More on Randell Young
From Lucent to Libertalia!
Randell Young is the managing general partner of Venture-Net Partners, an investment group which currently includes: Doug Pewitt, the former assistant director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration; and Mario Fiori, the former assistant secretary of the Army in the Bush Administration.
Randell Young was an early-stage investor and board member of Accuray Incorporated (ARAY), manufacturer of the CyberKnife radiosurgery and Tomo radiotherapy systems; and an early-stage investor and current board member of Okeanos Technologies, developers of a new, highly-efficient, ionized field-based desalinization platform. Both Accuray and Okeanos have been recognized by Fast Company as among the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies.
Randell Young has previously served as chief financial officer for Web portals MedNets.com and TheGospel.com and participated as a director and early-stage investor in numerous other projects including Telephony International, Inc., a joint telecom venture with Lucent Technologies (ALU); Vista Consolidated, Inc., a manufacturer of utility truck covers; Synodon, Inc. (SYD), developers of innovative pipeline surveillance technologies; and The Orange County Blues Festival.
Randell Young’s venture partners of note have included Seagate founder Al Shugart, Euro-America Partners, Jacques Vallée, Fred Adler, George (Jay) Keyworth, Copernic Technologies, ZLUH Partners, Michael Jay Solomon, Good Samaritan Health System, Health Advantage Ventures, Pacific Republic Capital, Fernando Quinonez Meza, H-Quotient, Lucent Technologies, The Marubeni Group and Grupo Arcano.
A founder and former Orange County Chapter Chair of Boone Pickens’ United Shareholders Association, Randell Young has represented shareholders and, on their behalf, addressed the annual meetings of Northrop Corporation, Allergan, National Education Corporation, Community Psychiatric and Southern California Edison.
Randell Young is the author of Mission to Millionaireship. Randell Young has lectured at the graduate level on contemporary issues in venture capital at The University of Phoenix and holds a doctorate in music (D.Mus.) from City University Los Angeles. Randell Young’s Venture Capital Primer has been used by McGraw-Hill’s Online Learning Center in support of its textbook Principles of Corporate Finance, Sixth Edition (Brealey & Myers); and Harvard University in support of KSG PED-328 Community Financial Institutions and Microfinance in Theory and Practice.
Randell Young has been the subject of interviews and articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register and the Orange County Metropolitan. Randell Young’s commentaries and essays have been published in the Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register The San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Business Journal, The Baltimore Sun and Inc. Magazine.
Randell Young’s stock market analyses can be found at The Motley Fool where his All-Star-rated portfolio (PauvrePapillon) currently outpaces all professional fund managers and has consistently, on a daily and continuous basis, placed in the top one percent of all participants since August 2007, a span now of over 108 consecutive months.
Currently, Randell Young serves on the board of managers of Okeanos Technologies and boards of directors of Chatwin-Sperry, a manufacturer of disposable medical devices; Market Data Network, your online tool to price anything; and G20 Intel, your daily scan of the new global economy from a market-liberal internationalist perspective.
Randell Young began his professional musical career right out of high school playing initially in R&B clubs in his hometown of Washington, D.C. Randell Young has since gone on to work with numerous recording artists of note including: Joni Margaux, Poncho Sanchez, Mayuto Correa, Jeff Suttles, Billy Mitchell, John Bolivar, Mickey Champion, Shanica Knowles, Rob Mullins, Nate Phillips, Max Bennett, Nicolette Larson, Tony Guerrero, Dan St. Marseille, Reed Gratz, Tyrone Brunson, Elleven, Kate Russell, Melvin “Deacon” Jones, Harvey “Harmonica Fats” Blackston, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter (of Steely Dan), Nesbert “Stix” Hooper (of The Jazz Crusaders), Jerald “Jara” and Julie “Julz” Harris (of Slapbak), Margot Chapman (of The Starland Vocal Band), Fito de la Parra (of Canned Heat) and Rusty Cox (of The Dazz Band).
Randell Young holds an honorary doctorate in music (D.Mus.) from City University Los Angeles and has written instructional articles for such publications as Jazz Review, Guitar Review, Just Jazz Guitar, Indie Music, GuitarNoise, Six String Soul, Future Music, Music Gear Review, Guitarist, InterMusic, Galaris and Jazz Guitar magazines. Randell Young’s piece entitled On Soloing is still archived by FenderForum as The Best Guide to Soloing I’ve Ever Read!
