Lori Whitted: Biography

Lori Jones Whitted - General Partner

Bio Highlights

• Earned bachelors from Duke University and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
• Boston Consulting Group; strategy consultant. Advised Fortune 500 clients with focus on telecommunications, media and consumer marketing.
• Washington Post, director of Corporate Development. Analyzed strategic M&A and private equity investment opportunities across all company divisions.
• Co-founder/officer of TheWashingtonPost.com , serving as vice President of Finance and Business Development
• Officer and vice president of Marketing and Business Development for LocalEyes.com, sold to AOL, Inc.
• Co-founder of ImageCafe, with Clarence Wooten. Sold to Network Solutions/VeriSign for an 11x return on the original investment
• Co-founder of the McLean Group, a boutique M&A and private equity investment firm.
• Vice president, Network Solutions/Verisign. Led business development, product management and marketing for the Internet Naming and Directory Services division.
• Vice president, Worldspan, a company that processes over 65% of all online airline transactions made in the U.S. Led corporate e-commerce division and product planning for travel agency and corporate markets.
• Co-Founder and General Partner, Venturepreneur Partners

Ms. Whitted brings a wealth of start-up, public company, consulting, and private equity experience to the Venturepreneur team. Lori spent the first six years of her career as a financial manager for GE Company/GE Capital and for First Union National Bank, where she received numerous commendations including National Honors in GE’s Financial Management Program. After completing Harvard Business School in 1992, Ms. Whitted joined the Boston Consulting Group where she specialized in providing strategic analysis and advice to telecommunications, supply chain and media clients such as AT&T, Staples and The Washington Post.

Lori was then recruited by The Washington Post Company as Director, Corporate Development, where she participated in analysis, due diligence, and structuring for a number of proposed private equity investments, divestitures, and acquisitions, ranging in size from $15M to $600M. She later leveraged these skills as co-founder of The McLean Group , a private investment bank located in Northern Virginia. While with the McLean Group, Ms. Whitted had an impressive client list and track record. She helped raise Series C funding for the Motley Fools to facilitate international expansion. She lead efforts to secure $15M in Series A funding for Quantum Alliance, an early stage financial services company located in the Mid-West.

Prior to co-founding The McLean Group, Ms. Whitted was a co-founder/officer of The Washington Post.com (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company) where she served as vice president of Finance and Business Development as the company grew from 7 to 100+ employees, and was an officer of LocalEyes.com (sold to AOL, Inc.) where she served as vice president of Marketing & Business Development from seed stage through preparation for asset sale.

During the late 1990’s, Lori co-founded and was instrumental in establishing the corporate structure, developing the business model and creating the channel development strategy for ImageCafe.com. In partnership with Clarence Wooten, Lori was a key stakeholder throughout ImageCafe’s rapid assent to liquidity. ImageCafe’s early sale to Network Solutions/VeriSign for more than $20 million - less than 2 years from inception - provided more than an 11x return for the company’s investors. Lori ultimately joined Network Solutions/Verisign as a division vice president. In this role, she led business development, marketing, and product management for the Registry Division, and was pivotal in Verisign’s entre into VoIP through the $1B acquisition of Illuminet Holdings in 2001. In August 2002, Ms. Whitted returned to Atlanta, GA, her hometown, and joined Worldspan, L.P., the leader in e-commerce for the travel industry.

In 2003, Worldspan processed over 65 percent of online airline transactions made in the U.S. Worldspan is the technology engine behind over 16,000 travel agencies including the well-known consumer online agencies Expedia, Orbitz and Priceline. Initially hired to lead various cross-functional strategic initiatives, Lori was quickly tapped to lead Worldspan’s growing corporate e-commerce division including sales, marketing, partner management and product planning. In October 2004, Ms. Whitted resigned from her role as vice president for Worldspan, L.P. and soon reunited with her longtime business colleague, Mr. Wooten, to co-found Venturepreneur Partners.

As an entrepreneur, executive, and intra-preneur leading smaller business units of large companies, Lori has developed a solid understanding of what is required for an early-stage company to successfully define and execute its value proposition and attract the attention of large industry incumbents for acquisition.

As a General Partner of Venturepreneur Partners, Ms. Whitted leads the Southeast office. Her investment focus is early-stage Applied Technology Companies, with particular emphasis on companies that leverage telecommunications, Internet, VoIP or enterprise software technologies.

She serves as an active Board member for a number of local not-for-profit organizations. In addition to earning an MBA from Harvard Business School, Ms. Whitted holds an undergraduate degree in economics with a minor in biomedical engineering from Duke University, where she was an A.B. Duke Scholar. Lori lives in Atlanta with her husband and their three young sons.