Courtesy Peter and Missy Crisp

Courtesy Peter and Missy Crisp

Peter O. Crisp (MBA 1960), a pioneering venture capitalist and philanthropist, is known for his firm’s investments in companies that have become household names: Intel, Apple, American Superconductor, Thermo Electron (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), to name a few. As a founder and managing general partner of Venrock Associates, he led the venture investments of the Rockefeller family during a 45-year career. Now retired and serving on numerous corporate and philanthropic boards, Crisp and his wife, Missy, recently made a $10 million donation to the Harvard Innovation Labs (i-lab).

“I regard HBS as a national treasure that should be preserved and enhanced,” said Crisp from his home in Florida when reflecting on his leadership gift that will establish an endowment in support of the Harvard Innovation Labs. “The i-lab is a true jewel. It is a source of innovation, invention, and cooperation that serves the broader Harvard community.” Noting that this year is the i-lab’s 10th anniversary, Crisp said, “The i-lab has already proven to be a very valuable resource. It is a place where tiny acorns are planted, some of which will become great oaks. The companies that are spawned provide employment, pay taxes, and advance the standard of living—all actions that are great for America.”

Missy Crisp, a Vassar graduate who earned an MBA at night from Hofstra University while working as a teacher and then launched two software companies, added, “Supporting the i-lab is a joy for both of us.” The Crisps have been married since 1963, and they have three daughters and nine grandchildren. Their gift was made in recognition of Peter’s 60th HBS reunion.

In appreciation of the gift, the School will name the i-lab faculty chair in honor of Peter O. Crisp. Thomas R. Eisenmann, the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration, who was recently appointed faculty chair, will be the first to hold the title of Peter O. Crisp Faculty Chair, Harvard Innovation Labs.

“With this generous donation, Peter and Missy Crisp will fuel innovation throughout Harvard for the next decade and beyond,” said Dean Srikant Datar. “We are delighted to have the Crisp name associated with the work of the i-lab and Peter’s example as a model for the students, alumni, faculty, and staff who engage with it. It is a fitting legacy reflecting an outstanding career.”

“Peter Crisp has played a leadership role in venture capital. His name and reputation will guide our work to further entrepreneurship and innovation at HBS and at Harvard,” said Eisenmann. “I am honored to be the Crisp Faculty Chair of the i-lab.”

“I deeply admire Peter’s leadership, modesty, and service to business and society,” added Matt Segneri (MBA 2010), who has served as the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs since early 2020. “His support will be instrumental to the future success of the i-lab and of Boston as a center of innovation.”

Crisp grew up on Long Island, earned a BA at Yale University, and served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force before coming to HBS. Having earned his pilot’s license at the age of 14, he was excited to spend the summer after his first year at HBS working for SwissAir. While in Zurich, he read a Time magazine interview with Laurance Rockefeller in which the legendary businessman and philanthropist described his investment philosophy. “The article struck a note with me,” said Crisp, who sent a letter to Rockefeller. Crisp admired the Rockefeller family’s “recycling” of wealth, an idea that resonates with him to this day. “Learn, earn, return is a theme of my life,” he noted.

In 1960 Rockefeller hired Crisp to “clean up the files,” said Crisp, who spent almost five decades working with the Rockefeller family, starting as an associate and becoming a founding partner of Venrock, the firm established in 1969 to handle the family’s venture capital investments. Crisp went on to serve as president, chairman, and managing general partner of Venrock. “I consider Laurance to be the godfather of venture capital,” said Crisp, noting his mentor’s 1938 investments in what became Eastern Air Lines and McDonnell-Douglas. At Venrock, he continued, “in the early days, we focused on aviation, aeronautics, electronics, computers, and software. Over time, we broadened our interests.” The first deal that Crisp worked on with Rockefeller, in 1960, was New England Nuclear, which was bought by DuPont in 1972. The success of that, he said in an interview with the Computer History Museum, “made me think that the venture business was easy.”

By all accounts, Crisp made it look easy. He worked closely with Rockefeller and bet on people and ideas usually long before the rest of the world saw their value. At the same time, he avoided the spotlight, doing deals behind the scenes and helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals. While he is proud of Venrock’s success stories—including a $300,000 investment in Apple (where he served on the board for 16 years) in 1979 that gave Venrock 10 percent of the company—his reputation for integrity, hard work, and picking people is what he finds most satisfying. “No Venrock company ever went bankrupt,” he noted in the Computer History Museum interview. “However, we had some ‘respectable burials’ via the merger and acquisition route.”

While he “retired” from Venrock in 1997 in order to let the next generation move ahead, Crisp soon returned part-time when Laurance and his brother David asked him to serve as vice chair of the family holding company, a position he held for nine years.

In 2004, Crisp received the National Venture Capital Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Noting that the business world has changed significantly during his career, Crisp, who majored in history at Yale, said, “I don’t have a tech background. In today’s world I would never have made it through the door for an interview.”

Crisp has served as a director of more than 50 nonprofit and corporate boards. He has devoted significant energy and support to advancing medicine, an area of deep personal interest since he was 12 years old, when his 13-year-old brother succumbed to leukemia at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Crisp was a member of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s board for a remarkable four decades, leading almost every committee during his tenure.

He has served on the boards of three hospitals and is an emeritus director of Memorial Sloan Kettering, Northwell Health, and Florida’s Jupiter Medical Center Foundation, where he has been involved since 2007, including as chair from 2008–2013.

Crisp is very comfortable with the behind-the-scenes role he has played in both his work and philanthropic endeavors. He likes to joke that the life he has led is boring—he has had one employer, been married to Missy for nearly 60 years, and lived in the same house for half a century. When you look at the groves of oaks that have sprouted from the acorns he has planted, however, his extraordinary legacy is evident, inspiring, and enduring.

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