A former member of the house band for NBC’s The David Allen Grier Show, Randell Young has also served as music director for B. B. King’s Hollywood Country All-Stars (house band for B. B. King’s Legend in the Making Country Star Talent Search). Randell Young’s composition Don’t Know How To Love You is featured on MP3.com’s original Best of MP3 CD and in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to MP3: Music on the Internet (illustrated text with CD published by Alpha Books). Randell Young has also written and produced original music for film and television including the soundtrack for Beverly Skyline Media’s Zarbie and The Martians. As a solo artist, Randell Young has opened for such luminaries as Larry Carlton, Etta James, Steve Lukather, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Leon Russell, Canned Heat and John Mayall.
Randell Young’s live performances have generated numerous and favorable reviews from a variety of sources. Los Angeles Times music critic Bill Kohlhaase credits Randell Young with “a tight, cosmopolitan sound”. Author/columnist Alan Bock describes the Randell Young as “genuinely accomplished and inventive… one of my favorite artists”. KSBR’s Infamous Aaron Blackwell assesses Randell Young as “a world-class blues master” while Orange County Register music critic Robert Kinsler touts Randell Young as “a masterful blues player”.
Whether as a sideman, guest artist or featured performer, Randell Young emphasizes a groove-oriented presentation with due respect for the idiom yet still manages to bring something unique to the stage. As explained by Robert Kinsler, “Just as every great guitarist from Robert Johnson and B. B. King to Alvin Lee and Stevie Ray Vaughn has performed the blues with a distinctive style, so has Randell Young taken creative strides to cut his own turf”. Happening Magazine adds, “Randell Young’s formula calls for a clean sound built on genuine Blues rhythms backed up with a heavy dose of Soul”. No less an authority on the Los Angeles music scene than Laura Mae Gross, owner and proprietor of the city’s oldest blues club, Babe’s and Ricky’s (established 1964), says, “Randell Young is the best guitar player we got”.
Randell Young was signed by Artie Mogull to produce Bob Dylan Revisited, a tribute to the prolific songwriter set to feature vocal performances by numerous stars originally discovered by Mogull, the former Chairman and CEO of United Artists Records renowned in the music industry for having signed Bob Dylan to his first publishing contract (while an executive at Warner Brothers) and for launching the careers of such artists as Anne Murray, Laura Nyro, Richie Havens, Crystal Gayle, Olivia Newton-John, Helen Reddy, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hootie and the Blowfish, The Electric Light Orchestra, The Beach Boys, The Kingston Trio and The Band.
Though Bob Dylan Revisited was derailed by Mogull’s untimely and unexpected passing, Randell Young had become good friends with Artie and so decided to complete the project as a solo album and tribute to the man that in the history of the music business ranks second only to Clive Davis in terms of discovering new talent. Needless to say, Mogull never got to review the finished product but he did hear and comment on the first five tunes: “The tracks sound terrific!” was the message Artie left on Randell Young’s answering service. The Blues of Bobby Zimmerman is in the can but remains unreleased.
Joni Margaux and Randell Young first met at the Henry Fonda Theater in Los Angeles at an early taping/rehearsal/audition for Zarbie and the Martians. Joni had just finished up a year and a half run at the Pantages Theater as The Young Nala in the Walt Disney Company’s production of The Lion King. Joni’s recollection is that Randell insisted that the producers cast Joni as the star of Zarbie and the Martians. Randell Young’s recollection is that Joni had already been cast as Zarbie and that she lobbied the executive producers to hire Randell Young to arrange and produce the soundtrack CD as well as the live show.
In the decade that followed, Joni grew up and went off to college (UCLA class of 2014) while Randell Young went back to leading the double life of a guitar player and venture capitalist. Along the way Joni and her parents and Randell Young and his wife, Florentine, all became good friends and it was always just assumed that at some point, Joni Margaux and Randell Young would, once again, collaborate on some new musical project.
Libertalia is not only that project; it is their project, their vision and their music.
Find out more about Randell Young at…
L’ambassadeur de Libertalia