Winslow Sargeant
Encyclopedia
Winslow Sargeant is Chief Counsel for Advocacy for the Small Business Administration
(SBA) and a former venture capital executive with a background in engineering. He was installed at the SBA in a recess appointment by U.S. president Barack Obama
. Sargeant was a managing director at a Madison, Wisconsin
-based venture capital
firm Venture Investors LLC. It "provides seed and early-stage money to high-potential health care and IT companies" including Alfalight, TomoTherapy, Third Wave and Promega.
At the SBA Sargeant is "responsible for representing small businesses within the federal government’s law- and rule-making" and he joined Karen Gordon Mills, a founder and managing director of New York-based Solera Capital, who is SBA director. Sargeant did prior work with the SBA as program manager from 2001 to 2005 for the Small Business Innovations Research program in electronics at the National Science Foundation
, and his appointment was seen as an encouraging sign by for venture capital
funding.
He has been involved in making SBIR loans available to venture capitalists.
Sargeant has a PhD in electrical engineering
from the University of Wisconsin. He cofounded semiconductor
integrated circuit design
company Aanetcom in 1997 with seed money from Cisco Systems. The firm was sold to British Columbia's PMC-Sierra
in 2000 after a $900 million bid and was later valued at more than 1.2 billion during the dotcom boom, before the bubble burst and struggles with follow on chip products.
and he grew up in Dorchester
, Massachusetts
, "one of Boston's mostly minority neighborhoods". As a fifth grader he was bused to predominantly white schools as part of the integration programs that were met with rioting in Boston.
Sargeant is married to Ikanyeng, a native of Botswana he met in Madison, Wisconsin
while in graduate school, and they have three children: Kgosi, Lorato, and Marang.
Small Business Administration
The Small Business Administration is a United States government agency that provides support to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The mission of the Small Business Administration is "to maintain and strengthen the nation's economy by enabling the establishment and viability of small businesses...
(SBA) and a former venture capital executive with a background in engineering. He was installed at the SBA in a recess appointment by U.S. president Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. Sargeant was a managing director at a Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
-based venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm Venture Investors LLC. It "provides seed and early-stage money to high-potential health care and IT companies" including Alfalight, TomoTherapy, Third Wave and Promega.
At the SBA Sargeant is "responsible for representing small businesses within the federal government’s law- and rule-making" and he joined Karen Gordon Mills, a founder and managing director of New York-based Solera Capital, who is SBA director. Sargeant did prior work with the SBA as program manager from 2001 to 2005 for the Small Business Innovations Research program in electronics at the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, and his appointment was seen as an encouraging sign by for venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
funding.
He has been involved in making SBIR loans available to venture capitalists.
Sargeant has a PhD in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
from the University of Wisconsin. He cofounded semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
integrated circuit design
Integrated circuit design
Integrated circuit design, or IC design, is a subset of electrical engineering and computer engineering, encompassing the particular logic and circuit design techniques required to design integrated circuits, or ICs...
company Aanetcom in 1997 with seed money from Cisco Systems. The firm was sold to British Columbia's PMC-Sierra
PMC-Sierra
PMC-Sierra is a fabless semiconductor company which develops and sells devices into the communications, storage, printing, and embedded computing marketplaces.-Corporate history:...
in 2000 after a $900 million bid and was later valued at more than 1.2 billion during the dotcom boom, before the bubble burst and struggles with follow on chip products.
Personal life
Sargeant's parents immigrated to the U.S. from BarbadosBarbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
and he grew up in Dorchester
Dorchester
-England:*Dorchester, Dorset, the county town of Dorset; central to the organisation of the emigration of Puritans to North America during the 17th century*Dorchester, Oxfordshire, also known as Dorchester-on-Thames-Canada:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, "one of Boston's mostly minority neighborhoods". As a fifth grader he was bused to predominantly white schools as part of the integration programs that were met with rioting in Boston.
Sargeant is married to Ikanyeng, a native of Botswana he met in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
while in graduate school, and they have three children: Kgosi, Lorato, and Marang.