About

Corporate Growth. It's what we help you drive.

Our History

Venadar, derived from the contraction of “Venture – Radar”, was the brainchild of Mark Kaiser in 2005. Mark, a seasoned entrepreneur and a former public company CEO, recognized that large companies struggled with growth and innovation. His insight was that entrepreneurs were good at creating and innovating, while large corporations were good at scaling—so bringing them together in collaborative relationships could accelerate growth. In Venadar he created the capability of looking at the future through an “entrepreneurial lens” for the purposes of identifying, targeting, acquiring, and scaling new technologies, products, services and skillsets through partnerships, investments and acquisitions.

Keith Cowan, a former C-level officer responsible for strategy and corporate development at Sprint, BellSouth Corporation, and Genuine Parts Company, acquired Venadar and became Venadar’s CEO in 2019.

Keith had mostly focused on large transformational joint ventures and acquisitions through his career (with an aggregate transactional value of well over $500 billion), but he saw the Venadar capabilities as something that was always missing from his playbook — a unique “bridge” and “gap filler” between corporate strategy and corporate development that could drive a series of ongoing investments in growth and innovation for the benefit of both business units and the corporate parent company.

Keith also envisioned that these capabilities, in addition to serving F500 companies, might be of extraordinary benefit to private equity firms and their sponsored companies.

The Venadar team now fills an undeniable gap in the business services market — the huge void between the strategic work of large consulting firms and the transactional services of large investment banks — by accelerating the execution of mission critical partnerships and acquisitions delivering innovation and growth.

Since 2005, Venadar has successfully helped over 45 Fortune 500, private equity backed, and special purpose acquisition companies, along with countless other businesses across dozens of industries, transform, expand and innovate their services and products to generate significant revenue growth.

We get a lot more value from Venadar than we ever got from the consulting companies we use. The others just regurgitated what we told them, Venadar gives us new thinking and actionable opportunities to drive growth."
Executive OfficerFortune 15 Telecommunications Company
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Our Leadership Team

We combine global expertise and local insight to help you
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Keith Cowan

Chief Executive Officer

A three-time F200 lead strategist and head dealmaker who liked the Venadar process and capabilities so much “He bought the Company!” A CEO’s CEO “go-to” man with solutions ahead of the vast majority seeing the problem, too late to make the best move.
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Vice PresidentBecky Volandt

A professionally purposeful person who leaves no detail unaddressed when determining how Venadar can best serve the needs of its clients
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Director, Market IntelligenceBrooke Bender

The "Venadar Encyclopedia" and information collector who organizes and contextualizes entrepreneurial activity
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Chief Operating OfficerBrian Dorrien

The master mind behind it all who listens to the quiet voices and sees the big picture
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Vice PresidentSally Cohen

She has worked for some of the most famous brands in the world: from beverages to telcos
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Head of People Operations & SystemsNepanji Davis

The discoverer of top talent who nurtures and manages the best in everyone all while being our "Tech Whisperer"
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Senior Managing DirectorEric Ohlhausen

A global explorer whose eagle-eye spots opportunities and ensures we fulfill them flawlessly
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