Investment Partners
Proven Track Record of Growing Businesses
The investment partners of Riviera Capital have a 20+ year history together of successfully operating, growing, and investing in businesses in the lower middle market. Riviera Capital was formed to offer entrepreneurial leaders a true partner that is engaged and highly committed to building great businesses. We believe entrepreneurial talent and operating ability come from a diverse pool across geography, educational background, and work experience. Our team is disciplined in our investment approach and dedicated to helping our partner companies grow and succeed.
Alex Wang
Alex is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Riviera Capital. Prior to co-founding Riviera Capital, Alex was the CEO of Medi-Tech/Phycom Group, a leading healthcare revenue cycle management company and named one of the fastest growing companies by the OC Business Journal in 2013. In that role, Alex grew the company’s size and revenue by 4x before completing its sale to an affiliate of Prudential Capital.
Alex began his career in Search Funds in 2003, when he embarked on a self-funded search where he successfully acquired Resource Directory Group (“RDG”), one of California’s leading healthcare publishing companies. Under his leadership, RDG doubled in size before being acquired by James Publishing and returning 9x his original investment. Alex was also the co-founder and CFO of motoreyes, a venture capital funded automotive software company that was acquired by OnStation Corp. (Cobalt Group) in 2000. Alex served as VP of Corporate Development at OnStation, an enterprise software company backed by investors including Goldman Sachs, Lightspeed Venture and NEA. At OnStation, Alex headed the Client Services group that managed clients including AAA, Mitchell 1, and NAPA.
Alex began his career in the investment banking and private equity industries. Alex has helped advise and invest in various high-tech start-up ventures through his work experience at Intel Capital, AIG Investment Corp., and JP Morgan Chase.
Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business Administration from Boston University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA where he was a Venture Development Program Fellow.
Alex currently serves on the Board of Directors for 280 Group, EverOps, Lerner Solutions, Prove Partners, RedCat Systems, and Semify. Alex also volunteers as a SCORE/SBA mentor helping to advise entrepreneurs in the Southern California area.
Chris Jenkins
Chris is the co-founder and Managing Partner at Riviera Capital. Prior to co-founding Riviera Capital, Chris was the Chairman of a southern California based healthcare company, Canaan Health Care. In that role, the business grew from inception to profitability to become one of the leaders in the space and still achieving double digit growth.
Previously, Chris was President/CEO of Group A Autosports, one of the leading automotive aftermarket companies focused on the import car sector. Under his leadership, Group A more than doubled in revenue. Prior to Group A, Chris was part of Time Warner’s / AOL’s restructuring team and was an instrumental member of the Member Services business unit. Under Chris’ leadership, more than $1B of value was created for the enterprise while concurrently serving more than 30MM consumers. Chris was also the co-founder and CEO of motoreyes, a venture capital funded automotive software company that was acquired by OnStation Corp. in 2000. Chris served as VP of Client Services at OnStation, an enterprise software company backed by investors including Goldman Sachs, Lightspeed Venture and NEA.
Chris began his career in the automotive and management consulting industries. Chris was a software engineer at Ford Motor Company and part of the team that developed hybrid electronics (printed circuit boards) and the first anti-lock brake system for Ford. Afterwards, Chris joined Price Waterhouse as a Principal and was part of High Tech Supply Chain practice, helping companies such as IBM, AST, HP, Dell, and others deploy new business units and distribution models.
Chris holds a BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA. Chris is married with one daughter and an active tennis player, former professional race car driver, and automotive enthusiast. Chris is also Chairman of the Canaan Cares Foundation and actively involved in research and philanthropic endeavors focused on degenerative neurological disorders.
Andrew Crisi
Andrew is a Principal at Riviera Capital. Prior to joining Riviera Capital, he developed and led the healthcare investment vertical at the private equity arm of a US-based single-family office. In that role, Andrew identified over $250 million of proprietary investment opportunities, recruited world-class directors and operating partners, and oversaw the transaction process of multiple platform companies.
Previously, Andrew worked as an M&A advisor at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he executed financial and operational due diligence for private equity and corporate clients from both buy-side and sell-side perspectives. He organized cross-functional diligence workstreams and regularly led meetings with target company executives to form an opinion on company performance that influenced his clients’ analyses and negotiations. Andrew began his career in public accounting at Deloitte, at which he audited the alternative investment portfolios of publicly traded companies in the insurance industry.
He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida State University, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, a Master of Science in Accountancy from Wake Forest University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. At Harvard, he was an active member of the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA) club and helped plan the HBS ETA annual conferences.
Rina Vernovskaya
Rina is the CEO of 280 Group. She began her career at McKinsey & Company as an analyst on the credit portfolio team, offering trading recommendations to hedge against credit and interest rate exposure. She then joined MetLife’s Global Leadership Development Program, focusing on employee recognition programs and removing roadblocks to support intrapreneurship in the Latin America Office of Innovation. At 280 Group, Rina is focused on bringing transformative change to organizations by empowering product managers and product marketers with the knowledge and tools to build products that matter. Her job running the company at the 280 Group is made easy with an amazing team aligned on continuous learning and development and determined to go above and beyond to always delight their clients.
Rina received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Economics and European Studies from Amherst College, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
Michael Topol
Michael is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MGT insurance, a technology-forward commercial property and casualty insurance carrier. Prior to MGT Insurance, Michael helped build Collective Health, a $1.5bn+ insurance technology business backed by Google Ventures, NEA, Founders Fund, SunLife Financial, and SoftBank. Michael helped build the product development organization, operations organization, the sales team, the business operations team, and built and led the finance team. He helped them scale from 30 to 500+ employees and raise $200mm+ in capital.
Prior to Collective Health, Michael worked at Morgan Stanley in Global Power & Utilities (“GPUG”) Investment Banking focusing on M&A, debt, and equity transactions.
Michael earned a BA in economics & mathematics from Columbia, a JD from Columbia Law (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar), and an MBA from Stanford GSB.
Patrick Dunagan
Patrick is the CEO of Northwest Construction Control. Previously, Patrick held a range of leadership roles in the technology sector. Immediately beforehand, he led a technology venture in Seattle as the cross-functional General Manager with P&L responsibility. Previously, Patrick worked in Silicon Valley, managing product development and strategic partnerships for Google. His team was originally a startup backed by blue-chip venture investors and was subsequently acquired by Google in 2014.
Earlier in his career, Patrick was honored to serve as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps where he led both intelligence and combat units during deployments to Afghanistan and the Pacific Rim. Beforehand, he also worked for an economic development project with the United Nations and a small aerospace manufacturer in Washington State. Patrick holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Patrick Dunagan grew up in rural Oregon and worked on farms and construction crews along the West Coast to pay his way through college.
