Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) today announced the appointment of Rick Nathan as president of the association, effective September 22.

Nathan is managing director of Goodmans Venture Group, a division of Goodmans LLP, where he provides legal counsel and strategic business advice to entrepreneurs and emerging growth companies and to investors, in the Canadian market.

Prior to joining Goodmans, Nathan was one of the three founding partners of Brightspark, an early-stage software investment fund in Toronto, formed in 1999. Prior to founding Brightspark, Nathan spent more than 10 years as a corporate and securities lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, including as leader of the firm’s technology business group during the technology boom of the late 1990’s.

Nathan has played an active role in the Canadian venture capital industry, including as a member of the executive committee and board of directors of the CVCA since 1999. He is also a director of the Centre for Innovation Law and Policy at the University of Toronto, a member of the Canadian e-Business Opportunities Roundtable and a member of the Canadian Bar Association.

He has a BA in Computer Science from Dartmouth College and LLB from the University of Toronto.

Nathan replaces Robin Louis who served as CVCA’s President until September 2005. Louis will assume the role of Chairman of the Association.

“It is an exciting and challenging time for our industry,” says Nathan. “Investments are up, as is membership in the CVCA, which has clearly become the leading voice of Venture Capital and Private Equity in Canada. I look forward to building on CVCA achievements to date as we move forward in the years ahead.”