Donald Spero is a Managing Director of the New Markets Growth Fund, a $20 million venture capital fund which was launched in 2003 under his leadership. It invests in early stage companies in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia. He is also Professor of the Practice of Entrepreneurship at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. From 2000 to 2004 Dr. Spero served as Director of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland. Since its inception in 1986, the Dingman Center, www.rhsmith.umd.edu/dingman, has become a pre-eminent center for entrepreneurship education and outreach in the mid-Atlantic region.

Dr. Spero comes from the private sector where he was Principal of Spero Quality Strategies (SQS), providing seed capital and mentoring for entrepreneurs. Prior to starting SQS in 1992, Dr. Spero served for 21 years as the founder, president and CEO of Fusion Systems Corporation, supplying high technology manufacturing systems to global customers in telecommunications, semiconductor manufacturing, printing, packaging, automotive and other industries. The company conducted a successful IPO and was later acquired by Eaton Corporation. Dr. Spero directed the development of Fusion’s technology, business strategy and operational structure. He led the company’s global development and its aggressive approach to protection of intellectual property, on which he authored an article in The Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Spero earned his bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University. He did post-doctoral work in Physics at the University of Maryland, where his research led to the development of high intensity microwave lamps which became the core technology for Fusion Systems.

Dr. Spero serves on a number of corporate and non-profit boards. He is married and the father of two. He was a U.S. national rowing champion several times over, a member of the U. S. 1964 Olympic team, and winner of the 1966 World Championships in single sculls. Dr. Spero participates in masters rowing and barbershop quartet singing.