Ania Aliev
Ania is Founder & Managing Principal at Caspian Capital Group. Ania is an entrepreneur herself who has always had a love for small business. She received her undergraduate education at Trinity College and afterwards began her career as an Institutional Equity Sales Associate on Wall St. After three years on Wall St., Ania left to pursue her MBA at the Tuck School of Business. While there, Ania founded and launched her own small business, which she then exited ahead of graduation to pursue her next entrepreneurial challenge – acquiring and running a small to medium sized business. Outside of work, you can find Ania on the tennis court and with her friends and family. Ania lives in the Boston area with her husband, Brendan, and her dog, Zorro.
Tim Meng
Tim is a passionate technologist and experienced strategist; he is the CEO of One Source Communications and has been an advisor for several Fortune 50 companies.
Prior to joining One Source, Tim was a practice area expert on Telecom, Media, and Technology at The Boston Consulting Group. He holds a BASc in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Ugo Udeogu
Ugo is Founder & Managing Partner of MSix Capital Group. Ugo began his post undergraduate career at Eli Lilly where he was recruited as a software engineer, and transitioned into product ownership. After a year in the role of Salesforce Product Owner, Ugo was promoted to Application Development Manager under Eli Lilly’s Enterprise Automation platform. In this role, he built a deep understanding of Eli Lilly’s operations and sourced automation projects and initiatives by identifying inefficiencies throughout various Orgs of the company ranging from Lilly Research Labs to Human Resources. In the early half of 2020, Ugo and his college football teammate founded a company that trades African creative products.
Ugo holds a dual-degree MBA/MA from the Wharton School and Lauder Institute. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and led a team that built an electronic medical record
system for a clinic in the Dominican Republic during his undergraduate studies at Butler University in Indianapolis. While at Butler, Ugo excelled on the football field and in academia simultaneously. He earned an Academic Scholarship. He was also a Pioneer league Academic All-American for 3 years and was on the Dean’s List for those 3 years as well. After his final season, Ugo was invited to tryout for the Indianapolis Colts before an injury ended his football journey.
Graham Topol
Graham is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of MGT Insurance, a technology-forward commercial property and casualty insurance carrier. Prior to MGT Insurance, Graham worked at FTV Capital, a $6.2bn fund, focusing on high growth technology companies in insurtech, financial services, and payments. Graham also helped build Newfront Insurance, a technology enabled insurance brokerage that is valued at over $2bn. He brings his financial acumen, pattern recognition, and best practices from investing in different companies and operating at Newfront Insurance.
Prior to FTV Capital and Newfront Insurance, Graham worked at Morgan Stanley as a Principal M&A analyst and on the staff of the COO doing FIG and M&A transactions.
Graham earned an AB in economics cum laude from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford GSB
Michael Abdella
Michael Abdella is the founder and managing partner of Mauve Capital Partners. Michael brings over 10 years of sales, marketing, operations, and entrepreneurial experience to the management team. Prior to Mauve, Michael held leadership positions in sales and marketing for Huntington Insurance’s commercial business, where he helped develop and implement a new sales-and-marketing alignment strategy for a greater thought leadership presence.
Prior to Huntington Insurance, Michael also managed channel marketing and sales for Paycor. Additionally, Michael worked for many years in sales and sales training for ADP. During this time, Michael and his team earned numerous sales growth and leadership awards.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
M.B.A.; Entrepreneurship
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
B.A.; Sales & Business Marketing, Management
Matthew Walsh
Matthew Walsh is the Founder & Principal of Taro Capital Partners. Raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Matthew’s first work experience began at the age of fourteen in his family’s small business, where his mother and father continue to design and fabricate custom exhibits for museums and universities after more than 45 years. For the past two decades , Matthew has worked in virtually every role at the company in part time and full time positions, from carpenter and welder to CNC router operator , as well as client facing front office roles in sales and business development.
Matthew attended the United States Military Academy, where he was a Division 1 ice hockey player and Honor’s Graduate. Commissioned as an infantry officer in the United States Army, he served meritoriously for six years before exiting as a Ranger qualified Captain. During his service, Matthew was responsible for leading combat units ranging from a 46 soldier infantry platoon to a 200 soldier headquarters company . His last assignment was with Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where he deployed to the Middle East with the nation’s most elite Special Mission Units to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Upon completing his military service, Matthew directed the winning political campaign of Massachusetts State Senator John Cronin, a first time candidate and fellow West Point alumnus and combat veteran.
Matthew earned his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Stone
Michael serves as the Chief Executive Officer of PROVE where he is responsible for the overall direction, strategy, and financial management of PROVE. In addition, Michael is a member of PROVE’s Board of Directors where he plays an active role in shaping the strategic direction of the business.
Prior to his roles at PROVE, Michael was previously the CFO of Currency Capital, a fintech company specializing in small-ticket commercial equipment leasing. Michael initially advised Currency as its investment banker and was later recruited to join the executive management team as the CFO. Michael led Currency through an aggressive growth phase to $200M+ in annual originations and an eventual exit to Lovell Minnick Partners, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm where he and Ben met.
Prior to Currency Capital, Michael spent his career as an investment banker and private equity investor at several prominent West Coast firms, successfully completing mergers & acquisitions and capital raise transactions. Michael received his BS in Finance, Cum Laude, from the University of Southern California.
Alex Glasner
Alex is the son and grandson of small business owners. Prior to founding Coniston Peak, he worked for over eight years advising companies in finance and strategy. He has helped the world’s largest and smallest companies develop and implement strategic initiatives and advised owners looking to exit their company. In his spare time, he is a very keen cyclist.
He holds a BA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Brian Vanderheyden
Brian Vanderheyden is a Managing Partner of Glass Lake Holdings.
In 2017, Brian acquired Richmond Alarm Company, a commercial and residential security business with operations across Virginia. He invested heavily in people, service delivery, and add-on acquisitions. These investments resulted in a top 50 security company. RAC merged with Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) in 2021.
Prior to RAC, Brian worked at Abbott Labs and Abbvie in finance, new product development, and M&A.
Brian holds an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. from Purdue University.
Audrey Kohout
Audrey is Co-CEO at Luggage Forward Holdings, LLC, owner of Luggage Forward & LugLess. Prior to Luggage Forward, Audrey held corporate strategy and technology positions at Target, supporting new retail partnerships, marketing, supply chain, and technology innovations.
Audrey holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA in Economics and in Applied Mathematics & Statistics from Macalester College.
Jessica Palfrey
Jessica is Co-CEO/COO at Luggage Forward Holdings, LLC, owner of Luggage Forward & LugLess. Prior to Luggage Forward, Jessica was a private equity investor at Cortec Group.
Jessica began her career as an investment banking analyst at BlackArch Partners. She holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA in economics from Davidson College.
Jim Mills
Jim is a co-founder of Waypoint Acquisitions. He has over 20 years of experience operating and advising companies across multiple sectors including technology, manufacturing, CPG and business services.
