Natalie Egleston

Vice President of Business Development

MediaOne Ventures

Englewood, Colo.

Natalie Egleston has broadband suitors all over Los Angeles.

As vice president of business development at MediaOne Ventures (a subsidiary of MediaOne Group), she recommends which broadband companies receive investment capital from the firm.

Through 1998, Denver-based MediaOne had invested $91 million in emerging broadband companies nationwide. Now, with much of the creative content expected to come out of L.A., Egleston is looking to invest more money in local companies.

“Historically (the investment) has been in Silicon Valley,” Egleston says. “But we’re starting to see more deals from Los Angeles.”

Heading a staff of five, the 35-year-old Egleston researches companies that deal in broadband content and technology that might make good investments for MediaOne. She also helps guide the firms that receive money in their move toward broadband.

“We’re seed-funding those businesses that are developing content that will get users to be more interested in getting high-speed services,” Egleston says.

One company funded by MediaOne is Redwood City-based Liquid Audio, which offers online digital distribution of music. Without broadband, the process takes much longer.

(Egleston declined to disclose how much had been invested in any of the firms.)

“Natalie is outstanding at building a team,” says Tom Cullen, president of MediaOne Ventures. “She’s an extremely hard worker. Almost everything she has recommended, we have funded.”

Egleston joined MediaOne Ventures after working as director of corporate finance in the U.S. West Treasury Group, where she structured and negotiated bank and equity financing for various domestic and international projects.

Before that, she spent 10 years in corporate banking, most recently at the Bank of New York. Egleston grew up in Philadelphia and has a bachelor’s degree in business management and marketing from Cornell University in New York.

Jolie Gorchov