Committee

William is a second-generation business leader of ACS Services and an industry veteran of over 28 years. His purpose is to Empower Success Through Technology, with his partners as well as his employees. He has become the Trusted Advisor for many C Suite members throughout Boston, earning him and the ACS Team the reputation of being IT in the New England Technology Landscape.

Harry Banks is a CPA and Operating Partner with Everlane Equity Partners, a small cap focused PE firm. Harry has an operational background and enjoys working with entrepreneurs and leadership teams to help grow their platforms through organic and inorganic initiatives. Before joining Everlane, he served as CFO for a private equity backed company in the Aviation MRO industry. Prior to that role, he was a Corporate Controller for a middle market manufacturing company and an Audit Manager with a global accounting firm.

Deborah leads a team of experienced commercial bankers in delivering all the resources of our global firm to emerging middle market companies and their leadership teams.

In 2013 John was awarded the honor as one of the top 15 Technology Luminaries in the state of Massachusetts by the Boston Business Journal and Mass High Technology.

John is a genomics, diagnostics, and therapeutics serial entrepreneur who specializes in building and positioning companies for either acquisition or IPO. He is an energetic business leader who has successfully raised over $800MM in funding from venture capital, strategics, as well as from private investors. John has extensive connections and inroads to the top leaders in pharma, biotech, and diagnostic companies, as well as venture capital and investment banking.

Before John co-founded Tiger Gene, funded by Tiger Management, John was President and CEO of Exosome Diagnostics, a liquid biopsy company which he turned around and drove to a successful acquisition for $575MM ($250MM upfront) to Bio-Techne within ~2.5 years, resulting in a ~6X return to investors.

John has founded 4 additional companies that have all been venture backed from top tier firms with a number of these being acquired for all over 6X ROI within 3.5 years.

With 7 successful exits under his belt, John Co-founded and funded Tiger Gene Ventures with famed investor Julian Robertson of Tiger Management.

TigerGene LLC is a venture capital fund that forms and invests in the most promising early-stage life science technologies, ranging from protein engineering platforms for therapeutic development, genomics tools, to AI and healthcare.

TigerGene forms the companies around these technologies and works closely with the technical founders and management team to realize the commercial promise of the science.

In 2014 John was made a Fellow at Harvard University and teaches "Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (ES-139)" where has grown the class from 8 to over 420 students and it has now become one of the largest free-electives at Harvard.

Ben Brandes is a seasoned investor and advisor with extensive experience in private equity, investment banking, and business development. As a partner at NewOrigin Investments, he focuses on scaling businesses and driving sustainable growth. Ben specializes in AgeTech and health and wellness sectors, leveraging his expertise in strategic growth, operational improvements, and acquisitions to create long-term value for stakeholders.

Chris lends his 20+ years of experience in planning, forecasting, growth and operations for companies in numerous sectors including tech, energy & professional services. He has experience across all aspects of operations including finance, accounting, recruiting, HR, legal, tax & employee training. He has closed on more than a dozen small to mid-size acquisitions and helped lead three companies to successful exits. He has been a key contributor to various company’s modernization, transformation and tremendous company growth. Recognized as an industry thought leader, Chris serves as Vice-President for the Financial Executives International (FEI) Boston Chapter and is a Co-Chair of The CFO Leadership Council Boston Chapter. He is a sought-after keynote speaker at industry events across the country.

David is GM at Hunt Club and Founding Member at TBD Angels. As an entrepreneur, he has held operating roles at 6 internet/mobile startups that raised $150m and were acquired for $750m, and he has invested in 100 companies as an angel investor. Awards include Dealmakers' Hall of Fame Inductee, The Boston Globe's Tech Power Players 50, Boston Business Journal's Power 50: Most Influential Bostonians, BostInno’s 50 on Fire: Education Winner / Investment Winner / Tech Finalist, Finalist for NEVY Angel of the Year and Startup Boston Community Builder of the Year. ​David holds a BS with Distinction in Computer Science from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Dave Clayman is Co-Founder and CEO of Twelve Points. As an entrepreneur himself, Dave is know for being a trusted advisor to his business owner clients, guiding them from raising money to optimizing the company's retirement plan to helping them plan for and execute their ultimate company exit. Dave continues to further his professional credentials as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor and a Chartered Private Wealth Advisor.

