Former Babson College President, Len Schlesinger Joins Data Point Capital Team

BOSTON, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Point Capital, a venture capital firm focused on companies that can be leveraged and scaled on the internet, today announced the addition of Len Schlesinger as a Special Advisor to the organization. Dr. Schlesinger currently serves as a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and previously served as the President of Babson College. Schlesinger also served as Vice Chairman and COO of Limited Brands (now L Brands), and Executive Vice President and COO of Au Bon Pan. 

"I could not be happier to have Len join our group," said Scott Savitz, Managing Partner of Data Point Capital.  "He is extremely passionate about entrepreneurialism, having authored or co-authored eleven books on the subject as well as serving as the twelfth President of Babson.  He also brings a depth of operating experience that greatly benefits the portfolio companies we work with.  We are lucky to have Len in New England and feel privileged to have him working with us."

Babson College, based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, was recently ranked as the #1 institution for entrepreneurship for both its Undergraduate and Graduate programs by BusinessWeek and U.S. News and World Report. 

"I'm eager to dig in," noted Dr. Schlesinger.  "Scott has put together a wonderful mix of talent and he and his team have proven to have strong investing acumen with a portfolio of very compelling companies.  I look forward to providing as much value as possible and being a part of Data Point Capital's ongoing success."

Schlesinger joins a set of other successful entrepreneurs and business executives that make up what is an impressive Special Advisory group to Data Point Capital that have committed as investors, and to bringing deep expertise to the fund including:

Lars Albright: Co-Founder and CEO of SessionM, a venture funded mobile engagement and advertising platform.  Prior to founding SessionM, Lars was Co-founder of Quattro Wireless, a leading mobile advertising platform that was acquired by Apple in late 2009. 

Fred Bertino: Founder and President of MMB, and former President and Chief Creative Officer at Hill, Holliday.  

Desh Deshpande: President of Sparta Group LLC, and Founder and Chairman of Sycamore Networks (SCMR).  Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Desh was Founder and Chairman of Cascade Communications Corp.

Diane Hessan: Founder and CEO of Communispace, a leading social networking company that is transforming the way that companies listen to and understand their consumers. Communispace was sold to Omnicom in 2011.

Steve Papa: Founder and CEO of Endeca, building it until it was Oracle's 6th largest acquisition ever on announcement in 2011. Before founding Endeca, Steve was part of the original team creating Akamai.

Alan Phillips: Founder of Where.com, a mobile location-based media company, which sold to eBay in 2011. Before founding Where.com, Alan served as Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of ZDNet, where he managed technology and infrastructure and was instrumental in the sale of ZDNet to CNet for $1.6 billion.

Jim Salzano: Former President of Clarks Americas. Jim was with the company for 19 years and during that time the company grew from just over $200M in revenues to over $1B share of the North American market.

According to Lars Albright, Co-founder and CEO of SessionM and Special Advisor to Data Point Capital, "Scott has formed a group of individuals that love creating value, many of which have made a lot of money for investors.  Len Schlesinger fits right in. He has an excellent track record of success and enjoys seeing entrepreneurs succeed.  It will be fun to have him be part of the team."

About Data Point Capital:

Data Point Capital focuses on companies that can be leveraged and scaled on the Internet and touch the consumer.  Categories of interest include mobile, gaming, social networks, payments, comparison shopping, e-commerce and emerging technologies.  Our opportunistic approach allows us to invest in companies that are at key inflection points in their lifecycles. The firm is made up of business executives and internet leaders who have created tremendous value through building a number of very successful companies (in many cases, again and again). At Data Point Capital, we like to think of ourselves as entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs and that by investing with independent thinking based on real, differentiating innovation and complimentary key metrics, superior results can be achieved.

About Len Schlesinger:

Len is a Baker Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School after concluding a five-year term as President of Babson College. Prior to Babson, Len was at Limited Brands (now L Brands), where he served as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, and before that was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Au Bon Pain. His earlier academic career includes twenty years at Harvard Business School where he served as the George Fisher Baker Jr. Professor of Business Administration, leading MBA and executive education programs. Len currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), a Director of Viewpost, LLC, a Director of Demandware, a member of the Corporation of the Winsor School, a member of the President's Council of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, an advisory council member of Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Small Businesses Initiative, and as a member of both the Council on Competitiveness and the Council on Foreign Relations.

SOURCE Data Point Capital