---
category: Business & Finance
created: 2026-09-22
location: New York City
relations:
- fn: 1
  start: 1969
  type: founded
  with: '[[Patricof and Company]]'
- fn: 1
  start: 1997-06-23
  type: director_of
  with: '[[Boston Properties]]'
- fn: 1
  type: director_of
  with: '[[NTL]]'
- fn: 1
  type: member_of
  with: '[[Council on Foreign Relations]]'
summary: New York venture capitalist who founded Patricof & Co. Ventures, later Apax
  Partners, the firm whose 53rd Street Ventures fund invested in INSLAW about 1982.
tags:
- Person
- VentureCapital
- PROMIS
- INSLAW
- CouncilOnForeignRelations
updated: 2026-09-22
---

Alan J. Patricof founded Patricof & Co. Ventures in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/) in 1969 and was later chairman of its successor, Apax Partners, Inc. He received a bachelor's degree in finance from Ohio State University and an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. By early 2002 he was a director of Boston Properties (from June 23, 1997), CoreComm Limited, Johnny Rockets Group and NTL, a trustee of the Columbia business school and of Continuum Health Partners, a member of the New York administrative committee of Fleet National Bank, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[^1]

### INSLAW

The firm, named Allen Patricof and Associates in the report of special counsel [Nicholas J. Bua](/people/nicholas-j-bua/), managed [53rd Street Ventures](/organizations/53rd-street-ventures/), which about 1982 made a 100,000-dollar investment in [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/) through [Jonathan Ben Cnaan](/people/jonathan-ben-cnaan/), an Israeli-born employee who ran the funds from 1981 to 1987. [Patricia Cloherty](/people/patricia-cloherty/) worked at the firm from about 1970 to 1977 and again from February 1988; in between, her firm with [Daniel Tessler](/people/daniel-tessler/) took over the 53rd Street fund in 1984, and the Tesslers' dealings with [Bill Hamilton](/people/bill-hamilton/) that December became the subject of his affidavit. Bua found no wrongdoing by the Patricof firm.[^2] See [Patricof and Company](/organizations/patricof-and-company/).

[^1]: Boston Properties, Inc. Definitive proxy statement (Schedule 14A), filed March 29, 2002, director biography of Alan J. Patricof. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1037540/000092701602001770/ddef14a.txt
[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.,* March 1993, interviews of Jonathan Ben Cnaan, Daniel Tessler and Patricia Cloherty. https://archive.org/details/InslawPROMISBuaReport