With Six Promotions and Two Senior Advisor Hires to the Portfolio Services Team, Norwest Expands Strategic Leadership to Support Portfolio Companies
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Northwest Venture Partnersa leading venture capital and growth equity firm, today announced that it has appointed Lisa Ames as the company’s first chief marketing officer and principal. Ames joins Norwest’s Wallet services organization, which offers founders and their teams comprehensive consulting services, a vibrant community, and a range of impactful resources to help businesses grow and thrive. Working closely with the company’s investors, Norwest Portfolio Services provides access to advice, resources and collaborative support in the areas most valuable to today’s businesses.
In addition to appointing Ames as CMO, the company announced six promotions and two consulting team hires to the Portfolio Services team in critical functions including talent acquisition; personal advice; mergers and acquisitions and capital markets; environmental, social and governance (ESG); and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
“Norwest is proud to provide holistic support to our founders, CEOs and leaders. Whether we’re partnering with our companies to build and retain a team, establish a strong culture, launch or grow new markets, or prepare for an IPO, we are committed to helping them succeed every step of the way,” said Katie Belding, a partner at Norwest, who led and managed the firm’s portfolio services team. “The addition of Lisa Ames as our first CMO and the promotion of several key leaders to the Portfolio Services team underscores Norwest’s continued commitment to delivering strategic value and meaningful connections to our companies in wallet.”
Ames brings more than 20 years of B2B marketing experience to Norwest, where she leads the company’s brand strategy and works with portfolio company executives to help optimize and scale their businesses for growth. . She has served as an operations executive at Norwest for the past two years and continues to assume this role in addition to her responsibilities as chief marketing officer. Prior to joining Norwest, she was VP of Marketing at Lucidworks and held leadership positions at VC-backed B2B SaaS companies including Demandbase and Castlight Health. As a certified account-based marketing (ABM) expert, Ames was a frequent speaker on ABM best practices at Demandbase.
“When we interviewed our founders and CEOs to better understand Norwest’s value proposition, three important themes came back to us: our portfolio leaders rely on Norwest for support in building their teams and culture, enabling of their brands and bringing them to market, and maximizing their valuations,” Ames said. “This insight has motivated us to increase our investment in the Portfolio Services team, which is reflected in today’s promotions. today and the significant additions to our senior ESG and DEI advisory team, as well as the creation of our first CMO position, which I am honored to hold.”
Ames will also continue to advance Norwest ESG and DEI initiatives in partnership with senior advisors, investors and the firm’s portfolio services team. As one of the prominent leaders of Norwest’s ESG and DEI Steering Committee, she helps Norwest execute programs related to these initiatives while partnering with the Portfolio Services team to educate companies on how to develop their own best practices.
Norwest also recently promoted six key members of the Portfolio Services team:
- Laura BoydDirector, Head of Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets – Boyd provides advisory support on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, debt and private equity to Norwest portfolio companies. Previously, she was an investment banker at Harris Williams, Morgan Kegan and UBS, focused on technology and consumer mergers and acquisitions, private placements and structured derivative finance.
- Laurie TenantDirector, People Advisory – Tennant advises portfolio company executives on people management practices and programs; staff operations and team infrastructure; policies and compliance; as well as facilitates sharing and learning opportunities for our community of leaders. She brings over 20 years of HR leadership experience in startups and large corporations.
- Teri McFaddenprincipal talent – McFadden co-leads Norwest’s Talent team and drives the growth of portfolio companies by helping them build world-class management teams and boards. She also adds significant value to the portfolio through her compensation consulting work across all industries. She was previously a Human Capital Partner at ComVentures and a Senior Recruitment Partner at Accel Partners.
- Kris Snodgrassprincipal talent – Snodgrass co-leads Norwest’s Talent team and specializes in board, advisor and executive placements for Norwest’s consumer businesses. She draws on more than a decade of executive search experience recruiting VP and C-level executives, previously as a director at Howard Fischer Associates, Bialla & Associates and Heidrick & Struggles.
- Lauren HellerVice President, Talent – Heller works closely with Norwest’s healthcare investment team and its portfolio companies on strategic recruiting and talent acquisition. Previously, she served as chief of staff to the CEO of Caremore Health and director of Oxeon Partners, where she partnered with innovative IT and health services clients to build high-performing leadership teams.
- Julia NoellertVice President, Talent – Noellert supports the Norwest Growth Equity team and its broad portfolio with talent and retention expertise. She brings extensive executive search experience in finance and operations from her previous role at Robert Walters, where she partnered with leadership teams and founders to conduct critical research in early-stage and late-stage startups.
The company has also strengthened its commitment to ESG and DEI with recent additions to its advisory team:
- Shu Dar YaoSenior Advisor, ESG – Yao educates and guides Norwest and its portfolio companies on strategic ESG initiatives, including climate change, social inequality and associated risks and opportunities. She is the founder and managing partner of Lucid Capitalism and brings 20 years of expertise in ESG and impact investing.
- Rachel WilliamsSenior Advisor, DEI – Williams educates and guides the firm and its portfolio companies on diversity and inclusion strategies and best practices. She is currently the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at The Motley Fool, where she applies her expertise to recruitment, leadership development, employee engagement and retention. Williams was previously the head of DEI at X, Alphabet’s Moonshot factory.
About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest is a leading venture capital and growth firm managing more than $12.5 billion in the capital. Since its inception, Norwest has invested in more than 650 companies and currently partners with more than 200 companies in its venture capital and growth portfolio. The firm invests in early-stage to late-stage companies across a wide range of sectors, with a focus on consumer, business and healthcare. The Norwest team offers an extensive network of connections, operating experience, and a wide range of impactful services to help CEOs and founders scale their businesses. Norwest has offices in Palo Alto and San Franciscowith subsidiaries in India and Israel. For more information, please visit www.nvp.com. Follow Norwest on Twitter @NorwestVP.
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