Edward W. Kane is senior managing director of HarbourVest Partners, LLC, a global private equity investment firm that he cofounded in 1997. After earning his MBA, he worked in the commercial banking division of New England Merchants National Bank and then joined the corporate finance department of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company. In 1982, Kane cofounded Hancock Venture Partners, Inc., the predecessor to HarbourVest. A former major in U.S. Army Military Intelligence, where he was trained in electronics and telecommunications, he serves as an advisory committee member of several U.S. and international private equity funds, is a director of Gomez Advisors, Inc., and has served on the boards of various other public companies. Of his class at HBS, Kane notes, "We had a tremendous number of veterans who already had significant leadership experience. Many of us came out of HBS with the intent to run things. We weren't interested in working for others, we wanted to run our own show."