As the winners are harder to pick each year, GCV has split out the Emerging Leaders from the Rising Stars whom have less than five years’ experience and so effectively divided the top 100 into two awards categories.
The industry’s levels of professionalism and standards remain exemplary, set by those who have been fortunate to work over years in the industry.
The number one-ranked Emerging Leader, Kim Armor, joined Comcast Ventures, mass media group Comcast’s corporate venture capital (CVC) affiliate, in March 2011 and concurrently holds managing director and chief financial officer (CFO) roles.
Amy Banse, managing director and head of funds of Comcast Ventures, said in her nomination of Armor: “Kim oversees finance, operations, and strategic partnerships. Kim also leads operations and administration, managing the growth of Comcast Ventures’ presence in Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“Since she joined in 2011, the firm has invested in more than 130 startups during a period of massive change in the venture industry.”
The venture industry overall has invested more than $1 trillion in the past decade, according to data provider Pitchbook, led by the rapid growth and sophistication of corporations and other investor types joining traditional VC funds.
Comcast as with other leaders in the CVC industry, where the top 20% do about 80% of the deals, according to GCV Analytics data, has focused on the elements beyond deal sourcing through data and networking to look at the services and engagement between portfolio company and parent corporation and then exit.
But to be effective still requires strong team building and management skills and many of the Emerging Leaders have been inspired by the qualities of their bosses, who are usually also featured in the GCV Powerlist 100 published in June at the GCV Symposium at a reception at the UK’s House of Commons.
As Armor said: “In 2009, I was selected to participate in a leadership program at Comcast. One prerequisite was to interview a senior leader at the company and that is when I met Amy Banse. She had a strong reputation at the company and I instantly admired her.
“A year later, as the organisation post-NBCUniversal merger was being developed, the talent lead approached me about the opportunity to join Amy in her new role heading up Comcast Ventures. We were both new to venture. Together we explored how to set up a modern operation, driven by data that would be an innovation look-out for the company. We focused on bringing in top talent and building a collaborative culture. I joined Comcast Ventures for the opportunity to build, to learn and to have a challenging and meaningful career where I could see our investments mature over time.”
This has been true for her as for many others in the industry – congratulations to all as well as the others who often narrowly missed out.
About the Emerging Leaders selection process
The process involved researching more than 20,000 industry professionals across more than 2,000 corporate venturing units. GCV was looking for those below the top rank of the venturing hierarchy with more than five years’ experience in the industry based on their deals, career development so far, being an heir apparent or being the glue in the unit.
For both sets of Rising Stars, as well as the longer list of potential candidates and nominations received and examined, the input of their managers was important as nominators and for their feedback on why they, as a Rising Star, are so good.
About Global Corporate Venturing
My thanks to Liwen-Edison Fu for his work on this year’s research and supplement writing, Mark Baker for production and Raksha Santilal for design and Christina Riboldi and her team at CRA for the awards ceremony, sponsored by Intel Capital, and to all the team at GCV for helping to make this happen.
If there is anything other help we can give through our GCV Leadership Society, our GCV Connect communications tool to enable CVC leaders to message peers in the industry privately, our GCV Analytics platform that offers insights as a service by unlocking our proprietary data, the GCV Academy for specialist training at sites around the world, or our magazine and news service, let us know.
Emerging Leaders 2020 Contents
Emerging Leaders 2020 PDF
Profiles by Liwen-Edison Fu, supplements editor
