Josh Armstrong Deputy Managing Editor MERGERMARKET

Josh Armstrong is deputy managing editor for Mergermarket in North America. He founded the Southeast US editorial bureau in 2018, building out Mergermarket's coverage in the region from a home base in Charlottesville, Virginia. He previously oversaw financial services coverage at S&P Global Market Intelligence and did a little bit of every job at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.

Ryan Terpstra Chief Product Officer ION ANALYTICS

Ryan Terpstra is the Chief Product Officer of ION Analytics and the former Chief Technology Officer of Acuris. Prior to that, he was the Founder & CEO of Selerity, an AI-powered contextual search and analytics company, until its successful sale to Dealogic, an ION Analytics company. Before Selerity, Terpstra held several senior roles at Thomson Reuters, including Director of Quantitative News and Senior Strategist in the Corporate Strategy group. Terpstra also worked for the World Economic Forum in the Center for Global Industries, where he worked on projects for the Forum's financial services and alternative investment members. He was recognized as a New York Power 30 Under 30 and holds a B.A. in Finance & Entrepreneurship, graduating with honors from Miami University (Ohio).

David Kushner Chief Investment Officer CITY OF AUSTIN EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM (COAERS)

David Kushner, CFA, is the Chief Investment Officer of the City of Austin Employees’ Retirement System. Kushner helms the $3 billion pension fund’s investment program, working collaboratively with the Executive Director, Investment Committee, and the investment consultant to guide the strategic investment decisions of the Board.

As an industry veteran, Kushner has spent nearly four decades as an expert in the field of investment management and finance. Before joining COAERS, Kushner served as a founding partner of Global Asset Management Consultants and served as CIO of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA). Prior to that, he spent 10 years as the investment chief of the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System. Kushner is a two-time member of the CIO’s Power 100 list.

Kushner holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.

Yana Morris Chief Content Officer ION Analytics

With over 20 years of experience in the financial media and information industry, Yana Morris a passionate and innovative leader who thrives on creating and delivering high-quality content and solutions to global clients. As the Chief Content Officer she is responsible for the content strategies, distribution and compliance of ION Analytics core service brands: Debtwire, Dealogic, Mergermarket and Infralogic. 

Josh Armstrong Deputy Managing Editor MERGERMARKET

Josh Armstrong is deputy managing editor for Mergermarket in North America. He founded the Southeast US editorial bureau in 2018, building out Mergermarket's coverage in the region from a home base in Charlottesville, Virginia. He previously oversaw financial services coverage at S&P Global Market Intelligence and did a little bit of every job at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.

Rene Benedetto Managing Director and Senior Relationship Manager THE CARLYLE GROUP

Rene Benedetto a Managing Director and Senior Relationship Manager responsible for business development, investor relations and strategic fundraising initiatives with institutional investors across Carlyle’s three business segments. Rene is based in Austin, Texas.

Rene has 25+ years of private equity investing, business development, fundraising, and board experience.  Prior to Carlyle, Rene was a Managing Director of Certares Management LLC, an investment firm with ~$10B of AUM across Private Equity, Credit and Real Estate, where she focused on private equity investing and fund marketing for Certares Real Estate and Private Equity platforms. Prior to Certares, Rene was a Managing Director of Trivergance LLC, a mid-market private equity firm, where she led investments, debt and equity capital raising, business development and strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 brands.

Prior to Trivergance, Rene was a Principal at Halyard Capital, a middle-market private equity fund focused on media and tech-enabled business services investments.  Prior to Halyard, Ms. Benedetto was a General Partner at Impact Venture Partners, a technology-focused venture capital fund. Rene also held positions as a Director at CIBC’s merchant banking group and a Senior Analyst at Bank of America’s growth equity and investment banking groups.

Rene has served on the boards of multiple companies and currently serves as on the Deans Advisory Council of the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and on the Executive Council of New York for McCombs. She is also a Member of Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN).

Rene received an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania and a B.B.A. in Finance with Highest Honors, from The University of Texas at Austin.

