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Board of Directors

Board members serve one-year, renewable terms. New board members elected in 2008 are Lawrence Chavez, Flywheel Ventures; Sally Corning, Sun Mountain Capital; and Moritz Schlenzig, Mesa Capital Partners.

Stephaine Spong

Stephanie R. Spong
NMVCA President
Principal, EPIC Ventures

Stephanie Spong heads up the New Mexico office of EPIC Ventures, where she evaluates investment opportunities in New Mexico and the Southwestern/Rocky Mountain region, participates in community outreach events to assist New Mexico entrepreneurs and represents EPIC on portfolio companies. She brings experience in strategic management consulting, new product development and commercialization, energy, internet services and investment banking. More Info»

Sally Corning

Sally Corning
NMVCA Vice President
Partner, Sun Mountain Capital

Sally Corning has over 20 years experience in evaluating investment opportunities, conducting due diligence, structuring transactions and raising equity and debt capital in both the public and private markets. Prior to joining Sun Mountain, Corning was a Principal in a family company, Corning Enterprises, where she invested in private equity opportunities primarily in real estate and oil and gas partnerships. More Info»

Lawrence Chavez

Lawrence Chavez
NMVCA Secretary
Associate, Flywheel Ventures

Lawrence Chavez joined Flywheel as an Associate via the Flywheel Fellows Program in 2007. He has over 17 years of finance, operations management and strategic marketing experience in a variety of entrepreneurial businesses and three years as an active angel investor in New Mexico-based companies. At Flywheel, Chavez has principal responsibility for managing Flywheel's New Mexico Gap Fund which provides seed funding of up to $100,000 for promising ventures. More Info»

Thomas J. Stephenson

Thomas J. Stephenson
NMVCA Treasurer and Statistics
Partner, Verge Fund

Tom Stephenson was a General Partner of various funds of Murphree Venture Partners before co-founding Verge Fund in the Spring of 2003. He joined Murphree Venture Partners in 1997 to open their New Mexico office after serving as the Director of Education and Research for the Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a world-recognized leader in fostering the development of high-technology start-up companies. More Info»

Richard Harding

Richard Harding
Board Member, Communications
General Partner, International Venture Fund

Richard Harding is a General Partner with the Silicon Valley based venture capital firm International Venture Fund I. IVF I is a seed and early stage Venture Capital group with investments in California, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, and New Mexico. Harding has been actively involved in technology commercialization at the University of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. More Info»

Moritz P. Schlenzig

Moritz P. Schlenzig
Board Member, Legislative Outreach
Partner, Mesa Capital Partners

Moritz Schlenzig has more than 15 years of senior management and strategy consulting experience in the U.S. and Europe. Schlenzig served as President of dotdeliver, a venture-backed third party logistics provider. Previously, he was a Partner at Mitchell Madison Group, a global strategy consulting firm, which was acquired by USWeb/CKS in 1999. More Info»

Francine Sommer

Francine Sommer
Board Member, Programs and Outreach
Special General Partner, Village Ventures

Francine Sommer was formerly co-Founder & General Partner of Gabelli Multimedia Partners, a new media venture capital fund; Senior Vice President of the Angel™ Funds Group, Wit Capital; Managing Director, First Security Management, a value oriented hedge fund; President of 655 Associates, a Gabelli & Co. venture portfolio turnaround and Vice President, Research & Science Investors, a venture capital firm. More Info»