The members of the OCA Ventures team have a passion for building
early-stage companies into market leaders, have long histories working
with one another, and share common core personal and professional
beliefs, while at the same time contributing different skills and
perspectives.
This cohesive group has close business and personal relationships
dating back more than 25 years. John Dugan, Peter Ianello and Marc
Berman were partners in the 1980s when they led O’Connor &
Associates. Jim Dugan is John Dugan’s third son and Eddie Lou and Jason
Heltzer both joined the team in 2001.
David W. Lobdell -
Mr. Lobdell currently manages the family office for an ultra high net
worth Chicago based family. He is responsible for managing the
family’s private equity portfolio, real estate and personal
investments. Mr. Lobdell co-founded ForeFront Capital Management, LLC,
a Chicago based venture capital firm in 1998 and served as Managing
Partner until it became inactive in 2003. During 2001-2002, Mr. Lobdell
served in a senior executive position with All Optical Networks, Inc.,
a San Diego based technology start up which was a portfolio company of
ForeFront Capital. From 1996-1998, Mr. Lobdell was engaged by Monsanto
Co., as part of a team that was active in creating and managing
non-core business groups within Monsanto’s healthcare business. From
1992-1996, Mr. Lobdell served in both legal and executive business
positions with Caremark International, Inc., a Fortune 500 managed care
and prescription benefit manager. From 1987-1992, Mr. Lobdell was an
associate with several Chicago based law firms---concentrating on
corporate, banking, M&A and venture matters. Mr. Lobdell graduated
from Beloit College in 1984 (cum laude) with a Bachelor of Arts in
Economics and Management and from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
with a Juris Doctorate in 1987.