Mel co-founded TrueBridge in 2007 after building a career that gave him a view of venture capital from several sides – as an institutional investor, an entrepreneur, and an advisor to emerging companies. Today, he leads TrueBridge as General Partner and CEO and is a member of the firm’s leadership team, guiding the firm’s investment strategy and long-term direction.
Before launching TrueBridge, Mel was a founding member of UNC Management Company, where he helped manage more than $2 billion on behalf of the University of North Carolina and other North Carolina institutions. As part of the senior management team, he had primary portfolio management responsibility for the organization’s illiquid investments, including venture capital. That experience allowed him to build relationships across the venture ecosystem and helped shape the relationship-driven approach that remains central to TrueBridge today.
Mel came to institutional investing with firsthand experience as an entrepreneur. Earlier in his career, he helped co-found two venture-backed companies and later served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Commonwealth Capital Ventures in Boston. He began his career at General Electric, including roles with GE Capital and the GE Corporate Audit Staff.
Mel is actively involved in the global venture community. He has served on the advisory boards of numerous private capital partnerships and regularly speaks at industry conferences and events, as well as serving as a guest lecturer at UNC and Duke University. In 2012, the Center for Venture Education named him an Honorary Kauffman Fellow in recognition of TrueBridge’s support of the Kauffman Fellows Program. Mel earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
