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Paul R. DiBella
pd@cordovaventures.com

Paul has been a partner with Cordova Ventures since 1991. During his career at Cordova, he has been instrumental in the creation, development and management of Cordova’s private company and real estate investment funds. Paul has been involved in investments in more than 70 privately-held companies, including Ecovation (sold to EcoLAb), ConstructWare (sold to Autodesk), Tissue Products Technologies Corp. (sold to ST Paper), RealCom Communications (sold to MFI-WorldCom), Horizon Medical (IPO), National Action Financial Services (sale), Accipeter (sale to CMGI), Lynk Systems (sold to Royal Bank of Scotland), Atherogenics (IPO) and Inhibitex (IPO).

In 1999, Paul created and founded Industrial Technology Ventures, L.P. (ITV). In 2002, he formed Stonebridge Advisors to serve as a manager to ITV and to manage other private equity and alternative asset partnerships. ITV was one of the first investment funds to focus solely on growth companies with innovative technologies for core industries, areas that others are recognizing today through “cleantech” and “sustainable future” investment initiatives. Target industries for ITV included advanced materials/chemicals, transportation/logistics, water/resource recovery, food/food processing, energy/power generation, electronics, and general manufacturing. Paul currently serves as a board member of ASPEX, Inc. (Delmont, PA), Axonn, LLC (Covington, LA), and was ITV’s initial board member for Ecovation, Inc. (Rochester, NY), Five Star Technologies Corp. (Cleveland, OH), SkyBitz, Inc. (Sterling, VA), EcoSmart Technologies, Inc. (Alpharetta, GA), DemandPoint Systems, Inc. (Englewood, CO) and Hartford Steel Technologies, LLC (Hartford, CT). ITV exits to date include Tissue Products Technology Corp. (Green Bay, WI, acquired by ST Paper) and ConstructWare (Alpharetta, GA acquired by Autodesk). Two of ITV’s portfolio companies were recently named to the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America list. Paul continues to serve as the Managing Director of ITV, which is tracking for top decile performance among funds of similar vintage. Paul also continues to serve on the board of Cordova.

Throughout his private equity career, Paul has concentrated on technology-based growth companies. He is a named inventor on four industrial waste recovery process patents, all of which were used successfully in commercial operations in the 1990s. Paul also has successful operating experience, serving as president of a portfolio company where he headed strategy and operations. He has also helped portfolio companies raise over $200 million from industry partners and other investors. Paul has also been a key managing member of Cordova’s balanced growth funds, each of which achieved top quartile performance.

Before joining Cordova, Paul was a practicing attorney concentrating primarily in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporation finance and securities. He began his legal career in Atlanta with Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy LLP. Before attending law school, Paul worked for Shearson American Express and Paine Webber as a financial advisor. In the early 1980s, he was an SEC Registered Investment Advisor and maintained Series 7 and Series 63 securities licenses.

Paul is a 1986 cum laude (top 6% of his class) graduate of the University of Miami School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review, the International Law Review and the Moot Court Board. In 1986, Paul was the lead author of a University of Miami Law Review article on the constitutional right to privacy, an article cited continually in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in one of the most followed cases in history on the issue of privacy rights (Hardwick v. Bowers). Following graduation, Paul was selected to the Order of the Coif, the nation’s leading legal honor society. Paul holds an undergraduate degree in finance from The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York.

 

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