Clients at every stage of the business life cycle rely on John Cushing as a partner and strategist, advising them on matters such as business and succession planning, entity selection and formation, private equity and venture capital financing, joint ventures and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, private placements and public offerings of debt and equity securities, technology licensing, SEC compliance, corporate governance, recapitalizations, executive compensation and general corporate matters.

John works collaboratively with clients across a variety of industries, including EMS and NEMT medical transportation, product distribution and logistics, high technology, consumer products, digital and print media, e-commerce and e-solutions, SAAS, information technology, life sciences, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, professional and financial services, and alternative energy.

Jim DeLeo began his career at Gray, Gray & Gray over 30 years ago, and now serves as the Managing Partner. He founded the Transaction Advisory Services practice, works closely with many of the region’s most prominent sources of capital, and hosts the firm’s innovative quarterly DealMakers events that bring entrepreneurs, private equity professionals and operating businesses together to help facilitate transactions.

Tyler is a strategically focused operating executive who drives finance, operations, and strategy for growth stage technology companies. Over the past 21 years, he has worked with six venture capital backed software and SaaS companies working with executive teams to accelerate performance, improve capital efficiency and drive to a sell-side exit.

Suzanne is the President of MCRC. Established in 1977, MCRC provides mezzanine capital, late-stage venture capital, and long term debt to Massachusetts-based companies. Prior to joining MCRC in 2008, she worked in banking at State Street Bank and Brown Brothers Harriman. Suzanne serves on the Board of Economic Advisors for Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Deborah Fell is Managing Partner for Chief Outsiders and brings a background of consistent value creation through sales and marketing plans, people, processes, organizations, tactical ability and measurement visibility. She identifies blocks and gaps, as well as the right fractional sales and/or marketing leader for immediate and enduring success.

John Gardella is the Chair of CMBG3 Law's ESG and Environmental practice groups. He has 17 years of environmental litigation and compliance experience advising companies on risks associated with current and emerging environmental issues. He also consults with firms in the private equity, investment and banking spaces on environmental and chemical risks associated with the buy and sell sides of deals. He helps his clients see the risks that they are unaware of.

Tara Goodwin, founder of Goodwin Consulting and co-founder of Crisis Interception, Inc., is a trusted expert in PR and crisis communications with more than 30 years of experience in the field. Renowned for her strategic counsel, she has worked with startups, nonprofits, billion-dollar brands, CEOs, celebrities and professional athletes, delivering impactful media relations, content creation, and innovative communications programs that build lasting success.

Ben Gredler is the Market Executive for Business Banking at Bank of America in Boston. His team of commercial bankers serves privately held companies covering a variety of industries in the greater Boston area, creating custom banking solutions to help them meet their strategic growth goals. Ben has been at the bank for 15 years working primarily on this team.

Pam Harght is the Senior Director of North Point Associates, a boutique research firm that provides management and entity diligence for private equity firms, as well as litigation support, and political opposition research. Prior to leading the business development efforts at North Point, she began her professional career as an Acoustician and then spent several years leading teams in the Austin start-up scene.

Janak is a serial entrepreneur in the health tech space, most recently building the largest medical image exchange and imaging based RWE network in the US. He currently serves Gov. Healeys administration for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts responsible for digital transformation and policy enforcement.

Rob Kershaw is a Senior Vice President and Corporate Banking Team Leader at Cambridge Savings Bank. In his current role, he manages a team of five experienced Commercial Bankers as well as providing customized financial solutions for a diversified portfolio of corporate banking clients in Massachusetts.

Rob has over 25 years of professional experience in the banking and financial services industry at Cambridge Savings Bank, Rockland Trust, Boston Private Bank & Trust Company and Eastern Bank.

Brendan Kiernan is a Partner with Mirus Capital Advisors who joined the firm in 2004. Experienced in business valuation, corporate finance advisory and deal execution, Brendan leads Mirus’ Business Services practice, as well as co-leading sell-side and buy-side M&A mandates. Brendan has made significant contributions to dozens of client transactions and engagements during his tenure with the firm. His work has focused primarily on clients in the technology, business services, and industrial and distribution sectors.

