Angel Group Bolsters Board

Vanessa Doctor

17 December 2010

The Angel Capital Association, a trade group of angel investment entities in North America, has elected five new directors to its growing team.

Catherine Mott, chief executive and founder of BlueTree Capital Group and BlueTree Allied Angels, has been named chairman of the board of directors. Mott steps in from the Angel Capital Education Foundation, where she served as board member since 2007 and chair since 2009.

Also joining the board for three-year tenures are Anita Brearton of Golden Seeds, Troy Knauss of Guardant Partners, Ralph Mayer of Tech Coast Angels, and Jamie Rhodes of Central Texas Angel Network.

Brearton is a managing director and Boston forum leader at Golden Seeds, an angel investment group that assists women-led businesses across various industries; Knauss is a partner at Guardant, an administrative firm that organizes private angel investor funds; Mayer, an active angel investor since 2000, most recently served as chairman of the Tech Coast Angels board; while Rhodes is an entrepreneur at Texas State University.

Existing members of the board, David Verrill of Hub Angels Investment Group and Steven Mercil of RAIN Source Capital, will serve as vice chair and secretary/treasurer, respectively, for 2010-2011.

Angel investor groups have grown in popularity over the years, with an increasing number of affluent individuals looking for the next big idea to place their money on. The ACA provides assistance to member angel groups and also serves as a public policy voice of the angel community. To date, it has 150 angel group members which represent over 6,500 accredited angel investors.