Bio Clare J. Fairfield

Clare J. Fairfield has over 20 years of entrepreneurial management and business development experience, including founding and managing businesses, venture capital investing, designing and delivering entrepreneurial and venture capital educational programs and providing legal advice to start-up and existing companies. Mr. Fairfield was instrumental in the development of a nationally recognized university entrepreneurial program before leading the development of venture groups.

Mr. Fairfield is the Executive Managing Director of Concerto Advisors, Inc., a venture development advisory firm; a founding General Partner and the Executive Managing Director of Concerto Venture Partners, a diversified, early-stage focused venture firm; a current General Partner and past Managing Director of AAVIN Venture Capital, a sector and stage diversified venture capital/private equity fund; and, President of Strategic Growth Resources, Inc., a consortium of venture capital and private equity investors focused on identifying and funding specific business acquisitions. Within these firms Mr. Fairfield’s responsibilities included and include: fund raising; sourcing deal flow; negotiating the acquisition, financing and disposition of portfolio investments; sitting on the boards of individual portfolio companies and overseeing their growth; managing staffing needs and making compensation decisions; and making portfolio investment determinations as an investment committee member.
From 1996 through 1998, Mr. Fairfield served as founding Associate Director of the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Iowa where he designed curriculum, taught classes, established a state-wide network of entrepreneurial education in partnership with the 15 community colleges located in Iowa, worked with the Kauffman Foundation to establish and fund entrepreneurial educational programs for K-12 students and designed and taught classes in a distance learning environment utilizing the Iowa Communications Network. Since 1998, the Iowa Program has been ranked as one of the top 35 entrepreneurial programs in the country. The Iowa program was the first program in the nation to offer an Engineering Certificate in Entrepreneurship. From 1989 through 1993 Mr. Fairfield practiced business and tax law while overseeing the operation of the tax department of Davis & Kuelthau, S.C., a full-service private law firm headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From 1986 through 1989 Mr. Fairfield was associated with the law firm of Stanley, Lande & Hunter, P.C, where he provided services to clients ranging from start-up ventures to Fortune 500 companies. Since 1983, Mr. Fairfield has been involved with the start-up, acquisition and/or development of companies in the communications, information technology, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, medical device, software, construction and real estate industries.
Mr. Fairfield serves as Chairman of the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC) Education Committee and Chairs the Venture Capital Institute, the primary venture industry educational organization in the world for the last thirty years. In his capacity as Chairman of the Venture Capital Institute, Mr. Fairfield oversaw a major revision of the Institute curriculum and managed the design and implementation of the first professional development program designed specifically for Small Business Investment Company CFO’s.

Mr. Fairfield is a member of the National Venture Capital Association, the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC), the Regional Association of Small Business Investment Companies, and the Wisconsin Bar Association. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of NASBIC, is Chairman of the NASBIC Education Committee and is a past member of the Executive Committee of NASBIC. Mr. Fairfield has frequently served as a judge and as chairman of the selection panel for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Program. He serves as a member of the Venture Capital Commercialization Review Panel for the National Science Foundation, was a charter member of the MidAmerica Healthcare Investor Network and is Co-Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum Committee on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems. Mr. Fairfield has been designated to found the first multi-state chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum. He is a frequent regional, national and international speaker on the topics of innovation and venture capital.

Mr. Fairfield received a BBA in Accounting, JD, and MBA from the University of Iowa. While at the University of Iowa, he was designated a Tippie Scholar, a School of Accounting Faculty Scholar, a University of Iowa Undergraduate Scholar, a College of Law Scholar and was a College of Business Rhodes Scholarship Nominee and a Hancher-Finkbine Medallion Nominee. In 1997, he was named a Price-Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Babson College in Boston.
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