- Strategic Partners
- Archie Clemins
Venture Partner - Dick Strayer
Special Limited Partner - Matt Oppenheimer
Entrepreneur in Residence
A strong network at your disposal
Stategic Partners
Our team comprises Highway 12 Ventures management, our advisory board, and our close affiliation with Village Ventures. In shaping this team, we’ve created a national network of close relationships which provides our portfolio companies with an extension to their own capabilities. Our team includes seasoned executives and entrepreneurs who represent a broad range of industries and operational experience. We pride ourselves on actively leveraging our experience, network and relationships in an effort to be a valuable partner. Lastly, the relationships we’ve forged with many other top venture firms provide another critical ingredient for your future growth: access to later-stage capital as your company continues its upward trajectory and its financing needs increase.
Archie Clemins
Venture Partner
Archie Clemins is the founder and President of Caribou Technologies, Inc., an international consulting firm. His specialty is alliance building, with a focus on business opportunities within the Government, where commercial technologies present optimum enterprise solutions. Clients include several Fortune 500 companies. Archie’s role at Highway 12 Ventures is to help our portfolio companies with applicable technologies build alliances with the US Government.
Archie serves on the Board of Directors for Global Crossing (GLBC), Healthwise, The Software Revolution, Positron Systems, and Vector Security Acquisition Corporation; is the Chairman of Advanced Electron Beams; and assists several small technology companies, often serving on their advisory boards. Additionally, he is on the Governor’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee for the State of Idaho and the Board of Directors for the University of Illinois Alumni Association. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Illinois and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Archie received his Bachelor of Science (BS) and Masters of Science (MS) degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois. Commissioned into the United States Navy through the University’s Naval Reserve Officer’s Training Program, he completed the Naval Nuclear Power Program and served on ballistic missile and attack submarines and commanded the USS POGY (SSN647). He was subsequently the Commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, headquartered in Yokosuka, Japan, and he concluded his military career as the Commander of the U. S. Pacific Fleet and retired from active duty in December 1999. During his last three major commands he initiated several key endeavors involving change management and information technology.
After spending most of their adult lives in and around the oceans of the world, Archie and his wife Marilyn fell in love with the mountains of Idaho and now reside in Boise.
Dick Strayer
Special Limited Partner
Dick Strayer is a professional advisor or special limited partner to six venture capital firms, including Highway 12 Ventures. Dick has over 25 years of organizational consulting experience in over 300 high technology companies. His professional expertise lies in organizational and executive development, particularly founder transitions, top-management team building, and CEO coaching. Dick received his MA & PhD in Psychology from Claremont Graduate School. His Post-Doctorate, with a focus on clinical and organizational behavior, was done at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. He received his MBA from Boston University.
“A focused and cohesive start up team can out think, out develop and produce a product faster than any large company team… It’s a matter of raw competency, desire and willingness to sacrifice.”
Matt Oppenheimer
Entrepreneur in Residence
Matt brings significant international and financial technology experience to Highway 12 Ventures, most recently with Barclays PLC in the United Kingdom, Western Europe, and Africa. Matt led the internet and mobile banking efforts for Barclays Bank Kenya where he launched internet banking and assisted with the expansion of mobile banking services across Barclays Africa.
Prior to joining Barclays, Matt was a Senior Consulting Associate at Cambridge Associates where he provided investment consulting services to primarily endowed non-profits and specialized in venture capital and private equity. In May 2011 Matt founded Beamit Mobile (www.beamitmobile.com), which enables immigrants to use their mobile phone in the USA to instantaneously send money back to a mobile phone in their home country.
Matt is a Boise, Idaho native and a proud graduate of Boise High School. After Boise High, Matt received a B.A. in Psychology from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. It is the first time Matt has lived in the Pacific Northwest for over 10 years so when he is not at work you can probably find him cycling in the mountains or generally enjoying the outdoors.