Name Richard Weening | Education St. John's University | |
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Richard Weening (born December 24, 1945) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist.
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Biography
Richard Weening was born in San Bernardino, California, the son of Richard W. Weening, a Friesian immigrant dairy farmer, and Alice Louise Young, from Mattoon, Illinois, whose family came to America in 1620 on the Mayflower. He graduated from Thomas Aquinas High School in 1963, where he was President of the Student Body. He obtained a BA degree from St. John's University in 1967. After this academic career, Weening served as aide to a U.S. Congressman, as Chief of Staff to the State Governor of Wisconsin, and finally as the founder and CEO of several privately- and publicly-held technology and media companies. Weening is currently President of QUAESTUS & Co., a private equity fund management company and Chairman and CEO of Prolitec Inc., a technology, media, and fragrance company specializing in commercial ambient scenting services. Prolitec is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and provides scenting services to several industry sectors including retail, hospitality, healthcare, transportation and commercial buildings in the United States and 75 countries. Weening currently resides in Seattle, Washington.
Public service
From 1968 to 1970 Weening served as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis). During this time, as a Reuss aide, Weening helped to start Northside Citizens Neighborhood Conservation Corporation, a not-for-profit low-income housing development organization in Milwaukee to serve as a pilot demonstration of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which Reuss and others had authored. He left Reuss in 1970 to run the gubernatorial campaign of Patrick J. Lucey and served as Governor Lucey's Chief of Staff until 1972. In 1972 he left the governor’s office to become National Political Director for New York Mayor John V. Lindsay’s bid for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Lindsey withdrew following his defeat in the Wisconsin primary. Weening subsequently served as Chairman of the Milwaukee Board of Harbor Commissioners from 1973 to 1984.
Business career
In 1972, Weening founded Advanced Learning Concepts Inc., to develop and publish teaching materials and programs for developmentally disabled children based on the early-childhood research work of the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Waisman Center. In 1974, Advanced Learning Concepts changed its name to Raintree Publishers and expanded into general educational publishing of non-fiction information and reference books for children in kindergarten to 12th grade. Weening served as President and Publisher from 1972 to 1985.
In 1977, Raintree formed children's book publisher Macdonald-Raintree, a joint venture with British printer and publisher BPC Ltd. Weening served as CEO of this venture. In 1981 Raintree acquired magazine publisher AgriData Resources (including FarmFutures magazine). Weening continued his role as CEO and Publisher until the company was sold in 1989.
Meanwhile, in 1983 Weening started AgriData Network, one of the first commercial online information services, which made a public offering in 1987 and continues today as ARI Network Services (NASDAQ: ARIS). Weening served as a Director until 2008.
In 1984 Weening founded Caribbean Communications Company, an FM radio network in the English-speaking Caribbean headquartered in Montserrat. GEM Radio 93.9 went on the air May 15, 1984.
In 1989, following the sale of AgriData Resources to ABC Publishing, Weening founded QUAESTUS & Co., Inc, a private equity fund management firm which specializes in start-up media and technology companies. QUAESTUS soon acquired another online services company, Connect Inc., and converted it into an internet-based enterprise software company in 1993. This venture constructed One-Server, the first internet e-commerce platform for business. Connect made an initial public offering in 1995 (formerly NASDAQ:CNCT), and was later acquired by another e-commerce company.
In 1996 Weening and radio industry executive Lew Dickey founded Cumulus Media (NASDAQ:CMLS), a radio broadcasting company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Cumulus completed an initial public offering in 1998 and by the end of 1999 owned and operated 260 stations in 48 US cities. Caribbean Communications Company was merged into Cumulus. Weening served as Cumulus’ Executive Chairman from 1996 to 2000. He served as a member of the Cumulus board of directors until 2002. Cumulus Media is now the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States.
In 2003,a fund managed by QUAESTUS acquired Prolitec SA, a French technology company. In 2004 the Company relocated from France to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from where it now operates as Prolitec Inc., a global provider of home air care systems and ambient scenting services for business. Weening is now Chairman and CEO of Prolitec Inc.
Personal life
Weening is personally active as a venture philanthropist providing micro-capital to entrepreneurs and small start-ups. Interested in environmental conservation, Weening served as a Trustee of the African Wildlife Foundation in Nairobi,Kenya and Washington, D.C. from 2004 to 2010. Weening's life-partner is Victoria Hall Leslie, a philanthropist and charitable fund manager in Seattle, Washington. Weening and Leslie together have four adult children: Max Airborne of Oakland, California; Mia Lynn Weening of San Francisco, California; Robyn Leslie of San Francisco, California; and Jessica Leslie of New York, New York.