Prior to Waypoint, Jim held executive roles at two early-stage companies including most recently the Chief Revenue Officer of Syght, an emerging security technology company where he continues to serve on the advisory board. Prior to Syght, Jim was CEO and co-founder of Farmhand Organics, a regional food manufacturing and distribution business. He spent the formative years of his career overseeing sales channel management and customer experience programs for global and middle market b2b technology, retail, cpg and business services clients.
He lives in Denver, Colorado where he enjoys spending time and outdoor adventures with his wife and three daughters.
Gaurav Singh
Gaurav Singh is the founder and Managing Partner of Guddi Growth. Before embarking on his journey as an entrepreneur, he served in a handful of operation roles across functions such as sales, marketing, product management, engineering and research. In his last employment, he served as a Director of Product and Customer Success at Untether AI, a Toronto based series B startup building AI accelerator hardware. His remarkable accomplishments include being recognized as one of The Peak’s Emerging Leaders in Canada for 2023 and earning the prestigious “Rising Star – Under 30” accolade at the TU Automotive Awards in 2020.
Gaurav received his MBA from Harvard Business School, his MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.Tech degree in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from NIT Trichy, India.
Prior to his MBA, Gaurav amassed nearly five years of invaluable experience within the autonomous vehicle industry. He embarked on his journey as a machine learning researcher, later transitioning to the business strategy group, both at Ford. As a seasoned professional, Gaurav has also shared his expertise as an invited keynote speaker at international AI and autonomous vehicle summits.
Zack Perry
Zack Perry is a Managing Partner of Glass Lake Holdings.
In 2018, Zack acquired RRS Medical, an electronic medical records business based in Pennsylvania. Zack invested heavily in sales and marketing, customer success, and operations. As a result of these investments, RRS doubled revenue and landed on Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies.
Zack started RRS’s Finance, HR, IT, and Sales departments from scratch, and like Brian, he implemented the EOS management framework to articulate RRS’s Mission, Vision, Values, KPI’s, Annual Goals, and Quarterly Objectives.
Prior to RRS, Zack worked at Deutsche Bank helping clients execute funding strategies.
Zack holds a B.A from Trinity College and lives in Plano, TX with his wife and two sons. He’s a Past President of AHIOS, and sits on the Board of the Texas Healthcare Advisory Council. He’s also a 2x Full Ironman and 5x Half Ironman triathlete.
Doug Zucker
Doug is a co-founder of Waypoint Acquisitions. He is an operator and advisor having held executive roles in strategy, finance, marketing, and technology.
Prior to Waypoint, Doug was a Partner at Sterling-Rice Group, a leading product innovation and marketing firm. He’s held other executive and advisory roles including CEO of an award-winning digital marketing agency, VP of Corporate Strategy for a middle market consumer products company, Principal Consultant for PwC in their Corporate and Operations Strategy group, and middle market banker focused on trade and corporate finance.
Doug received his undergraduate degree from Tulane University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife, Rachel, three kids, two dogs and a bird (not his choice).
Jaclyn Smith
Jaclyn Smith is the Founder and Principal of June Road Capital.
Jaclyn brings over 10 years of experience in supply chain and operations, marketing, and strategy. She founded June Road to buy and operate one small business, taking inspiration from her father, who fulfilled his lifelong entrepreneurial goal in 2020 and now runs a profitable cabinet wholesale company, and her fiancé Eric, also an entrepreneur who runs a growing online business. Prior to founding June Road, Jaclyn was a management consultant working with Fortune 500 companies in the high tech, pharmaceutical, and consumer packaged goods industries to optimize their supply chains.
Jaclyn received her MBA from the University of Michigan and her B.S. from Washington & Lee University in Virginia. She was a collegiate swimmer and believes the sport instilled in her the discipline to overcome entrepreneurial challenges. Jaclyn currently resides in Chicago with Eric, but they are excited to potentially explore a different area of the country when Jaclyn finds a business.
Kyle Patterson
Kyle is Founder & Managing Director at Welsh House. Prior to forming Welsh House, Kyle led operations for a global manufacturer & distributor in Janesville, Wisconsin, was a strategy consultant focused on private equity clientele at KPMG US, carried out deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio optimization tasks at a lower middle market private equity firm in Los Angeles, California, and also spent nine years performing a variety of operations and supply chain roles at Schneider Electric, a global Fortune 500 energy management firm.
Kyle attended Penn State University where he earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a Big Ten Championship playing D1 varsity soccer for the Nittany Lions. Later, Kyle earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a focus in Finance.
Ben Kaplan
Ben serves as the Chairman of Prove where he is responsible for leading the Board, and ensuring adherence to good corporate governance practices. Ben works closely with the CEO and management regarding Prove’s strategy and corresponding execution. Ben also plays a key role in Prove’s corporate development as well as the establishment of institutional practices that impact the day-to-day functions of the organization.
Prior to PROVE, Ben was with Lovell Minnick Partners (Los Angeles), a private equity firm focused on financial services business with over $3 billion in AUM. During his tenure with Lovell Minnick, Ben was involved in the acquisition and development of a variety of businesses, including Global Financial Credit, Currency Capital (where he and Michael Stone met), LSQ Funding, and others.
Ben received his MBA and JD degrees from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and Pritzker School of Law. He currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Law School’s Alumni Club of Los Angeles as well as a national member for Northwestern’s Alumni Leadership Council. Prior to Northwestern, Ben was an Associate at Century Equity Partners, Boston-based private equity firm focused on the financial and healthcare sectors; and prior to that he was a Senior Analyst at Raymond James. Ben, a native Bostonian, also received his BS in Economics and Finance, Magna Cum Laude, from Boston College.
Roy Wang
Roy is the Managing Partner of NextSummit Capital Partners. Roy’s background in Investment Banking, Private Equity & Venture Capital investments with one of the largest Sovereign Wealth Funds in the world, combined with his previous operational and managerial experience as an entrepreneur position him well to successfully lead and run a company. Roy is enthusiastic to acquire a well-established company, drive organizational change, and create value for all stakeholders around the target firm.
Roy has worked in financial services through his career across New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Riyadh. Most recently, Roy served as AVP in International Investments with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund – the Public Investment Fund (PIF), where he helped execute multiple landmark transactions the Fund had invested in. As part of his tenure, Roy also spent a considerable amount of time working on SoftBank Vision Fund – the $100Bn partnership between Japan’s SoftBank Group and the PIF, widely regarded as “the largest VC Fund in the world”.
