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Venture capital and private equity fuel growth, innovation and entrepreneurship

The Center for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance (CVCPEEF) integrates financial thinking and strategic decision-making with innovation and entrepreneurship via research and education across the university, and outreach to the venture capital (VC) and private equity community around the world.

A flagship initiative of the CVCPEEF is the MSU Student Venture Capital Fund, a thriving collaboration with the MSU Foundation and the Red Cedar Ventures. This partnership gives students the opportunity to conduct due diligence, competitor, monetization, and valuation analysis, empowers 4-5 VC-focused companies in MSU’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to receive pre-seed funding each year.

Our advisory board is made up of distinguished professionals, serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, private equity professionals and five core faculty members that provide invaluable guidance for the center.

CVCPEEF Information Sheet

Research with real-world impact

It is our commitment to advance and promote academic and applied research by MSU faculty and students. Our findings inspire solutions to the relevant, pressing issues that today’s businesses face.

Primary Areas of Research

  • High-tech, bio-tech venture capital-backed entrepreneurship
  • Venture capital and private equity investments
  • Venture capital and private equity’s role in commercializing innovations

Our Core Faculty

As MSU’s only center focused on venture capital and private equity, we are uniquely positioned with experts in both finance and entrepreneurship to advance the center’s mission and to provide transformational leadership opportunities.

We focus on the interactions among entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and private equity investors – and the interactions among venture capitalists, private equity funds and their investors.

Lisa Cook headshot

Lisa Cook

  • Associate Professor
    Department of Economics
Hao Jiang headshot

Hao Jiang

  • Associate Professor
    Department of Finance
Mark Schroder headshot

Mark Schroder

  • A.J. Pasant Endowed Professor of Insurance
    Department of Finance
Raoul Minetti headshot

Raoul Minetti

  • Professor
    Department of Economics
Hayong Yun

Hayong Yun

  • Associate Professor
    Department of Finance

Educating the next financial leaders

The number-one reason why innovators and entrepreneurs fail is because they are not able to integrate financial decision-making with strategic business development and growth. The CVCPEEF positions Broad and its students as transformational leaders with cutting-edge knowledge and skills to adapt to the ever-changing global business environment.

We disseminate academic and applied research on venture capital, private equity and entrepreneurial finance through hands-on projects. This core knowledge is critical for our community of students, alumni, venture capital and private equity professionals, as well as high-tech, biotech university entrepreneurs.

Associates

Every year, the center selects MBA and undergraduate student associates who participate in the center’s initiatives, take leadership roles in its activities and receive mentoring.

Theodore Ake

  • MBA Candidate, Class of 2017

Jonathan Arias

  • JD Candidate, Class of 2016

Matt Baas

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2018

Mike O’ Boyle

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2017

Shawn Desai

  • JD/MBA Candidate, Class of 2017

Joseph Domenico

  • JD/MBA Candidate, Class of 2016

Nydia Hawala

  • Humphrey Fellow 2017

Alex Hus

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2017

Piyush Jangam

  • MBA Candidate, Class of 2016

Blake Lamb

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2018

Carly Mach

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2017

Krish Mehta

  • MBA Candidate, Class of 2019

Michael Minkus

  • MBA Candidate, Class of 2020

Chris Mulligan

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2018

Samarth Mungali

  • MBA Candidate, Class of 2018

Eric Preston

  • JD/MBA Candidate, Class of 2019

David Rader

  • JD Candidate, Class of 2016

Paul Robertson

  • JD/MBA Candidate, Class of 2016

Zhouxiaoxiong (Alex) Qi

  • Undergraduate, Class of 2017
Matthew Bass headshot

Matthew Bass

From an Associate

I am a senior finance major and economics minor. This past summer I interned in the investment banking group at Stout, based in Chicago. In this capacity, I was placed on the deal team for the divestiture of a non-core subsidiary of a publicly traded company. In this capacity I developed marketing materials, performed industry analysis and prepared extensive buyer research. I also staffed on several pitches to secure new clients.

Since I have joined the Center for Venture Capital, Private Equity and Entrepreneurial Finance, I have been involved in research involving private equity firms’ investment strategy. I have also had the chance to attend seminars given by private equity and venture capital professionals, as well as serial entrepreneurs. These events were incredibly informative and enhanced my understanding of the industry. The knowledge that I built through the CVCPEEF assisted me in my internship through a greater understanding of private equity investment strategy and implementation. An example includes one of the pitches that I staffed on this summer. I performed research on large private equity firms that had done convertible preferred deals in the past. I analyzed the deal terms and other rationale behind the deals so we could better promote our pitch to the prospective client.

The center has also encouraged me in my own entrepreneurial ventures. I am the founder of a discounted-commission business brokerage firm for small businesses, River City Partners. Through the network of connections that I developed through the CVCPEEF, I have been able to gain valuable advice regarding how to best position and grow the business.

Engaging in outreach and collaboration

We actively collaborate with similar entrepreneurship and venture capital centers at our peer institutions across the United States and around the world for research, teaching and outreach activities.

We reach out to build mutually beneficial relationships:

  • MSU alumni entrepreneurs
  • Venture capital and private equity professionals
  • Michigan and Midwest entrepreneurs
  • Venture capital and private equity firms
  • Service providers
  • Entrepreneurship-focused programs and entities at MSU

Advisory Board

The center has a 20+ member advisory board of distinguished professionals, serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and private equity professionals.

Jonathan Adamsky

  • Senior VP of Wealth Management, UBS

Kelly Ford Buckley

  • General Partner, Edison Partners

Ralph Carmichael

  • CEO and Founder, Bonwrx

Michael Finn

  • President, Foxen Advisors

Jim Forrest

  • Chairman, Shore Capital Partners

Christine Gibbons

  • Independent Consultant

Matthew Growney

  • Founder and Managing Director, Rudyard Partners

James Hill

  • Vice-President, First Trust Capital Partners

Suyash Jain

  • Senior Manager of Corporate Development, Synopsys Inc.

Scott Lanard

  • Head of Android Partner Finance, Google

Reuben Levinsohn

  • Founder, Washington Avenue Advisors

Richard Lodge

  • Chief Investment Officer/Treasurer, Stage Capital, LLC

Merritt Lutz

  • CEO, FinRisk Technologies

Fed Matteson

  • Managing Director, Alvarez and Marsal

Brandon Montes

  • Development and Engineering Business Controller, ASML

Tom Nastas

  • Founder and President, Innovative Ventures

Vince Nystrom

  • Partner, Renaissance Venture Fund

Jim Plonka

  • CEO (retired), Michigan Molecular Institute

David Rader

  • Deputy Director at Office of the Secretary of Defense

Nandhini Rangan

  • Learning Solution Lead, Google

Ryan Rathman

  • Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Markets, Michigan Department of Treasury

Manoj Saxena

  • Chairman, CognitiveScale
  • First GM of IBM Watson, IBM

David Smith

  • Angel Investor

Chris Sugden

  • Managing Partner and Chairman, Edison Partners

Todd Webber

  • Director, Technology Group, Quantum Ventures

Eric Worley

  • Principal, Platinum Equity

Finance @ Broad


Beaumont Tower surrounded by trees in the winter with snow on the ground.
Alumnus Shea Bryant shares his journey in leading the yearly financial reporting at Michigan State.
Irene Treter speaking at the Broad College of Business.
Broad alumna Irene Treter shares her insights on Dow’s evolution and how she climbed the corporate ladder.
Group photo of CVCPEEF associates in a wood-paneled room.

Contact Information