Before joining Mirus, Brendan worked for Dresdner RCM Global Advisors, the asset management arm of Dresdner Bank AG, and the Industry Standard, a business magazine focused on the internet economy.

Brendan is a graduate of Boston College and earned his MBA from Bentley’s McCallum Graduate School of Business. He holds series 7, 79 and 63 certifications from FINRA. Brendan currently resides on the south shore with his wife and three daughters.

Ruben Klein is the founder of R. Klein Consulting LLC, advising privately held companies, family offices, and P/E firms on their financial strategies. Previously, Ruben was CFO and President for a variety of industrial companies, and also had a successful 25-year banking career. With broad financial and operating experience across diverse industries, he is recognized as a “Trusted Advisor” to owners and investors.

Lee is managing partner of Smart Business Network Inc., a national events, media and marketing company founded in 1989, primarily responsible for expanding the company’s Aspire deal-making conference throughout the U.S. He plays a key role in establishing corporate policies and developing long-term strategy and growth plans. Previously, he founded and chaired the Growth Group at national law firm Arter & Hadden LLP (now Tucker, Ellis & West), which focused on working with middle-market and high-growth technology companies. 

For the past 25 years, Dan has been helping startups and large companies shape their online product strategy. His startup work includes launching Foursquare, Rent The Runway, The Skimm, Blade and Skift. He's also redefined the digital strategy and designed the experiences for more staid organizations such as The New York Times, CNN, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, TD Ameritrade, The Tate Galleries, Saturday Night Live, Eurobank, Booking.com and The Wall Street Journal. One of his most noted projects was creating the original strategy and user experience for Hulu. Prior to Charming Robot, Dan co-founded the design agency Hard Candy Shell. He is the host of the podcast Story in a Bottle and the author of Audible Original book The Barstool MBA. Dan received his Master’s Degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and his Bachelor of Arts from Colby College in English and Performing Arts. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Dave MacKeen Jr. has held leadership positions within the Technology Staffing industry for over two decades, including the roles of CFO and president, prior to becoming CEO of Eliassen Group in 2010. During his tenure as CEO, Dave has spearheaded tremendous company growth, working in collaboration with his team and utilizing a combination of organic and acquisitive tactics and strategies to stay aligned with changing staffing industry dynamics. Under Dave’s leadership, Eliassen Group has completed its third private equity partnership, with the most recent being Stone Point Capital, positioning Eliassen Group to transformational growth as a leading national strategic consulting and talent solutions firm.

While at Eliassen Group, Dave has enjoyed significant achievements at the regional and national level, including the following:

• Recognition from the Boston Business Journal as 2021’s Citizens Middle Market Executive of the Year
• Staffing Industry Analysts' annual Staffing 100 North America list for seven consecutive years and nine times overall. In 2022, SIA welcomed Dave into the Staffing 100 Hall of Fame

Additionally, Dave serves on several boards including the Bentley Executive Club, Endicott College Board of Advisors, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Van Noy Valor Foundation and Saint John’s Prep Trustee Associate .

Behzad Mansouri is a Division Executive at Charles Schwab where he helps lead the growth of the firm's UHNW and Institutional client business, across all asset classes. He serves on the Board of a VC Fund and clean energy company, complimenting his background in capital markets and investment management. An alumni of Columbia University and Harvard Business School, he has previously worked for both US and International firms including Merrill Lynch, Barclays Captial, BNY Mellon and Credit Agricole.

Brent Mathews provides cash flow, leveraged loans to smaller (<$5MM EBITDA) businesses for growth and recapitalizations with special expertise in acquisitions by privately owned companies, private equity groups, family offices and independent sponsors.

Since 2003, Brent has worked across different credit products including factoring, private label credit cards, owner-occupied commercial real estate, and asset-based lending at large commercial finance companies, a small privately owned lender and entrepreneurial banks.

Rob joined Gemini in 2007 and has helped complete over 25 transactions for the firm in a variety of industry sectors. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of 10 Gemini portfolio companies. Previously, he worked in the investment banking division at RBC Capital Markets where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, public equity financings, and private placements in the technology sector. Rob received his B.S. degree from Tufts University.

