Corley Philips – Chair
Corley Phillips is the founder of American River Ventures, a $100M venture capital fund investing in early-stage information technology companies. He founded the firm in 2000 and retired as Managing Director in 2008. From 1993 to the founding of ARV, Corley was an active private stage investor in Northern California start-up companies.
Leadership
Prior to his activities as an investor, Mr. Phillips had a distinguished entrepreneurial career. From 1990 until its successful merger with a public company at the end of 1994, he served as President and CEO of Manzanita Software Systems, an accounting software company based in Roseville, CA.
As with many residents of the Sierra foothills, Corley has business roots in Silicon Valley. From 1984 to 1990, he was President and co-founder of Grafpoint, a communications software company based in San Jose, California. He previously held various sales and marketing positions with Envision Technology and Hewlett-Packard.
Corley retired so he could fish and sing more. He fishes all over the world, and sings with a local barbershop chorus, the Stay Tuned a Capella Chorus, and several quartets. He and his wife Patricia have lived in Granite Bay since 1996. Corley is registered with the Common Sense Party the founders of which, including former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-San Jose), are pushing for centrist policies and more civil discourse.