Prior to the investor role, Roy worked in Investment Banking specializing in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he participated in various types of M&A transactions both domestic and cross-border, and as an Equity Research Analyst with Credit Suisse, where he became the youngest coverage writing analyst in the local market and the firm’s history. Earlier in his career, Roy had also worked with Ernst & Young (EY) as a Consultant specializing in M&A advisory and Goldman Sachs as Summer Analyst, and participated in McKinsey’s EDAD program with its Middle East office. Entrepreneurial in spirit, Roy co-founded his first company in the Media & Entertainment space during college, and later sold his stake to a larger corporation through a strategic exit.
Roy received his MBA/MA dual-degrees from the Wharton Business School and the Lauder Institute at University of Pennsylvania, and B.A. (Hons) from Middlebury College. Roy has been a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter-holder since 2017.
In his spare time, Roy enjoys traveling, playing musical instruments such as Saxophone (Jazz) and Piano (classical), as well as taking part in various sports such as skiing, tennis, sailing, to name a few.
Kyle Pezzi
Kyle is Managing Partner of Kingtree & Warwick Capital. Kyle brings finance and operating expertise from his experience operating and advising companies ranging in size from small start-ups to some of the largest global multinational and fortune 500 companies.
Kyle began his career in M&A at Bank of America before joining a leading New York based hedge fund and later Lazard Asset Management, where he helped lead investment efforts in large healthcare companies.
Kyle found his passion for entrepreneurship as the owner of two Florida-based full-service car washes and remains an active multifamily real estate investor in Lexington, Kentucky. Kyle also has a personal interest in the Kentucky bourbon industry and owns 50 barrels (53 gallons each) of bourbon aging in Midway, KY in partnership with his father.
Kyle graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2017 and was raised outside of Lexington, KY. He comes from a longstanding family of doctors and lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend Ashley and their dog Honey.
Kyle is a cancer survivor and remains involved with cancer charities including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Camp Horsin’ Around and Dance Blue.
Curt Black
Curt is Founder & Managing Principal at Snipe Island Capital. Curt brings 10 years of experience in revenue growth to Snipe Island Capital with expertise across sales and business development, digital and traditional marketing, channel sales and partnerships, and general management.
Curt started his career at Google where he learned to think big, work hard, and, do the small things well. He spent 8 years there leading sales, marketing, and partnerships teams for some of the largest industries. Curt then joined Aktify, a SaaS startup, as Chief Revenue Officer, at which his teams grew annual recurring revenue through focusing on a more precise ideal customer profile, and on increasing revenue retention from Aktify’s best customers. Curt managed teams across business development, sales, marketing, channel partnerships, and revenue operations.
Curt holds degrees in International Relations and Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Cayse Llorens
Cayse is Managing Partner at Brockhurst Capital Partners. Prior to founding Brockhurst, Cayse was a venture capital investor at Invest Detroit Ventures, OCA Ventures, and Hyde Park Venture Partners.
Before he began investing in great entrepreneurs and companies, he partipated in 3 investor-backed exits, serving as a software engineer and team lead: the $240 Million IPO of R1 RCM, the $1.8 Billion acquisition of Coyote Logistics by UPS, and the $400 Million acquisition of BSwift by Aetna.
Cayse is also founder and former CEO of CelebTango, a live celebrity video chat company.
On the academic side, Cayse graduated Summa Cum Laude in Computer Engineering at the University of IL in Urbana Champaign, and received his MBA with honors at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Aaron Gabbart
For the last six years, Aaron led the search fund investing efforts of Peterson Partners, a private equity firm based in Salt Lake City. Prior to Peterson Partners, he served as the CEO of BenefitGuard, a Peterson portfolio company that grew from startup to $200MM AUM under his leadership and sold to NASDAQ:HQY in 2017 (CEO 2009-2013; Chairman 2013-2017). Before joining BenefitGuard, Aaron was a Financial Economist at the U.S. Treasury in Washington D.C during the Obama administration.
Aaron is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Marriott School of Management. He has served on several search fund Board of Directors, as well as the board of the BYU Men’s Soccer Program. Aaron loves to ski, play tennis, and has played soccer in the US, Holland, Italy, Mexico, and Costa Rica in matches against a few legendary players such as Jurgen Klinsmann, Tim Howard, and Cobi Jones. He is (or more accurately…was) a fluent Portuguese speaker after serving two years as a volunteer missionary for his church in Brazil.
Taylor Davidson
Taylor began his career in the beer business working for Anheuser-Busch Inbev, selling kegs and cases door- to-door to retailers, grocery stores, mass merchandisers, and liquor stores. After earning his stripes, he ran a beer and beverage sales distribution business with ~$20 million in annual revenue and ~$4 million in EBITDA in north Los Angeles, leading a team of sales representatives, merchandisers, and truck drivers. He was promoted to the corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions group at AB Inbev headquarters, where he helped acquire and integrate a $50 million in revenue distributorship in Lima, Ohio.
After business school, he worked in the search fund investing group at Peterson Partners under Joel Peterson, where he helped entrepreneurs and small business owners looking to transition ownership of their businesses, and cemented his goal to become a business owner himself.
Taylor earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017, a JD from Stanford Law School in 2017, and a BA from Harvard University in 2011.
Karthik Sridhar
Karthik is Managing Partner and Founder of Braid Capital. Prior to Braid, Karthik founded and grew a venture backed startup SupplyAI, which is now a part of Auctane (Stamps.com).
Prior to SupplyAI, Karthik was Director at Penn Schoen & Berland, a niche strategy consulting firm where he helped companies like AstraZeneca and Barclays Bank develop and execute large scale organization change programs. Karthik started his career at Delphi Automotive systems as a procurement engineer, then moved to HP to help set up their first European foray into direct to consumer ecommerce supply chain.
Karthik earned a B.E. and B.B.A from Birla Institute in India and a M.S. from Boston University.
Nick Rowe
Nick Rowe is the Founder and Managing Partner of Canoe Capital.
Nick approaches entrepreneurship drawing from his experience as advisor, investor, and operator. He spent most of his career working in multi-family offices, where he oversaw the allocation of ~$1.5B of investable assets and helped families navigate decisions at the intersection of wealth and life. From this experience, he is intimately familiar with the role that a business can play in an owner’s personal (and financial) life.
In addition, he brings operational experience and a growth-oriented mindset from the hospitality technology industry. At Airbnb in San Francisco, he helped to develop and expand the platform for hotels. And working for Asia’s largest hotel chain, he drove the market entry and expansion strategy for the United States and led competitive insights.
Through these experiences, Nick brings an analytical mindset combined with a human-centered approach.
Nick holds an MBA from INSEAD, France and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from Claremont McKenna College.
In his free time, Nick enjoys road cycling, scuba diving, and cooking for family and friends. Nick currently lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife, Anusha.
