New team to guide Canopy

Canopy Venture Partners introduced its new management team Thursday, ushering in a new era for the Lindon-based venture capital firm — one that brings both a renewed focus on growing Utah's fledgling tech sector and a reaffirmation of Canopy's stature in the industry.

Ron Heinz, former president and chief executive of Helius Inc., a Canopy portfolio company, was named executive manager of Canopy Venture Partners. Heinz will remain executive chairman of Helius. Brandon Tidwell will serve as general counsel and Canopy's director of finance.

The team succeeds former chief executive Bill Mustard, a New York-based executive, who took over following the ouster of three executives in December 2004, and the subsequent legal wranglings between the trio and the company. The lawsuits were settled in March 2005, and the company has been largely silent since then.

On Thursday, Heinz demurred when asked about Canopy's dramatic recent history, preferring to focus on the company's potential.

"Brandon (Tidwell) and I are just starting this week at Canopy, so I think we'd all be better served talking about our goals and objectives," Heinz said. "My interest in Canopy is really to be involved in what I think is a very exciting group of companies. There are 13 portfolio companies that

make up Canopy Venture 1. And we want not only to focus on what it is today — we want to take a longer-term view of what we can accomplish with Canopy in Utah's tech sector."

Canopy was founded in 1995 by technology legend Ray Noorda, who wanted to support Utah's nascent tech industry. At its pinnacle, the company's portfolio — reportedly valued at more than $300 million — topped 30 companies.

Despite the travails of the last few years, Heinz said Canopy is sufficiently capitalized and ready to move forward. He declined to specify how much money is available to invest, except to say that it is "a nice amount."

According to Heinz, he and Tidwell will work together to nurture Canopy's portfolio companies, either by sitting on boards of directors or providing other guidance — in setting up deals and managing growth, for example, or increasing efficiency and optimizing operations.

The team's vision is "very much in line with the original vision of Canopy that the Noorda family brought and still has for the company," Tidwell said.

In a statement released Thursday, Canopy managing members John Noorda and Andy Noorda added their support for the new team.