I attended the NACD Colorado monthly event today in Denver. It was moderated by Mike Platt of Cooley Godward (one of my primary attorneys) and was a good moderated panel discussion on "Board issues dealing with VC directors." The board had an entrepreneur (Jim Lejeal - CEO of Oxlo), a VC (Don Parsons - Appian Ventures), and a VC general counsel (Jason Mendelson - Mobius Venture Capital) on it. Jim, Don, and Jason put on a good show.

Jim and Mike originally founded an organization called the Colorado Directors Guild several years ago. Their insight and impetus for starting this was to try to build a peer-community of directors for entrepreneurial companies - especially as stuff like Sarbanes Oxley started to put a lot more focus on the care, duties, and responsibilities of directors of companies - both public and private. A year ago, they merged it into NACD which is a well-established national organization with a similar mission.

I've been a member / advisor of both the Colorado Directors Guild and the NACD and strongly endorse what the NACD is up to. If you are a director of a company or are interested in becoming a director, I recommend you take a look at NACD's programs and consider becoming a member.

Posted in: Venture Capital