BEIJING, Nov. 7 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- WI Harper Group, the San Francisco-based China-focused venture capital firm, announced the hiring of two Principals as new additions to its Beijing team, i.e., Ellen Gao and Peter Peng.
Ellen was the Chief Representative of Red Herring in China, primarily responsible for its business development and the well-known Red Herring 100 events in Asia. She was well known among technology communities since her involvement during UT Starcom's early days as well as her role as the Secretary-General of China Mobile Communication Association since 2000. She will continue to serve as advisor to Red Herring.
Peter joined WI Harper Group from ThinkPanmure, formerly known as ThinkEquity. He was covering clean technology companies for the firm's clients and based in Shanghai.
"Given the rising concerns from both the government and the public on environment issues and energy constrains in China, clean technology has become an increasingly important part of our integrated investment strategy," said Peter Liu, Founder and Chairman of the firm. "And it is probably the best time to invest, especially China, as the economy still remains robust with a 9% YoY in Q3'08 GDP growth under such a worldwide slowdown while the valuations have come back to a reasonable level."
These two new hires continue to demonstrate the firm's steady plan to diversify its specialties to broaden the spectrum since its attempt for life sciences by bringing Dr. David Wang on board from Siemens Medical in 2005.
About WI Harper Group
With over $400M under management, WI Harper is one of the first U.S.-based venture capital firms to create a value-adding bridge between the United States and Greater China with offices in Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco. For nearly a decade, WI Harper has been building companies internationally by facilitating the flow of capital, technology and management best practices across both sides of the Pacific. The Firm is focused on fueling companies at early expansion stage in technology and healthcare sectors.
WI Harper's portfolios include Focus Media, DivX, Beijing Xinwei, Bridge Pharmaceutical, Cardiva Medical, Commerce One, Celestry, Intraware, iKang Healthcare, MJ Group, Panorama Stock, SirF, 3G.cn, Maxthon and Verisilicon etc. More information is at: http://www.wiharper.com