Tom Baruch

Tom Baruch is a leading venture capitalist based in San Francisco, California and Silicon Valley. Prior to becoming a founding member of formation | 8 Partners , He founded CMEA Capital in 1988 with New Enterprise Associates (NEA), to focus on venture capital investments in companies applying materials science to innovations that have the ability to transform or create new industries (the acronym CMEA standing for Chemicals and Materials Enterprise Associates). Tom was responsible for managing a total of $1.2 billion of capital across seven funds from inception until July 2010.[1][2][3]

Early career

Baruch holds an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Juris Doctor degree from Capital University, and is a registered patent attorney and member of the State Bar of Ohio. Baruch started his career at the Battelle Development Corporation in the late 1960s. At Exxon Corporation, where he worked for 12 years in the 1970s and early '80s, he managed investments and created several early-stage technology companies applying materials science and semiconductor-industry technologies such as Supertex (SUPX). When he left in 1982, he was serving as President of the Exxon Materials Division. Baruch then founded and served as CEO of Microwave Technology, Inc., a supplier of gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits for defense applications and value-added sub-systems. Baruch served as CEO for 6 years prior to founding CMEA.[4][5]

Recent career

While at CMEA, Tom led investments including major IPO's and significant liquidity events for Aclara Biosciences, which merged with Monogram Biosciences (MRGM); Netro (NTRO); Entropic Communications, Inc. (ENTR); Flextronics (FLEX); Symyx Technologies (SMMX); Silicon Spice, acquired by Broadcom (BRCM); Codexis, Inc (CDXS), and Intermolecular (IMI).[6]

Baruch is now a Partner Emeritus of CMEA and maintains involvement in his portfolio companies. Baruch currently serves as Chairman of Codexis, Inc.[7] and Intermolecular, Inc (IMI)Intermolecular. Tom also serves on the board of CNano Technologies CNano, Exela Pharma Sci , Foro Energy,[8] and Wildcat Discovery Technologies .

An area of special interest to Baruch is an innovative process for developing new materials called combinatorial chemistry.[9] It applies a convergence of genomics, Moore’s law hardware and custom software to enable very rapid synthesis and screening of new materials. Tom has pioneered CMEA’s investments in companies that apply combinatorial synthesis including Codexis, Draths, Intermolecular, Symyx Technologies, Syryx and Wildcat Discovery.

Tom is the founder and managing director of Baruch Future Ventures, through which he is involved in a number of public service organizations. Baruch is a member of the Board of Trustees of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and he and his wife Johanna established the Center for Biochemical Solar Energy Research.[10][11] Baruch also serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Council on Competitiveness [12] and a member of the Steering Committee of its ESIS (Energy, Security, Innovation and Sustainability) Initiative and the U.S. Manufacturing Competitiveness Initiative. He serves as a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), where he advises the U.S. Department of Commerce and the White House.[13] Baruch also serves on the board of the Sierra Club Climate Recovery Partnership,[14] as a member of the "Brain Trust" of the ARPA-E program within the U.S. Department of Energy. Tom recently served as part of the IPO Task Force advising the U.S. Department of the Treasury in connection with necessity of programs to stimulate start-up activity in the US . Tom is also a member of the board of directors to the Society Kauffman Fellows and a trustee of the 'That May May See' program within the University of California, San Francisco . Tom is an advisor to Hasso Plattner Ventures, a leading German venture capital fund .

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cmea.com/_files/bio-tom-baruch-pro.pdf
  2. ↑ http://www.cleantech.com/news/4641/cmea-capitals-prowl-cleantech-inves
  3. ↑ http://www.compete.org/us-brazil/en/speakers/thomas-r.-baruch/
  4. ↑ http://www.rpi.edu/president/bot/baruch.html
  5. ↑ http://fora.tv/speaker/8427/Thomas_Baruch
  6. ↑ http://www.thefunded.com/funds/partner/12255?name=Tom+Baruch
  7. ↑ http://www.codexis.com/bod_thomas_baruch
  8. ↑ "Foro Energy wins biggest Arpa-E grant". Xconomy.com. Retrieved 2009-11-19.
  9. ↑ "Combinatorial Materials Science and Catalysis". Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
  10. ↑ "Solar Energy Research Center Launched". RPI.edu/magazine. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
  11. ↑ http://www.rpi.edu/magazine/dec2008/atrpi/solar_energy.html
  12. ↑ http://www.compete.org/about-us/members-and-affiliates/
  13. ↑ Leuty, Ron (2010-07-27). "VC takes innovation message to Beltway".
  14. ↑ http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=188007.0

External links