Brian serves as managing partner for the firm's Boston office. He practices in the area of business law where he counsels privately and publicly held companies on corporate, finance, and securities law matters. Brian specializes in advising closely held businesses and larger companies in mergers and other business acquisitions, sales, and restructuring transactions. He also has venture capital experience, representing both emerging companies and investors.

David is involved with all activities at Pine Street, including deal sourcing, portfolio management, and administration. Previously, he was at Citizens Capital, the mezzanine and private equity group for Citizens Financial Group and a strategy consultant for Mainspring Communications. Before Mainspring, David worked for BankBoston and completed BankBoston's credit and capital markets training program. He is a graduate of Babson College (BS) and the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College (MBA).

Entrepreneur, academic, investor

Michael Nolan is the Development Director – Private Equity and Quality of Sales at Sales Xceleration. He is responsible for building relationships with private equity sponsors and helping their portfolio companies grow their topline performance to build value creation and accelerate performance. Michael and his team leverage a collective of 110 sales leaders with portfolio company experience to help their companies grow 32% in year 1, resulting in $1.7B in revenue growth. Their focus is to drive significant growth through strategy formulation, process development, and effective execution in pre-acquisition due diligence, value acceleration during the hold period, and value maximization to support successful exits.

Jared B. Paquette is the founding, managing partner of Conanicut Capital. Conanicut Capital is a lower-middle market private equity firm focused on the business services sector with backing from family offices. Prior to founding Conanicut Capital, Mr. Paquette was a senior investment professional at Bunker Hill Capital, a lower-middle market private equity firm based in Boston and San Diego, for ten years where he sourced, executed, and managed private equity investments. Mr. Paquette was formerly a member of the board of Taos Mountain LLC, Rizing LLC, Dyno LLC, and ASPEQ Heating Group LLC.

Previously, Mr. Paquette was an investment professional at Nautic Partners ($4.2B AUM) and Weston Presidio ($3.3B AUM) where he focused on investing in middle market companies in a broad range of industries. Mr. Paquette also worked as an associate in the mergers and acquisitions groups of RBC Capital Markets and Tucker Anthony. Mr. Paquette holds an AB from Bowdoin College and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Bryan has spent his career advising, guiding and recognizing innovation-driven high-growth entrepreneurs in the US and internationally including advice on growth strategies, accessing capital, transactions and alliances and entrepreneurial community building. Bryan was the Global Leader of Entrepreneurship for EY until retiring in June 2019. As part of that role, Bryan led the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year awards globally and captured his insights in the book, "Daring To Compete" published by Wiley. Today, Bryan assists a number of private companies with strategic planning and sits on Advisory Boards.

Alina Ritter is a Certified Business Performance Advisor at Insperity. She works with and advises many small to mid-sized businesses. Insperity is a strategic HR partner and helps with payroll, administrative relieve, consolidation of HR processes and technologies, multi-state compliance and big company benefits to attract and retain top talent.

Dave Schneider is a Partner of River Birch Partners with over 25 years of business experience including 20 years in private equity and debt investing. Prior to River Birch, Dave was a partner with 3K Limited Partnership, a private investment firm, and Main Street Resources, a middle market private equity fund. Dave’s experience includes investment origination, capital raising, transaction structuring and execution, and working closely with portfolio companies at the board and management level.

Prior to Main Street, Dave spent time with J.H. Whitney & Co., an alternative asset investment firm, and MCG Global, a boutique merchant banking firm. He started his career with Price Waterhouse LLP.

Lew is the director of Sullivan's Corporate Department in Boston. He regularly represents public and private companies and funds in equity and debt financings, joint ventures, domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters. Industries include renewable energy, advertising, health care, communications, manufacturing and software/SaaS. Lew is the co-author of Mergers & Acquisitions: A Step-by-Step Legal and Practical Guide (2nd edition) (Wiley).

Tom has spent the last 22 years at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch where he considers himself an “Intra-Preneur”. He is the founder of a 9 person boutique within the company called Singh & Associates.

He and his team specialize in pre-exit planning for business owners looking to sell their company in 12-36 months. By using their Proprietary financial Modeling Process, they run various simulations and prescribe strategies to help owners maximize their desired outcome.

