July 2004

As a child growing up in New York City, VPP investor Art Marks had a ringside seat watching the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. His father had invented a manufacturing process that he turned into a highly successful company that later went public. Along the way, Art came to understand the journey that each entrepreneur takes, their motivations and drive, the challenges they face, and the kind of assistance and resources they need to be successful. That knowledge has been invaluable in Art’s career as a venture capitalist where he is known for his savvy investment decisions as well as his skill in developing entrepreneurs.

Art is a founder and general partner of Valhalla Partners, a Vienna, Virginia-based venture capital firm with $177 million under management and specializing in early stage IT companies. Prior to starting Valhalla Partners in 2002, he spent 18 years at venture capital behemoth New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

Despite his early introduction to entrepreneurship, a career in business was not a foregone conclusion. In fact, Art initially thought he wanted to be a veterinarian. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Israel living on a kibbutz and working at the Tel Aviv zoo. He quickly realized that veterinary medicine was not for him. He came back to the states and enrolled at the University of Michigan where he studied bioengineering.

His college years coincided with the Civil Rights movement, in which he became very active. With five other students, Art participated in protests in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama, an experience that he says changed his life.

“It opened my eyes that things were not so simple. I saw white people on horses hitting people and I also saw white people, who I thought were the bad guys, helping people out. It made me see the shades of gray and try to avoid polarization.” He also had the opportunity to meet Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his eyes lit up as he described Dr. King’s ability to inspire people.

After college, Art went on to Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He decided to go into health care as he saw it as a chance to do well and do good. His first position was at Baxter Laboratories as assistant to then president Bill Graham. Graham sent Art to a company in Silver Spring that Baxter had recently acquired that made heating elements. With Art’s guidance, they reconfigured the product line and turned what had been a losing company into a winner. Art went on to hold a number of senior positions in marketing, sales, and finance at Baxter Laboratories. His success at Baxter caught the eye of General Electric recruiters. After interviewing with legendary Jack Welch, Art says his view of GE as a stodgy, bureaucratic company changed and he decided to join GE. “Welch was both strategic and operational. How you think about solving problems was valued and achievement was rewarded.”

At GE Medical, Art helped to market GE’s CT Scanner and ran the X-Ray products business. In 1979, he moved to GE Information Services in Rockville, MD, where he was senior vice president and president of the software products operation (GE Information Services).

In 1984, he decided to go into the venture business, joining New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as a general partner with the launch of NEA III.

“It was a dramatic time to be in venture capital—we had seven years of poor returns followed by 10 years of great returns and then one to two years of trauma,” he says.

Art likens his work as a venture capitalist as a kind of “travel guide,” helping entrepreneurs on their journey to fulfill their goals. And that similar approach—guiding social entrepreneurs to their goals—is what attracted Art to VPP.

He first met Mario Morino in the early 1990s while doing some due diligence on Peter Barris whom Art recruited to NEA and who is also a VPP investor. Art and Mario subsequently have become good friends and served together on the Board of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association (MAVA).

“With VPP, Mario offered an interesting approach to philanthropy and a thoughtful and thorough process,” he said. “I liked the idea of investing in a few organizations and applying the best practices of venture. It’s a working experiment that I am happy to be part of.”

As far as his own philanthropy, Art says it continues to evolve. He and his wife, Nancy Casey, are very interested in education, especially in supporting ways to develop good teachers. They actively support the Maret School where their two younger children attend, as well as Harvard Business School, two institutions that have made a huge difference in their lives.

Nancy and Art form an unusual partnership. Art met Nancy when she was in the venture business. Nancy is also in the money management business and manages a fund that invests in publicly held emerging growth companies. While they don’t always agree, we’ve heard their dinner conversations are always lively. Art and Nancy both believe the best way to give back and to make the Washington region a better place for everyone is to focus on helping all children secure a viable and broad education.

He is pleased that his children are also finding ways to give back. His oldest son, Josh, launched a new venture in 2002, Goldstar Network LLC, which provides business and financial services consulting for charter schools. The effort combines his entrepreneurial spirit with the strong sense of social justice that seems to run in the family. As for his younger children, Art says he is delighted that their classes at Maret take social responsibilities seriously.