George Ugras replaced Claudia Fan Munce as head of US-listed technology provider IBM’s corporate venturing unit after she announced her retirement from IBM at the end of January during the Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit.
For the Powerlist award, his CEO, Ginni Rometty, said: “IBM Ventures is essential to how we engage entrepreneurs and developers who are building innovative applications and technologies for cognitive solutions and cloud platforms. I am delighted to have George leading our efforts to amplify this essential component of IBM’s strategy.”
Ugras’s career in the venture capital arena started at Apax Partners in New York, where he invested in early-stage technology companies, he subsequently moved to Silicon Valley and was a partner at Adams Capital Management, where he funded, helped launch and run a number of companies in the enterprise sector.
He recently launched life sciences company CyteGen, funded by Thiel’s Breakout Labs, which is tackling neurodegenerative diseases. Ugras has been a formal and informal adviser to a number of incubators, startups, corporate and financial venture funds.
Ugras said: “I have been engaged with the corporate venturing community for many years and have seen it evolve to become a significant element in almost every corporations innovation agenda and a larger player in the venture landscape overall.
“Now I am delighted to join the group as a full participant and look forward to contributing to increase its relevance for startups as well as corporate sponsors. IBM Ventures will become one of the pillars of our broader innovation agenda to further our corporate priorities. You will see us engage with our clients on their innovation agendas more closely, bring in more startups, developers and entrepreneurs into our platforms. Our team will leverage IBM’s world-class research assets and our global reach to engage with this ecosystem.”