Mr Alan Patricof joined Ceres as a Senior Advisor in February 2019.

Mr Patricof is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Greycroft Partners LLC, a venture capital and growth equity firm in New York city. Mr Patricof founded Greycroft Partners in 2006 to invest in leading early and expansion stage investments in digital media.  With offices in New York and Los Angeles, Greycroft runs and invests from multiple early stage to growth equity funds, and has US$1B+ under management.

With a 40-plus year career in venture capital, Alan has been instrumental in growing the venture capital field from a base of high net-worth individuals to its position today with broad institutional backing, as well as playing a key role in the essential legislative initiatives that have guided its evolution. He has helped build and foster the growth of numerous major global companies, including, among others, Apple Computer (Alan gave Steve Jobs his first institutional check of $300K), America Online (AOL), Office Depot, Cadence Systems, Cellular Communications, Inc., FORE Systems, NTL, IntraLinks, and Audible.

In 2004, Mr. Patricof stepped back from the daily administration and operational aspects of APAX Partners LLP to concentrate on a group of small venture deals on its behalf.

He then created APAX Partners in 1981, the international arm of Patricof & Co. which stands for Alan Patricof Associates International. APAX is today one of the world’s leading private equity firms with more than US$51 billion managed.

A longtime innovator and advocate for venture capital, Alan entered the industry in its formative days when he created Patricof & Co. Ventures Inc. in 1969 in New York and pioneer the field.

He is also a founder and chairman of the board of New York magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice and New West magazine.

Alan is active in the New York and Washington communities.  He is a board member of the Finance Committee of Northside Center for Child Development in Harlem and the Board of Overseers of Columbia School of Business.  He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  In October 2013, he was appointed as a Member of the President’s Global Development Council by Barack Obama.  From 2007 to 2012, he served two terms on the board of Millennium Challenge Corporation, having been appointed by Presidents Bush and Obama respectively.  From 1993 to 1995, he served as Chairman of the White House Conference on Small Business Commission in The Clinton Administration.  In addition, he is a former board member of TechnoServe, Trickle Up Program, Global Advisory Board of Endeavor, Applied Sciences NYC Advisory Board, and the Initiative for Global Development (IGD) Leadership Council. He is currently an advisor to Disney’s Accelerator Program.

In 2020, the French President Emmanuel Macron awarded Mr Patricof the Insignes de Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur.

Alan holds a BS in Finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is married to his wife Susan for over forty years; he has three children and seven grandchildren.