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Yup S. Kim serves as the Chief Investment Officer for Texas’ $41 billion municipal retirement system (TMRS) and chairs its staff investment committee. Previously, he served as the Head of Investments for Private Equity at CalPERS, California’s $490 billion pension fund, where he helped lead the $60 billion private equity program across all functions, including strategy, team management, and investment activities across primary, secondary, and co-investment opportunities globally. Previously, he served as the Senior Portfolio Manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, an $80 billion sovereign wealth fund, where he helped lead its private investment activities. The private equity and special opportunities portfolio generated 25% net of fee returns over a decade. He has also held positions at DB Private Equity, where he served on the Investment Committee, Performance Equity, and Silver Point Capital, and he began his career at Citigroup in New York. Kim received his B.A. in Economics from Yale University, speaks six languages, and serves as Chair for the Milken Institute Rising Allocator forum. He serves as a Board Member of the Korea Finance Society, a Term Member for the Council of Foreign Relations, a Global Investment Ambassador for the Seoul Metropolitan Government and a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School, Yale University, and many other academic institutions.
Jeff leads all aspects of the secondary business, including strategy, investments, fundraising, and portfolio construction. He is principally focused on leading North American secondary opportunities.
Prior to joining Adams Street, he was a strategy consultant with L.E.K. Consulting, where he managed the execution of market-related due diligence for several top-tier private equity firms.
Previously, Jeff worked for two years as an investment associate with William Blair Capital Partners, a Chicago-based private equity fund with $1 billion under management. At WBCP, he participated in all aspects of sourcing, evaluating, executing, and monitoring buyout and growth equity investments. He also has three years of investment banking experience with William Blair & Company and SunTrust Equitable Securities.
Jeff serves on the Advisory Board of several funds within Adams Street’s portfolio. He is also Chair of Adams Street’s Secondary Investment Committee and a member of the Executive Committee
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 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.
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.
Roy Burns, Managing Director at TA Associates (“TA”), is co-head of the Firm’s North America financial services investing efforts and a member of the Core Investment Committee. Based out of TA’s Austin office, Roy focuses on investments in financial services and financial technology companies, including electronic payment, investment management and wealth management end markets. Roy serves on the Board of Directors of AffiniPay, Apex Group, Caprock, Financial Information Technologies (Fintech), Orion Advisor Solutions, Rectangle Health and Wealth Enhancement Group. Additionally, Roy led or was actively involved in TA’s investments in BluePay, Cardtronics, Dealer Tire, Exeter Property Group, First Eagle Investment Management, K2 Advisors, Numeric Investors and Stadion Money Management. Prior to joining TA in 2001, he worked at Banc of America Securities in its High Yield and Leveraged Finance Group, and at Davidson Kempner Partners where he focused on public company investments. He earned a BS in Business Administration, with Special Attainments, from Washington and Lee University and his MBA as an Arjay Miller Scholar from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Roy is a Leadership Circle member of The Honor Foundation, and he was formerly a Trustee of the Boston Ballet and an Advisor of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Mr. Cammock focuses on private equity investment activity. Mr. Cammock has expertise in underwriting primary funds, middle market buyout co-investments, secondary opportunities, and direct investments. Mr. Cammock has a particular focus on engagement with diverse sponsors and managers, with a heightened focus on emerging and next generation talent. Throughout his career he has evaluated and transacted across buyout, special situations, growth equity, and venture capital, including seed investment opportunities. Mr. Cammock is a leader in deal sourcing and client relationship management and services a variety of institutional clients across North America and Western Europe. Prior to GCM Grosvenor, Mr. Cammock worked at Credit Suisse in the Customized Fund Investment Group where he engaged in similar investment activities. Mr. Cammock is a recipient of the 2015 National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC) Rising Star Award. Mr. Cammock received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Yale University.
Alan is Hg’s Head of North America, a Partner and a member of Hg’s Senior Leadership Team. He leads our activity across the USA and Canada.
Alan is a highly respected software investor with 20 years’ experience of backing great companies as one of the early employees of Vista Equity Partners. Alan has a long and impressive track record across leadership, tech investing and operations, having built the Foundation Fund within Vista, following hands on experience as a technology entrepreneur.
Eugene Esmonde joined BCI in 2022 and is based in New York City. He co-leads the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector team. The TMT team focuses on a broad range of technology verticals including software, digital infrastructure and fiber networks, data and information services, and the evolving cybersecurity landscape. With $250.4 billion in gross assets under management as of March 31, 2024, BCI is one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.
Prior to joining BCI, Eugene was a Principal for the private equity group at Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investments, based in Toronto. While at CPP Investments, Eugene was focused on investments in the technology, media, telecom, luxury retail, and various other sectors, where he executed a total of ten transactions and two exits, a trade sale and initial public offering (IPO). Eugene was also a significant contributor to portfolio company merger & acquisitions (M&A) transactions; identifying significant cost reductions; debt financings and restructurings; and general asset management of the portfolio’s operating companies. Eugene also led the development of investment strategies for two platform investments. Eugene started his career as a Lawyer in Australia and spent three years working in Shanghai, China, where he was an Investment Analyst for a Chinese and Australian family office.