Grant Schafle
Prior to co-founding Forge Equity Partners, Grant worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and in search investing as a Principal at Anacapa Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to the search fund space. At Anacapa, Grant focused on supporting entrepreneurs in identifying, evaluating and financing small business acquisitions. He also supported small business owners as they transitioned into retirement, providing an avenue for owners to protect their business legacies, implement their desired succession plans, partner with and mentor young talent, and participate in the economic rewards of continuing to grow their businesses. Grant brings finance, strategy, and operational experience to Forge.
Grant earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2017, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University in 2011, graduating cum laude.
Griffin Horter
Griffin, Founder and Managing Partner of Kaho Partners, is currently the Founder of Addtronics, Board Member of Premier Outdoor Living, Co-Chairman of Kenny’s Great Pies, and Co-Chairman of North American Manufacturing.
Previously, Griffin was a private equity investor at Inverness Graham Investments and an investment banker at Wells Fargo Securities.
He has a B.A. from the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, and a second major in Economics.
Griffin currently lives in New York City with his mini golden-doodle, Winnie.
Max Katzenstein
Max, Founder and Managing Partner of Kaho Partners, is currently the Founder of Addtronics, Chairman of Premier Outdoor Living, Co-Chairman of Kenny’s Great Pies, and Co-Chairman of North American Manufacturing.
Previously, Max was a hedge fund investor at Kingdon Capital Management and an investment banker at Lazard.
Max has a B.S. from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, and a second major in Political Theory.
Max currently lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife Alex, daughter Grey, and their vizsla Graham.
Nick Ochi
Nick Ochi is the Founder and Principal at Type II Partners.
Nick brings nearly 10 years of work experience to Type II Partners, with a proven track record in both Field and Inside Sales. He spent 5 years selling residential services – solar energy and fire prevention – and another 4 years selling SaaS and technology at Cisco Meraki.
Nick holds a BA from Boston College and an MBA from University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
Mike McGlade
Mike is the Managing Director of Redline Automotive. Mike is a lifelong entrepreneur with extensive experience in the areas of FinTech, InsureTech, HR-Tech, SaaS, telecom and digital media. He has led strategy, business development, sales, marketing, recruiting and business operations for multiple companies from early stage startups to midmarket enterprises. His core skill set is centered on evaluating corporate strategy and messaging while putting systems in place to scale highly effective teams. Mike has helped companies as an in-house operator, an external consultant and as a long term advisor.
Previously, Mike was the founder of GreenShield, an automatic employee savings program that helps employees save money, invest wisely and reach their financial goals. GreenShield was a venture backed startup that would automatically save a few dollars each week for employees and give employers the ability to offer matching contributions to increase the speed at which employees can reach their pre-retirement goals. Earlier, Mike was the Chief Revenue Officer for FastPay, a venture funded digital media FinTech company. FastPay helps digital entrepreneurs manage payment cycles and boost revenues through access to non-dilutive working capital. Prior to FastPay, Mike built the sales & marketing team for BetterWorks – growing the company from 10 employees to over 70 and a nearly $100mm valuation in under a year. Earlier in his career, Mike was CEO of Zoosa (a social enterprise start-up which highlighted socially responsible actions) and he spent 7 years in a sales executive role at Tellabs (a telecommunications equipment manufacturer).
Mike graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Yannis Slibi
Yannis is the Founder and CEO of Advanced Aesthetics Partners.
Yannis was born to a family of entrepreneurs and has spent the past 7 years of his professional career working with small and large businesses. Most recently he was a Project Manager at McKinsey, where he spent 5 years focusing extensively on healthcare and more specifically on topics around pricing, M&A
integrations and overall transformations.
Prior to McKinsey, Yannis worked at his family’s business a multi location car park company for 2 years, covering different positions from driver to the General Manager. He has also led a non profit clinic and has spent a summer investing in medium sized companies. Finally, as a teenager Yannis used to
spent his evenings working at his mother’s dental practice.
Yannis holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Civil Engineering degree from Imperial College. He lives with his fiancé in London, where you can find him on a football pitch trying to perfect his finishing skills. He also loves learning new things and is currently trying to become fluent in Spanish.
Jeff Conn
Jeff was born in Santa Monica, California and is a fourth generation Southern Californian. He holds a Masters in Management from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Columbia University.
Jeff most recently served as Lead Case Writer at the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he worked with Stanford faculty and some of the world’s preeminent business leaders and entrepreneurs to develop cutting-edge research and coursework for the school’s entrepreneurship classes. Previously, Jeff served as co-founder and CEO of Beam, an industrial safety management software startup for manufacturing companies.
In his free time, Jeff enjoys baseball, basketball, surfing, grilling, and writing. Jeff and his wife Balyn, an assistant professor in UCSF’s Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department and Cardiovascular Research Institute, currently live in San Francisco, California.
Brian Greeley
Brian was born on a U.S. military base in Tacoma, Washington. A military brat whose father retired as a Master Sergeant after 24 years in the U.S. Air Force, Brian grew up in Washington, Korea, Japan, Texas, and Germany, where he graduated from a U.S. military high school. Brian was the first in his family to attend college, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Princeton University.
Brian most recently was the head of technology investing at Newbrook Capital Advisors, an investment fund based in New York City. At Newbrook, Brian was responsible for sourcing, researching, and monitoring investments in the software, technology services, semiconductor, and hardware industries.
In his free time, Brian enjoys football, baseball, automobiles, history, and learning about technology. Brian currently lives in Dallas, Texas.
Eddy Zakes
Eddy Zakes is the founder and CEO of Crosswalk Capital and a committed, experienced entrepreneur. With executive experience in a variety of geographies and industries, Eddy has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to build and lead teams and create sustained value. Most recently, Eddy served as the Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center at IESE Business School (ranked #1 business school in the world for Executive Education by the Financial Times for five consecutive years), where he led a team providing coaching, support, and mentorship to the school’s 50,000+ alumni in 140+ countries.
Additionally, Eddy earned his MBA from IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, and he has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as an Expert on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Due to the impact his leadership abilities have generated, Eddy was recognized as a regional 40-under-40 business leader in 2015.
Greg Sanker
Greg is the CEO at The Skin Center. Previously, Greg worked as the CFO of Soft-Lite, an approximately $80 million window and patio door manufacturer based in Streetsboro, OH. Prior to Soft-Lite, Greg worked in the investment banking department at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland, OH where he advised Soft-Lite on its sale to Harvey Building Products.
Prior to KeyBanc, Greg completed his MBA at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, MI. At Michigan, Greg founded and was Co-President of the Private Equity Club, a roughly 100- student organization of primarily undergraduate and graduate business school students.
Prior to business school, Greg worked at the River Cities Deaconess Healthcare Fund, L.P. in Cincinnati, OH. River Cities Deaconess (RCD) was a partnership between River Cities Capital Funds, a healthcare and IT growth equity fund with over $500 million in assets under management, and Deaconess Associations, a healthcare holding company. RCD sought to make control equity investments in lower middle market healthcare services businesses and maintained $100 million of capital under management. Greg primarily worked with a Director in the sourcing, evaluation, and execution of control equity investments. When Greg was not working on efforts related to the partnership, he also assisted in sourcing, evaluating, and executing healthcare and IT growth equity investments as well as portfolio development.
