Dennis Merens

Background

About Dennis Merens

Dennis Merens retired from the Dow Chemical Company in 2013 with 42.5 years of service. During his Dow career he accumulated extensive business and marketing experience in diagnostic products, specialty chemicals, metals, separation products and corporate venture capital. Merens co-founded Dow Venture Capital in 1994 which invested in 32 fund partnerships and 59 portfolio companies in IT, Healthcare, Water treatment, Energy and Materials science. Under his leadership the investment team expanded to 7 professionals located in, Asia, Europe and the U.S. Total capital under management by DVC reached $450 million. Business and technical teams were integrated to efficiently identify and evaluate deal flow. Furthermore, DVC developed a broad set of relationships within the venture community,both corporate and private, and grew to become a highly respected corporate investor. In addition to its investment activitiesthe unit led the spin-out of 4 Dow technologies in displays, in healthcare (2) and diagnostics. Prior to his Dow career Merens worked at Federal Public Health Services, American Home Products and Bristol Laboratories. He also served in the USMC reserves.Upon retirement he transitioned to venture consulting in 2013 including work with the University of Arizona and Arizona State University in regards to capturing value from university developed technologies. His academic pursuits include a University of Wisconsin BS degree, and completion of executive programs at Wharton,and Harvard and the NVCA Institute. He was also a founding member of the NVCA Corporate Advisory Committee