TheDeal.com
Jim Ward, a venture partner with VC firm Alsop Louie Partners, wants to go to Washington. Ward, formerly president of video game company LucasArts and chief of marketing, distribution and online at Lucas Film Ltd. (LucasArts' parent company), is planning a run for Arizona's 5th Congressional Dstrict on the Republican side of the House of Representatives. Ward is gunning for the seat currently held by Democrat Harry Mitchell.
His experience with LucasArts, which produced cool games including "Star Wars Lego" and "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed," has sent ripples through the gaming blogosphere.
He's also a former ad man who worked on big product introductions. including Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) PowerBook and Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 95.
Alsop Louie Partners is a small but high-profile early-stage tech investment firm based in San Francisco and created by self-described gadfly and former NEA general partner Stewart Alsop and Gilman Louie, who formed In-Q-Tel (and, though he's considered the "geek" of the duo, also takes an opinionated stand here and there).
It isn't clear how active Ward has been as a VC, though he is mentioned on Alsop Louie's site as sitting on the board of Alamofire Inc., a maker of social games for the Web and one of the firm's portfolio companies.
If Ward succeeds in his bid, he'll join a few other VCs who have gotten footholds in our nation's capital, including new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who is the co-founder of tech incubator LaunchBox Digital and a former managing director of Rock Creek Ventures, and John Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer partner who was tapped to sit on the Obama administration's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. - Olaf de Senerpont Domis
