William P. Egan is an American

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

ist. He is the founder and general partner at

Alta Communications Alta Communications is an American private equity firm primarily working with media and the communication sector. Their equity funds are invested in about 100 companies with a total market capitalization approximately $1.5 billion. Alta Commu ...

, a

venture capital firm Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

, and Marion Equity Partners, a

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...

, both based in Boston, Massachusetts. Egan also founded Alta's predecessor firm, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. (BEDCO) in 1979 and has identified and backed several of America's leading growth companies in the information technology, life sciences, and communications industries. Egan is also a limited partner, along with fellow BEDCO founder

Craig Burr Craig L. Burr (born 1945) is an early venture capital investor, notable for his role in the founding of two venture capital firms, Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. (BEDCO) in 1979 and Alta Communications in 1996. Career In 1979 Burr co-founded Burr, Egan ...

, at Nobska Partners, also in Boston.

Early life and education

Egan received his B.A. from

Fairfield University Fairfield University is a private Jesuit university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1942. In 2017, the university had about 4,100 full-time undergraduate students and 1,100 graduate students, including full-time ...

in 1967 where he was a member of the Fairfield University Men's Rugby Football Club. He then received an MBA from

The Wharton School The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...

of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1969.

Career

Egan was previously a partner at

TA Associates TA Associates, founded in 1968, is one of the early modern-era private equity firms in the United States. The firm leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies. TA invests across five industry groups: technology, hea ...

. He began his career as a manager of Venture Capital for New England Enterprise Capital Corporation. Egan is past president and chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and serves on several boards of directors of communications, cable, and information technology companies, as well as the biopharmaceutical company Cephalon. Egan is a long-standing member of the

board of trustees and was honored for his contributions to the university with an Alumni Service Award in 1995. The Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola is named in honor of Egan's parents, John and Marion Egan. Egan's gifts to the university is the largest donation received by Fairfield to date. The nursing school at Fairfield University was renamed due to this donation. Egan is a trustee of

and a graduate board member of

. His success in the venture capital industry has a chapter dedicated to his story in the book ''Done Deals: Venture Capitalists Tell Their Stories''. (pp. 269–278, by Udayan Gupta, Harvard Business School Press, ) Egan is an owner of the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

through his partnership with

Boston Basketball Partners Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C. is an American local private investment group formed to purchase the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The executive committee consists of the four members of the managing board, Wyc G ...

LLC. Eganis on the board for The Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management.

Personal life

He and his wife Jacayln Egan (formerly Jacalyn Conklin) have donated large sums to Fairfield University and divide their time between Boston, Massachusetts, and Newport, Rhode Island. Egan and his wife are part-owners of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association through his partnership with Boston Basketball Partners, LLC.

References

External links

Alta Communications ProfileWilliam Egan biography at Nobska Partners BusinessWeek Executive Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, William P. Fairfield University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni American venture capitalists TA Associates