Panelist Snapshots - October 7, 2020
BPEA Private Equity Associates
Daniel LeMoine, Director
Daniel is a director at BPEA. He sources, conducts due diligence, analyzes, and manages BPEA’s direct investments while contributing to overall strategy and portfolio development. He serves on the boards of multiple BPEA investments.
Prior to joining BPEA in 2008, Daniel was an analyst at State Street Corporation where he was responsible for reporting and analysis on a $4.0 billion portfolio. He began his career at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) within the domestic equity group. At SSGA, he monitored multiple high-value mutual funds and handled institutional relations.
Daniel received a BA in economics and Spanish from the Boston College Honors Program and an MBA from Northeastern University’s D’Amore-McKim School of Business. He also attended the Universidad Complutense de Madrid where he studied advanced language and global economics.
Kimera Family Office
Zaid Al-Qaimi, CIO
Zaid Al-Qaimi is the Chief Investment Officer at Kimera. Since January 2017, Zaid has successfully built up the team and infrastructure required to operate a global mandate across all asset classes. Leveraging a global network, Kimera maintains a healthy pipeline of opportunities and invests across the life cycle of companies, from late seed stage to public equity. Private investments are made on both a direct basis and through funds whilst the public equity and bonds portfolios are managed internally. He has successfully established a global network of contacts across the investment ecosystem, which has helped Kimera secure access to premium transactions.
Prior to this, Zaid worked at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for 16 years, covering private equities, public equities and strategic investments. Before joining ADIA, he spent over a decade in management consultancy, audit and accountancy, including five years with PwC. Since 2013, Zaid has been an active angel investor in start-ups both in the US and UK and is also a partner in Calibrate Management (an FCA regulated London-based VC fund). As well as holding CFA®, FRM® and FCCA® designations, Zaid received a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK.
King Family Office
Kurt King, CIO
Kurt King is Chief Investment Officer of King Family Office. Kurt primarily seeks to make LP investments in emerging managers taking unconventional approaches in private equity and credit markets; he generally avoids exposure to large, conventional funds in these markets. His current fund investments are sector-agnostic and in vehicles with a median asset size of approximately $150 million. Kurt also makes direct investments in public and private technology companies utilizing his experience from his prior career as a technology investor. Through the end of 2018 Kurt’s investment portfolio realized positive annual returns for 19 consecutive years.
Kurt was previously Portfolio Manager of Harvest Technology Partners (HTP), a long/short public equity fund based in San Francisco. Kurt closed the fund at the end of 2016 in order to focus on investing on his family’s behalf. He relocated from San Francisco to New York City in 2018.
Kurt holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA from UCLA.
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.
New York Life Investment Company
Sean Holland, Director
Mr. Holland’s responsibilities at NYLIM include manager research, due diligence and risk oversight across a spectrum of investment strategies. Prior to this role, he worked as a principal for Comave Advisors. Previously, Sean served at the NYSTRS pension. His investment experience spans many asset classes globally as well as various types of alternatives including direct investments. Sean’s background includes asset allocation, portfolio construction and risk management. Sean has a CPA, B.S. in accounting from Babson College and an M.B.A and M.S. in risk management from NYU-Stern.
Thurston Group
Patrick J. Haynes III, CEO, [Webinar Chair]
Mr. Haynes has over 40 years of experience analyzing investment opportunities, arranging capital structures, negotiating debt financings, and advising the Boards of Directors for portfolio companies.
Currently, Mr. Haynes serves on the Board of Directors for Smiles Dental, U.S. Oral Surgery Management, South Georgia Dental Management, and U.S. Endodontics Partners. A proactive investor who has repeatedly helped management teams accelerate organic growth, improve profitability and execute acquisitions, Mr. Haynes started his business career at Merrill Lynch and subsequently worked at Lehman Brothers as an investment banker.
In addition to his work with Thurston, Mr. Haynes is active in a number of civic and charitable causes and has served on the executive committees of the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation and the University of Chicago Brain Research Foundation.
Thurston Group
Daniel F. Davis, Managing Director
Mr. Davis has over seven years of private equity experience and is responsible for originating, evaluating and executing investment opportunities at Thurston Group. Mr. Davis focuses on growth equity investments, with a particular emphasis on Dental Service Organizations (DSOs), and has helped clients develop strategic growth plans and improve operational efficiency. His past healthcare investment experience includes Smiles Dental, Smile Doctors, Pinnacle Dental, U.S. Oral Surgery Management, South Georgia Dental Management, and U.S. Endodontics Partners. Currently, Mr. Davis serves on the Board of Directors for South Georgia Dental Management and U.S. Endodontics Partners.
Prior to joining Thurston, Mr. Davis was a senior consultant at Navigant Economics and worked at UBS Financial Services. Mr. Davis began his career as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps where he served three combat tours in Iraq as a platoon commander and executive officer. Today, he serves as a board member of Chicago’s Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation (MC-LEF).