Larry Lopez is a Partner at Perth based Australian Venture Consultants, a solution driven management consulting practice focused on creating successful commercial outcomes for innovative projects, companies and institutions. AVC provides its clients with a unique service based on the insights it has acquired through hands on experience and engagements in all elements of the innovation ecosystem.
Lopez is also Co-Founder of RedDog Capital Partners, an institutional advisor providing exclusive Australian representation to a publicly traded US financial institution.
Prior to moving to Australia in 2006, Lopez spent 17 years at SVB Financial Group, a publicly traded US bank holding company (NASDAQ: SIVB). During his tenure at SVB he played a key role in growing the company from a small San Jose, California based community bank to a global leader in providing financial services for knowledge based companies. Over the years he held numerous senior and executive positions.
He served on various management committees of the Bank including the Bank’s Loan Committee, Information Technology Committee, Internet Committee, International Committee, Joint Leadership Committee and Employee Recognition Committee. He also participated in the acquisition, divestiture and creation of several of the company’s operating businesses.
In 2003, he produced an award winning documentary, Silicon Valley Bank: Reinventing an Industry, Financing the Future, to commemorate the Bank’s twenty-year anniversary.
Before retiring from the Bank in 2006, Lopez was Managing Director at SVB Capital, the venture capital and private equity arm of Silicon Valley Bank. SVB Capital manages over one billion dollars in venture capital and private equity through its direct investment funds and funds of funds. During Lopez’s tenure, beginning in 1997, the group made over 300 investments.
In 2004 and 2005 Larry was President of SVB Private Bank, the private banking division of Silicon Valley Bank and President of Woodside Asset Management, the Bank’s wealth management subsidiary.
Prior to taking the helm of SVB Private Bank, Larry was Managing Director of SVB Securities, a corporate and institutional asset management company with US$8.5 billion under management. At SVB Securities he was responsible for strategic planning, product development, vendor management, sales management and regulatory compliance. He also co-managed the creation of an NASD broker/dealer and the planning, development and implementation of a major IT systems conversion. Lopez obtained an NASD Series 7 license (Registered Representative) and Series 24 license (Supervisory Principal), and SEC Series 65 (Registered Investment Advisor).
Lopez was the Founder and Managing Director of SVB’s International Venture Capital Group (SVB Global Financial Services), where he was responsible for working with foreign venture capitalists, investors and businesses to facilitate foreign technology and life science companies interested in expanding to the United States. In this capacity he was also responsible for the Bank’s foreign venture capital activities and investments in Europe, Australia, Israel and New Zealand. Larry also worked with government agencies in Australia, England, Israel, Sweden and New Zealand to assist investment communities with the development of venture capital policy and investment models to enhance growth in emerging technology and life science sectors. As MD of the International Venture Capital Group he was also responsible for developing and managing the Bank’s strategic alliances.
Lopez was Managing Director of the Bank’s Special Industries Group, prior to founding the International Venture Group.
Before joining Silicon Valley Bank in 1989, Lopez held various positions in international and corporate Banking at Bank of the West, a wholly subsidiary of BNP, and The Pacific Bank, an independent commercial bank in San Francisco.
In 2007, Larry was appointed Chairman of the Organizing Committee of Brilliant West Week and the Leading Lights Investment and Innovation Conference by the Premier of Western Australia, Alan Carpenter. In this capacity, Lopez organized a number of successful events focused on innovation and investment opportunities in WA. Through his network of friends, he was able to attract a number of high profile international speakers including Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak.
In 2004 Lopez was appointed by the United States Department of Commerce to represent the US venture capital industry on the Australia-US Working Group on Venture Capital, a joint initiative of the Australian Department of Industry and Resources and the US Department of Commerce. The group presented a final report on policy issues relating to the financing of innovative businesses. The report was presented to cabinet level officials in both governments.
Lopez has extensive experience speaking at industry conferences, and working with government agencies and the media. He has been featured in numerous print articles and on BBC World and Bloomberg Financial live broadcasts on stories related to the globalisation of venture capital.
As a guest lecturer, he has lectured on entrepreneurship, financing start-up companies and global venture capital at various universities including Stanford Graduate School of Business, Oxford University, the Hass School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, the American Graduate School of Management and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
He is one of the founders of the ANZA Technology Network, and served as non-executive Chairman of Steele Productions in Belmont, California and Atrico in Perth, Australia. He was on the investment committee at the IdeaHub in London and on the Advisory Boards of eChron in Stockholm, Crossbow Ventures in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Bandwidth Capital and Blumberg Capital in San Francisco. Lopez is currently Chairman of the Commercial Advisory Committee of National Center of Excellence in Desalination in Perth and Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Immunology & Infectious Diseases at Murdoch University. Larry is also a non-Executive Director of bluchiip Ltd, a Melbourne based tracking solutions company.
Larry is an active member of the local community, and has participated in a number of non-profit and charity boards and initiatives.
Lopez earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Menlo College and is a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. In 1980 Lopez completed a six-month internship at the Council for Inter-American Security in Washington, DC, where he focused on open market economic policy in developing Latin American economies. Larry is fluent in Spanish and English.