Rachel is Mergermarket’s Head of Auctions and co-Head of News, overseeing the publication's private markets and M&A coverage in Europe

Britt Harris is the only investor in the world who has been the CIO for a top five investment fund in these four major investment categories: Endowments, Public Funds, Private Funds and Hedge Funds. Currently he is the founder of an elite investment restoration service called “On Eagles Wings” and recently served as the acting CIO for the Texas Permanent School Fund. TPSF is the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Texas and the nation’s largest endowment for public education between K-12. Prior to his current position Mr. Harris was the CEO/CIO for UTIMCO, the nation’s largest endowment for public college education and the nation’s largest provider of higher education to financially underprivileged college students who meet the system’s academic standards. He has also led the investment team for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, providing for Texas teachers and other employees in the Texas public school system. Before his move into public service, Mr. Harris served as the CEO for Bridgewater Associates and Verizon, among several other funds. 

Mr. Harris has received many awards for his special contributions to the industry and his service to millions of Americans, major corporations, central banks and governments, including a lifetime achievement award, service on the President’s Council on Financial Markets, and as an Advisor to the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Harris has been rated as a top three global investor for both pension systems and endowments. He is also a professor at both Texas A&M and The University of Texas teaching a widely acclaimed course titled Titans. Mr. Harris has been married for more than forty years and has four children and six grandchildren.

Erika López is a corporate partner in Baker McKenzie's Chicago office and a member of the Firm's North America Transactional Practice Group and the Global Private Equity Practice Group. Erika advises private equity sponsors, private companies and public companies on a variety of complex transactional matters, including leveraged buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions, stock and asset purchases, carve-out transactions, divestitures, and minority investments. Erika also counsels clients on corporate governance and other general corporate matters.

Erika is recognized in Best Lawyers, Ones to Watch, Mergers and Acquisitions Law (2023) and received the "Top Lawyers Under 40" Award from the Hispanic National Bar Association (2020).

Mr. Huff has over twenty years of experience in the private equity industry and has been a partner in several private equity funds raised by Austin Ventures and J. H. Whitney. Mr. Huff led investments in, and had board responsibilities for, profitable investments in industry-leading companies such as R360 Environmental Solutions, Brooks Sports, ICON International, Kana Communications, Metis and Tallan.

Prior to co-founding Blue Sage in 2002, Mr. Huff was a partner at Austin Ventures, a large private equity fund based in Austin, Texas. Prior to joining Austin Ventures, he was a managing member at J. H. Whitney, a private equity firm that grew from approximately Blue Sage’s size to over $5 billion of assets under management while Mr. Huff was with the firm. Before joining Whitney, Mr. Huff was a Fulbright Scholar at the National University of Singapore and worked with McKinsey and Company.

Mr. Huff is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and a Founding Board Member of ACG Central Texas. He was also elected to the national Small Business Investor Alliance (SBIA) Board of Governors in 2011.

Mr. Huff received his undergraduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he graduated first in his class, was President of the Student Center Governing Board and earned First-Team Academic All-American honors in track and field. He earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Carl Press is a Partner on the Explore team at Thoma Bravo. Based in San Francisco, he joined the firm in 2015. Carl is responsible for founding and co-leading the firm’s Explore platform, which focuses on investing in high-growth, middle-market software and technology companies. GrowthCap named Carl to its list of Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors for 2021. Prior to Thoma Bravo, he was a technology investor at HighBar Partners, an Associate in the Special Situations Group at Oaktree Capital Management, and an Analyst at UBS Investment Bank. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees at SLS Preschool. 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.

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 has been structuring, analyzing, and managing private equity investments for over three decades. Today, he serves as Managing Partner of Presidio Investors, the private equity firm he founded in 2007. In this role, Karl has focused on middle market buyouts in the entertainment and business services industries in North America and Europe. At Presidio Investors, Karl, and the team he has recruited, have invested in seventeen platform investments through over forty acquisitions.