Eugene holds a bachelor of business in finance, and a bachelor of law, both from Queensland University of Technology, based in Australia.
Eugene currently serves on the board of Verifone Systems, Inc., a global payments and commerce solutions platform.
Jeff Hammer
Global Co-Head of Secondaries
Manulife Investment Management
Jeff joined Manulife Investment Management in 2019 as global co-head of secondaries. Along with Paul Sanabria, Jeff leads the global secondaries business focused on general partner-led and special situation transactions, and partners with private equity, private credit, and secondary fund sponsors. Previously, he was co-head of Houlihan Lokey’s illiquid financial assets practice, a unit he co-founded and built into the leading investment banking group focused on customized transactions for holders of illiquid securities. Prior to that role, Jeff was a senior managing director at Bear Stearns, where he founded, built, and co-led Private Equity Advisors, the private equity fund-of-funds and secondary investing unit of Bear Stearns Asset Management. Earlier, he co-founded BDC Financial, a firm that provided customized private equity investment management and advisory services to institutional and high-net-worth investors. Earlier in his career, he held investment banking positions at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
- Education: A.B. in Politics, Princeton University; M.B.A., Harvard University
- Joined the company: 2019
- Began career: 1985
Amyn is a Partner and Global Head of Private Equity Secondaries. Prior to joining Pantheon Amyn was an Investment Partner at Coller Capital, where he worked for 17 years in both London and New York and was formerly the global Co-Head of Investment Execution. Prior to joining Coller, he practiced corporate law, focusing on private equity transactions and fund structuring. Amyn holds a bachelor’s degree in Politics from Brandeis University and a JD in Law from the Duke University School of Law.
Brian is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Crossplane Capital, a Dallas-based private equity firm founded in 2018 investing control equity in niche manufacturing, industrial services, and value-added distribution businesses. Crossplane currently manages over $730 million across two funds and co-investment vehicles. He began his career as an operations improvement consultant with AlixPartners and AT Kearney and has been an industrial-focused private equity investor for the last 17 years. Brian received his MBA from The University of Texas and his B.A. from Vanderbilt University.
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.
Tobias (Toby) Knapp is a partner in Baker McKenzie's Transactional practice group, based in the New York office. Toby is an internationally recognized advisor to strategic and financial sponsor clients. He has been recognized by Chambers USA as one of New York’s leading lawyers for Mergers & Acquisitions, by The Legal 500 in the categories of middle-market and large M&A transactions, and as a notable practitioner by the International Financial Law Review.
Practice Focus
Toby counsels both US and multinational clients across a broad range of industries in their most important strategic and investment transactions. He routinely advises clients on corporate governance, shareholder activism, fiduciary and investment advisory relationships and a broad range of capital raising transactions.
Representative Legal Matters
Prior to joining the Firm, Toby advised on the following matters:
A leading publicly traded technology solutions and specialty components manufacturer in acquisitions, divestitures and other strategic transactions across the United States and Asia.
A leading European stock exchange and financial information company on US-based M&A transactions.
A publicly traded pharmaceutical company in multiple strategic and capital raising transaction and sale through an all-stock merger combination.
A leading asset management and corporate trust firm on numerous private equity investment transactions.
A Nasdaq-listed live TV streaming company in its acquisition of a French media organization.
A UK-based publicly traded sports media and gaming company in its acquisition of a sports data analytics and technology business.
A leading Japanese trading company in acquisition and investment transactions in North and South America.
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.
Jeff Livingston is a member of the Investment Committee at Integrum.
Jeff brings a combination of operating and investing experience built across almost two decades of working with leading global companies.
Prior to joining Integrum, Jeff was a member of KKR’s private equity team focused on financial services, business services, and financial technology. During his tenure at KKR, he served on the boards of Sedgwick and Apple Leisure Group. Earlier in his career at KKR, he was a member of the KKR Capstone team, focused on driving value creation across KKR’s private equity portfolio companies.
Prior to KKR, Jeff worked at McKinsey & Company in their Beijing and New Jersey offices.
Jeff is on the boards of Integrum portfolio companies Evertree and SRS, and previously served on the board of MerchantE.
Jeff received a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. May is the Founder and Managing Partner of CORE and is responsible for overseeing all activities of the firm including investment sourcing and valuation, transaction structuring, the securing of acquisition financing, and fundraising.
Before founding CORE, he spent 18 years working on transactions with several private equity sponsors principally with The Blackstone Group and H.I.G. Capital. He currently serves on the boards of the following CORE portfolio companies:
Fathom, Saylite, Cohere, Kelvix, Cadrex, 3DXTech, GEM, Century Box, and Aviation Concepts.
Mr. May graduated with Honors from East Carolina University with a business degree. He currently serves on the ECU Foundation Board of Directors including its Executive Committee and is Chair of the Investment Committee. He is also Co-Founder and
Former Chairman of the Board for Imerman Angels, a 501 (c)(3) Chicago based cancer support organization. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, and obtained his Level I Sommelier accreditation from The International Sommelier Guild.
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.
