William New, although not a new face, is the newest member of the venture partner team at the Aurora Funds.
New, a physician, has worked with Aurora as an advisor since 1994 when the firm was launched. He is the third partner the firm has added in recent weeks following the closing on its new $85 million fourth fund.
“I have worked with Aurora since 1994 and saw that while other firms got caught up in raising larger funds and writing bigger checks, Aurora stayed true to the seed and early stage entrepreneurs,” New said in a statement. “Aurora takes what some may consider to be an old fashioned approach to investing, but it works.
“Good investors are willing to roll up their sleeves to help entrepreneurs. They must also know when to put in more time and money, or when to finally pull the plug.”
Jeff Clark, managing general partner of Aurora, praised New’s addition in a statement.
“Bill has served as an advisor to Aurora since the beginning, and I am very excited that he has agreed to take a more active role with us,” Clark said. “Because of his remarkable career, he is uniquely able to bridge the gap between entrepreneurs and investors. This new role will allow him to share even more of his experience and wisdom with Aurora and our portfolio companies. We are thrilled to have one of the pre-eminent non-invasive medical device entrepreneurs as part of our team.”
New is an entrepreneur and an inventor. He has won 15 patents, including one for the Pulse Oximeter, which is used in most operating rooms to monitor anesthetized patients.
His extensive resume includes founding Nellcor, a medical electronics manufacturer in 1981. The firm was sold for $2 billion 1995. He also is founder and chairman of Natus medical and chairman and chief executive officer of The Noven Group.
In addition to his other duties, New is associate dean for bioengineereing at the Oregon Graduate Instute at Oregon Health and Sciences University. He spent 25 years as a clinical associate professor at Stanford.
New holds degrees from Stanford (MS in management, BS and MS in electrical engineering), Duke (MD), and University of California (PhD in physiology).
Aurora’s other new partners are Richard Holcomb and Tom McMurray.
Aurora: www.aurorafunds.com
