Alan Patricof is cofounder of Apax Partners, Inc. (formerly Patricof & Co. Ventures, Inc.). Alan founded the firm at a time when venture capital was at an incipient stage and has been instrumental in growing the industry from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing.

Alan has helped build several major global companies and was instrumental in the start-up, financing, and subsequent strategic guidance that helped facilitate the growth of companies such as America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Apple Computer, FORE Systems, NTL, Audible, Inc. He was a founder and chairman of the board of NewYork magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine.

In addition to setting himself apart as a successful investor and fundraiser, Alan has been an untiring advocate of the VC industry in the United States and worldwide. He played a key role in the more important legislative initiatives, including the definitive Plan Asset Regulation that set the basis for all future institutional participation in investment partnerships. Outside of venture capital, he has also been involved in efforts to achieve securities litigation reform and capital gains tax reduction.

In the philanthropic arena, Alan is currently a board member of TechnoServe, the Trickle Up Program, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), and the Global Advisory Board of Endeavor Inc.

Alan has applied the disciplines of a thirty-plus year career in private equity to address social inequities in the developing world, and over the past several years he has traveled extensively in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In that connection, he serves as an advisor to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the commercial arm of the World Bank. He was selected to be a member of the UNDP Commission on Private Sector & Development, and as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he sits on the African Policy Board. Alan was also vice chairman of the Commission on Financing Capital Flows to Africa sponsored by the Corporate Council on Africa, the Institute for International Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has participated in the “Big Table” meeting of finance ministers under the auspices of the Commission for Africa (CFA), which is part of the United Nations.

Alan is very active in the New York community as a board member of both the New York Small Business Venture Fund and New Jobs for New York Association. He also serves on the board of trustees of Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

He has written extensively on venture capital and on challenges in the developing world. Most recently he has had several Op-Eds appear in the Financial Times, and a thought piece on private-sector involvement in the developing world appeared in the April 2005 issue of the Milken Institute Journal.

Alan holds a BS in finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

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