Rimas Kapeskas joined postal delivery company UPS’s corporate venturing unit as managing director in 2012.
Kapeskas said in an interview for last year’s Powerlist™: “I have been with UPS for a number of years. I came out of the product research and development group, where we develop products in-house. It has been an interesting transition moving over to the corporate venturing side. You go through the same steps trying to launch a new product internally as start-ups go through. You need to go shopping for internal support and funding. There are a lot of parallels.”
He added: “The biggest shift is, before my taking over, all investments were in the US. When I took over the mandate, we decided to look more broadly globally. The dynamics of business mean distances are shrinking with improved telecommunications. There is also a growing consumer class globally, so we want to learn about the dynamics of changes globally, not just the US.”
Last month, UPS backed a $3.2m round for European logistics company Shutl to help it expand in the US.
Kapeskas gained his MBA from Emory University and also studied at University of Connecticut