InterWest Press Releases
Stephen Holmes of InterWest Appointed to Prestigious Venture Capital
Valuation Board
Menlo Park, CA - March 19, 2008 - InterWest Partners, a leading diversified venture capital firm, today announced that Stephen Holmes, general partner and CFO, has been elected to the International Private Equity and Venture Capital Valuation Guidelines Board (IPEV Board). Created in 2005, the IPEV Board has a monitoring role and gives guidance on the application of valuation guidelines to all stakeholders in the private equity and venture capital industry including practitioners, investors, regulators and auditors.
Venture capital and private equity managers refer to valuation guidelines when they estimate the value of their investments for their financial statements and for reports to investors. Both managers and their investors use these valuations to monitor the progress of existing investments. Applying "fair value" has been a key focus area since early 2000 for investors, managers, auditors and regulators, with additional emphasis required by the implementation of FASB Statement 157 in the United States.
The IPEV Guidelines are based on the overall principle of "fair value" in order to be consistent with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and United States General Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP). As US GAAP and IFRS standards converge, the IPEV Board will formally review the IPEV Guidelines in 2008, taking into account the work accomplished by the Private Equity Industry Guidelines Group (PEIGG) in relation to US GAAP. The objective of this review is to achieve global recognition and application for private equity valuation guidelines.
"Stephen's appointment to IPEV continues InterWest's tradition of leadership and excellence in financial reporting to limited partners - both those located in the US and also abroad," said Dr. Arnold L. Oronsky, general partner at InterWest. "In the venture capital community, InterWest is viewed as being a thought leader in the area of financial reporting. We congratulate Stephen on his appointment to the IPEV Board."
Stephen Holmes was one of the principal authors of the PEIGG guidelines and is a member of FASB's Small Business Advisory Committee, serving on behalf of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and as a representative of the venture capital community. He was recently nominated by the NVCA's Executive Committee for a four-year term on the organization's board of directors. Holmes is also a founding member of the NVCA's CFO Task Force and is frequently invited to speak at venture capital industry conferences.
At InterWest, Holmes is the administrative partner and CFO, managing all of InterWest's financial, administrative, fundraising and investor relations functions. As such, Holmes is actively involved with the community of limited partners. Prior to joining InterWest in 1989, Stephen was vice president, finance and administration, of the highly successful venture-backed international manufacturer, Specialty Brands, a $140 million specialty foods company headquartered in San Francisco.
About InterWest Partners
InterWest Partners (www.interwest.com), founded in 1979, is a leading diversified venture capital firm focused on building long-term relationships with entrepreneurs and portfolio companies. Currently investing its ninth fund, IW IX, a $600 million fund, InterWest has raised more than $2 billion of capital since inception. InterWest has 17 investing partners in Menlo Park, CA and Dallas, TX, who bring together deep domain knowledge in life sciences and information technology.
The firm's investments in information technology include: CIENA (CIEN), Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), Crystal Semiconductor (acquired by Cirrus Logic, CRUS), Cyrix (CYRX; acquired by National Semiconductor (NSM), Lightera (acquired by CIENA), PlaceWare (acquired by Microsoft, MSFT), SiTera (acquired by Vitesse, VTSS), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Stratacom (STRM; acquired by Cisco, CSCO) and Xilinx (XLNX).
The firm's investments in life sciences include: ArthroCare (ARTC), Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation (ASPV, acquired by Galenica group, SWX:GALN), Cor Therapeutics (CORR; acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, MLNM), Corixa (CRXA; acquired by GlaxoSmithKlein, GSK), Coulter Pharmaceutical (CLTR; acquired by Corixa Pharmaceuticals, CRXA), Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST), Epicor Medical (acquired by St. Jude Medical, STJ), Inspire Pharmaceuticals (ISPH), IntraLase (ILSE), Myogen (MYOG), Spinal Dynamics (acquired by Medtronic, MDT), TheraSense (THER; acquired by Abbott Labs, ABT) and Ventritex (VNTX; acquired by St. Jude Medical, STJ).
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Eliot Dobris
eliot.dobris@fkhealth.com
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
(415) 902-1241