Chizen

Former Adobe Systems Chief Executive Bruce Chizen has joined Voyager Capital as a venture partner, a high-profile addition which gives the Seattle venture capital firm a well known technology executive in Silicon Valley.

Chizen, who served as CEO of Adobe from 2000 to 2007, joined the venture firm's advisory board last year. But in the new part-time position, the 54-year-old will take a more active role in finding new startups and assisting Voyager's current portfolio companies.

"I look at the past year with Voyager as an opportunity to date before I got engaged and married," said Chizen. "I've been really cautious about picking up any new activities after I stepped down from Adobe... Over the last year I've been working with Voyager, and I really liked it."

Chizen has known Voyager co-founder Bill McAleer for 15 years, with the two meeting at Aldus in 1994 just before Adobe acquired the Seattle software maker.

In his new role, Chizen said he plans to spend time evaluating deals in the software and digital media sectors. Those are areas where he has deep experience given his 13-year career at Adobe.

Bringing on the Silicon Valley exec will help cement Voyager's west coast strategy. The firm now has four venture partners spread between Seattle, Portland and Silicon Valley, including recent additions such as Geoff Entress in Seattle and Diane Fraiman in Portland.

The tech communities in Seattle, Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area form one "connected ecosystem," said McAleer. And having well known venture partners on the street in each of those markets serves the firm well in terms of getting portfolio companies introduced to the right people or organizations.

"I think the advantage that we have is the ability to leverage some of the relationships in Portland, and probably even more importantly Seattle with folks like Microsoft and Amazon," said Chizen.

At this point, Chizen already sits on the board of one Voyager portfolio company: Portland-based Elemental Technologies.

Chizen is actively looking for new deals, though he admits the hardest part of the job will be finding the true startup gems in the Bay Area.

"The opportunity is many, and the biggest challenge is picking the right one," he said.

Chizen will be based in the firm's Silicon Valley office, which opened in 2000 under the direction of Curtis Feeny.

Voyager raised an $110 million fund in 2006, and has invested about half of the money in 11 companies so far.