Santa Clara University

GSBI - Bob Dench Bio

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Robert Dench
Lead Mentor 2009
Private Investor

Robert Dench has a broad multi-functional business background with an emphasis on acquiring, starting up, managing and reorganizing companies. He specializes in proprietary and differentiated industrial product and/or service companies. Bob received a BS Engineering from San Jose State University in 1955 and an MBA from Santa Clara University in 1965. 

After serving as a Navy jet fighter pilot and working in flight research at NASA, he spent ten years in operations management positions with FMC Corporation.  He lead a leveraged buy-out of NIECO which transformed it into a leading manufacturing company in proprietary automated cooking equipment for the food service industry.  NIECO was sold to Alco Standard in 1985. He then co-founded Western Precooling Systems, the dominate provider of post harvest cooling and related services for perishable agricultural products.  He remains active in its management.  Bob then acquired and reorganized Magnuson Engineers.

He has since moved into  venture capital and held a co-founder's equity position in the predecessor to Crosspoint Venture Partners, an investment banking firm and founding stockholder of Needham and Company.  He served 10 years as a director of the publicly traded Pacific Bank and as senior advisor to Mario Gabelli's private LBO partnership. As a private investor he funded and was an active director of numerous companies.
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