Prior to River Cities, Greg worked in middle market investment banking and was COO of a venture- backed technology business, all located in New York City. Greg completed his undergraduate degree at New York University where he received a BA with honors, cum laude, in Economics. Greg is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA).
Rahul Bansal
Rahul embarked on his search to acquire a business after over seven years of experience in investment banking. After finishing his two year analyst program at Citigroup’s Investment Bank, Rahul pursued an entrepreneurial opportunity in 2009 and joined the former global CEO of UBS’ Investment Bank as the third employee to help build a start-up investment banking advisory firm, Greentech Capital Advisors (GCA), solely focused on the sustainable infrastructure sector. Rahul helped initiate GCA’s New York office and in 2010 transitioned to help lead GCA’s global expansion, and opened the firms European office in Zürich, Switzerland. In 2013, Rahul transitioned to help the firm with its West Coast expansion and relocated to San Francisco, California. Rahul also spearheaded GCA’s entry into Asia during this time. Greentech Capital Advisors announced its sale to Nomura for $93 million in December 2019. Rahul holds a MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Finance from Georgetown University.
Stephen Koza
Stephen is the CEO of EverOps. Prior to EverOps, Stephen built new businesses inside two successful Silicon Valley technology companies: Samsara, a recent-IPO industrial software startup; and Meraki, a $3B division of Cisco. There he grew a business from inception to $400M in annual sales. He’s also an active advisor to early-stage startups.
Stephen has worked internationally and led teams responsible for delivering over $1B in revenue. He is passionate about bringing his experience to thriving SMBs and investing his energy with passionate teams. Stephen lives in San Rafael, CA with his wife and 1-year old son.
Sumit Garg
Sumit is a technology investor/executive with 20 years of experience in the industry. He is passionate about helping high potential software companies achieve market growth, build operational scale and gather world class teams. He is currently the Board Chairman at Netreo, and Board Member at Appsian and Escape Technologies. Sumit’s recent background includes President at Cleo Communications where he co-led a rapid transformation and 5x growth of the business in 5 years.
His prior background includes executive leadership roles at SumTotal Systems; strategic finance including investment banking at GCA Savvian, and venture capital at Visa Ventures; and technical roles including Product Management and Software Engineering at Alvarion, Aperto Networks and Hughes Software Systems.
Sumit holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a Bachelor of Technology in computer science & engineering from IIT-BHU.
Joel Willett
Joel Willett is currently CEO of Sayres & Associates. Prior to the acquisition, he served as an Operating Partner and Principal at Broadtree. He joined Broadtree from Russell Reynolds Associates, where he led consulting engagements to assess and place C-suite executives in the telecommunications, healthcare, and energy industries. Previously, Joel spent 4 years in the U.S. Army and 5 years in the Directorate of Operations at the Central Intelligence Agency. At CIA, he managed complex operations, spanning multiple international geographies. Joel finished government service on the National Security Council in the White House Situation Room, where he provided global situational awareness and crisis reporting to the President and senior advisors.
Joel has an MBA in Finance and Strategic Management from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an M.A. in National Security Studies from the University of Kentucky, and B.S. in Management from the University of Louisville. He speaks Russian and is based in Washington, D.C.
David Obia
David founded Kola Capital Partners to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship through acquiring one business to steward into the future.
Prior to founding Kola, David worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs where he advised clients in the technology, media, telecommunication and financial institution spaces on M&A and other corporate finance transactions. His favorite transaction was advising the co-founders of the Blue Man Group on their sale of the company to Cirque du Soleil. Being a part of the journey to sell a family business and witnessing the emotional toll it can take on owners, David gained a lasting respect and appreciation for founders and entrepreneurs who put much sweat equity into building a lasting business and legacy.
After Goldman, David helped lead business operations and strategy at Airfox, a Boston-based fintech that operates a digital banking platform for the underbanked and unbanked populations in Brazil. By helping to professionalize the company during a high growth period across multiple geographies, David and the team positioned Airfox to be acquired by their Brazilian strategic partner, publicly traded retailer Via Varejo (BVMF: VVAR3).
The son of Nigerian immigrants, David was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, but is still a die-hard Detroit sports fan. When not busy working and thinking about business, David enjoys learning about the body and mind. In addition to weight training, David has gained a deep interest in meditation and plans to study to become a teacher.
Maximo Cubilette
Maximo and his wife, Ally, are from NYC. He is a former hedge fund trader of a wide variety of securities (foreign exchange, interest rate derivatives, futures, and options in over 11 markets). He also managed teams, project implementation, broker relationships, as well as critical risk communications to executive management.
He spends his free time reading, working out, playing soccer and watching basketball and baseball. He and Ally enjoy cooking food from all over the world, supporting local arts organizations, and hosting family and friends.
Athena Kiriacopoulou
Athena is an engineer and entrepreneur with experience managing, building and growing social enterprises across multiple countries including founding her own waste management company in Tanzania. In 2018, she gave a TEDx presentation on Waste Management.
When not at work, you’ll find Athena training for 5k open water swims, taking care of her foster dogs and loves to go bike packing on her holidays.
Andrew Gebhart
Andrew leads deal sourcing, diligence, negotiations and capital raises. Once Palm Ridge Capital’s investment is complete, Andrew will lead the day-to-day operations with the support of a board of directors.
Prior to Palm Ridge Capital, Andrew built his career as an operator, technologist, and leader of people. He has led and advised worldwide operations for Fortune 100 companies across a multitude of industry segments that include Financial Services, Healthcare Services, Life Sciences, Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM), Education, and Government Contracting. With 18 years of experience developing and scaling organizational competencies in Operations, Sales and Marketing, Andrew continuously refines his playbooks to deliver dynamic tech-enabled business transformations. Known for identifying top talent, Andrew maintains a proven track record of assembling, empowering, and coaching high-functioning teams. He is motivated by the challenge of unlocking value creation through persistent refinement and delivery of top-line growth and cost reduction strategies.
Andrew graduated with honors from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and Marketing. He also holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management with a focus in Entrepreneurship.
Tariro Goronga
Tariro is a proven leader with experience in leading teams, developing individuals, and improving operational performance in manufacturing, engineering and investing environments. An electrical engineer by training, he worked at ArcelorMittal in various production, engineering and process improvement roles where he made numerous CAPEX and operational improvements that yielded millions in OPEX and CAPEX savings. He went on to do mergers and acquisitions with BP in Johannesburg before heading to business school. Post business school, he worked in private equity investing at CPPIB in Toronto, where he invested in North American and European companies.
