Donald Spero

Donald Spero

Personal information
Born	(1939-08-08) August 8, 1939 Chicago, United States
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	86 kg (190 lb)
Sport
Sport	Rowing
Club	NYAC, New York
Medal record Competitor for  United States World Rowing Championships 1966 Bled Single sculls European Rowing Championships 1964 Amsterdam Single sculls Diamond Challenge Sculls 1965 Henley-on-Thames Single sculls Gold Cup Challenge 1966 Philadelphia Single sculls

Donald M. "Don" Spero (born August 9, 1939) is an American physicist, venture capitalist and a former U.S. and world champion rower who competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics and won the single sculls 1966 World Rowing Championships.

Early life and education

Spero was born in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, and is Jewish.^[1] He received his degree in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, where he was a member of the Quill and Dagger society. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University.^[2] Spero rowed for New York Athletic Club.

Rowing career

As a freshman at Cornell University in 1957, Spero was unaware of the competitive sport of rowing. He was in the Cornell freshman eight that won the 1958 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championship under coach Carl Ullrich. During his next three years on the varsity squad under the fabled Cornell coach R. H. (Stork) Sanford, Spero was a member of two more championship crews.

His first international competition came at the World 1961 Maccabiah Games, when he won a gold medal in the coxed four, along with coxswain and coach Allen Rosenberg.^[3]

He took up sculling in 1963, winning the U.S. National Championships in single sculls against the former national champion Seymour Cromwell. Together he and Cromwell won the 1963 U.S. National Championship in double sculls, and went on to bring the U.S. a silver medal in the European Rowing Championships in Copenhagen. In 1964 Spero joined the New York Athletic Club and won his second U.S. Single Sculls Championship. He then represented the United States at the 1964 Summer Olympics at Tokyo in the single sculls. Spero defeated the reigning Olympic champion V. Ivanov of the U.S.S.R in the preliminary heats, advancing to the finals and finishing sixth.^[4] Also in 1964, he won a bronze medal in the single sculls at the European Championships in Amsterdam.^[5]

In 1965, Spero was training on Lake Zurich with Martin Studach and Melchior Bürgin ^[6] and went with them to Henley Royal Regatta, where he won the Diamond Challenge Sculls and Studach and Bürgin won the Double Sculls, both setting new Henley course records.^[7] Spero also won the Gold Medal at the 1965 Duisburg International Regatta and the U.S. Quadruple Sculls championship. In 1966, he repeated as U.S. Champion in Single Sculls. Then at the 1966 World Rowing Championships in Bled, Yugoslavia, he became the World Single Sculls Champion, defeating the Olympic champion Ivanov.^[8]

Spero was also a founder of the National Rowing Foundation^[9] in 1966, and was a director from 1967 to 1984. He was elected to the Helms/Rowing Hall of Fame in 1966, Cornell University Hall of Fame in 1984, New York Athletic Club Hall of Fame in 1986, and International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.^[10]

Business career

Spero conducted post-doctoral research in physics at the University of Maryland, which resulted in the development of high intensity microwave lamps. This became the core technology for Fusion Systems Corporation,^[11] which he co-founded in 1972 and of which he served as president and CEO for 21 years. The company had a successful initial public offering in 1994 and was subsequently acquired by Heraeus Technology Group.^[12] In 1992 he founded Spero Quality Strategies, a strategic advisory and angel investing firm. In 2000 Spero was recruited to be Director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, University of Maryland, Smith School of Business.^[13] In 2002 Spero co-foundeed New Markets Venture Partners,^[14] of which he is a General Partner.

References