ONSET Ventures Founder Will Mentor Berkeley MBA Students as Newest Lester Center Fellow:
MENLO PARK, CALIF., September 15, 2003 — ONSET Ventures today announced that its founder, Terry Opdendyk, has been named a Fellow of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for 2004. Fellows are sponsored by the Lester Center at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, under a program that brings successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to campus for a year to share their knowledge and experience with MBA student entrepreneurs.
"Being a venture capitalist is an opportunity to learn and teach continually," said Opdendyk. "Becoming a Fellow of the Lester Center lets me extend my passion for helping entrepreneurs build successful companies to a new generation of business leaders."
As a Fellow of the Lester Center, Opdendyk works with graduate students individually, in the classroom and in the Lester Center's incubator, offering guidance on specific projects and helping advance their professional skills. These activities are in addition to his existing work with the Lester Center, which includes participating in the Lester Center's Venture Capital Internship program and being a judge in the UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition.
"At Berkeley — a top research institution — we always challenge ourselves to translate our theoretical excellence into pragmatic, experiential learning," said Jerry Engel, Executive Director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. "Fellows of the Lester Center are experienced and accomplished. Terry's personal and professional qualities also make him a natural teacher. As someone who had proven himself of great value to our students in the classroom, naming Terry a Fellow was the logical next step in his ongoing involvement with our students."
Recent Fellows of the Lester Center have included such notables as Kevin Brown, Inktomi Co-Founder, Jim Hornthal, Founder of Preview Travel (now Travelocity), Steve Domenik, General Partner of Seven Rosen Funds and Jerry Fidler, Co-Founder and Chairman of Wind River Systems.
Opdendyk founded ONSET Ventures in 1984 and has specialized in working with information and medical technology startups for more than 30 years. Prior to launching the firm, he was president of VisiCorp, guiding the software publishing company from inception into an industry leader. Early in his career, he worked as a technical manager for Hewlett-Packard and later headed Intel Corporation's microcomputer systems business and microprocessor development activities.
At ONSET Ventures, Opdendyk maintains a broad spectrum of investment interests. He serves on the boards of both public and private companies, including Arcot Systems, Callidus, Nextance and Visus. Opdendyk received a B.S. from the Michigan State University Honors College and a M.S. from Stanford University.
About the Lester Center
The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is the primary locus at the University of California, Berkeley, for the study and promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation in management and new enterprise development. The Lester Center is on the Web at http://entrepreneurship.berkeley.edu.
About ONSET Ventures
ONSET Ventures, founded in 1984, combines start-up investment capital, business building skills and a long-term commitment to help entrepreneurs build and grow world-class companies. With more than $500 million under management, ONSET Ventures invests in information and medical technology companies. ONSET Ventures is headquartered in Menlo Park, California and is on the Web at www.onset.com.