Tariro earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and a Masters in Engineering from Wits University in South Africa. He grew up in Southern Africa, where he found his passion for the outdoors. He is dedicated to fitness, has completed several marathons and cycling races, and is currently training for his first triathlon race. He currently resides in Toronto with his wife and their son.
Kevin Hong
Kevin has been a successful ‘professional entrepreneur’ and investor. He is also an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange County where he teaches entrepreneurship. Kevin’s background mostly includes scaling tech startups, where two of them reached $7M ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) and $31M ARR during his tenure. Kevin sits on the advisory board of numerous startups and his work has been on CNBC, Forbes, HuffPost, NYT, LA Times, Xinhua News, Korea Times and many more. He is also a published author and occasionally writes for media outlets such as Forbes, Inc. Magazine, CNBC, etc.
Prior to becoming a ‘professional entrepreneur’, Kevin worked at Merrill Lynch, E*Trade Financial, and William O’Neil as a stock research analyst and as a stock trader. Kevin earned his B.S. in Business Administration at the University of California, Riverside, before pursuing his MBA at the University of Chicago. During his free time, Kevin enjoys traveling, cooking, and fixing his house.
Nathan Sheth
Nate is the Managing Partner for Reciprocity Capital. Nate began his career in investment banking, most recently in the successful Technology Investment Banking Group of Morgan Stanley located in Menlo Park. He worked on both corporate finance transactions (convertible debt and IPOs) and M&A transactions.
He then began an apprentice program at SPO Partners & Co, a storied investment firm located in Mill Valley outside of San Francisco.Nate received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Finance from Villanova University.
Marcela Lopez
Prior to founding Riverbank, Marcela Lopez was CFO at Grupo Arca a private-equity portfolio company specialized in construction materials in Mexico, U.S. and Spain. She has experience in Private Equity and Consulting and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an B.A. in Economics from Boston College.
Graham Brockington
Graham is the Founder & Managing Partner of Wolf Run Capital. Prior to founding Wolf Run Capital, Graham was Director of Strategic Analysis at The Beachbody Company where he lead corporate strategy initiatives including closing 3 tuck-in acquisitions and facilitating Beachbody’s SPAC IPO.
Graham started his career at Deloitte and spent 2.5 years on the Strategy Development Team honing is financial modeling and strategy skillsets. Graham then returned to his alma matter Stanford University as the Assistant Coach of the Men’s Golf team, leading the team to two consecutive Pac-12 conference championships during his two years as a coach.
Graham has a B.A. from Stanford University, where he walked-on to the Varsity Men’s Golf Team and earned a spot in the starting lineup that was ranked #1 in the nation. He also earned his MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Jameel Francis
Jameel is an entrepreneur and former small owner. He has spent the past 12 years working across M&A transactions, managing P&Ls, implementing technology solutions, making hiring & firing decisions, and leading sales, HR, finance and operations in small businesses. Most recently, he worked with KPMG LLP’s Global Strategy team focused on M&A transaction advisory and corporate strategy. While at KPMG, Jameel advised private equity and corporate clients on buy and sell-side transactions valuing $500 million or more, helped corporate clients implement scalable operating models, and managed associates and analysts. Prior to KPMG, Jameel worked at Google Inc. in a strategy operations role where he managed customer support experience while minimizing operational costs. Prior to Google, Jameel spent several years working as a technology consultant helping clients to gain operational efficiencies and reduce IT expenses by leveraging technologies such as virtualization and cloud computing. In addition, Jameel operated an educational services business for 4+ years where he grew the company from one to 12 cities, managed 15+ employees, grew revenue 25% yearly, then later sold the business.
Jameel holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. When he’s not busy leading others and spending time with family, Jameel loves to travel and learn new customs.
Richard Kent
Richard is the Founder and Managing Partner at Shunga Trails, a search fund formed to acquire and operate a small business in the United States.
Richard most recently worked at Palantir Technologies where he was a Program Manager overseeing work with a variety of clients in the US Government space. Previously, he worked at DaVita where he managed 12 outpatient clinics and led a team of over 150 teammates as part of running a $30M P&L. Prior to that he was an Associate at JP Morgan in their Healthcare Investment Banking Division where he gained experience working across the entire spectrum of corporate financial transactions.
Earlier in his career, Richard served in the US Army for over 8 years, eventually medically retiring as a Captain from wounds sustained overseas. During his service he led a platoon of 45 men in combat operations in Afghanistan and later became the Assistant to the CEO of the military’s largest hospital, Brooke Army Medical Center.
Richard holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Leadership Development from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
James Loo
James Loo is the Managing Director Managing Director of Triple Peak Capital. He is passionate and focused on healthcare where he has witnessed how business can be used to create superior patient outcomes. Notable health and business accomplishments include being credited with directly saving 140 lives leading the industry’s first successful MM cancer cure immunotherapeutic clinical trial, appointment as the overall portfolio lead for J&J’s controlled substance task force overseeing 3000+ global employees and $1B+ product line, facilitating the M&A strategy and transaction for the $74B Celgene acquisition by BMS which remains the largest healthcare transaction in history, and directing the growth of his family biotech business from OEM to operations into 40+ countries and IPO journey.
His diverse background also includes P.E. at Blackstone, management consulting as a founding member of Deloitte Consulting’s Next Gen Therapies Strategy practice, executive management at every level of his family biotech business, and prior to his business career service to the country on the Counter-ISIL Task Force with several US Intelligence agencies.
James’ education includes the Columbia Business School where he served as academic chair during his MBA, and Harvard University where he authored award winning research in the fields of health innovation. James is an avid weightlifter and enjoys traveling, cooking, and giving back to the community
Megan McGee
Peak Tide is operated by a principal entrepreneur, Megan McGee, who plans to acquire a single business, relocate to the headquarters location, and devote her career to leading and growing the company.
Megan’s entrepreneurial drive was sparked around a dinner table education, where she learned from her dad’s experiences building family-owned businesses. This led Megan to launch several small businesses, most notably including an e-commerce business that she founded as a college student and expanded over five years. Subsequently, Megan led a successful turnaround for a regional pest control branch then transitioned into a director for a marketing agency serving Fortune 500 clients.
Megan earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with degrees in Entrepreneurship and Economics from Florida State University and a Master of Business Administration from University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where she was a Batten Entrepreneurial Scholar and Student Body President.
Cory A. Croft
Cory is Managing Partner at Edgelake Capital Partners. Developed from 16 years of experience in both corporate and operating roles, he is a people-focused leader and is excited to bring his passion and energy to the leading one great business.
