Panelist Snapshots - December 2, 2020
Align Impact
Jenn Kenning, CEO & Co-Founder
Jenn Kenning is a trailblazer, collaborator and change-maker who has quickly risen to become one of the most recognized voices in impact investing. In 2014 Jenn co-founded Align, an independent fiduciary and impact specialist that works alongside financial advisors, institutions, foundations and directly with individual clients and family offices, helping integrate impact strategies and investments into the broader wealth management strategy.
A frequent speaker, moderator and guest lecturer, Jenn is committed to building the impact investing ecosystem while leading Align. Jenn was named on the “40 under 40” list by Investment News in 2014, selected for Private Asset Management’s “50 Most Influential Women in Private Wealth” in 2016, and chosen as Investment News Icon and Innovator in 2017.
Jenn began her career in 2002 as a wealth manager at Aspiriant where she served also on the Board of Directions and was a partner of the firm, and left to launch Align.
Family Office Private Advisors
http://familyofficeprivateadvisors.com/
R. Adam Smith, Founder
Experienced investor in, advisor to, tens of startup, venture and private equity-backed companies. Seasoned principal investor (Caxton-Iseman Capital LLC, Castle Harlan, Inc., Columbus Advisors LLC) and Wall Street veteran (Salomon Brothers Inc., J.P. Morgan, and Lehman Brothers Inc).
Founder & CEO, Circle Peak Capital LLC, a private investment merchant banking partnership formed 2002. Founder & CEO, Big Sky Partners LLC, a global strategic & creative advisory partnership formed 2013. Founder & CEO, Family Office Private Advisors LLC, a global private investment banking and alternative assets partnership formed 2013. Co-founder, Leukemia Fighters, a leading oncology philanthropy formed in 2009 in collaboration with New York-Presbyterian Hospital & Weill Cornell.
MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma, Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. BA, cum laude, International Relations and Economics, Boston University. Entrepreneur, mentor, philanthropist, musician, collector, artist.
Gatewood Capital Partners
https://www.gatewoodcapital.com/
Ami Samuels, Partner
Ami is a Partner and plays a key role in transaction origination, execution, marketing and portfolio management. Prior to joining Gatewood, Ami was a Managing Director and Co-Head of the Private Equity Group at Poalim Capital Markets, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank Hapoalim, a leading financial institutional in Israel. Ami led investments and monitoring of the PE portfolio, and managed new business development activities. Ami was responsible for several investments in China, including a joint venture with a local advisory and investment firm based in Beijing and Hong Kong.
Prior to that, Ami was a Partner and Investment Manager at Star Ventures, an international venture capital firm, where he focused on fundraising and the communications sector.
Prior to Star Ventures, Ami was a Co-Founder, CFO and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Satlynx SA of Luxembourg, a provider of satellite-based communications services, and Vice President at Gilat Satellite Networks. Ami has 10 years of investment banking experience with Lehman Brothers in New York and Tel Aviv, where he worked on corporate finance and M&A transactions for U.S. and Israeli companies and for the Government of Israel.
Ami graduated from the Yale School of Management with a Masters in Public and Private Management, from the University of Haifa (in Israel) with a B.A. and participated in the University of Michigan’s Executive Management Program.
LaCrosse Investments 374
Jonathan LaCrosse, Managing Member [Webinar Chair]
Jonathan LaCrosse, Managing Member – LaCrosse Investments 374
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.
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.
The Living Fund
Rob Frankfurt, Founder
Rob Frankfurt founded Myca Partners, Inc. (“Myca”) in 2006 to invest in small cap US-public and private companies.
Mr. Frankfurt’s varied background as a principal investor, capital raiser and allocator, board member, business incubator, turnaround/restructuring manager, and investment banker enables him to effectively work with senior leadership and large shareholders of portfolio companies in order to implement an effective business strategy.
He has invested in a broad array of industries and served as a Director for many companies with particular focus in: technology hardware/software/services, healthcare technology/equipment/services, consumer products, marketing, fulfillment and outsourcing services, payment processing technology, industrial manufacturing, and value added distribution.