Kaci Boyer Managing Director, Private Equity NEUBERGER BERMAN

Kaci Boyer is a Managing Director of Neuberger Berman and a senior member of the private equity investment team. Ms. Boyer focuses on designing and implementing customized private equity portfolios for institutional clients, acting as a program manager and a client investment contact for some of NB Private Equity’s largest custom account mandates. In addition, she is also responsible for evaluating and executing private equity investments and assists with business development activities across the private equity platform. Ms. Boyer joined the Dallas office in 2007 and spent nine months in Neuberger Berman’s Hong Kong office focused on private equity investments throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 2017, the National Association of Investment Companies recognized Ms. Boyer as a Rising Star for outstanding contributions she has made to the private equity industry early in her career. Ms. Boyer received a BBA in Finance from Southern Methodist University.

Tiffany Kosch Managing Partner CENTERGATE CAPITAL

Tiffany Kosch is a Managing Partner at CenterGate Capital. Tiffany has over 25 years of investment experience creating value in lower middle market companies. She was a Managing Director at H.I.G. Capital, where she invested in underperforming lower middle market companies for eight years. Her experience covers a broad range of investment structures and types, among them corporate spin-outs and orphans, turnaround equity and distressed debt. Sectors covered are also broad, including business services, consumer products and manufacturing. Tiffany received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S., cum laude, from Georgetown University.

Kathy Reiland Investor INTEGRUM

Kathy Reiland is a member of the Investment Committee at Integrum.

Kathy has over thirty years of investment and acquisition experience most recently during her tenure at Standard Industries (“Standard”) and 40 North Management (“40 North”) and Evercore Partners (“Evercore”).

Kathy joined Standard and 40 North in 2016 as Head of Strategy and Development and a member of the executive leadership team. Standard is a privately held global industrial company with a broad array of investments, technologies and holdings including building materials assets and next-generation solar solutions. 40 North, a related investment business of Standard Industries, is a fundamentally based investment platform that takes concentrated, long-term positions across a range of sectors to create value for all stakeholders. During her tenure, Kathy was involved in both public and private investments totaling more than $10 billion in enterprise value and ranging from early to late stage including Braas Monier, W.R. Grace, Clariant, Hover, and Hippo.

Prior to joining Standard, Kathy spent eighteen years as a Senior Managing Director at Evercore, a global independent investment banking advisory firm, and Evercore Capital Partners, Evercore’s private equity platform. During that time, Kathy was a general partner of the private equity funds, and ultimately served as the Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s investment businesses that included private equity, traditional asset management and wealth management. Later, she served as head of Evercore’s international joint ventures in Asia. Kathy was involved in Evercore Capital Partner’s investments in Fidelity Information Services (FIS), Sedgwick, Bollinger, and Causeway Capital. In addition, Kathy was actively involved in Evercore’s diversity and recruiting efforts responsible for launching the Women’s Forum which was designed to establish relationship networks and training to position women for senior leadership roles.

Prior to joining Evercore, Kathy was a buy-side equity analyst at Sanford Bernstein and a consultant at Bain & Co.

Kathy earned her B.A. degree from Duke University and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth.

Courtney Villalta Managing Director APOLLO GLOBAL MANAGEMENT

Courtney Villalta is a Managing Director in the Client & Product Solutions group at Apollo, where she leads Product Management for Private Equity. Prior to joining Apollo in 2022, Courtney was Director on the Investment Team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, managing private equity investments in addition to the Firm’s Private Markets Strategic Partnerships.

Jeffrey Diehl Managing Partner & Head of Investments ADAMS STREET PARTNERS

Jeff is the Managing Partner and Head of Investments at Adams Street. He is responsible for the overall management of the firm and oversees the investment teams’ processes and strategies. Jeff joined Adams Street’s Growth Equity team in 2001 and focuses primarily on growth investments in application software, financial technology and consumer internet.

Prior to joining Adams Street, he served as a Principal for The Parthenon Group, a Boston-based strategy consulting and principal investing firm with Bain Consulting roots.

Jeff is Chairman of both Adams Street’s Portfolio Construction Committee and Executive Committee, and a member of the Growth Equity Investment Committee and New Product Committee.

CURRENT INVESTMENTS
Jeff led the Growth Equity Team’s investments in BoomTown, CBANC Network, Homeward, Millennium Trust, Paylocity (PCTY), Q2 Holdings (QTWO), SnagAJob, and Turnkey (merged with VCSA).

