Panelist Snapshots - April 7, 2021
RCP Advisors
Alex Abell, Partner
Alex is a Partner of the Firm, a member of the Investment Committee, and is active as an Advisory Board member of various underlying funds. Alex is responsible for the identification and analysis of potential fund investments within RCP’s core strategy and serves as the portfolio manager for the Firm’s SBIC fund-of-funds. In addition, Alex helps manage the Firm’s research efforts as well as its customized investment solutions and advisory services. He has been involved in the private equity industry since 2001.
Prior to joining RCP, Alex founded Atlas Diligence, acquired by RCP, where he developed a unique research and advisory platform focused on advanced analytics and systematic due diligence. Prior to founding Atlas, Alex worked for BlackRock Private Equity Partners. At BlackRock PEP, he helped lead manager identification and due diligence on private capital fund opportunities as well as diligence on co-investment and secondary transactions. He previously worked at Quellos’s Private Capital Strategies Group, Hewlett Packard’s pension fund investment group, and Cagan McAfee Capital Partners.
Alex holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA, magna cum laude, in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.
Truvvo
Jerome Antenen, Managing Director, Head of Equity Investments
Jerome is a Managing Director and Head of Equity Investments for Truvvo as well as a member of the Investment Committee. Jerome has been with the firm since its early days and brings extensive experience investing in private markets from the institutional world to our client portfolios. Upon joining the firm, Jerome began working across all equity strategies, including global long equity, long/short equity, and private equity & real assets. He is known for his in-depth due diligence and analytical rigor.
Prior to Truvvo, Jerome was an Associate Director at Quellos Group LLC (acquired by BlackRock, Inc.) where he served as an assistant portfolio manager, conducting due diligence on private equity and real asset managers for Quellos Private Capital Markets, LP. His activities included the sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring of fund investments, co-investments, and secondary investments.
Prior to that, he worked at Deutsche Banc Alex Brown Inc. as an Analyst in the investment banking division and a member of the Private Equity Finance Group. Jerome’s primary responsibilities included sourcing and evaluating private capital managers for potential fundraising mandates. He supported the due diligence efforts of prospective investors and facilitated the fundraising of capital for those managers.
Jerome graduated with a BSBA from Georgetown University, cum laude, and is a CFA® charterholder.
Thrivent Financial
https://thriventprivateinvestments.com/our-team.html
Michael Groneberg, Managing Director
Mike has over 15 years of investment experience. Before joining Thrivent in 2006, he worked as a high yield analyst at Ameriprise Financial. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Minnesota in 1999 and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota in 2006. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.
Mike is a board member of Gourmet Culinary and MNG Direct.
Gurvitch Family Office
Howard Gurvitch, Principal
Howard Gurvitch, is a New York City-based entrepreneur and private investor. He is the sole managing member of HRG, LLC, a privately-held “family office” investment management company he founded in 2006 that manages a diversified investment portfolio of direct investments, public and private securities, hedge funds, private equity, real estate and venture capital.
From 1987 through 2005, Gurvitch was a Managing Director at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. He began in the Firm's Investment Banking Group working with middle market companies within a wide range of industries in connection with their M&A, strategic planning and equity and fixed income capital raising activities. As an investment consultant, and as the founding member of HG Consultants, he worked to identify, quantify and address the unique requirements of high net worth entrepreneurs as well as the owners, employees and financial fiduciaries of private and closely held businesses and organizations as well as numerous public companies. Prior to that, he was a Vice President of Ivan F. Boesky & Company, a private investment company. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The University of Rhode Island in 1980, and received his JD from The National Law Center of The George Washington University in 1983 and subsequently attended the NYU School of Law LLM Tax Program.
He is married and lives in New York City with his wife, Dr. Dana Gurvitch, and their son, Justin.
LaCrosse Investments 374
Jonathan LaCrosse, Managing Member [Webinar Chair]
Jonathan D. LaCrosse is the Founder of LaCrosse Investments 374, LLC, an alternative investment placement firm dedicated to raising capital for funds and deals. He has more than 20 years of alternative investment experience, including fundraising sales in excess of $4.5 billion in assets, investing more than $4 billion in 165 funds, secondaries and co-investments, and roles on 35 Board Director and Advisory Boards.
Previously, he was Co-Founder, President and CEO of Trusted Insight, Inc, the largest online alternative investment marketplace focused on matching investments across new funds, secondary transactions and co-investments. Members include 400+ institutional investors from 90 countries. During his tenure at Trusted Insight, Mr. LaCrosse led a Series A financing from premier venture capitalists and leading financial technology angel investors.
