AFI'S New Partner & CFO, Eric de Valpine

We'd like to take a moment to introduce AFI's new partner and CFO, Eric de Valpine. Eric started volunteering with AFI last Spring.  He has just come aboard formally, and now leads AFI’s operations including financial and fund management, investor relations, compliance, and staffing. ​

He also manages AFI’s CFO Network of financial professionals assisting AFI client companies.

Eric is an angel investor in Austin food-based businesses, driven by social responsibility and the opportunity to make things better.

As former CFO of an Intel-funded start-up that developed a real-time 3D visualization technology designed to create interactive broadcast content for customers such as ESPN/Disney and the Renault Formula 1 team, he played a key role in raising equity and debt financing and was responsible for all day-to-day finance operations and human resource functions.
​
Eric was also CFO at an IT services firm, and a software development company. He was the managing member of an LLC with an investment strategy that outperformed the S&P 500 by more than 25% during the fund’s existence. Eric has more than 15 years of experience as a financial and strategy consultant to small and mid-sized companies across a range of industry segments, including engineering, music, hospitality, renewable energy, higher education, and digital media. 

Eric initially moved to Austin to attend UT, where he earned a BA in Philosophy. He later earned an MBA from the University of California, Irvine, where he co-founded the Social Responsibility Initiative and served as the Associate Director of the Centers for Leadership Development and for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Along with his wife Cari, he co-founded the Progressive Dinner Party, which raised more than $100,000 for small charities in Long Beach, CA through a series of dinner parties over the course of five years.

Eric has lived in Austin cumulatively over 17 years.  He resides in Travis Heights with Cari and their young daughter.