Cory’s professional background includes inventory management, strategy, and marketing roles at Target Corporation, Accenture, Delta Airlines, and Expedia. He also spent time leading local market operations roles in Chicago for two technology based start up companies, Sonder and Rinse. He’s been responsible for launching new business from the ground up, and for stepping in to lead businesses and teams at various stages of growth. He understands how to drive both growth and profitability while maintaining culture.
Cory holds a BS from the University of Minnesota and an MBA (with concentrations in marketing, strategy, finance, and entrepreneurship) from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Aadhi Manivannan
Orlan Davies
Orlan is a Managing Partner at Athenaeum Partners, a growth oriented investment fund formed to acquire and operate a single privately-held healthcare services, B2B services, or software business.
Prior to founding Athenaeum, Orlan ran a consulting practice helping companies raise capital, conduct FP&A and implement business intelligence systems. Previously, Orlan led the finance, HR, and accounting teams at United Scope, the world’s largest ecommerce supplier of microscopes. Prior to that, Orlan was an investment professional at ClearLight Partners, a middle market private equity firm. At ClearLight he served on the board/governance teams of United Tactical Systems, Katzkin, and Evriholder. Orlan started his career at Intrepid Investment Bankers, a middle market investment bank.
Orlan graduated from Claremont McKenna College with a dual BA in Economics and Computer Science.
John Rochefort
John is a Managing Partner at Athenaeum Partners, a growth oriented investment fund formed to acquire and operate a single privately-held healthcare services, B2B services, or software business.
Prior to founding Athenaeum, John was an Investment Professional at Spanos Barber & Jesse, a private investment firm that manages approximately $300 million of committed capital focused on lower middle-market consumer, business services, and healthcare services companies. John joined SBJ in 2016 and supported all aspects of diligence, deal execution, and portfolio management. At SBJ, he served on the investment teams responsible for overseeing Under Canvas, Troy Lee Designs, and Resolvion. Prior to joining SBJ, John started his career at Intrepid Investment Bankers, a middle market investment bank.
John graduated with a BA from Pitzer College, a member of the Claremont Colleges, where he studied Economics and was a Robert Day Scholar.
Charlie Wesley
Charles F. Wesley is the Founder and Managing Partner of Vinchess Investors, LLC. Prior to Vinchess, Mr. Wesley worked in healthcare investment banking at Houlihan Lokey, advising clients on sell-side and leveraged buyouts of private equity (“PE”) backed middle-market healthcare services companies. His deal experience includes multi-site/retail, healthcare distribution, and behavioral health.
Prior to working in investment banking, Mr. Wesley spent eight years at ExxonMobil in various roles in operations and finance. He was most recently a manager of a $30mm P&L in downstream at a large oil refinery in the US Gulf Coast region, where he executed a complex operational turnaround. Prior to that role, he was the lead financial analyst on two operational turnarounds, including the successful turnaround of a specialty manufacturing and distribution business unit. He began his career at ExxonMobil as an operations support engineer.
Mr. Wesley holds an MBA in Finance Honors from the Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business, where he was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma. In addition, he holds both an M.S. and B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon with a minor in Physics.
John Shoaf
Isaac Taylor
Isaac is the Managing Partner for New Horizon, a search fund based in Austin, Texas. Prior to launching New Horizon, he spent 13 years working in financial services. Most recently, he spent 7 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was a Managing Director advising large Consumer & Retail companies. There he demonstrated the ability to develop and strengthen relationships with senior leaders at Fortune 500 companies. Prior to that, he also held a variety of senior roles at JPMorgan and Ally Financial. Over the course of his career he has been particularly passionate about creatively solving client challenges and successfully recruiting, training, and leading sales teams.
Isaac was born and raised in Detroit, MI. As a kid he spent summers working in his father’s real estate company, which sparked his interest in business. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School of Business where he studied finance and marketing.
Kasra Hedayatnia
Kasra has over 17 years of experience in M&A and private equity. Prior to founding Emerson, he served as a Business Development Director for H.I.G. Capital, a middle market private equity fund, which along with its credit affiliates manage over $27 billion in assets. In his almost seven years with the firm he originated over 1,000 investment opportunities, leading to multiple platform company acquisitions, add-on transactions, and joint venture relationships.
Prior to H.I.G. he served as a Vice President of Alpha Omega Capital Partners, a mid-Atlantic based middle market investment bank. In his six years with the firm he served as lead advisor on over 75 client engagements across a variety of industries, representing companies with collectively more than $600 million in revenues and over $240 million in completed transactions and assignments.
Kasra began his career in corporate finance as a summer Associate with Matrix Capital Markets Group in Richmond, Virginia. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Mark Wang
Mark is a Co-founder of the search fund Kindly Light. He has over 15 years of experience building growth-oriented companies and enhancing operations to adapt to changing business climates.
Prior to launching Kindly Light, he worked at Alvarez & Marsal Private Equity Services, where he took on advisory and interim management roles at mid-sized companies as a subject matter expert on operations strategy and margin improvement. Prior to Alvarez & Marsal and business school, he led finance & operations at a boutique international metals recycling and trading company. He started his career in financial services and tech at JPMorgan Chase and ADVISORport.
Mark holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BBA from Temple University. He lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife, Lily, and rambunctious children, Elliot and Emma.
Benedikt Westrick
Benedikt is a Co-founder of the search fund Kindly Light. He has 20 years of experience in accelerating top-line growth of small and mid-sized companies in the US and Europe.
Benedikt was formerly a partner at Rosemark Capital, a boutique investment firm focused on early stage companies in the Health IT sector. He also spent 7 years working as a consultant and interim manager supporting privately-owned mid-sized companies to improve their sales and business development functions. Prior to consulting, Benedikt served as right-hand to the CEO of Maserati and managed multiple growth initiatives, including enhancing the company’s sales force effectiveness and optimizing marketing spend. Before joining Maserati, he worked at Ducati as a sales manager where he propelled the company into new markets by expanding the company’s products portfolio. Benedikt started his career at Bain & Co.
Benedikt holds a degree in naval engineering and a master in business administration. He currently lives in Princeton NJ and enjoys outdoor activities with his two boys Teddy and Leone.
Alex Williams
Alex is the Founder and Managing Partner of Camac Management. Prior to launching Camac Management, Alex’s background included working in B2B marketing with a Fortune 50 company where he launched new products and managed demand creation. He earned his MBA from the University of Virginia – Darden School of Business. Before his MBA Alex’s background included working in the talent management industry where he focused on executive search, talent pipeline development and leadership assessments for executives in PE-backed and Fortune 100 companies.
Peter Badal
Peter Badal is a former national security practitioner. He served in the U.S. Navy and then as a Human Intelligence Officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He is experienced in operational planning and execution.
After graduate school at Georgetown University, Peter worked in investment banking and capital markets at Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse, and Chartwell Financial Advisory.
He is an excited father, grateful husband, and proud American, and is looking to lead a small business and its employees to the next level.