NMVP Builds International Team –

SALT LAKE CITY -New Media Venture Partners (NMVP) is building its international reach with the recent hires of Jordan Powell and Mark Israelsen, both of which were recently working in Asia outside the venture capital industry.

Scott McKinley, chief executive officer of NMVP, said the firm added the executives in an effort to create a global venture capital firm. McKinley has prior international VC experience himself through Chase Capital Partners Asia.

Powell is the most recent addition to the NMVP team. He joined the firm as a managing director in mid-October and will be based in Tokyo. Previously, he had been a director with the Motorola Inc.’s IP/Patent team for Asia.

Powell will be developing international relationships for NMVP portfolio companies and courting Asian investors.

“My focus is to take the technology we have invested in and export it to Asia,” Powell said. He listed as strengths the firm’s connections in Asia, his experience as a patent attorney and his nine-year experience with the Asian business culture.

Powell will be NMVP’s first permanent presence in Japan and will report to Graham Doxey, NMVP’s managing director of international business development, who is based in Salt Lake City.

Doxey said Powell will not initially be leading any investments from Tokyo, as the firm prefers to invest in U.S. technology companies. That said, the firm identified the acceleration of new technologies into the global marketplace as a key to success for their portfolio companies.

In late September, Israelsen became chief technology officer for NMVP. Israelsen is working more on the front-end, evaluating potential portfolio companies for international opportunities. He said his duties would also include supporting “good synergy between portfolio companies” and integrating the companies into the international market.

Israelsen said he has been in Asia for 20 years. He recently left a position at Oracle Corp., where he was vice president of the Asia Pacific division’s consulting services.

NMVP focuses on investments in the Rocky Mountain and West Coast regions of the U.S., excluding Silicon Valley. NMVP currently has $48 million under management, most of which has been deployed into six companies (VCJ, October, page 52).