Dave McLean
Dave has always been an entrepreneur at heart. As he says of himself, “I sought out the most challenging projects that pushed the limits regardless of the size of the organization.”
"It's been my experience that successful ventures are built upon business fundamentals and extraordinary execution. I believe that leadership is the winning ingredient."
Dave’s first experience with Sevin Rosen Funds was as CEO of Applied WDM. Then, when Cicada Semiconductor needed a CEO to take the company to the next stage, Dave was a perfect fit. He oversaw Cicada’s rapid growth phase and was instrumental in the company’s sale to Vitesse Semiconductor.
Throughout his 20 years in the semiconductor and networking industry—starting with IBM—Dave has worn many functional hats: marketing, engineering, business development, and operations. While at IBM, Dave spearheaded the introduction of the company’s DSP product line into Asia.
His experiences span both established companies and startups such as Pliant Systems, Applied WDM and Cicada Semiconductor. It’s this extensive operational experience that Dave uses to guide SRF portfolio companies to success. “Building teams, developing strategy, executing to plan, turning around difficult situations—it’s all very exciting to me,” Dave explains. “Making the transition from an SRF CEO to General Partner is a tremendous opportunity to apply what I’ve learned to build enterprise value in many projects at the same time.”
Today, Dave is part of the firm’s energy investment team and is the focal point for Sevin Rosen’s energy venture partners. He is currently on the board of BioBehavioral Diagnostics, HexaTech, Market6, MetaCarta, and SensorLogic.