Larry Hecker

Larry Hecker is a Tucson corporate and securities attorney who has spent decades at the center of Southern Arizona's startup and capital-formation ecosystem. He is a principal (and managing partner) of the boutique law firm now known as Hecker Pew PLLC (previously Hecker & Muehlebach, PLLC), where his practice concentrates on corporate law and securities regulation, business formation, capital-formation transactions, corporate finance, real estate, and governmental relations. He is a double University of Arizona alumnus, holding both a Bachelor of Arts and a Juris Doctor from the university.

His career includes public service as Chief of Staff to Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt (1983–1984) and leadership in the state bar, where he chaired the Securities Regulations Section of the State Bar of Arizona. He has been recognized for years in *The Best Lawyers in America* for Corporate Law (editions spanning the early 1990s through 2022) and was named Tucson's Best Lawyer—Corporate Law in 2010. Other honors include the Tucson Chamber of Commerce "Man of the Year" (2008), the UA Distinguished Alumnus Award (2008), and selection as a McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurial Fellow (2007). He has also chaired the Pima County Bond Advisory Committee.

Hecker teaches Law and Entrepreneurship as a Professor of Practice (assistant adjunct professor) at the University of Arizona College of Law, and he serves on the advisory board of Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), the university's commercialization arm. In 2022, TLA honored him with the David N. Allen Award for Leadership and Vision for advancing UArizona commercialization and the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.

On the investing side, Hecker is a board member of Desert Angels — a Tucson-based nonprofit network of accredited investors founded in 2000 that has invested more than $66M across 165+ portfolio companies and 240+ rounds, consistently ranking #1 in the U.S. Southwest and among the top groups nationally in the ARI HALO report — where he previously chaired the executive committee. He is also a Fund Principal of UAVenture Capital, a fund launched in 2017 by SinfoníaRx founder Fletcher J. McCusker (with CPA Michael N. Deitch) and dedicated to commercializing University of Arizona science, services, and intellectual property.

• Stage: Seed and early-stage rounds, including follow-on financings for maturing portfolio companies.
• What he backs: Innovation-driven startups in science, technology, SaaS, life sciences/therapeutics, medical devices, and drug discovery/delivery — with a strong bias toward University of Arizona spin-outs and IP commercialization.
• Geography: Rooted in Tucson and Southern Arizona / the U.S. Southwest, extending to national deals through Desert Angels' broader network.
• How he invests: Both as an individual accredited angel through Desert Angels and as a principal in UAVenture Capital, a fund explicitly built to support UArizona-related commercialization.
• What makes him say yes: A partner-oriented relationship with the university's tech-transfer pipeline. In his own words, being on the TLA board "gives me a much broader understanding of how much opportunity there is at the university when it comes to technology and tech transfer," and he values that "the scientific research community sees the university and TLA as a partner."