Investment Committee
Karen LeVert is the Managing Partner for LeVert Ventures. As a first-time fund manager, she partnered with 28-year-old, top-quartile performing Pappas Capital to handle the back office for the fund. LeVert Ventures invests in early-stage AgTech companies. She has a proven track record of progressing early-stage technologies from university research labs to commercialization as co-founder and CEO of two innovation labs, Southeast TechInventures, Inc. (STI) and Ag TechInventures, LLC (AgTI). Karen’s business experience encompasses both corporate and entrepreneurial worlds with over 25 years of successful leadership experience in executive management, start-ups and technology commercialization.
Karen started her career at a Fortune-500 insurance company holding positions of increasing responsibility from programmer and controller to general manager of a 500-person property and casualty service center. Before founding the innovation labs, her first entrepreneurial venture was launching a franchise bioremediation company that she later sold. Her next entrepreneurial venture was co-founding a Silicon Valley-based software company. Karen is the recipient of multiple awards including the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s Outstanding Service Award, induction into the WRAL TechWire Hall of Fame and the 2022 Women in Agribusiness (WIA) Demeter Award of Excellence.
Along with her professional duties, Karen serves as a board member for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, the North Carolina Arboretum, AgLaunch, North Carolina State Agriculture and Life Science Foundation and LCBA Life Insurance Company. She has an MBA from the University of Dayton and a BBA in Information Technology from Eastern Michigan University.
Address:
890 Hendersonville Rd
Asheville, NC 28803
Mailing:
890 Hendersonville Rd
Asheville, NC 28803
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Support programs and networks that reduce deaths, treat addiction, and prevent first use
Help reduce disparities based on race, location, education and income factors
Invest in integrated heath care with seamless connections to supportive services
Support communities that promote healthy living and resiliency and help mitigate the impact of trauma, isolation and stress on individuals and families, especially those experiencing poverty
Support a well-funded, sustainable, competitive entrepreneur and small business ecosystem throughout the region
Help build a regional economic ecosystem that supports increased creation/retention of jobs and business ownership
Help build a skilled workforce with the knowledge and technical abilities to excel in a wide range of industry employment opportunities that provide a competitive, sustainable wage
Source, analyze and share a comprehensive, county-by-county data set that paints a full picture of work readiness, economic development and entrepreneurial needs and opportunities specific to Western North Carolina
Work in tandem with Economic Opportunity Strategic Priority to invest in career readiness at the community college and university levels
Support K-12 learning experiences with the resources and sustainability to provide an excellent academic and social-emotional education, so that all students graduate ready for college or career
Invest in an improved early childhood education ecosystem with the resources and sustainability to provide developmentally appropriate, affordable and accessible education and care to support ages birth to five, so that all children in WNC enter kindergarten ready to learn
Source, analyze and share a comprehensive set of publicly available data that provides a regularly updated, county-by-county picture of access, workforce and student outcomes in early childhood education and K-12 education specific to Western North Carolina
Loans, guarantees, and other financial tools to leverage funding opportunities
Increase affordable housing for lowest-income individuals and families
Support age-appropriate resources in affordable and workforce units, rental and owned
Invest in housing with sustainable supports for physical and mental health and wellbeing
Support healthy and safe revitalizations that work against displacement and gentrification, preserve home ownership and create generational wealth.