In recent years, Mr. Frankfurt has focused his investments in the area of Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle companies. Mr. Frankfurt believes that there are tremendous opportunities to reverse/prevent the Obesity epidemic which stands at 40% of adult Americans and chronic illness which, in its various forms, is the cause of 70% of deaths in America.
Mr. Frankfurt graduated from the Wharton School of Business in 1987 with a B.S. in Economics and was a member of the Varsity Wrestling and Varsity Sprint Football teams. He received his MBA at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA in 1995 where he was a Venture Capital Fellow and served as Alumni Class President.
New Summit Investments
http://www.newsummitinvestments.com/
Alex Lamb, Managing Director
Alex is the lead Managing Partner at New Summit. He co-founded the New Summit Impact strategy and is a member of the Fund’s investment committee.
Alex has close to a decade and a half's experience with the integration of Impact and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations into business value creation and risk mitigation. At Ernst & Young LLP, (and previously as Vice President for North America at Trucost), he worked with corporate and investor clients on the integration of Impact and ESG factors into core strategy and due diligence. As a corporate sustainability analyst at KLD Research & Analytics, he assessed the ESG performance of corporations for institutional investors and partnered with Newsweek magazine on the inaugural Newsweek Green Rankings. Alex is the Co-Founder and prior President of Building a Sustainable Investment Community (BASIC). Alex currently serves on the non-profit boards of Change is Simple, Inc. and Montserrat College of Art. He serves as chair of Montserrat's Investment Committee, overseeing the school's endowment and retirement plan.
He holds a BA from Hampshire College and an MBA from Pinchot University.
ShareNett
Triple C Advisory
Marcia Nelson, Managing Director ShareNett; Co-Founder, Triple C Advisory
Marcia is a Managing Director at ShareNett, a members-only global network of professional investors collaborating on curated, quality investment opportunities. Marcia has spent a large portion of her career working in and for family offices and private dealmakers. She was previously at Alberleen Family Office Solutions, an independent investment advisory firm backed by family offices, and she formerly worked for an ultra-high-net-worth philanthropic family as well as a sports and entertainment family. Over the last 20 years, she has developed a strong network of private families, institutional investors, and advisers who are increasingly seeking access to quality direct deal flow from trusted, experienced partners.
Triple C Advisory is a business life cycle consulting firm Marcia co-founded. Working off three pillars – Customer Acquisition, Consulting and Capital – the firm works with early stage companies as an advisor and board member to prepare them to receive institutional-grade investments.
Marcia serves on the boards of several industry-related organizations, including: as President of ACG-NY (Association for Corporate Growth), which focuses on driving middle-market investments; as a board member of VentureCapitall.Org, a non-profit early-stage start up accelerator; and with the investment committee for University Impact, a donor-advised fund. She is also an advisor to a Utah-based Single Family Office.
PEARL Promise
Melissa Frick, Executive Director
Melissa joined the Pearl team in May of 2019 as the new Executive Director. She has a BS in Psychology from CSU and a MA in Counseling from CCU. She is a wife and a mother of two. When she is not working or caring for her family she enjoys running, biking, camping and boating! She was born in Nebraska but has always considered Colorado home.
Udelv
Daniel Laury, Co-Founder & CEO
Daniel Laury is the co-founder and CEO of Udelv, a company pioneering autonomous delivery. In January 2018, with his team of engineers, he orchestrated the world’s first public road autonomous delivery in California. In 2019, after releasing its second-generation vehicle, Udelv has successfully completed more than 6,000 automated deliveries on behalf of a variety of retailers that include Walmart in Phoenix, Arizona and XL Parts in Texas.
Prior to Udelv, Daniel founded and ran several companies, including Geary LSF, the fourth largest US independent digital marketing agency. Prior to Geary LSF, he founded Luckysurf.com, the world’s first free online lottery, and 17th most visited site in the world by December 2000. Daniel raised $40M in funding and successfully sold it in 2008. He started his career at the prestigious investment bank, Brown Brothers Harriman in New York and Paris. Laury is also an investor in high tech through his VC fund, The Explorer Group and Chairman of Halt Homelessness, a nonprofit organization he created to combat homelessness in San Francisco.