Karl 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, Karl 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, Karl also served as CEO of Hattrick Sports Group, one of Presidio Investors’ most successful technology investments.

Prior to founding Presidio Investors, Karl 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, Karl learned industry best practices and was a team-member on deals representing approximately $1 billion of invested equity capital.

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

Mr. Thomas is a Managing Director of Peak Rock. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process including sourcing, structuring, financing, and supporting the execution of growth and value creation initiatives. Mr. Thomas serves on the Board of Directors of numerous portfolio companies and has led investments across a wide range of industries including technology, business services, consumer, distribution, and industrials sectors.

Mr. Thomas possesses over 15 years of private equity and M&A experience, having previously worked at H.I.G. Capital and Sorenson Capital. Mr. Thomas began his career working in the investment banking divisions of Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Thomas received master’s degrees in business administration and international studies from the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Brigham Young University.

H.T. Flanagan is a debt finance partner in the Dallas and New York offices of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He advises private credit funds, alternative lenders and other investors in traditional private credit financings and bespoke capital solutions. He counsels such credit-oriented investors on direct originations, secondary market opportunities, complex intercreditor issues and novel structured capital investments. In addition to his private credit-focused lender-side practice, H.T. also advises private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a range of borrower-side leveraged finance transactions. He has extensive experience representing both lender and borrower private capital clients on acquisition financings, liability management transactions, debtor-in-possession financings, hybrid capital instruments and special situations investments.

H.T. has been named as one of the future leaders in leveraged finance as part of the “500 X – The Next Generation” by Lawdragon and is recommended for private credit by The Legal 500 United States. Prior to entering law school, H.T. was a pitcher for the Washington University baseball team, where he was a three-time academic all-conference selection.

Brent Humphries joined AB in 2014 as a founding member and President of AB Private Credit Investors, where he has primary responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the business, including chairing the investment committee, fundraising, investor relations, investment originations, structuring and underwriting, as well as ongoing portfolio management and compliance. He previously held the same position with Barclays Private Credit Partners. Prior to joining Barclays, Humphries served as group head, generalist financial sponsor coverage for Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group, and later led its structured private equity initiative. Before that, he served as a partner and managing director of the Texas Growth Fund, a middle market private equity firm. Humphries previously worked in leveraged finance with NationsBank and J.P. Morgan, and as a financial analyst with Exxon. He holds a BBA in finance with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Location: Austin

Ms. Klemme is a Managing Director in the Ares Credit Group, where she focuses on U.S. direct lending. Prior to joining Ares in 2012, Ms. Klemme was an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecommunications Group, where she focused on leveraged buyouts, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity financings. Ms. Klemme holds a B.S., cum laude, from Marquette University in Accounting and Finance.

Mr. Shantz is the Managing Director of Credit and Hedge Funds for the $42 billion Employee Retirement System of Texas. He transformed its core-plus style fixed income portfolio into distinct Rates and Credit mandates and simultaneously developed its internal high yield management capacity. In 2022 he took the additional responsibility of leading the Hedge Fund team. Prior to ERS Mr. Shantz was a Managing Director and Investment Committee member for the Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company where he implemented a similar fixed income format utilizing liability driven investing and additionally created its internally managed hedge fund portfolio. Before Lockheed he was the senior fixed income portfolio manager at the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. Mr. Shantz has additionally served on the investment committee for Sandia National Laboratories, The Long Center Investment Committee, is a former president of the Nashville Society of Financial Analyst, is a Chartered Financial Analyst since 1996, performed his Ph.D. studies in Finance at the University of Tennessee, and graduated with honors in Economics and Business Administration from Rhodes College.

Mr. Stewart is Global Co-Head Corporate Credit and is based in Dallas. He serves on the Leadership Committee and is a member of several investment committees.

