Sequoia Partner Mark Kvamme To Run Ohio's Department Of Development

Sequoia Capital partner Mark Kvamme is leaving the firm in a full time role to become the director of the Ohio Department of Development, where he will focus on driving Ohio’s economic growth. He was appointed by incoming governor John Kasich.

Kvamme joined Sequoia in 1999 and led early investments in LinkedIn, MarkLogic, Funny or Die, StrongMail and CastIron Systems (acquired by IBM). Prior to joining Sequoia he was CEO of advertising agency CKS Group.

Kvamme says he has big ideas about driving economic growth, noting that there aren’t a lot of people in government today with good business acumen. “Decisions are made with billions of dollars that lead to unsustainable solutions,” he said by phone yesterday. “I want to get Ohio back on track and drive people and businesses to the state.”

He says he has a specific blueprint for change that he’ll be sharing in the next few weeks. Sequoia is naming him their first “Special Limited Partner” and he will continue in a limited role with the firm.

Kvamme was also an early champion of UJAM, which placed second in the TechCrunch Disrupt: New York startup battlefield competition.

Crunchbase

• MARK KVAMME
• SEQUOIA CAPITAL

Person: Mark Kvamme

Companies: Sequoia Capital, Funny Or Die, SearchMe, LinkedIn, PopularMedia, imeem, UJAM, adBrite, Macromedia

Mark Kvamme is a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital focusing on enterprise data management software and consumer media and advertising services investments. Kvamme currently sits on the boards of AdBrite, Cast Iron Systems, Funny or Die Inc, imeem, LinkedIn, MarkLogic, Motosports, Popular Media, and Searchme.com, and Strongmail. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 1999, Mark was Chairman of USWeb/CKS and Chairman and CEO of CKS Group prior to the merger with USWeb. Earlier in his career Mark was a Director...

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Financial-organization: Sequoia Capital

Website: sequoiacap.com

Launch Date: November 1972

Sequoia Capital is a venture capital firm founded by Don Valentine in 1972. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital “one of the highest-caliber venture firms” and noted that it is “one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture-capital firms”. It invests between $100,000 and $1 million in seed stage, between $1 million and $10 million in early stage, and between $10 million and $100 million in growth stage. The firm has offices in the U.S., China, India and...

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