Green Bay venture capital firm TitletownTech has added Edward Ward as a new partner, the firm announced Tuesday.
Ward previously worked in product development at Kohler Co. and is a retired Navy Commander who served as a fighter pilot and later worked for the U.S. Special Operations Command. He has experience with rapid prototyping and working with early-stage startups that had potential defense applications, according to the announcement.
As a TitletownTech partner, Ward will help support the 23 companies in the firm's portfolio and vet potential new investments, he said. His focus areas will include artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced manufacturing, Ward said.
In his 20-year military career, Ward deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and numerous countries in Africa and Europe, he said. He believes his eclectic mix of professional and life experiences will be an asset in the venture capital world, he said.
"We talk often about diversity and what that means and being able to bring new ideas," Ward said. "I'm able to take certain vantage points that most I think in corporate America probably haven't seen."
TitletownTech isn't Ward's first experience working with startups. While at the U.S. Special Operations Command, he helped start SOFWERX, a program designed to help make it easier for startups to work with the military enterprise.
"One of the difficulties that founders and startups usually encounter is the Department of Defense is the largest organization on the planet ... it can be very intimidating for a startup with a good idea to approach," Ward said. "(SOFWERX has) proven very successful and it's (been) replicated in numerous areas and partnerships."
In his new role, Ward joins TitletownTech partner Cordero Barkley and TitletownTech managing directors Craig Dickman and Jill Enos, among other TitletownTech team members. Ward and Dickman first connected after Ward moved to Wisconsin in 2019 and was looking to start a new career in technology following his retirement from the Navy, Ward said.
Ward has a bachelor's degree in systems and controls engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and a master's in finance from Indiana University. He's on the board of the Ethical Artificial Intelligence Consortium, a nonprofit founded and led by Milwaukee-area technologist Sarah Alt, according to LinkedIn.
TitletownTech started around 2018 as a partnership between Microsoft Corp. and the Green Bay Packers. Its portfolio includes artificial intelligence startup Synthetaic in Delafield and Green Bay's hydroponic farming tech startup Fork Farms.
