John Cowan

John Cowan is a founding Partner at Next Wave Partners and veteran startup entrepreneur, team member, founder, and CEO of more than 20 years. Mr. Cowan is an expert at developing
and leading early-stage company strategy execution, including raising and managing venture capital, identifying and executing potential mergers and acquisitions, and recruiting and
developing high performance teams and advisory boards. He is also a prolific public speaker and writer, often called upon to deliver keynote address presentations and contribute to major
industry publications around the world. From 2012 to 2019 Mr. Cowan was a regular guest lecturer for the University of North Carolina and Duke University MBA programs venture capital
curriculum.
Prior to developing Next Wave with co-founder James Thomason, Mr. Cowan co-created a pioneering edge computing software company, where he oversaw all aspects of business
planning, financial modeling, recruiting and development, go to market strategy, public-facing industry evangelism and content publications. During his tenure he was also responsible for
initiating multiple patent applications in the field of multi-tenant system metering and decentralized economic systems involving distributed ledger technologies.
Mr. Cowan is currently a member of the Board of Directors at Requis.com and 6fusion.com and a former board member of UCXchange.com. Born and raised in Canada, John graduated from
Queen’s University at Kingston. He presently resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife Anna and three children.