Stalking The Venture Capitalists

 

The major problem in the venture capital industry today, according to some, is neither lack of available money nor lack of attractive companies to invest in. It is the short supply of venture capitalists themselves.

"There are too few people with experience managing venture investments," says Edgar F. Heizer Jr., chairman of Heizer Corp. of Chicago, one of the country's largest venture capital firms. "The ones with experience have all the money they can handle."

One entrepreneur is trying to fill this market void. Joan Irish has founded an executive search firm, Knight & Irish Associates Inc., in New York, to specialize in recruiting management for the venture capital industry. Her clients, she says, will be pension funds, lending institutions, small business investment companies, and corporations with venture capital arms, as well as independent venture capital firms. She expects to help them find new venture capital executives from thre groups: young MBAs; executives of large corporations looking for new challenges; and individuals who have successfully launched their own companies.

Since 1977, Irish has been a principal, with her husband, in Charles Irish Co., a New York executive search firm. Her husband will be a director of the new company, while Harry Knight, a management consultant, will serve as chairman. Joan Irish will be in charge of the day-to-day operations as president and chief executive officer. "We felt there was a need for greater specialization in the executive search field," she says. "Besides, I wanted to run my own business."