Entrepreneur, Venture Capital Investor and Turnaround CEO
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Chairman and CEO at WorldSage, Inc.
- Managing Partner at ITech Partners
- Past
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- Chairman and CEO at MVC Capital
- COO at SmartForce PLC
- Managing Director at Robertson Stephens and Company
- President and COO at SPSS
- CEO at Tesseract Corporation
- VP and Business Unit Manager at AMS
- Member of Technical Staff at Institute for Computer Research, University of Chicago
- Education
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- University of Chicago
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- Recommended
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1 person has recommended john - Connections
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240
connections
- Industry
- Education Management
- Websites
john grillos’s Summary
Mr. Grillos professional career has been equally split between building companies and venture capital investing. His most recent experience is founding WorldSage, Inc, which is an early stage company with the mission of combining the interest of a number of private higher education companies into a powerhouse education institution involving campus based learning and on-line education. In October of 2006 WorldSage sighed a definitive merger agreement with a public company, which Mr. Grillos manages.
Mr. Grillos began his venture capital career as a Managing Director at Robertson Stephens and Company. He led financings in such successful companies as CBT Systems, VTEL and Summit Design. As the founder and CEO of MVC Capital, the NYSE listed venture capital fund that had its IPO in 2000, he managed a group that invested in 30 information technology companies. In 1996, Mr. Grillos founded ITech partners, an angel VC fund he still manages.
Mr. Grillos has been the CEO or COO of three companies, in addition to ITech Partners and MVC Capital. He became the COO of CBT Systems as part of a turnaround team that took this public company over in 1998. By the end of 1999, the company had revenues of over of $200 million.
Mr. Grillos successfully turned around Tesseract Corporation and SPSS. For 11 years he was a senior executive of American Management Systems.
Mr. Grillos held a variety of engineering and engineering management positions with the Institute for Computer Research at the University of Chicago, and Bell Labs/Western Electric. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BS from Illinois Institute of Technology.
john grillos’s Specialties:
Investor, active director, merchant banker and CEO. The industry focus of his activities includes higher education, corporate training, consulting, software and several areas of information technology
john grillos’s Experience
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Chairman and CEO
WorldSage, Inc.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; wsgi; Higher Education industry)
January 2005 — Present (4 years 7 months)
Founder of this early stage company that is private but which has a merger agreement with a public company that will be consumated with the acquisition of a private post secondary institution. WorldSage has the mission of combining the interests of several private institutions into an international education powerhouse, initially emulating the bricks and morter strategy of Laureate Education (LAUR) and the on line strategy of The Apollo Group (APOL), but being the first to do so at scale in Europe.
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Managing Partner
ITech Partners
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
July 1996 — Present (13 years 1 month)
Seed stage information technology venture capital investing.
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Chairman and CEO
MVC Capital
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; MVC; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
March 2000 — February 2003 (3 years)
CEO, founder and chief investment officer of this unique public venture capital company listed on the NYSE.
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COO
SmartForce PLC
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; SMTF; Information Technology and Services industry)
October 1998 — March 2000 (1 year 6 months)
COO of worlds largest eLearning provider. Was part of the turnaround team that took the company over in 1998. That team redesigned the company and its startegy, increasing the market value of the company 10 fold in 18 months.
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Managing Director
Robertson Stephens and Company
(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
September 1987 — July 1996 (8 years 11 months)
Information technology venture capital and investment banking.
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President and COO
SPSS
(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
September 1985 — March 1988 (2 years 7 months)
Managed the turnaroung of a leading statistics and graphics software company. The company later went public and remains as an independent public company.
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CEO
Tesseract Corporation
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
June 1983 — June 1985 (2 years 1 month)
Managed the turnaround of this Human Resources enterprise software company.
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VP and Business Unit Manager
AMS
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; amsy; Information Technology and Services industry)
January 1972 — June 1983 (11 years 6 months)
Managed western US consulting and development practice for this large custom development and consulting company.
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Member of Technical Staff
Institute for Computer Research, University of Chicago
(Educational Institution; 11-50 employees; Research industry)
September 1968 — January 1972 (3 years 5 months)
Computer engineer, software developer and experimental designer for Medical, Physics and Business departments of the University of Chicago.
john grillos’s Education
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University of Chicago
MBA , Finance and Information Science , September 1969 — December 1971
While in school, was a non-academic professional doing computer engineering work for the Institure for Computer Research at the University.
- Activities and Societies:
- Deans list.
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Illinois Institute of Technology
BS , EE, Math, Computer Science , December 1966 — June 1969
- Activities and Societies:
- Deans List
Additional Information
john grillos’s Websites:
john grillos’s Interests:
Teaching, Racing, Flying and Golf
john grillos’s Groups:
ITAA, Elios Society, National Helenic Society, Curriki.org
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Education Industry Investment Forum -
Global Silicon Valley -
Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni Association
john grillos’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
