In one of the more surprising career moves of 2007, Quam left her high-profile job as CEO of Ovations, a $25 billion division of UnitedHealth Group, to join Minneapolis financial-services firm Piper Jaffray (NYSE: PJC). From overseeing thousands of employees, Quam has gone to leading a five- to seven-person group under Piper’s private capital umbrella. Her new job is to find high-potential investment opportunities in health care, alternative energy, and so-called clean tech.
Quam won’t be investing Piper’s capital or picking the investments herself. Rather, she’s part of Piper’s Funds of Funds business, in which Piper raises funds primarily from institutional investors then allocates the capital to the best and the brightest of private equity firms and venture capitalists. They select the actual companies to invest in. A little less stressful than working for UnitedHealth, probably—we suspect that Quam will soon be raising her profile again.
