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Name: Stephen Miller
Title: Director of Venture Development
Years at Venture Partners: 3

Q: Tell us a little about yourself!
A: I grew up a Hollywood brat (my mom worked for the movie studios way back when), but Colorado has been my home for many years. I came to Denver/��«����Ƶ for college and never left! My main interests are beverages (my friends consider me a “wino,” but I also enjoy tequila, bourbon, and scotch) and travel. My wife Alix (of Greek ancestry) and I try to see as much of the world as possible every year. I’ve also spent the better part of the last three years tracing my ancestry back to the 1400’s. Mostly Scottish and Swiss, but we found a little German, French and Norwegian thrown in!

Q: What led you to this career and working at Venture Partners?
A: An economist by education and training, I led the entrepreneurship program at the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver when I initially connected with Venture Partners. Having founded two technology incubators prior to going into higher education, joining the Venture Partners team was the perfect fit!

Q: What is your role at Venture Partners? Tell us more about what you do.
A: My role is to help accelerate our faculty startups by connecting them with mentors, resources and capital. I support the Commercialization Academy by recruiting mentors and advisors for their groundbreaking programming and launched Destination Startup in 2019, a collaboration among leading research universities and federal laboratories across the Rocky Mountain region to showcase the best companies from our innovation ecosystem to investors.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job and what do you like most about working on the Venture Partners team?
A: We have the best job in the world! We get access to the latest, most innovative, technologies in the world at or near their conception and have the privilege of fostering these great ideas into viable products, catalysts and companies. But what do I like most? The Venture Partners team itself. It’s the most committed, high-integrity, ultra high-performance team I’ve ever been associated with, and the people are some of best I’ve ever known. I feel blessed to be a part of it all.

Q: What's one place on your bucket list that you have to visit?
A: Down Under—Australia & New Zealand.