Jeff Rusinow

Jeff Rusinow has been an active member of the early-stage venture capital community in the Midwest since 2000, when he founded Milwaukee’s first angel network, Silicon Pastures. He earlier spent 22 years in retail management, holding senior executive positions at Macy’s, Gimbel’s, the Hudson Bay Company and Kohl’s Department Stores, where he served as an Executive Vice President until leaving corporate mainstream in 2000.

Jeff has been on the Board of Directors of a number of private and public companies, as well as non-profits, over the past several years. To date, his highlights: Jeff was Chairman and lead investor of Internet retailer BUYSEASONS, Inc., which owns and manages the largest retailer of costumes in the world, BuyCostumes.com. BUYSEASONS was acquired in 2006 by Liberty Media. In addition, Jeff is Chairman and lead investor of ModernMed, a healthcare services provider, which was sold in January, 2012 to Paladina Health, a subsidiary of DaVita.

Jeff is also Chairman and lead investor of Aurora Spectral Technologies, a tech spin-off out of the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He is also on the board of Death’s Door Spirits and Asthmapolis, both based in Madison, Wisconsin. He is also on the board and lead investor of the residential mortgage company Thompson Kane. Jeff is also President of ETR Group, LLC, which previously owned and managed the world’s largest Christmas-specific portal on the Internet, Christmas.com.

Jeff is on the board of the Wisconsin Humane Society and the Costa Rican-based Tirimbina Rainforest Fund. He is also on the board of the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. An avid birder, ranked about #530 in the world having identified 643 species of birds in the ABA Area (U.S.- excluding Hawaii - and Canada), Jeff is also on the board of The American Bird Conservancy.

In 2007 Jeff self-published his book ‘The Rise & Stall of Kohl’s Department Stores’, the first book written about the history of one of the major companies in American retailing. In June, 2011, Jeff released two books about his life experiences, ‘What I Really Think – The Deep End Chapters’ and ‘What I Really Think – The Business Chapters’, which will include the business principles and insights that he has practiced over the past ten years in becoming a successful angel investor.

Jeff has both a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Virginia. He resides in Scottsdale, Arizona and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Contact Jeff:

(414) 975.0369
jrusinow@gmail.com