Mark J. DeNino

Mark joined TL in 1994. Mark’s venture capital experience began in 1981, when he helped launch a biomass venture backed by General Electric’s venture capital group (now Canaan Partners) using technology developed at the University of Pennsylvania. At the time Mark started working with Bob Keith, then a senior executive at Fidelity Bank (now Wells Fargo). He followed that start-up by joining Ecogen, a Princeton-based microbial pesticide venture funded by Domain and Vista Ventures that later went public. In 1986, Mark joined Fidelity Bank to start-up and lead a corporate finance activity. While at Fidelity, Mark and Bob invested bank capital as a limited partner in numerous private equity funds. Together, they also helped create an S.B.I.C., Fidelcor Capital, to invest in early-stage technology companies. Mark’s investment interests are varied and run the gamut from software to business services to communications and energy. He has served on 46 public and private company boards. Mark has also been responsible for TL’s participation in the Kauffman Fellows program and, with Anthony Chang, developing an effective network in Asia to assist TL portfolio companies source and sell products there. Recognizing long ago that the energy and utility industries were ripe for early-stage investing capable of generating venture-type returns, Mark established an affiliated private equity activity targeting those markets specifically. This effort culminated with the formation of EnerTech Capital in 1996, one of the very first energy focused funds. Likewise, Mark led a group of TL colleagues as founding investors in Peak6, a highly successful options trading firm in Chicago. More recently, Mark led the launch of a mezzanine lending activity known as Penn Mezzanine Partners. Penn Mezz targets credit-worthy borrowers with revenue under $100 million in the Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic region. Mark is the co-author of a 1983 Harvard Business Review article, “When Corporate Venture Capital Doesn’t Work.” He graduated with a BS degree from Boston College and an MBA degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.