Manuel Henriquez
CEO Manuel Henriquez, a native of the Dominican Republic, was building businesses long before he entered the workforce. For three years in high school, through the junior achievement program he and a team of peers created and ran simulated companies. That piqued his interest in business, and when it came time for college, Henriquez gravitated towards Northeastern with its experiential learning opportunities. “It was a logical choice for me,” he says.
Northeastern’s co-op program fed into Henriquez’s innate business sense. And co-ops at Bank of Boston and Boston Company gave him great insight into what he didn’t want to do: accounting. “But I learned it’s important to meet the right people,” says Henriquez. “You learn from your mentors.”
After graduating from Northeastern, his entrepreneurial spirit put him on the path to his current position as cofounder, chairman, and CEO of the Palo Alto, California-based Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc., which provides capital to technology and life sciences companies. Prior to cofounding Hercules, Henriquez was a partner at VantagePoint Venture Partners, a $2.5 billion multi-stage venture capital firm, where he was an active equity investor and board member of many leading communications and software companies. Before that, he held numerous senior-level positions at various investment and financial firms. He has also founded several technology companies including HealthyPets, acquired by Petopia.com.
