Mark Donahue
Managing Partner Expansion Capital Partners, LLC
Babson '88

Mark has been an entrepreneur for 20 years. He has a depth of management and operating experience in many industries. He specializes in sales / marketing and corporate strategy. Mark has served in senior executive roles for several venture-backed companies. He has over fifteen years of investment management experience, having previously built two successful financial service firms. He has a broad background in venture capital on both the buy-side and sell-side.

Mark currently serves as Chairman of the Board for two Expansion Capital portfolio companies: SensorTran, which provides fiber-optic sensors to the energy industry, and World Energy Labs, which offers the leading battery testing technology for corporate users. In addition, Mark also serves on the Advisory Board of the Cleantech Venture Network, which is the leading data provider and conference organizer for Cleantech venture capitalists. Of note, Expansion Capital was the only venture capital firm to be a “Founding Investor” of the Cleantech Venture Network and Cleantech Capital Group.

He enjoys an active speaking schedule, having most recently addressed audiences at the SRI Energy Tech Conference, the Investors Circle, and the Cleantech Venture Network. Furthermore, Mark has a monthly interview segment on Steve Case’s Lime Radio Network, broadcast on Sirius Satellite, where he interviews leading Cleantech CEO’s.

Prior to founding Expansion Capital Partners, Mark was most recently the President and Founder of Social Capital Partners, Inc., an NASD Member Firm that worked exclusively with venture capital. At Social Capital Partners, Mark successfully raised funding and provided strategic advisory services to companies in sectors including chemical testing, clean technology, life sciences, non-toxic pesticides, media, financial services, consumer products, publishing and organic foods. From 1988 through 1997, Mark was President of Symphony Capital Management, Inc. and Donohue, Greenfield & Associates, which were financial service firms with over 300 corporate and family clients. These firms managed investments across all asset classes, provided financial planning, risk management and periodically advised clients on venture capital transactions. During this period, Mark was a Certified Financial Planner. Mark successfully sold his ownership stakes in 1997.

Mark has a BS in Investment Management, with Honors, from Babson College, recognized as the leading academic institution for entrepreneurship in the United States, and he was recently elected to a second term on Babson’s Board of Overseers. He also serves in a variety of other non-profit roles, including leading the financial management committee of the Threshold Foundation, along with serving on its Global Micro-credit Grants Committee. In the past, he was a Board Member and Chair of the Membership Committee for the Social Venture Network, among many other non-profit leadership roles.