Dr. Donald (Don) Spero
General Partner
dspero@newmarketsfund.com
Don is a Managing Director and a Co-Founder of New Markets
Venture Partners. He has over 10 years of venture experience
as Co-Founder and Managing Director of New Markets Venture
Partners, directing the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship,
and founder and of Spero Quality Strategies (SQS), a venture
capital fund that provides seed capital and mentoring for
entrepreneurs. During Don’s tenure at the Dingman
Center the program was ranked as the best entrepreneurial
center in the country.
While working for SQS Don took many appointments to corporate
and non-profit boards at the companies which he assisted.
Prior to starting SQS in 1992, Don served for 21 years as
the founder, president and CEO of Fusion Systems Corporation,
which provides high technology manufacturing systems to global
customers in telecommunications, semiconductor, printing,
packaging, automotive and other industries. The company conducted
a successful IPO and was later acquired by Eaton Corporation.
Don directed the development of Fusion’s technology,
business model and operational structure. He led the company’s
global strategy, built the company to over 300 employees,
established 3 global offices, and took an aggressive approach
to protection of intellectual property, on which he published
an article in The Harvard Business Review. Don has since served
as a Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship at UMCP.
Don earned his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics
from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia
University. He did post-doctoral work in Physics at the University
of Maryland, where his research led to the development of
high intensity microwave lamps that became the core technology
for Fusion Systems.
Don is a world class rower, a U. S. national champion several
times over, a member of the U. S. 1964 Olympic team, and he
won the 1966 World Championships in single sculls.
He is married and the proud father of two children.
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