Hunter has spent over 25 years investing in lower middle market companies across a variety of industries including healthcare, specialty manufacturing, and business services. He wholeheartedly believes that entrepreneurs are the backbone of the world’s economy and respects the talent, skill, and risk tolerance required to start a new business. As an investor, he enjoys working alongside business founders and their families and believes it a great privilege to provide strategic counsel to the companies in which he invests. Hunter considers private equity to be a great tool which can be used to amplify the success these businesses have already achieved.
Prior to starting Skylark Private Equity Partners, Hunter was a partner at both The Riverside Company and Trinity Hunt Partners. Earlier in his career, he worked at TA Associates, William Blair & Company, and Heller Financial. Hunter received a BA in Economics, from Vanderbilt University and his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
David Post has been an Operating Senior Advisor with EQT Partners since 2023. He supports EQT’s Global Technology Sector Team in investment diligence, portfolio company value creation, and portfolio operations. David also serves as the Chairman of both Storable and Billtrust. Prior to joining EQT Partners, David held CEO and other C-level roles across numerous PE-backed software companies including Kibo Commerce, Omnitracs, MRI Software, and Sunquest Information Systems. In addition, David was previously the President of VCG, the value creation arm of Vista Equity Partners. Earlier in his career, David worked in both the ERP and PPM software sectors. David has a BS in Management Information Systems from Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business and an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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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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.
Yoni Riemer is the Managing Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Peak Rock Capital. In his role, Yoni leads the Investor Relations team across all Peak Rock fund strategies, and also helps oversee communications and firm development initiatives. He joined Peak Rock in its inaugural fund as a Vice President, and subsequently served as a Principal on the Private Equity investment team prior to his current leadership role.
Peak Rock Capital is a leading middle-market private investment firm headquartered in Austin, Texas, making equity and debt investments in companies in North America and Europe. Peak Rock’s equity investment platform focuses on opportunities where it can support senior management to drive rapid growth and performance improvement, with expertise in corporate carve-outs and partnering with families and founders seeking first-time institutional capital.
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
Martin Schwertmann is a partner in the Technology & Intellectual Property Transactions Practice Group in the Bay Area office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP.
Martin advises clients on the intellectual property and technology aspects of corporate transactions, including carve-outs, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, private equity and venture capital investments, and restructuring and debt financing transactions. In addition to his transactional experience, Martin also advises clients on issues relating to data privacy (from a U.S. perspective and with respect to European privacy questions), the licensing of intellectual property, and other technology transactions.
Patrick Severson joined Vista Equity Partners in 2013. Mr. Severson is Co-Head of the Vista Foundation Funds and sits on its Investment Committee. Additionally, he serves as a member of Vista’s Executive Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for matters affecting its overall management and strategic direction, and Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s decision-making body for matters affecting Vista’s overall private equity platform. Mr. Severson currently sits on the boards of Assent Compliance, Bonterra, ESO, Granicus, Khoros, Kibo, LogicMonitor, Naviga, Poppulo, Power Factors, Sonatype and Trintech. He was also actively involved in the firm’s investments in AGDATA, AlertMedia, ARCOS, Autotask, PeopleAdmin, Regulatory DataCorp (RDC), Return Path, StarRez, TigerConnect and Wrike.
Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Severson worked as Partner at Warburg Pincus where he spent 12 years investing in and working with software companies at all stages from startup to buyout. Before his time with Warburg Pincus, Mr. Severson worked at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, where he was a Consultant. Prior to Booz-Allen, Mr. Severson worked at Price Waterhouse, where he focused on media and technology industries.
Education
B.S. in Computer Science, Stanford University
M.B.A., Columbia University
Sandeep Swaminathan is a Senior Managing Director at Haveli Investments and is based in Austin. Sandeep is an experienced technology investor and operator. At Haveli, he is focused on the entire investment life cycle from sector ideation to exit with special emphasis on portfolio value creation. Prior to Haveli, he was a Partner at Bregal Sagemont, a growth equity firm, and worked at Vista Equity Partners. During his time in private equity, Sandeep has worked on approximately 25 investments across all facets of Enterprise Software and has partnered with portfolio company management to drive growth in revenues and profitability. Sandeep is an Engineer by background and received his MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his MS from The Georgia Institute of Technology. He is married, has two children, and enjoys traveling, running, and spending time with his family.
Chris is a Partner and co-founder of Trive Capital. Chris sits on the Investment Committee of Trive and on the board of directors at most of Trive’s portfolio companies. Chris has responsibility for sourcing, executing, and managing investments which he has done historically across a variety of industries, situations, and security types.
Prior to co-founding Trive, Chris was a Principal at Insight Equity, a Dallas, TX area private equity firm. Chris was with the management consulting firm Bain & Company prior to Insight Equity where he worked with companies across industries and situations.
Chris received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He also holds a BS in Computer Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, from Texas A&M University.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
JEFFREY KEAY, Managing Director, HarbourVest Partners, LLC (Boston)
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 Investment Committee 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 Standards Board. Jeff received a BA (cum laude) in Economics and Accounting from the College of the Holy Cross in 1996.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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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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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.