A little-known "star" in the world of venture capital
Mr. Diethelm Höner is the anchor investor of Nextech Venture, L.P..
Neue Zürcher Zeitung Zurich, Switzerland, February 3./4. 2001 By Jakob Nüesch and Alfred Scheidegger (translation of the article)
The German-American entrepreneur Diethelm B. Höner, who played a central role on the Swiss venture capital scene, died on January 17 at the age of 60 as a result of an accident. Rather shy and restrained in dealing with the media and the public, Höner had an illustrious career as investment banker (primarily with Morgan Stanley), after studying business management and law in Cologne, Göttingen, and Berkeley, California. Since 1980 he has been among the handful of people who decisively and successfully shaped the development of venture capital in the US. For example, the venture capital funds Sevin Rosen and Healthcare Ventures were founded with his starting capital. Out of these ventures, other firms such as Compaq Computer, Lotus Development, MedImmune, and Human Genome Sciences, developed. Roughly 200000 new jobs were created through these companies in which Höner directly or indirectly held and equity stake and which are capitalized at the stock exchange with approx. USD 150 billion.
The economic stagnation of Europe in the 1990s and the concomitant increase in unemployment gave rise to fears that demand would exceed the resources of public funds. This prompted Höner to apply the American model of entrepreneurial dynamics, which had been so successful, to the European situation. Höner selected Switzerland as his basis for this project, and in 1996 he launched the lecture series "Innovation - Venture Capital - Jobs" at the ETHZ and the university of St. Gall. With these lectures he succeeded in giving a new impetus to fundamental discussions of the "eternal triangle" of entrepreneurs, democracy and level of employment.
Additional initiatives, such as the business plan contest "Venture 98" and his start-up help for a knowledge and his visionary faith in high technology and biotechnology as well as his intellectual and financial engagement for lasting, economically significant programs earned him public recognition on the highest levels. Bill Clinton honored Höner for his important contribution to German-American relations; in Germany, Roman Herzog decorated him with the order of Merit of the Federal Republic for establishing the foundation for the "Deutscher Zukunftspreis" (German Future Prize), and the ETHZ conferred on Diethelm B. Höner the title "Permanent Guest of Honor."