Emerick Woods: Leadership and Venture Capital

This case is used in the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital class. Its purpose is to present to students: • The not-so-frequently discussed reality of when venture capitalist board members see a company’s performance deteriorate drastically to the point where they need to replace the CEO with a turn-around leader. • The steps that the turn-around CEO must take to attempt to nourish a company back to health. • How a turnaround CEO must wrestle with the expectations of an active Board of Directors The case is divided into two real-life vignettes. The first vignette is on a company called Vicinity; the second is on a company called Aligo. The Board of Directors of each company is not populated by the same members; the turnaround CEO is the same, Emerick Woods.