He also oversees the Avalon location of Merrill Lynch managing 9 Billion of client assets and has been named the top 13 “Best in State Wealth Advisors” list by Forbes Magazine – 4 years in a row.

Gordie Spater is the CEO of Katahdin Group and was formerly the co-founder and CEO of Kurgo, the leading dog travel product company in North America. Before coming to Katahdin Group, he celebrated a successful exit of the business to Radio Systems Corporation after 16 consecutive years of revenue growth.

Kurgo’s products are sold nationwide from Petco to the local pet store around the corner. The offerings include everything a dog owner and dog need to get out and enjoy the world together from car harnesses, to seat covers to lifejackets for dogs. Kurgo was an 8-time Honoree of the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the US. Prior to founding Kurgo with his brother in 2003, Gordie helped start two other companies.

Gordie lives in Topsfield, MA with his wife Brooke, three children and Labradoodle Winnie. He is a Cum Laude graduate from the University of Vermont and obtained his MBA from the Harvard Business School. Gordie served on the Topsfield school committee for 6 years and currently serves as a Director of W.F. Young.

John Surrette Chairs KLR's Private Equity and Venture Capital Services Group. He has over 20 years of experience working with middle market and lower middle market companies. His focus is on providing audit and compliance services to Private Equity and Venture Capital firms and their funds as well as transaction advisory services to other financial and strategic sponsors investing in middle market companies. John partners with a diverse audit and consulting client base and has extensive experience working with companies in the manufacturing, distribution, renewable energy, technology enabled services and healthcare industries.

With over 25 years of experience as a public/private company CEO, he has experienced many challenges in navigating the difficult process of creating, growing, and sustaining a profitable enterprise. His business experience includes serving as the CEO of several successful high-tech manufacturing firms and CEO leadership roles at several high-tech public companies. He was twice a finalist in the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year program during his career.

Currently, he is involved with improving enterprise value and leadership performance with over 40 local and regional private company clients. One of his most successful roles is turning around underperforming companies and helping Owners negotiate exits at premium company valuations.

Before his business career, Phillip served the nation as a Naval Intelligence Officer, earning consistent top 1% performance reports, selection for early promotion, and related honors. He earned his political science undergraduate degree with a psychology minor from Brigham Young University. He also completed the Master of Science Strategic Intelligence program at the Defense Intelligence Agency and continued his executive development at the Harvard and Stanford Business Schools. He recently completed several Executive Development courses at the Harvard Law School to hone his mediation, negotiation, conflict resolution, and change management skills.

Having exited one company already, James is charged with leading development & execution of the firm's vision, driving growth in overall sales & business development.

Mr. Tien Wong is a tech investor, entrepreneur, and CEO. He is Chairman & CEO of Opus8, Inc., a private investment and advisory firm investing in exceptional life science and tech enabled services companies, as well as specializing in raising capital for promising tech companies and alternative investment fund managers.

He is Founder of CONNECTpreneur, a global community of 25,000+ founders, investors, CEOs, and business leaders. CONNECTpreneur organizes the world’s largest monthly virtual investor pitch events as well as in-person Forums with upwards of 500 attendees, featuring VIP guests, speakers, exciting presenting companies, and the best CXO to CXO networking on the East Coast. Since 2012, over 1200 companies have presented, half of whom have received funding from investors from the CONNECTpreneur investor network.

Mr. Wong is also a Venture Partner in IronGate Capital Advisors, a VC and Fund of Funds manager investing in dual use technologies; Investment Advisory Board member of Virginia Venture Partners; and Chairman of Lumious, an ed tech company which provides learning & development services to Fortune 500 customers.

Mr. Wong was appointed by Governor Martin O'Malley to the 9-person Maryland Venture Fund Authority which oversees $84 million in VC allocations; he serves on the Boards of Directors of the Austin Venture Association, Association for Enterprise Growth (Chair), Frederick Innovative Technology Corp., Inc. (FITCI), and Junior Achievement, as well as on the Council of Advisors for the Washington Institute for Business, Government, & Society and the Entrepreneurship Advisory Council of The Universities at Shady Grove. He is a Mentor at the Mach37 Cybersecurity Accelerator and Conscious Venture Labs.