Ethan Ayer Joins Milestone Venture Partners as Partner to Help Invest Newly-Raised $54mm Fund

Business Wire, Nov 1, 2007

NEW YORK -- Milestone Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm, today announced the addition of a new General Partner, Ethan D. Ayer, a 10-year veteran of venture capital and recent Managing Director of One Equity Partners, the private equity arm of JPMorgan. He will be focusing on new media, wireless, software, and interactive marketing opportunities. His first investment for Milestone is Worktopia, an online direct booking engine for corporate meeting space.

Prior to joining Milestone, Ayer invested over $250 million in leading IT-enabled services, next-generation communications and information security companies, including Cybertrust, Inc., which was recently acquired by Verizon Business Services. He began his career in structured finance at Merrill Lynch before joining two early-stage, New York metro-area venture capital firms. He then joined One Equity Partners.

Edwin Goodman, co-founder of Milestone Venture Partners, said, "We feel extremely fortunate to have Ethan join Milestone. He brings diverse, complementary investment experience and greatly expands our reach within the entrepreneurial ecosystem - a critical ingredient for venture investment success." Todd Pietri, also a co-founder, added, "Ethan is a perfect fit with Milestone given his ties to the New York venture community and his ability to add value to early-stage companies."

Ayer joins General Partners Richard Dumler, Ed Goodman, and Todd Pietri at Milestone, a group whose prior investments include Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), ADVO, Inc. (NYSE: AD), Actmedia, Kronos (Nasdaq: KRON), Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS), and Sungard Data Systems. Mr. Ayer holds a BA from Harvard College and an MA from Cambridge University, UK.

About Milestone Venture Partners

Milestone Venture Partners, located in New York City, is an early-stage venture capital fund with $70 million under management. Milestone's investment strategy is focused on capital-efficient, technology-enhanced services businesses in the Greater New York region. Areas of expertise include media, marketing services, healthcare IT, and financial services IT.

For more information, call (212) 223-7400, visit www.milestonevp.com or write to Milestone Venture Partners, 551 Madison Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022.