PAST INVESTMENTS
Past Adams Street investments include AMWINS (acquired by New Mountain), Ancestry.com (ACOM), Apto (acquired by BuildOut), ArrowEye, CBeyond (CBEY), Dolex, Gevity HR (GVHR), LogRhythm (acquired by Thoma Bravo), MagicJack (acquired by RILY), MxLogic (acquired by McAfee), Peerless Networks (acquired by Infobip), Setanta, Spiceworks (acquired by Ziff Davis), Stratavia (acquired by Hewlett-Packard), Sympoz (acquired by Comcast), T3Media (acquired by VERI), TicketsNow (acquired by Ticketmaster) and Trendkite (acquired by Cision).

Rachel Stone Charlottesville Bureau Chief MERGERMARKET

Rachel covers fintech and the broader tech sector for Mergermarket. She has a bachelor’s degree in business journalism from Washington and Lee University.

Christopher Britton Managing Director, Co-Head of North America, Venture & Growth Banking LAZARD

Christopher Britton joined Lazard in 2019 and co-leads our North American Venture and Growth Banking business from Austin, Texas, advising tech led fast growing private companies on their capital raisings.

At Lazard, Christopher has advised on a wide range of transactions across sectors including Smart Pension (fintech), Tessian (cybersecurity), Congenica (health tech), Bulb Energy (consumer / energy), Zymergen (synthetic biology), LumiraDX (health tech) and SystemC (Electronic Health Records) and has strong relationship with investors across the venture and growth asset class.

Prior to joining Lazard, Christopher was at Liberum Capital where he co-led the investment companies team and previously the healthcare team. He has experience advising on a range of corporate transactions including private fundraises, IPOs, and secondary transactions including M&A on the Main Market and AIM and across several different sectors. Selected transactions include the IPOs of Glencore, Infinis, Merian Chrysalis, Game Digital and Shield Therapeutics, secondary fundraises for Shaftesbury and Workspace, and block trades for Elliot Advisers and GI Partners.

Christopher graduated with a first from St John's College, Oxford and is a qualified solicitor, having worked at global law firm Jones Day.

Kevin Burke Partner and Head of Strategy SAPPHIRE VENTURES

Kevin is a Partner and Head of Strategy for Sapphire Ventures, where he is responsible for advising the investment teams, portfolio companies, and limited partners on key market trends and dynamics.  Kevin works across all Sapphire strategies to help the firm best execute against current opportunities, while also identifying and evaluating future focus areas.

Prior to joining Sapphire, Kevin spent 7.5 years in Corporate Strategy at Microsoft where he was a Senior Director and member of the strategy leadership team.  In this role, Kevin worked directly with Microsoft’s Leadership Team on the company’s most critical strategic growth initiatives, with work that touched both existing and new product categories, go-to-market, M&A, and partnerships.  Prior to Microsoft, Kevin worked at Booz & Company in the firm’s Technology, Media, and Telecom practice where he consulted for several Fortune 100 technology clients in the software and ecommerce categories, and also was selected as one of the 3 members of the inaugural class of the Katzenbach Center’s Leadership Program.

Kevin is a graduate of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas-Austin, as well as of Emory University, where he majored in Economics.  He currently lives in Austin, TX with his beautiful wife Cassie and their two children, Olivia and Owen.

Morgan Flager Managing Partner SILVERTON PARTNERS

Morgan has over 25 years of experience as a venture investor and technology executive. He joined Silverton in 2006 and has sponsored 24 investments and realized 11 acquisitions and two IPO’s.

He currently sits on the boards of Aceable, BILT, Insiteflow, OneDay, Rollick, Self Financial, SourceDay, The Helper Bees, The Zebra, and Wheel. Notable past investments include Alert Media (acq. Vista Equity), Black Locus (acq. The Home Depot), Crimson (acq. Advisory Board), Ping Identity (NYSE: PING), Project 44, Trendkite (acq. Cision) and Vacasa (NASDAQ:VCSA).

Prior to Silverton, Morgan worked with FTV Capital in San Francisco, where he focused on growth investments in software and financial technology. Morgan started his career at Ingrian Networks (acquired by SafeNet) and Kintana (acquired by Mercury Interactive Corp.). Morgan grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and received his BS from Stanford University.

