Environmentally Conscious Entrepreneur and Private Equity Manager

Mark T. Donohue sold his controlling interest in Expansion Capital Partners and has resigned as Managing Partner and Chairman to pursue an opportunity teaching at his alma mater Babson, College. In his absence, Ms. Diana Propper de Callejon and Mr. Bernardo Llovera have become Co-Managing Partners, and Henry Corning will succeed him as Chairman of the Board, and board members Frohman Anderson and John “Tony” Mayer will continue to serve the firm. Expansion Capital, founded in 2001 by Mark Donohue, was one of the early pioneers in developing the Cleantech venture capital sector. Donohue, who no longer represents the firm in an official capacity, expects that his former partners will raise between $150 million and $200 million, in 2009, for Fund III. He will serve in the role of Chairman Emeritus and help the firm hire a third partner for that fund.

Donohue will maintain his dual residence in both Boston and San Francisco, as he works with Babson College as their first “Clean Technology Entrepreneur in Residence.” Babson College, based in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurship, finance and management education. It is ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report for its program in entrepreneurship. The Babson Executive Education program is ranked 6th overall in the world and 2nd for faculty by the prestigious Financial Times rankings. Babson’s social entrepreneurship program is ranked 31st in the world by the Aspen Institute. For more information, please visit http://www.babson.edu.
As Mr. Donohue stated, “Babson is an extraordinary opportunity, with greater learning potential and positive impact on society, as compared to my remaining Managing Partner at Expansion Capital, where I had already accomplished my original goals from 2001.” Donohue says. “I wanted the space to be as creative as I wanted to be and to capitalize on the Cleantech Megatrend in alternative models to those offered within Expansion.”

His new position will call on Donohue to create a series of Cleantech course modules and case studies that can be adopted and adapted by universities in an open model, he says. “It’s a very big canvas to paint with. We are talking about affecting thousands of students’ lives and thousands of businesses.” He will also teach at Babson’s Center for Executive Education, which is ranked sixth in the world.