Advance Man: The Life and Times of Harry Hoagland

In 2005, Boston's Newbury Street Press published my biography of Henry Williamson Hoagland Jr. (Harry), Advance Man: The Life and Times of Harry Hoagland . In the course of his professional career, Harry was a pioneering venture capital executive and presidential advance man (for President Eisenhower), founding partner of Fidelity Ventures, and a generous and prolific philanthropist. Harry Hoagland was a venture capital success, as he was at other fields, because he worked hard to exploit opportunities, even in the face of resistance from others. For example, "General" Georges Doriot, the founder of American Research and Development Corporation (the first publicly held venture capital company), and Harry's mentor, was never particularly keen on developing new business for ARD in regions of the country outside of the Northeast U.S. But having grown up in the Rocky Mountains and on the West Coast, this was a distinct advantage Harry could give A.R.D., and he worked ha...