Advance Conference – International Web and StartUp Conference in Cologne - September 19 & 20, 2011, Cologne (Germany)

Since 2008, Dr. Claas Heise is responsible for all venture capital activities of NRW.BANK, including both direct investment funds and fund-of-fund activities. Since 2006, Claas has been a partner at Innovature Capital Partners, an advisory and venture capital services firm. From 2002 until September 2006, he has been the Managing Director for T-Venture of America, the U.S. arm of Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital group. Claas joined Deutsche Telekom in 1995 and held a variety of management positions. He joined T-Venture in 2001, after serving as an outside advisor since 1997. He is a trained physicist and worked at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Claas is a member of the German-American Business Association of California and previous member of the steering committee of the Service Provider Investment Forum. He has been on the advisory boards of Cal-IT, Golden Capital Network, and iHollywoodForum. Claas is a graduate of NVCA’s Venture Capital Institute.