Baird Venture Partners adds partners

Baird Venture Partners (BVP), the venture capital fund of Baird Private Equity, today announced that Donald Layden Jr. and Frederick Robertson, M.D., have joined the firm as operating partners.
Layden will be based in BVP’s Milwaukee office, and Robertson will be based in Madison.
Layden and Robertson will work with BVP’s sector-focused teams in sourcing, evaluating and overseeing portfolio company investments, further strengthening its operationally oriented approach to investing in smaller, high growth companies.
Previously, Layden was president of the International Group and senior executive vice president of corporate development and strategy, general counsel and secretary of Metavante. While there, he was instrumental in structuring the Metavante spin-off from Marshall & Ilsley Corp. He also successfully negotiated the merger of Metavante Technologies Inc. into Fidelity National Information Services Inc. in October 2010.
“We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Don and have him join as a member of our team,” said Benedict Rocchio, BVP partner. “Don brings a wealth of experience and relationships from the business services sector and we look forward to working closely with him to continue identifying and supporting great companies.”
Robertson served in a variety of roles in the medical field, including assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, president and chief executive officer of GE Marquette Medical Systems, and later as chief clinical officer of GE Medical Systems.
“Fred is a proven senior health care executive who will be a valuable addition to our life sciences investment effort and seasoned mentor to a number of our portfolio company CEOs,” said Pete Shagory, BVP partner. “We are extremely pleased to bring a successful executive like Fred onto our team and benefit from his clinical and business experience.”
The additions of Layden and Robertson are the latest developments in an active year for Baird Private Equity. The group has made 13 new investments and completed six exits in the U.S., Europe and Asia, year to date. New investments include Wisconsin companies Montage Talent and Digi-Star, announced in the past few weeks.