Charlie Plauche General Partner S3 VENTURES

Charlie Plauche joined S3 Ventures in 2010 and is currently a General Partner. He currently serves on the Boards of S3 portfolio companies Atmosphere, BrainCheck, Genda, HYAS, Interplay Learning, LeanDNA, Prokeep, Stellar, UpEquity, Upkey, and ZSuite Tech.

Previous boards include Alkami Technology (NASDAQ: ALKT), Favor Delivery (acquired by H-E-B Grocery), Kimbia (acquired by GiveGab), Levelset (acquired by Procore), Liveoak Technologies (acquired by DocuSign), OutboundEngine (acquired by Elm Street Technology), Tango Health (acquired by Benefitfocus), and TVA Medical (Observer, acquired by Becton Dickinson).

Charlie received his MBA from the McCombs School at the University of Texas in Austin and his BS in Finance from the University of Mississippi, where he was a Holmes Scholarship recipient and a Mississippi Eminent Scholar.

Jeff Keay Managing Director HARBOURVEST PARTNERS

Jeff Keay joined HarbourVest in 1999 and focuses on global secondary investments across a range of transaction types. Jeff is based in Boston and also worked in the Firm’s London office. Jeff is the Chair of the Firm’s Secondary InvestmentCommittee and he currently serves on a number of advisory boards. Prior to joining the Firm, Jeff spent three years at Ernst & Young LLP, where he specialized in the venture capital and financial services industries. His previous experience also includes working at the Financial Accounting StandardsBoard. Jeff received a BA (cum laude) in Economics and Accounting from the college of the Holy Cross in 1996.

John Kaercher Partner KIRKLAND & ELLIS

John Kaercher is a mergers & acquisitions and private equity partner in the Austin office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. John provides ongoing representation to corporate clients on complex transactions, including domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, SPACs, private equity and public and private securities offerings, with a particular focus on the technology, media, telecommunications and energy sectors (including oil and gas, power, renewables, and energy transition).

John forms long-lasting relationships with his clients and is routinely called upon to lead complicated transactions on expedited timelines. In addition, John frequents the speaker circuits, regularly participating on panels or providing insights on topical matters.

John Block CEO UNITY PARTNERS

John Block is the Co-Founder and CEO of Unity Partners, a Principles-based private equity firm that partners investors and operators to Build Better Together, measured by the economic surplus created and shared with all stakeholders. John established the firm’s Partner & Propel strategy which focuses on identifying opportunities to Partner with ambitious leaders in services and software markets to accelerate growth, unlock the benefits of platform scale through mergers and acquisitions and Propel value acceleration through investments in people, processes and operational levers.

Prior to founding Unity Partners, John most recently was a Partner at HGGC with board seats on over ten services and software companies during his tenure on the investment team. Prior to joining HGGC in 2010, John started his career at Bain & Company.

John received an MBA from the University of Chicago and a BSBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Bob Morse Co-Founder and Managing Director STRATTAM CAPITAL

Bob Morse

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Bob founded Strattam Capital in 2013 along with Adrian Polak, and he serves as Managing Partner.

He is currently director of Action Title Research, Affinaquest, CloudHesive, Contegix, and Trax Group. Previously, Bob was a Partner and member of the Investment Committee at Oak Hill Capital Partners. He also worked at GCC Investments, a growth private equity firm based in Boston, and at Morgan Stanley.

Bob attended Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude with a B.S.E., and Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he earned his M.B.A. and was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Carl Press Partner THOMA BRAVO

Carl Press is a Partner at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2015 as a Vice President. Carl is the co-head of Thoma Bravo’s $3.0bn Explore platform, which focuses on investing in high growth middle-market technology companies. He currently serves on the board of directors of Foundation Software, Applitools, Circle, and Bluesight. Previously, he was a Senior Associate at HighBar Partners, an Associate in the Special Situations Group at Oaktree Capital Management, and an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank. GrowthCap named Carl to its list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors for 2021. Carl holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a BS, with Honors, in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Troy Hooper Head of Pre-Event Equity Capital Market Coverage MERGERMARKET

Troy Hooper is head of pre-event equity capital market coverage for Mergermarket & Dealreporter. Based in Southern California, Troy has covered M&A and IPOs in the technology sector for this news service for a decade. 

Victor Masaya Managing Partner PRESIDIO INVESTORS

Victor Masaya joined Presidio Investors in 2009 and has approximately two decades of private equity investment, financial services, and operating experience. Mr. Masaya serves as Managing Partner for Presidio Investors, where he focuses on lower-middle market private equity investing.

