During her 20 months as interim governor, Swift gave birth to twin daughters while coping with the fiscal challenges of the post-9/11 economic slowdown. Now she finds relative repose in her new role as special general partner of Arcadia Partners, a Boston-based venture capital boutique that invests in the for-profit education and training sector. “The private sector is a lot easier to manage,” says the 38-year-old Swift in a telephone interview, as her children squeal in the background. “One of the nice things is that Arcadia embraces technology in their own operations as well as in their investments.” Swift, who left the governor’s office in January and joined the firm in May, spends most of her time advising portfolio companies. “In government some people thought the world was going to end when I wanted to do a teleconference in the late stage of my pregnancy,” she adds. “People say the happiness and relaxed feeling that I have are written across my face.”
Swift expects to complete the transition from state budget balancing to venture capital fundraising later this year or early next, when Arcadia plans to launch a second fund, which is expected to exceed the $50 million that the firm has amassed since its 1998 inception. One thing that hasn’t changed is Swift’s three-hour commute to Boston from the family farmhouse in the Berkshires. She says she makes the long drive “as many times as needed to get the job done,” but she also has a fully equipped home office and a BlackBerry pager and notes that “portfolio companies or investors don’t care too much whether I fly out of Boston or Albany.”