Mr. Stewart oversees global public and private corporate credit investing strategies which include private credit, broadly syndicated loans, hybrid capital solutions and opportunistic/distressed credit. Mr. Stewart has 19 years of experience investing in corporate credit. Prior to joining Fortress in 2014, Mr. Stewart was a Managing Director at Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, a middle market private equity and credit investment firm, where Mr. Stewart led origination, execution and portfolio management for the direct lending, distressed debt and hybrid capital strategies. Before that, Mr. Stewart was an analyst at Houlihan Lokey in the financial restructuring group.

Mr. Stewart attended the University of Southern California where he received a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance.

Michael is a Senior Managing Director with Stonepeak and is Co-Head of Energy. Michael joined Stonepeak from First Reserve, where he was an Associate in the Energy Infrastructure Fund, focused primarily on the midstream sector. Prior to First Reserve, Michael was a member of the Global Energy group at Citi. Michael received a Master of Public Accounting and Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Downie has over 30 years of investment experience and co-founded Tailwater Capital in January 2013. At Tailwater, Mr. Downie’s primary responsibilities include deal sourcing, execution, and monitoring of the Firm’s investments as well as management of the Firm.

He currently serves on the boards of Goodnight Midstream, Pivotal Petroleum Partners, Pivotal Royalties Partners, Renovo Resources, Silver Creek Midstream, and Summit Midstream. Prior to co-founding Tailwater Capital, Mr. Downie was a Partner with HM Capital and served on the Investment Committee. He joined HM Capital from Rice, Sangalis Toole and Wilson, a mezzanine private equity firm, where he was an Associate. Prior to Rice, Sangalis Toole and Wilson, Mr. Downie was an Associate in the Equity Trading Group with Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, responsible for energy and transportation. He earned both a BBA and MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Patrick serves as Partner of the NGP funds and concentrates on NGP’s transaction sourcing and execution, as well as the monitoring of active portfolio companies. He is a member of the NGP Investment committee, and he joined NGP in 2015.  Patrick has an extensive background in the energy sector, having spent 22 years primarily focused on energy financing alternatives for the upstream and midstream industries. 

Prior to NGP, Patrick was a Managing Director with JPMorgan Securities, which he joined in 2012 to launch and build the Middle Market Oil and Gas Finance platform. In addition to directly covering oil and gas companies, Patrick and his team led the coverage of energy-focused private equity sponsors.  

Patrick received a B.S. in Finance from Louisiana State University in 2000.

Jeff Eaton

Executive Vice President & Partner, Five Point Infrastructure 

Jeff is a member of the investment team at Five Point Infrastructure and also leads the firm’s capital formation and strategic growth initiatives.

Jeff was previously the Global Co-Head of Eaton Partners, an 80+-person global private capital advisory and fund placement business recognized as one of the leaders in the industry. Jeff chaired the Investment Committees for the North America, EMEA, and APAC private funds groups as well as for the Private Capital Advisory Group. Prior to being elevated to managing the firm, Jeff built and led Eaton’s Real Assets business. During his tenure, Eaton raised over $45 billion for clients focused on Real Asset strategies. Jeff also helped lead the successful sale of Eaton to Stifel Financial.

Prior to joining Eaton Partners, he was a Director at Constellation Energy Commodities Group, leading principal transactions for the group’s natural gas structuring and trading division.

Jeff graduated with honors from Duke University with degrees in Economics and History and received his MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He sits on the Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Duke I&E) Board of Advisors.

John K. Kelley helps investment managers navigate all aspects of their business and operations, with a particular emphasis on forming private investment funds and structuring and executing secondary transactions.

John draws on strategic know-how and keen business acumen to represent sponsors in private fund formation across a wide range of sectors and geographies. He also regularly advises on:

• Complex strategic minority and preferred equity investments
• Structuring firm ownership and operations
• Succession planning
• Spin-outs and executive transitions
• Incentive arrangements

John has extensive experience representing buyers, sellers and market intermediaries in the full spectrum of secondary transactions, including portfolio sales, direct secondaries, preferred equity financings, multi- and single-asset restructurings, tender offers, and synthetic transactions.