Prior to Presidio Investors, Mr. Masaya served as an investment banker for Presidio Merchant Partners, advising companies on corporate finance transactions and mergers & acquisitions. Previously, he held corporate strategy, finance, and operating roles at GreenPoint Mortgage, a mortgage banking company, and tax and accounting roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Mr. Masaya received an MBA from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a Master of Business, Taxation from the University of Southern California. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Mr. Masaya is also active in the community, currently serving as a Board Member for Arts Bridging the Gap, based in Los Angeles, California, offering programs that utilize the arts to provide support for young people in under-resourced areas. He also formerly served as a member of the Board and Vice Chairman of the East Bay Asian Youth Center in Oakland, California and is a founding member of Project by Project San Francisco.

Presidio Board Seats: Resolve Tech Solutions, Podium Audio, Golden Pear Funding, Alliant National, NHF, IDS, and Lindora

Thomas Thayyil Thomas CEO TERAGONIA

Thomas is the Founder and CEO of Teragonia, a digital capability enabler for financial sponsors and portfolio companies to exponentially boost value creation, elevate fund professional productivity, and accelerate LP dollars. Adept in quantitative techniques and technology, Thomas, his co-founders, and team of business, technology, and quantitative experts create digital solutions in the gen AI era with a vision of pushing the boundaries of returns and efficiency.

A trusted advisor to financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, and conglomerates headquartered on all continents, Thomas advised clients throughout his career on transformative M&A transactions worth over $15 billion in aggregate. Based on his global experiences, Thomas applies a distinct, multicultural perspective to business building.

Prior to founding Teragonia, Thomas worked at Houlihan Lokey for five years where he established two successful and fast-growing practices from the ground up, including a sophisticated data science practice. He led the design and development of a fit-for-purpose, cutting-edge, and highly secure data science technology platform capable of hosting thousands of users and supporting several hundred clients. Leveraging the platform, he innovated several scalable and quickly deployable analytics applications creating significant value for the financial sponsor clients. Thomas also spent over a decade at Ernst & Young, working in the Assurance, M&A Diligence and Strategy Consulting practices in London and Houston, Texas.

Thomas is a Chartered Accountant, and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.  He received his Master of Commerce from MG University, India and his MS Finance from the University of Strathclyde, U.K.

Karl Schade Founder and Managing Partner PRESIDIO INVESTORS

KARL SCHADE

Presidio Investors Founder and Managing Partner

Karl Schade has been structuring, analyzing, and managing private equity investments for over two and a half decades. Today, he serves as Managing Partner of Presidio Investors, the private equity firm he founded in 2007. In this role, Mr. Schade has spent fourteen years focused on middle market buyouts, specifically in the technology, media, and financial services industries. At Presidio Investors, Mr. Schade, and the middle market-focused team he recruited, have invested in thirteen platform investments through thirty-eight acquisitions.  Mr. Schade is based in Austin, TX.

Mr. Schade also has significant CEO experience. From 2013-2016, he was the CEO of The Presidio Group, a San Francisco-based financial services firm with ~$5 billion of assets under advisement. As CEO, Mr. Schade worked with the team and Board of Presidio to grow assets, open a Washington D.C. office, and restructure the firm, resulting in a successful exit. During 2011, Mr. Schade also served as CEO of Hattrick Sports Group, one of Presidio Investors’ most successful technology investments.

Prior to founding Presidio Investors, Mr. Schade worked for a decade at several large private equity firms, including The Blackstone Group in New York City, Silver Lake Partners in Menlo Park, and Blum Capital Partners in San Francisco. While at these Firms, Mr. Schade learned industry best practices and was a team-member on deals representing approximately $1 billion of invested equity capital. 

Mr. Schade received his MBA from Harvard Business School, and his BA from Claremont McKenna College.  Mr. Schade has served on numerous Boards and Associations, and he is a frequent speaker at industry events.

Presidio Board Seats (past and present): Bravas, Podium Audio, Golden Pear Funding, National Health Finance, Hattrick Sports Group, Metropolitan Bank, and Lindora

Conner Searcy Managing Partner TRIVE CAPITAL

Conner is the Managing Partner of Trive Capital, responsible for overseeing all facets of the firm’s investment activities. Conner sits on the Board of most of Trive’s portfolio companies. Over his private equity career, Conner has completed over 60 platform investments across more than a dozen industry sectors, representing over $5 billion in revenue.

