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Published on: 11/26/2003
Last Visited: 11/26/2003
Lisa Flashner
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Lisa Flashner, managing director at New World Ventures
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Lisa FlashnerLisa Flashner views herself as one lucky woman.Not only has she found her destined career as managing director of Chicago-based William Blair New World Ventures, but also successfully manages both a career and a family.
"I think I'm really fortunate.I have a great career, a great family life and I am really able to balance those two," said Flashner, 34, who oversees New World's $80 million venture capital fund and has a two-year-old son."It's not an easy thing to do as a woman because there are not many female role models who have strong families and careers."
Flashner advises up-and-coming women whose goal is to have a family too: "work as hard as you can as a young person to find a career that you can end up controlling."Flashner is a follower of her own advice.
Today, as managing director of the William Blair New World Ventures fund, Flashner is one of three partners who makes investment decisions, oversees portfolio companies and manages the firm.She said ultimately the $80 million fund is to be divided among about 15 early-stage U.S.-based technology and telecommunications companies, though money so far has only been invested in five companies, including two that are Chicago-based, Bulkmarkets.com and Rivenet.
An earlier fund, New World Venture Investors invested in other Chicago companies including JobsOnline.com, Eppraisals.com, Ignite Sports Media and iLink Global.
"We're really still in the investment stage, looking for high quality early stage investment technologies to invest in," she said, adding that because of the current market her firm is looking for more mature companies with stronger principals and products than it did with its prior two funds.
A graduate of the University of Illinois, Georgetown University's school of law, and a CPA, Flashner joined New World Ventures in 1998 from the investment banking group at Robert W. Baird & Co., where she focused on the information technology and telecommunications industry.
Prior to Baird she had been a technology banker at The Chicago Corporation (now ABN AMRO), a corporate lawyer in California and a tax accountant at Arthur Anderson & Co.She said her current position truly mixes all the disciplines she has studied in the past.
"Just being able to look at businesses from all these different aspects, understanding their technology, financing and legal frameworks, really helps when I go to work with companies and help them build their businesses," she said.
In fact, Flashner believes that her current position is really the culmination of her career and in ten years she sees herself "Still doing this.
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