People are the Whole Ball Game
Any enterprise is only as good as its people. All companies are, in essence, sequences of decisions and then actions against those decisions. Great people make great decisions, and execute more effectively. People are the whole ball game.
Which is why I am so delighted that today we get to celebrate two of the best in public. Marissa Sterling and Jennie Graham have been extraordinary contributors to the building of BIV, and we are so excited to announce their promotions to Senior Associate of Platform and Investment respectively. This place would be so much worse without them.
Marissa joined us straight out of Georgetown Law School (not a typo - she recently took the bar in her spare time), and from day one as our Platform Associate has been the architect of the BIV Cathedral, the inner architecture on which we build our day to day activities, as well as looking after the experience of the Burnt Islanders. The value-add numbers are remarkable, and it all starts with Marissa. The monthly updates, the quarterly updates, our materials - it’s a monster role, magnificently played. My thanks as well for her patience with my intransigence around GMail plug-ins. If you know, you know.
Jennie is a fellow Scot, but unlike me actually got into Oxford, and then Fulbrighted her way to Duke. Starting with us during her MBA, she joined as our Investment Associate and has become integral to our appraisal process, shepherding the pipeline with accuracy and insight. It has been a joy to watch her ingrain the BIV way of thinking on to her through process, while also always bringing a fresh perspective, and a reliable instinct. She’s getting really good at assessing businesses, so much so that she is teaching the world how we think via her Show Your Working blog series. Selfishly, she gets all of my UK linguistic references which is very welcome indeed.
These are two people with a phenomenally bright future in our company and our industry. Please join Christine, Steve, Jessica and I (and all the BIV team) in congratulating them on this richly deserved next step.
