre of building corporate venture units from scratch. Brandon Koone was pivotal in establishing venture investing at power company NRG; Peter Schiff did the same at Verbund Ventures.
If these Rising Stars set the tone for corporate investing, it is reassuring that many bring a strong sense of purpose. Max Storto, helping to build Xylem’s investment function, is driven by a lifelong commitment to sustainability. Lisa Schneider at Aramco Ventures echoes that motivation. “If you have the opportunity to put $1.5bn into industrial decarbonisation at one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world,” she says, “what type of impact would that mean?”
The combination of hands-on energy and moral intent bodes well. Corporate venturing’s influence on the startup ecosystem has rarely been greater nor its responsibilities heavier. The Rising Stars’ defining quality is that they push things forward. In a sector where inertia is often the enemy, that may be exactly what is needed.
Global Corporate Venturing has selected people to feature as the Rising Stars since 2016. The process involves researching more than 20,000 industry professionals across more than 3,000 corporations actively investing in startups. We solicit nominations from the heads of corporate venturing units and from service providers and startups working with corporate investors.
The selection of Rising Stars is made independently by the GCV editorial team and is not subject to any outside influence. Inclusion on the list is not paid for, nor is there any obligation for awardees to purchase any GCV products or services in connection with this award.
The Rising Stars are broadly those who have less than five years’ experience in the corporate venturing industry. They are typically not yet in the top rank of the corporate venturing hierarchy, but are showing exceptional performance, whether in terms of deals, exits, value to the ecosystem, internal liaison, sector expertise or other activities.
In a handful of cases, Rising Stars may be leading a unit, but these would be fairly recently formed teams still needing to establish a full track record.
We look at a mix of qualitative and quantitative data when compiling the list.
On the quantitative side, we consider the number of deals that nominees have been involved in over the past year, as well as the number of board roles they hold and the number of portfolio companies they liaise with. Recognising the growing trend for CVC teams to focus on portfolio management, we make room in our search criteria for nominees who might not be active dealmakers, but who are deeply involved with portfolio companies.
We look at these in relation to the length of time nominees have been in the industry and balance it against the size of the fund and its typical pace of investment. We recognise that some CVC units will execute many small deals, while others may focus on a few larger ones, so pure numbers – while giving us a useful starting point – do not always tell the entire story.
The qualitative element is based on input from those putting forward the nominations. A manager’s recommendation carries considerable weight, particularly when accompanied by specific details of how that person has gone far beyond expectations in their role. It is not just doing deals that counts. With a growing emphasis on the business development aspects of corporate investment, many people who focus on what happens after the initial investment place high on our list.
Endorsements from portfolio companies are also part of our considerations, particularly in cases where multiple startups contact us on behalf of a particular person.
We also look at nominees’ activity in the corporate venturing ecosystem. People who are active as speakers and as members of networks stand out for us for inclusion in the list.
We also seek to include people who, despite their relatively short time in the sector, have opened new ecosystems for their parent company, or have taken their corporate venturing unit in a new direction. Sometimes, although nominees have only been in corporate venturing for a short time, they can bring in decades of operational experience from prior careers. Where we see evidence of this being used imaginatively in their corporate investing career, this also counts in a nominee’s favour.
Rising Stars awardees come from a variety of backgrounds, reflecting the multiple skillsets needed for the role. Corporate investors can come from inside the corporation, from an external investment and finance background, or they may have previously been entrepreneurs, researchers or academics. The number of Rising Star awardees with PhDs is always impressive.
The variety of backgrounds means the skills and strengths of nominees vary widely and it can be a complex task to evaluate one professional against another. The GCV editorial team does its best each year to make a fair judgement but acknowledges that any list may be imperfect.
Undoubtedly, there are many amazing corporate investors who have not been included in this year’s list. In the interests of making room for new names we have left off some who have been listed before, despite them still being excellent and richly deserving of inclusion. We have tried to steer away from multiple nominations from the same company to make sure our list of 50 could be as wide as possible across sectors and geographies.
If you would like to be considered for the 2027 Rising Stars list or to nominate someone, please get in touch with Oishani Mitra at omitra@globalventuring.com.
We look forward to starting our new search for our next Rising Stars.
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