From 2006-2009, Mr. LaCrosse was a Founding Partner of Centinela Capital Partners, LLC (separate accounts with CalPERS), an alternative investment fund-of-funds with over $1 billion of assets under management and a focus on emerging managers. He was an investment committee member involved in the approval of over $825 million to 41 deals and served on 7 advisory boards.
From 1994-2006, Mr. LaCrosse was an Investment Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation where he was in charge of its private equity, below investment grade credit and real assets strategies, including sourcing, executing, and monitoring investments. He led all efforts with regards to due diligence on investment proposals, the negotiating and structuring of key investment terms in partnership agreements, building of financial models and the trading of in-kind distributions from leveraged buyout and venture capital funds. Mr. LaCrosse was responsible for investing over $3.1 billion in 121 alternative investment funds, including over $730 million in 37 emerging manager funds. While at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Mr. LaCrosse served on 25 advisory boards across the following types of funds: buyouts, venture capital, growth, secondary, mezzanine, distressed, real estate, timber, and fund-of-funds.
Mr. LaCrosse earned an M.B.A. from Rider University and B.S. from Rowan University. He holds Series 7, 63, and 79 securities licenses.
Bioverge
Neil Littman, Founder, CEO, General Partner
Neil worked on Wall Street as a healthcare investment banker the first part of his career where he advised biotech and healthcare companies on transactions totaling >$1B, including: IPOs, private placements, public financings, M&A, and in-and-out-licensing of pre-commercial and commercial stage products. After investment banking, Neil transitioned to venture philanthropy and was an integral member of the Executive Leadership Team at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) where he helped develop the long-term strategic plan to manage and invest $3 billion in the regenerative medicine sector, including cellular, stem cell, and gene therapies. During his time at CIRM, Neil started actively advising and investing in private healthcare companies and founded the investment firm Bioverge Funds Management, LLC to invest in promising early-stage healthcare startups. Bioverge is a premier venture capital firm investing in healthcare startups at the intersection of bio + tech.
LaCrosse Investments 374
Kevin McCaffrey, Director
Kevin McCaffrey is a Vice President at LaCrosse Investments 374, LLC, where he focuses on business development, deal origination, and raising capital. He will also expand the firm’s reach and highlight clients’ expertise in relevant events and media. He has more than 20 years of financial and operational experience across corporate environments and the capital markets – including private equity, venture capital, real estate, equities trading, equity research, and market research.
Before joining the team, Kevin built the PartnerConnect conference series for Thomson Reuters. Starting with the launch in 2011, his focus was connecting institutional investors with fund managers by leveraging events and media services through several acquisitions. He presided over 12,000 pre-screened LP/GP meetings and accelerated fundraising efforts for hundreds of funds in Private Equity and Venture Capital primarily.
Mr. McCaffrey also launched market research services for Frost & Sullivan and equity research services for a NYSE Broker/Dealer following a successful exit from his own real estate and construction company.
Kevin earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University, where he also played Division I Lacrosse.
He holds the Series 79 securities license.
Spur Capital Partners
Kevin Moore, Partner
Kevin Moore is a Partner at Spur Capital Partners, a venture capital fund of funds manager that invests in early-stage technology and life science fund managers. Kevin has over 14 years’ experience in finance having worked previously at i2E as the Director of Angel Investments, the Federal Reserve Bank as a Supervisory Analyst, and an Investment Advisor with Morgan Stanley and Northwestern Mutual in Chicago. In these roles, Kevin was responsible for constructing investment portfolios, analyzing financial statements, and structuring capital raises. Prior to Spur, Kevin was the Director of Angel Investments at i2E, an early-stage venture capital fund, where he led investments in early-stage technology and healthcare companies. Kevin also raised and managed one of i2E’s investment funds, Oklahoma Angel Fund I. Outside of i2E, Kevin also served on the Investment Committee of the Oklahoma Teacher's Retirement System Pension Fund, a $20+ billion fund. As a member of the Investment Committee, Kevin assisted with setting investment policy, asset allocation, and selecting investment managers. Kevin has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from the University of Central Oklahoma. kevin.moore@spurcap.com
ECS Capital Partners
Charles Sidman, Managing Partner
Charles Sidman founded and directs ECS Capital Partners. He is a cofounder of the American Angel Capital Association, past president of Crowdfunding Professional Association, frequent advocate and speaker on financial, entrepreneurship, policy and ethical issues globally, enthusiastic participant in numerous investment and professional organizations, and 2018 Special Recognition Honoree of EBAN. He supports early-stage companies through Angel investing, VC, Crowdfunding and public markets. Dr. Sidman retired as Professor of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology from U. Cincinnati’s College of Medicine. His education includes PhD (Immunology) from Harvard, MBA (Management) from U. Cincinnati, and sabbatical study (Complex Systems) at Santa Fe Institute.