Bill Taranto, who has been president of US-based pharmaceutical group Merck & Co’s corporate venture capital (CVC) fund since 2010, spoke with James Mawson, editor-in-chief of Global Corporate Venturing, on what longevity means for a CVC unit.
A GCV Powerlist mainstay who came in seventh last year, Taranto has been managing Merck & Co’s $500m evergreen fund called Global Health Innovation Fund (GHI) since its inception.
Echoing the words of this year’s Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Summit co-chair, JetBlue Technology Ventures’ Bonny Simi, Taranto said talent acquisition and retention were crucial for a CVC fund’s survival.
“We are structured independently [from the parent organisation], so there is a lot of creativity and the team enjoys building things,” he said. Though the corporate parent was ultimately responsible for tackling this issue, GHI offered training and continuous education for the team members.
Taranto continued: “I am fortunate to have a team that has suffered little change for the past 10 years – that is really a success.”
He added that for an evergreen fund such as GHI that needed to be self-efficient, he liked to ensure smooth and effective communication with the parent company. “For both strategic and financial goals, the corporate organisation has to be involved,” he concluded.
