NVCA Installs Rothrock as Chairman for Next Year

At the Santa Clara Convention Center located in the heart of Silicon Valley and about 50 miles south of the Golden Gate Bridge, Ray Rothrock officially took the reins today as chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

The NVCA is coming off a year in which it has secured for most venture firms an exemption from having to register with the SEC as “investment advisors” under the Dodd-Frank Act; helped drive the effort to pass the JOBS Act that was signed by President Obama earlier this month; and made progress in working with the FDA and the U.S. Congress to reform the process for drug and device approvals.

But just in the same way that the Golden Gate Bridge requires touch up painting of its “International Orange” color on an on-going basis, Rothrock says that the NVCA work is never done.

“It’s like painting the Golden Gate Bridge year-round. The work never ends,” says Rothrock, a partner at Venrock.

Rothrock tells VCJ that among the items on the NVCA agenda for the next year are tax reform and capital gains, continuing to support innovation and immigration reform.

Immigration reform might be the hardest to secure a win on in the next 12 months of Rothrock’s term, considering this is an election year.

Within the next year, don’t be surprised if Rothrock takes up cyber security as an issue. At Venrock, Rothrock focuses on information technology infrastructure, especially cyber security. His investments have included Check Point Software Technology, Spyglass and Imperva, a data security company that went public last year.

“The amount of Internet fraud is increasing to the point that there are more electrons fired in cyber attacks than bullets fired in conflicts around the world,” Rothrock says. “The government is going to have to address it. We need a national security policy on cyber security.”

Photo of Ray Rothrock courtesy of Venrock