Cooley Leaves O.C. Business Council to Form Venture Capital Firm
Citing philosophical differences, a high-ranking official at one of Orange County’s largest business advocacy groups announced his resignation Friday to start a venture fund.
Timothy J. Cooley, the executive vice president of strategic initiatives at the Orange County Business Council, said he’s leaving the group in part because of a disagreement over its direction.
“The Business Council wants to be the voice of business; I want to create businesses,” he said. “I’m not bitter. It’s just that it’s time to move on.”
After conducting a a strategic review with management consultants McKinsey & Co., the Business Council decided to focus on lobbying, corporate retention and recruiting and work force preparation.
Cooley, by contrast, believed that attracting capital for the county’s booming entrepreneurial sector, especially in high-tech, should have been made a major priority.
And he hopes to do just that. Cooley said he plans to raise $400 million to form the Tech Coast Super Fund, which will invest in other Southern California venture funds.
He also wants to create a $275 million fund that would invest in start-ups and commercialize technology spawned by universities, among other things. Cooley said he is putting together boards and management teams for the enterprises and expects to raise the funds within nine months.
Cooley has been credited with helping create the new Tech Coast Small Business Center in Irvine, the only technology small-business development center in the United States, and leading efforts to bring an international airport to the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
“He’s been a catalyst for successfully bringing various constituencies together in Orange County to focus on growth,” said Gary Liebl, chairman of QLogic Corp. in Costa Mesa, a semiconductor manufacturer.
The Business Council was created in April 1995 by the merger of the three business development groups, the Orange County Industrial League, the Orange County Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Partnership 2010, of which Cooley was president. A coalition of Southern California business, government and educational leaders, Partnership 2010 pushed for the streamlining of local and county government and worked with the U.S. Defense Department and the county to devise strategies for defense conversion.
“He helped put the county on the map,” said Michael Meyer, former managing partner of E&Y; Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group.
“He pushed for many of the things that attracted high-tech companies to the area and created many jobs.”