He also advises institutional investors on reviewing and negotiating portfolio investments and financings, including investments in private equity, credit, energy, natural resources, real estate, venture capital, and hedge funds as well as co-investments, funds of one, and separately managed accounts.

Christophe Browne is a Partner on the Secondary team primarily focused on the origination, evaluation, and execution of continuation vehicle transactions. Christophe joined Lexington in 2024 from ICG, where was a founding member of the strategic equity business serving as Managing Director and Head of North America. Prior to that, he was a founding partner at NewGlobe Capital Partners. Christophe graduated from Georgetown University with a BS in International Economics and from Columbia Business School with an MBA.

Tom Masthay serves as Deputy CIO for TMRS and is a member of its investment committee. Previously, he had roles as TMRS’s Director of Private Equity and Director of Real Assets. Prior to TMRS, he had investment roles for NextEra Energy and Kentucky Retirement Systems and began his career as a bank auditor during the GFC.

Masthay received an MBA and BBA in Finance from the University of Kentucky. Tom holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Alternative Financial Analyst (CAIA), Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations, is a Six Sigma Greenbelt, and has been published in the Journal of Private Equity.

Chase Beeler is a Managing Director of Altamont Capital Partners, where he leads transactions primarily in Industrials, which includes packaging, building materials, specialty distribution, and niche manufacturing. Altamont Capital Partners is a private equity firm with locations in Austin, TX, Palo Alto, CA and San Francisco, CA, that is focused on transforming and scaling lower-middle market companies through significant business-building and value-creation resources. The firm makes long-term, control investments in sectors where they have deep experience and specialized knowledge, and partners with management teams to execute proven and repeatable platform-building playbooks. Prior to Altamont, Chase played in the National Football League, and he received an M.A. in Russian and Soviet History and a B.A. in History, both from Stanford University. He resides in Austin with his wife and two children.

John Block is the CEO of Unity Partners, a Principles-based private equity firm that partners investors and operators to Build Better Together.  The firm’s Partner & Propel strategy focuses on identifying opportunities to Partner with ambitious leaders in services markets where there is an opportunity to scale platforms through M&A and investments in technology and to Propel value acceleration through investments in people, processes and operational levers that enable organic growth and platform integration.

Prior to founding Unity Partners, John was a Partner at HGGC.  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.

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, fundraising, and all administrative activities. Before founding CORE, he spent the past 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, Vantage, Cohere, Kelvix, Cadrex, Uptive, 3dxtech, PrecisionX Group, Century Box, Aviation Concepts, Winky Lux, IMMEC and Edwards Moving & Rigging.

Mr. May graduated with Honors from East Carolina University with a business degree. He currently serves on the East Carolina University Foundation, Inc. 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 also is 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.

Phil Iler is a Principal on the Manufactured Products team for Pritzker Private Capital. Phil works with Bardstown Bourbon Company, C.H. Guenther, Monogram Foods, and Sugar Foods. Phil initially joined PPC in 2016 as an Associate and re-joined the Firm in 2020 after business school. Prior to PPC, Phil was an Investment Banking Analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Phil received his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his B.S. in Finance from Wake Forest University.

Jenifer Smith advises private and public companies and private equity funds on a wide range of corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions and public and private investment deals. 

An experienced and versatile practitioner, Jenifer delivers trusted counsel to boards of directors, management teams, and private equity firms in connection with their key business, legal, and strategic issues over the life of the business. She brings experience across an array of industries, including technology, life sciences, restaurant and hospitality, and consumer packaged goods. 

