Panelist Snapshots - June 2, 2021
Siguler Guff
Sarah Bowdoin, Managing Director
Sara Bowdoin is a Managing Director at Siguler Guff and is actively involved in deal execution, sourcing, analyzing and monitoring fund investments and co-investments for the Firm's Small Buyout Opportunities Funds. Prior to joining Siguler Guff in 2009, Ms. Bowdoin worked at Lazard Middle Market as an Investment Banking Analyst providing merger and acquisition, corporate finance, restructuring and private placement services to middle market companies and private equity groups.
Ms. Bowdoin holds a B.A. in Mathematics from Wake Forest University.
StepStone Group
https://www.stepstonegroup.com
Michael Elio, Partner, StepStone Group
Mr. Elio is a member of the private equity team, leading the middle- and large-market buyouts and secondary funds sector teams. He is also involved in portfolio construction for many of the firm’s largest advisory clients, SMA clients, and high-net-worth distribution platforms.
Prior to joining StepStone in 2014, Mr. Elio was a managing director at ILPA, where he led programs around research, standards, and industry strategic priorities. Before that he was a partner and managing director at LP Capital Advisors, where he led the firm’s Boston office and served as the lead consultant to North American and European institutional investors. Mr. Elio was the primary consultant for many of the firm’s largest clients including public and private pension plans committing more than US$5 billion annually. He held several progressive positions in private equity, including vice president at State Street Corporation and vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity, where he oversaw the funds management group.
Gabriel Horn Capital
https://gabrielhorncapital.com
Brett A. Nelson, Co-Founder, Managing Partner of Gabriel Horn Capital
Brett A. Nelson is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Gabriel Horn Capital, LLC, an alternative investment placement firm dedicated to raising capital for funds and direct deals. He has more than 23 years of alternative investment experience, including global fundraising sales, serving on advisory boards and investing more than $8 billion in 190 funds, secondaries and co-investments.
Previously, Brett was Co-Founder of Bright Harbor Advisors – a global placement advisory firm -that provided fund raising, origination, due diligence, positioning, and transaction negotiation advisory services for private equity funds including buyouts, venture capital, growth, secondary, credit, distressed, real assets, royalty, clean-tech and fund-of-funds. He also advised on the secondary sale and restructuring of client’s fund investments.
Prior to that he was a Principal and Head of Global Private Equity for Aon Hewitt, a $2 trillion AUM consulting firm providing customized discretionary and non-discretionary alternative asset advisory services. In this capacity he was responsible for portfolio design, investment selection, and asset allocation to global institutional clients. In addition, he created and served as President & CEO of the firm’s Secondary Market Services, assisting clients with the liquidity of private market partnerships. He was also a Member of Infrastructure and Real Estate Investment Committees.
Previously, he was a Principal of INVESCO Private Capital investing in private equity partnerships and secondaries. He was a member of the investment team for INVESCO Global Fund III and the Millennium Fund II – Fund-of-Funds focused on buyout, venture capital and special situations. He was also responsible for identifying investments, providing alternative asset advisory services and maintaining client relationships for large public pension plans.
He began his finance career with Price Waterhouse Coopers LLC specializing in corporate finance.
He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University and a MBA from the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University and completed continuing education course work in Management at The University of Pennsylvania. He holds the Series 7, 63, 65 & 39 licenses.
Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners
James Parmelee, Managing Director
Jim is a Managing Director at Hamilton Robinson Capital Partners and is responsible for sourcing, analyzing, investing and monitoring private equity investments in the middle market. Jim also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of GrayMatter, PNE, Tanknology and Great Elm Capital Group. Jim previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of The Meet Group. He earned a B.A. from Trinity College and an M.B.A from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
PA Capital
Kee Rabb, Managing Director
Kee Tilghman Rabb focuses on buyout, growth equity, and turnaround manager relationships in North America. She is involved in all aspects of private equity investment sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring with an emphasis on primary fund investments. Kee is an Investment Committee member for the Primaries capability.
Prior to joining Private Advisors, Kee worked in investment banking at Harris Williams & Co. where she focused on mergers and acquisitions and provided strategic advisory services to middle market companies.
Kee received a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University.
Gatewood Capital
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.
Marquette Associates
https://www.marquetteassociates.com
Derek Schmidt, Director of Private Equity
Derek Schmidt is the director of private equity for Marquette Associates and has 17 years of investment experience. He joined Marquette in 2017 and provides thought-leadership on private equity investing. Derek is responsible for leading the due diligence of private equity managers, providing guidance on private equity and private debt product selection, and developing actionable views based on macroeconomic and capital markets outlook. He is a member of the firm’s investment committee and chairs the alternative investment manager search committee.
Prior to joining Marquette, Derek was an equity analyst/vice president at Piper Jaffray. Previously, he worked for William Blair & Company as a global healthcare associate.
Derek holds a B.S.B.A. in business finance from The Ohio State University. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Chicago as well as a CAIA charterholder and member of the CAIA Association®. Derek serves as a finance committee member for the Anixter Center.
Alpha Square Group
Sebastian Zhou, Investment Specialist
Sebastian Zhou joined Alpha Square Group since 2017. Currently, as an investor at ASG, he spearheads fintech and blockchain related investments. Selected recent investments include: Figure, Peerstreet, SoFi, Oscar Health, Tradeshift, Headspin, ezCater, Boxed etc.
Alpha Square Group is a family office based in NYC. On private alternative front, ASG seeks to make growth stage investments with a particular interest in companies that can provide strategic value to the family’s existing businesses and network. ASG has completed over 26+ investments in growth stage companies with check sizes ranging from $5 million to $15 million.
Gabriel Horn Capital
https://gabrielhorncapital.com
Kevin McCaffrey, Vice-President
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.