West Virginia Venture Connection Names
Paul W. Helmick Acting Executive Director
Charleston, WV – September 24, 2004 .pdf of original release
West Virginia Venture Connection, Inc. (WVVC) announced today that Paul W. Helmick will be serving as Acting Executive Director.
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV provided the foundation for the WVVC in early 1999 by bringing together a group of business leaders in the state to discuss what it would take to revitalize our economy and create growth and innovation. The WVVC is a direct result of those meetings and discussions and the hard work of many dedicated business leaders. In May 2004 at the WVVC’s Launch Event, Dr. Charles Vest, a Morgantown native, WVU graduate and President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), discussed the importance of entrepreneurism with over 100 business leaders at the Clay Center in Charleston. The WVVC has since conducted a search for an executive director. Paul Helmick, a native West Virginian and serial entrepreneur, has been selected to serve in this leadership role.
The West Virginia Venture Connection, Inc. is a non-profit West Virginia organization with a membership comprised of venture capitalists, bankers, attorneys, accountants and other service providers. The primary objective of the WVVC is to expand venture capital and angel investment activity in West Virginia. WVVC accomplishes this through educating entrepreneurs, investors and service providers, and by providing networking activities for members. WVVC does not review business plans or ideas, but helps entrepreneurs and capitalists to find each other to undertake successful investments.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to serve in this new role” said Mr. Helmick. “The opportunity to create connections between the entrepreneur and capital communities and to help business start, grow and prosper in West Virgina has never been greater. Helping the WVVC in this mission is a perfect fit with my own experiences in business.”
Paul Helmick is currently the CEO of Premier Strategies, LLC and serves as the firm’s principal business broker and management consultant. For the past 10 years he has managed a number of high-growth, high-technology businesses and been involved in numerous mergers and acquisitions. As a seasoned entrepreneur, Mr. Helmick is most known as a co-founder of CityNet, West Virginia’s largest Internet Service Provider. As the President & CEO, Mr. Helmick led his team of founders and venture capital partners through conception, startup, and expansion of the business, as well as a completed sale of the company in just three years. CityNet has continued to grow through acquisitions and now serves clients and provides services nationwide. Mr. Helmick has also served as President & CEO of a large regional network integration firm with close to 100 employees. The CornerStone Technology Group designed, implemented and supported several multi-million dollar information technology projects in West Virginia for major clients in healthcare, government, law, insurance and banking where they helped clients use technology to improve their businesses productivity and profitability.
Eric Lewis, Executive Director of Walker Ventures and Chairman of the Board for the WVVC said, “Paul has a record and reputation of being committed to the growth and success of businesses in West Virginia. His experience with high-growth startups and venture capital, as well as his relationships statewide, gave us great confidence in asking him to lead this initiative.”
Mr. Helmick has served on the state board of the West Virginia Entrepreneurs Forum, has helped plan the WV Conference on Entrepreneurship, serves on the board of the Charleston YMCA and has served as treasurer, as well as a member, of the Mountain State Chapter of Young President’s Organization International (YPO). Mr. Helmick has also been very active in economic development with work on West Virginia: A Vision Shared in planning for the creation of an angel investor network serving West Virginia.
“There is much work to be done. West Virginia entrepreneurs and businesses now have the opportunity to step up and present the capital community with business plans and investment opportunities – venture capitalists are looking for quality deals to invest in and the WVVC will nurture quality deal flow by connecting people with the appropriate resources.” said Eric Lewis. “With the capital available for investment in WV at an all-time high,” said Paul Helmick, “West Virginians need to think big, to think about opportunities that can serve national, even global markets because those are the opportunities that create real growth and attract investment.”
The West Virginia Venture Connection’s objective of expanding venture capital and angel investment activity in West Virginia will be accomplished through several specific activities to include.
Statewide and regional entrepreneur education programs WVVC brings highly informative speakers to educate entrepreneurs, investors and service providers in such subjects as intellectual property issues, venture capital and private equity deal structure, and human resource management.
Statewide and regional venture capital presentation meetings WVVC selects companies seeking venture capital for regular presentations to its venture capital members, providing these companies with unprecedented access to potential investors in West Virginia.
Formal network of angel investors WVVC is working to organize angel investors regionally under one statewide organization, providing them with standard templates and procedures for making angel investments, screening potential companies for angel presentations and providing experience and insight to assist angel investors with their deals.
Quarterly venture capitalist and service provider luncheons WVVC holds quarterly meetings during which the venture capitalist and service provider members can meet to share deal-flow, experience, and ideas to help the WVVC determine how it can most effectively make a difference in West Virginia.
More information can be found at
www.wvvc.org or by
contacting Paul Helmick at paul.helmick@wvvc.org or
800-505-3312 or by contacting Eric Lewis, Chairman, WVVC (304) 876-6037 or
eric@walkerventures.com
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