Jenifer regularly advises clients on:

• Domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions
• Public and private investment transactions
• Corporate governance and fiduciary duty issues
• Securities law compliance and SEC disclosure matters
• Emerging companies matters

She has been recognized as one of the Top Women in Dealmaking by The Deal and as a Texas Trailblazer by Texas Lawyer for her outstanding work on securities matters as well as her pro bono work empowering women domestically and abroad. Jenifer has been active in the local Austin community throughout her career and currently serves on the board for Junior Achievement of Central Texas. She is a member of Latham’s Associates Committee, as well as Latham’s WEB Committee.

Bob co-founded Strattam Capital in 2014 and is Managing Partner. He has served on numerous private and public technology company boards, and currently is a director of CloudHesive, Contegix, Daxtra, Green Security, Resource Navigation, 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.

He serves on the board of directors of AustinPBS and as member of the Advisory Board for the HMTF Center for Private Equity Finance at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business. 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. Bob lives in Austin, and mornings you just may see him rowing on the Lady Bird Lake with Texas Rowing Center.

Marissa Tarleton is a Senior Managing Director at Haveli Investments. Based in Austin, she joined the firm in 2022. Marissa is focused on investment decisions and value creation with Haveli Software portfolio companies. She has over 25 years of experience as an operating and Go-To-Market leader in technology, including her roles as CEO of RetailMeNot and RxSaver, and President of Aceable. She earned her bachelor's degree from Colgate University and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Nick is a Partner at Elsewhere Partners, a lower middle market private equity firm based in Austin, Texas. He joined the firm in 2018 and leads new investments in bootstrapped, founder-led cybersecurity and IT infrastructure software businesses. Previously, Nick was an investor at Serent Capital focused on bootstrapped, founder-led vertical software companies. Prior to Serent, Nick was a management consultant at Bain & Company in the firm’s Private Equity Group advising funds on new investment decisions and portfolio value creation. He received a bachelor’s of science in finance and international business from Indiana University.

Dan serves as Director – Capital Formation. He facilitates the ability of outside investors including family offices, registered investment advisors, and institutions to co-invest with the firm and our principals & shareholders. Dan has over 15 years of investment specific industry experience. He most recently served as Senior Vice President at Lazard Asset Management in a business development role covering New England. Prior to that, Dan worked for Shepherd Kaplan, a registered investment advisor in Boston, for nearly a decade. While there, he held roles as Director of Research and Senior Client Advisor. Dan graduated from College of the Holy Cross with a B.A in Economics where he was a member of the varsity lacrosse team. He is a pro bono consultant to the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy Investment Committee. Though originally from Baltimore, Dan has lived in Boston for two decades. Outside of work, Dan spends most of his time with his two children, Bennett and Lillet.

Sai Devabhaktuni

Senior Managing Director

Location: New York

Sai Devabhaktuni joined BCI in February 2025 as Senior Managing Director and leads the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sector team from New York. With $295 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2025, BCI is one of the largest institutional investors in Canada.

Sai has over 30 years of experience analyzing and investing in companies in a broad range of industries, with a primary focus on TMT, aerospace & defense, and industrials sectors. Most recently, he was a co-founder at Monocle Partners, LLC, an investment entity established to capitalize on opportunities in both the private and public markets within his focus industries, and also served as its Managing Member.

Prior to this, he was an Executive Vice President & Head of Corporate Distressed Portfolio Management at PIMCO where he managed portfolios focused on corporate stressed and distressed investing and was a member of portfolio management teams for several closed-end mutual funds and a separate account. He has also previously held positions as a Managing Principal at MHR Fund Management LLC, Analyst at Highbridge Capital Management, and Assistant Vice President at Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.

Sai holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Devabhaktuni has served on the Board of Directors of Loral Space & Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL), Applied Natural Gas Fuels Inc., Sequa Corporation, Monocle Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: MNCL; where he was Executive Chairman) and AerSale Corporation (NASDAQ: ASLE). Mr. Devabhaktuni is currently an Advisory Board Member of Scepter, Inc.