Mark A. Grovic
General Partner
mgrovic@newmarketsfund.com

Mark is the Managing Director and a Co-Founder of New Markets Venture Partners. He has over 15 years of successful venture experience as Director of the Baltic Equity Fund, Co-Founder of the Templeton Emerging Europe Fund, and Portfolio Manager of Private Equities at the Calvert Group. He is the Venture Capitalist in Residence and a Professor of Venture Capital and Ethics at the Business School at the University of Maryland. Mark is the lead partner for Lightningcast, Innovative Biosensors, Bioset, Artifact, Paratek, and LeukoSight, Vision Chain and Aldagen. Mark serves or served on the Board of Directors for Lightningcast (sold to NYSE: TWX), Artifact Software, Innovative Biosensors, and LeukoSight. Mark also serves as a Board observer for BioSET, Paratek, Vision Chain and Aldagen.

Mark currently sits on the Investment Committee for the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), NSF’s SBIR Investment Committee, MAVA Capital Connection Selection Committee, MAVA AlphaTech Selection Committee, UMCP Inventor of the Year Selection Committee, the NASA Goddard/UMCP Technology Transfer Initiative, the Business Review Panel for UMCP’s Technology Advancement Program (TAP) Incubator, and the Incubator Company of the Year Award Committee. Mark also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, targeting at-risk youth in public high schools.

While co-founding the NMVP, Mark was the Deputy Director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the UMCP Business School between 2001 and 2003, Mark directed the Center’s staff of 15 professionals, created and managed a successful University wide program in Technology Commercialization, launched the Capital Access Angel Network, and oversaw a 10 times increase in service revenues to the Center. In 2004, Mark received the US Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship National Outstanding Course Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship in Education. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Howard’s Business School from 2000-2002, and was voted the “Teacher of the Year” in 2002.

Previously, Mark was with the Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF), an emerging market venture capital company, most recently as its Portfolio Manager. SEAF manages $200 million in small business equity investment funds operating in a total of 10 countries, with over 150 portfolio companies. Mark was based in Tallinn, Estonia from 1997 to 1999 as Director of the Baltic Small Equity Fund, managed by SEAF, where he sat on the Board of Directors of ten of his portfolio companies in industries such as software, biotechnology, medical equipment, distribution, and light manufacturing.

From 1995 to 1997 Mark was Co-Founder of the Templeton Emerging Europe Fund, a $60 million Central European private equity fund, and a Principal of the Fund Manager, Templeton Direct Advisors, a wholly owned direct investment subsidiary of the $150 billion Franklin Templeton Group. From 1993 to 1995, Mark was the Associate Portfolio Manager of Private Equities at the Calvert Group, a $10 billion socially responsible mutual fund, investing in private companies in the healthcare, education, and environmental technology industries.

Mark graduated with Honors from the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in international politics and economics. Mark received a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center, where his focus was in international, tax, and corporate law. Mark has also completed graduate work in accounting and finance at the George Washington University School of Business and Public Management and Pace University. Mark is married with two children.