Joe Caruso

“Advocate for entrepreneurs”

For the last 20 years Joe has served as mentor, coach, and personal advisor to CEO’s and entrepreneurs. In recent years, he has served as investor, advisor and active director with dozens of companies, public and private.

Joe is currently a director and active investor in Boston MicroMachines and i2Chem. He is a member of CommonAngels and eCoast Angels, and was previously a principal in Walnut Ventures and a Managing Partner of Brookwood Partners, all investment groups for early stage companies. He also maintains an active consulting practice dealing with structuring and negotiation of acquisitions, strategic partnerships and financings, and issues related to dispute resolution.

He has served on dozens of boards over the years and is recipient of the Leadership in Private Corporate Governance award from the National Association of Corporate Directors New England Chapter. He is a graduate of Northeastern University (BSEE with honors) and the Harvard Business School (MBA) He is an advisor to Northeastern’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, and serves as a mentor for Boston University's entrepreneurship program and for the Boston TechStars program.

Previously, Joe served as interim CEO for companies in need of strategic change - running businesses ranging from 5 to 1,000 employees. Early in his career, he worked at Teradyne and Autex, Inc., and was CEO at Cyborg Corporation, a venture-funded company that was a pioneer in the use of PC’s in laboratory and factory automation. He also has served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

Former board memberships include: ACT Medical, Acumenta, Adhesive Technologies, American Fantasy Sports, Audiofile, Boston Restaurant Associates, Boston University's Photonics Center (advisory director), Coffee Connection, Colonial Mills, Common Angels, Corion, Cyborg Corporation, General Analysis, Haymarket Bank, Iconics, Laser Science, Metrisa, MicroE, Nimbit, Qiave Technologies, QD Vision, Quant Funds (trustee); Tytronics, Wwwhoosh, Zentox, the Turnaround Management Association (founding director, New England Chapter), the National Association of Corporate Directors (New England Chapter), the Association for Corporate Growth (New England Chapter) and WEST (Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology). Joe has also served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.