William Rosenzweig
William Rosenzweig is co-founder and Managing Director at Physic Ventures. He focuses on creating and building early-stage opportunities that bring scienceto consumers in the areas of prevention, wellness and sustainable living. Will is currently on the board of directors of Attune Foods, Dreamerz Foods, EnergyHub,Pharmaca, and World of Good.
Will was previously co-founder and Managing Director of Great Spirit Ventures, a venture fund focused on the consumer-driven health sector and co-founder and CEO of Brand New Brands, a functional food accelerator fund.
Earlier in his career, Will actively participated in creating successful food and consumer-driven health companies as an investor or member of senior management. In 1990, Will co-founded and served as President, CEO, and Minister of Progress of The Republic of Tea, an award-winning specialty tea company that is often credited with creating the premium tea category in the United States. The company grew very rapidly and was acquired in 1994. In 1995, Will was named Senior Vice President of Odwalla (1994-1997), the nation's largest fresh juice company where he directed the brand and strategy of the company. His prior work experience includes roles as Vice President of Nakamichi (1985-1989); Partner and CEO of Hambrecht Vineyards and Wineries (1998-2001); Chairman of Winetasting.com (1998-2001); and Co-Founder of Venture Strategy Partners(1997-2000). He also worked on the founding team of LeapFrog, a leading education and toy company. In 2004, he founded Kingdom of Herbs, a purveyor of organic products for home and garden at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Will was on the faculty at the Center for Responsible Business at the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley from 1999 to 2006, where he taught the MBA course in Social Entrepreneurship. He was named a teaching fellow by Dean Laura Tyson in 1999.
Will has served as faculty advisor to the Global Social Venture Competition and has been a visiting faculty member at London Business School and a guest lecturer at Stanford, Columbia, University of California Davis, University of Southern California and University of California Los Angeles. He has received several awards for teaching from both the Haas School of Business at Berkeley and from London Business School. Will also served as an advisor and consultant to the Rockefeller Foundation's ProVenEx Fund, an investment vehicle seeking "double bottom line returns" in for-profit businesses. He was the co-project director and co-author of Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored research on Social Impact Assessment and design methodologies for measuring and monetizing the social value generated through social focused businesses.
Will is the co-author of The Republic of Tea: How an Idea Becomes a Business (Doubleday 1992, 1994), a best selling book that chronicles the start up of a new company.
Will is a member of the Healthcare Executives Leadership Network. He has served as Co-Chair of Net Impact and has been on the advisory boards of University of California Connect, Acumen Fund and SustainAbility. He currently serves on the advisory boards of the Consumer Medicine Summit and the Health Evolution Partners Innovation Network.
Authored Articles:
Vision for Venturing Ecosystem to Generate Global Health Innovation, Physic Ventures, 2008
7 Reasons Why Great LPs Invested in Our First‐time Venture Fund
Links:
personal website: www.ideagarden.com
blog: www.ideagardening.wordpress.com