201710.19
0

Jude Conway

by in 2017 Ag Tech Conference Participant
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Jude Conway, CEO, Ag Ventures Alliance

Ag Ventures Alliance

Chief Executive Officer

Jude Conway, CEO, Ag Ventures Alliance. AG Ventures Alliance is an organization headquartered in Mason City, IA that among other things, manages an evergreen fund focused on seed and start-up investments in agricultural innovation. AG Ventures Alliance currently has twenty-one companies from across the country in its portfolio.

Ag Ventures Alliance is the fifth seed or venture fund where Mr. Conway has been involved as either a principal or partner over the past 30 years. The largest of these a $107 million Chicago based fund where he was one of five managing partners. His most successful fund was Des Moines based with an annualized internal rate of return exceeding 24% over its ten year life.
Additionally, in 2000-2001, Jude was retained by the Iowa State Treasurer’s Office to manage the liquidation of a seed capital fund, where liquidations far exceeded returns projected prior to the engagement. In 2008, Jude founded the American Food Venture Forum, a conference held in Iowa for three years to bring together the nation’s food technology companies and venture capital funds, held in conjunction with the World Food Prize. From 2007-2009, Jude was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at Bradley University and in 2011 he wrote The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Angel and Venture Investing, published by Virtual Bookworm Publishing.

Jude has spoken at numerous regional and national conferences and written many articles, training curricula and reports about venture capital and economic development. He has also served on numerous boards, committees and task forces including: The University of Illinois Agriculture Innovation Program Task Force; The Iowa Secretary of Agriculture’s Task Force on Value Added Agriculture and The Technology Commercialization Strategy Group for the Economic Development Council of Central Illinois. Over his career he has served on sixteen privately held company boards serving as chair of two of them.