Veteran medical device executive James Mazzo will bring his “operational guy” perspective to startup companies in Orange County and beyond in his latest role.
Versant Ventures recently appointed him as the first operating partner in the history of the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm.
Mazzo will work out of Versant’s office in Newport Beach, with three key areas of focus on the healthcare market: patient needs; new technology; and investment opportunities.
The move to Versant follows Mazzo’s retirement as president of Abbott Medical Optics, a Santa Ana-based diversified eye unit of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago, late last year.
Mazzo had been with the company going back to its days as part of Irvine-based Allergan Inc. He led its 2002 spinoff into what was Advanced Medical Optics Inc. and oversaw its sale to Abbott Laboratories for $2.8 billion in 2009.
AcuFocus
His duties as operational partner of Versant follow a return to the executive ranks of the medical device industry, where he serves as executive chairman and chief executive of AcuFocus Inc., an Irvine-based Versant portfolio company that makes the Kamra corneal inlay to treat near-vision loss. He’s also slated to become executive chairman of a yet-to-be-determined Versant portfolio company in coming weeks.
“I like to operate, I like to run things, I like to develop teams, put businesses together,” Mazzo said.
“I’ll be the first operating partner” and “creating that first-time ever operating role was very intriguing for me as well,” he added.
Mazzo said he will sit down with Newport Beach-based Managing Partner William Link and other Versant partners in the coming weeks to further define his role.
“I know them very well, obviously, with Bill Link and Charles Warden,” Mazzo said of two of Versant’s Newport Beach-based partners. “I’m an operational guy—I’m able to come in, look at entities, be able to identify where our strengths and weaknesses are [to] be able to operate the way we want and put management teams in place.”
Link and Mazzo had discussions about the latter’s future after Mazzo’s retirement from Abbott Medical, “and since he’s a very dear friend and colleague, we started to talk about whether there was a potential role at Versant,” Mazzo said.
AdvaMed
Mazzo’s “accomplishments and contribution to the healthcare industry” as a chief executive and past president of Washington, D.C.-based trade group AdvaMed “gives us great confidence in the value he will add to our organization and portfolio companies,” Link said in a statement.
Link, who Mazzo called an “extremely powerful colleague,” is a seminal figure in Orange County’s medical device industry. He’s been an executive, entrepreneur and investor for some four decades.
His influence tracks back to his success as founder of American Medical Optics Inc., which started in 1976 and eventually evolved into Abbott Medical Optics. Link also founded Chiron Vision Corp., which he sold to Rochester, N.Y.-based diversified eye company Bausch & Lomb Inc. in 1997.
Link also served as a director of AMO in its Advanced Medical Optics phase.
Link said Mazzo’s arrival at Versant is not connected to the recent establishment of Newport Beach-based “lifestyle medicine” company Alphaeon Corp. Link has signed on a chairman of Alphaeon.
Versant has no financial stake in the recently formed company, Link recently said.
“Operating Partner”
The operating partner title that Mazzo has taken with Versant is becoming more common in venture capital, said Emily Mendell, spokesperson for Arlington, Va.-based trade group National Venture Capital Association.
Having partners that have a “vertical skill set that can be applied throughout the portfolio” can be an advantage in the process of seeking investments, Mendell said.
Global Basis
Versant’s investments in medical device sectors beyond ophthalmology were attractive to Mazzo.
“It’s a global basis, so I can help develop their entities and look for other opportunities for Versant,” Mazzo said.
Mazzo’s new job comes as he faces civil insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which alleges that he was a source of illegal tips regarding the sale of Advanced Medical to Abbott.
Mazzo, who declined to comment on the SEC matter, has denied the charges and requested a jury trial.
U.S. District Court papers filed last month indicate that a settlement that would avoid a trial altogether is likely.
