HBS professor nabs lifetime achievement award from NVCA

Felda Hardymon, M.B.A. ’79, the M.B.A. Class of 1975 Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School (HBS), has received a Lifetime Achievement in Venture Capital Award from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The award recognizes NVCA members who have “dedicated their professional lives to creating and building successful and highly competitive venture firms as well as portfolio companies that have made a significant contribution to economic growth and innovation in the United States.”

A member of the HBS faculty since 1998, Hardymon, alongside Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking Josh Lerner, developed the second-year M.B.A. elective “Venture Capital and Private Equity.” He teaches in — and has been course head for — the private equity and venture capital executive education program held each fall. This winter, he will be teaching the first-year required course “The Entrepreneurial Manager.”

Since 1981 Hardymon has also been a general partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, where he has led the firm’s investments in numerous start-ups in the software, communications, and retail sectors, including Staples and Sports Authority. Before joining Bessemer, Hardymon worked at Business Development Services Inc., the venture capital subsidiary of General Electric.

In addition to a number of private boards, Hardymon is a member of the board of directors of Silicon Valley Bancshares. For several years in the 1990s, he served on the board of directors of the NVCA and was chairman of its tax committee.