Millennium Technology Ventures Adds Max Chee to Investment Team

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 16, 2005--Millennium Technology Ventures announced today that Max Chee has joined the firm's growing team of investment professionals as a Principal.

Millennium is a New York-based family of private equity funds managed by Dan Burstein and Sam Schwerin, which currently includes Millennium Technology Ventures, L.P. and Millennium Technology Value Partners, L.P.

Millennium employs a unique and innovative value-centric approach to venture capital and technology investing. Central to this philosophy is the firm's proactive partnership approach to providing liquidity to corporate, financial and individual partners who are interested in divesting, winding-down, rebalancing, and managing illiquid venture capital assets they have previously acquired. In addition, Millennium regularly reviews a broad range of value-oriented opportunities from bankruptcy and restructuring situations to corporate spin-offs of non-core assets, founder and management liquidity programs, select special situation public market investments and limited partnership investments in the secondary market. The firm has completed numerous transactions with partners ranging from Scientific-Atlanta to Bowman Capital, Alliance Capital Management and the Exodus Communications bankruptcy estate.

"The type of investment we are making requires a high level of sophistication and talent in traditional private equity investing, as well as knowledge of the venture marketplace and how to provide hands-on assistance to venture-backed growth companies," observed Sam Schwerin, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Millennium. "Max Chee's extensive experience prior to and during the years he was at Mellon Ventures, including his deep involvement with leading technology companies in the Mellon portfolio, equips him with a terrific suite of skills, relationships, and experiences that complement those of Millennium."

Added Max Chee, "I am extremely excited about joining Millennium. The traditional models for how to do venture capital seem to be undergoing significant change and Millennium has demonstrated a consistent ability to innovate and lead the path of structural change taking place in capital markets. The strategy of the fund—focusing on value investing and mitigating risk while enhancing returns—is a uniquely well-designed strategy for this decade."

Chee comes to Millennium from Mellon Ventures, a $1.4 billion private equity partnership sponsored by Mellon Financial Corporation, which he joined in 1999. Most recently, he led Mellon's technology and business services investment practice in the Southeast region from a base in Atlanta. To that end, he led or was actively involved with 15 early and expansion stage investments for Mellon, representing over $80 million in invested capital. These companies were in sectors that included enterprise software, business services, communications, IT infrastructure, and traditional growth capital. Chee was involved at the board level with ten companies while at Mellon and was responsible for some of Mellon's most promising investments, including Wave7 Optics, Integreo, and Mailnet Services.

"Max Chee has been an invaluable partner to me and has added a tremendous amount of value at the board level," said Satish Sanan, Chairman and CEO of Integreo. "His hands-on involvement with our acquisition strategy and capital raising, among other things, has helped further our goal to be a major player in the business process outsourcing space."

Prior to joining Mellon Ventures, Max Chee was an investment banker at Salomon Brothers in New York City in the Financial Institutions Group. He also worked in Salomon's Asia-Pacific Investment Banking Group in Hong Kong covering corporate clients throughout Asia. Prior to Salomon Brothers, Max was an accountant at Arthur Andersen. He received his Bachelor of Commerce degree in Finance with Honors from Queen's University in Canada and an M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dan Burstein, Founder and Managing Partner of the firm's traditional venture fund, Millennium Technology Ventures, L.P. and Co-Founder of Millennium Technology Value Partners, L.P., noted, "We are in the process of building a platform for creative, dynamic, and talented people. I am extremely proud of the team we have built thus far and Max Chee is a great addition. I am confident he will help us pursue our goal of being ahead of the curve when measuring brainpower under management divided by capital under management."