Prior to founding Trive Capital, Conner was a Partner at Insight Equity, a firm he joined at inception. Conner has also worked at Stonegate, a middle market buyout firm focused on the building products industry, and Bain & Company where he focused on turnaround management, business strategy and merger integration consulting.

Conner received his MBA from the Harvard Business School and graduated with a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in three years.

Carlos Martinez Canada Editor MERGERMARKET

After eight years collaborating for Mergermarket from Latin America, Carlos is joining our staff as the new Canada Editor, where he will boost coverage and build up a strong source network, as well as spearhead Mergermarket’s energy and mining reporting.

Carlos started out as a Colombia correspondent in late 2014 and quickly became a crucial member of the Latin America team, helping with edits, sharing leads on Teams, and closely collaborating with Debtwire and Infralogic’s regional teams. He was named Deputy Latin America Editor in 2021.

Prior to joining Mergermarket, Carlos was senior features editor at Mexico’s leading business magazine and held similar roles at various other media outlets in Canada and the UK. He started his journalism career as a researcher/reporter at the Los Angeles Times’ foreign bureau in Mexico City back in 2005.

Carlos holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Thompson Rivers University in Canada and a master’s degree in international development from the University of Manchester in the UK. He is fluent in English and Spanish and is refreshing his high school French language skills. Outside of work he spends most of his time playing with his six-year-old daughter Sienna and walking his mixed-breed schnauzer Max.

Jewel Chen Private Equity Portfolio Manager TEXAS PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND CORPORATION

Jewel Chen, JD, CFA, CPA, Private Equity Portfolio Manager, Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation

Jewel is a Private Equity Portfolio Manager at Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation. She leads underwriting and monitoring of primary funds and co-investments across diversified strategies and geographies. Previously, Jewel worked at CalPERS Private Equity, covering large buyout, secondary, coinvestments, and emerging manager strategies.  

Previously, Jewel was a real estate attorney and a lead analyst at California State Treasurer’s Office, focusing on multifamily affordable housing developments with private equity investments via syndicated tax credit.

Jewel holds a J.D. cum laude, from University of Minnesota Law School. She received a B.S. with highest distinction from Purdue University Northwest with double major in Finance and Accounting and a minor in Applied Mathematics. Jewel is a licensed attorney, a CFA charterholder, and a CPA.

Scott Ramsower Head of Private Equity Fund Investments TEACHER RETIREMENT SYSTEM OF TEXAS

Scott Ramsower leads the Private Equity Funds Team at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS).  Through his role at TRS, Scott has oversight responsibilities for the group’s approximately $33 billion private equity fund investment portfolio.  In addition, he is a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee and Management Committee, through which he assists in the strategy and development of the overall private equity team and portfolio.  Scott is also a member of the ILPA Board of Directors and an ILPA Faculty Member, helping to educate fellow practitioners in the private equity industry.

Prior to joining TRS in 2010, Scott was in the New York office of AlpInvest Partners, a leading private equity investor with over €35 billion in AUM.  At AlpInvest, Scott focused on evaluating new private equity fund commitments to various strategies around the globe.  Prior to AlpInvest, Scott was an associate in the equity research department of Morgan Stanley.  Previously, he also worked in the consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

Scott received a BBA, Finance from Texas A&M University. 

Chirag H. Shah Senior Portfolio Manager, Private Equity ALASKA PERMANENT FUND CORPORATION

Chirag has over 17 years PE industry experience globally. He is a Senior Portfolio Manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, a ~$80B sovereign endowment with a ~$15B Private Equity portfolio. Prior to joining APFC, Chirag was in PE roles leading co-investments and fund investments at two established institutional investment organizations, DB Private Equity and GE Asset Management. He started his career in investment banking at Citi / Salomon Smith Barney in New York and Singapore. Chirag is also actively engaged in the broader PE community, serving as an advisory board member of the Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Center for Private Equity Finance at The University of Texas at Austin and a member of SEO’s Alternative Investments Limited Partner Advisory Council. He holds a BBA and MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.