Joe Velk is a seasoned venture capitalist with 20 years of investment and company building experience From 1990 to 2003, Joe served as one of two investing partners at The North Carolina Enterprise Fund (NCEF), a $20 million evergreen venture capital fund based in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park area At NCEF, Joe led information technology investing and sourced, executed, and managed investments that generated substantial gains to investors Representative investments include:  Broadband Technologies (BBTK), Orologic (acquired by Vitesse Semiconductor for $450 million), RF Micro Devices (RFMD), and SELEE Corporation (acquired by Porvair, Plc)

Before NCEF, he was a partner at Intersouth Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm also located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park area Joe currently serves as a board member or an advisor to several high technology companies that are positioned to become market leaders He holds a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in Business Administration from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University

Joe Velk can be reached at velk@contendercapital com or 919-696-7180