Sheffield Corporation was formed by John M. Harrington III in 1992. Sheffield Corporation is a Venture Capital Consulting company based in Winchester, MA. Sheffield assists early stage businesses, private families, and individuals in exploiting and accessing new technologies and financing. In addition, Sheffield, in an advisory capacity, has assisted numerous European firms in structuring and arranging mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. and Europe. Sheffield Corporation has also worked on behalf of private families, in the US and in Europe, who are interested in accessing new technologies or exploiting technologies which they have developed. Amongst these clients was Crane & Co., Inc. one of the oldest family owned companies in the United States, founded in 1801. On behalf of Crane, a number of transactions have been completed both in the US and in Europe to exploit internally developed technologies or to acquire interests in technologies developed by others. Some of these transactions include the negotiation and formation of a joint venture between Technical Graphics Security Products, LLC and Applied Holographics plc to create Applied Technical Graphics. A related transaction resulted in an investment in Applied Optical Technologies plc (London Stock Exchange) at the time that they acquired Optical Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ) in a transaction with a $100 million valuation.