Panelist Snapshots - July 1, 2020
NEXT VENTŪRES
Lance Armstrong, Managing Partner and Co-founder
A globally known cyclist and endurance athlete, Lance remains passionate about the benefits of an active lifestyle. Through his decades of competitive racing, Lance has developed extensive worldwide contacts in the sports, fitness and health markets, regularly being invited to review early stage companies. His extensive connections have resulted in highly successful early investments in Docusign and Uber that reflect his strong investment insights. In this digital age Lance understands the importance of digital brand building and the power of influencers. He currently hosts THEMOVE, a podcast that provides analysis of stages of the Tour de France and other cycling and endurance races; this podcast has had millions of downloads and has been ranked in the top 10 in the sports and recreation category on Apple's iTunes. He also hosts a podcast called THE FORWARD where Armstrong interviews authors, musicians, athletes, politicians and influencers from all walks of life. These form the cornerstones of WEDŪ MEDIA, part of his WEDŪ brand, a budding community of endurance athletes who go Forward, Never Straight.
Trident
Christian Bjelland, Founding Partner
Christian Bjelland is a Founding Partner of Trident, an investment firm which alongside other family offices invests directly in small cap private equity deals. He also supports his own Oslo-based family office to source and invest in early stage US-based investments, as well as, guide broader investing strategies. Christian is an advisor to several New York-based startups including Hello Alfred which he helped found in 2014 and led all growth initiatives. Prior to this Christian was an investment banker at Lazard and worked at a venture capital firm, BoxGroup, in New York. He has a BA from Harvard College, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
MSF Capital Advisors
Michael Felman, President
Michael Felman is President and CEO of MSF Capital Advisors, a global multi-family office. Besides his own family office, his firm advises other family offices and a select group of high net worth individuals. Mr. Felman began his investment career as an Angel Investor. He invested in real estate, film projects, technology companies and a restaurant. Mr. Felman received his B.A from Clark University and J.D. from Pace University. Winner of Acquisition International 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Global Multi-Family Office award. Winner of Wealth & Finance International 2014 Global Multi-Family Office Award. A member of the NYU Stern Family Office Council. He is a frequent speaker at family office, hedge fund and emerging markets conferences.
LaCrosse Investments 374
Jonathan LaCrosse, Managing Member
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.
Siguler Guff
Jason Mundt, Managing Director
Jason G. Mundt is a Managing Director at Siguler Guff and is actively involved in manager selection, due diligence and direct investing for the Firm’s Small Buyout Opportunities Funds. Prior to joining the Firm in 2007, Mr. Mundt was a Vice President with Linden LLC where he was responsible for evaluation, due diligence and monitoring of direct private equity investments in healthcare and life science.
Prior to Linden, Mr. Mundt was an Associate with RCP Advisors where he performed due diligence on middle market private equity funds. Previously, Mr. Mundt was a Private Equity Portfolio Analyst at the Northern Trust Corporation.
Mr. Mundt holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Andina Family Offices
https://www.andinafamilyoffices.com/index.php
Gary M. Post, Investment Partner, Private Equity
Gary manages the private equity/venture capital portfolios of Andina clients through independent operations known as The K Fund, LP and The K Fund II, LP. He also participates in Andina’s new client development efforts and in the initial introductions and evaluations of potential investment managers for Andina across a wide spectrum of asset classes. Gary has over 25 years of experience in private and public company investing, management, and corporate finance. At McKinsey and Company, he advised and represented well-known family-controlled European businesses seeking minority investments in US operating companies and later represented a group of offshore families in US private equity investing at Ambient, Ltd.
Gary has also held senior positions with several investment banking companies including Drexel Burnham Lambert, Kidder Peabody, Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin and Ambient Capital, a broker-dealer firm he co-founded. In addition, he has served as CEO, COO and board member at several private and public companies.
Gary has an AB from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA.
NEXT VENTŪRES
Melanie Strong, Managing Partner
Mel has spent most of her life in the sports industry, because she believes that access to a healthy and active life can transform culture. She spent over 17 years at Nike, leading international marketing teams across running, women’s soccer/football and training. She worked on all of Nike’s digital sports and tracking products, and was most recently vice president and general manager for their skateboarding business. Today Mel is managing partner at Next Ventures, a VC fund investing in innovative health, sports and wellness companies. She serves as an advisor to Nike’s accelerator Valiant Labs, sits on the board of performance brand PowerDot, and is an advisor for photography app VSCO. Mel and her husband also run a mountain bike tour guiding company in Hood River, Oregon.
Redwood Peak
Kenneth Chiang, Managing Partner, CIO, and Founder
On July 1, 2014, Redwood Peak purchased 100% of Chilton Investment Company’s interest in its wholly-owned Hong Kong Subsidiary, Chilton Investment Company (HK) Ltd. where Mr. Chiang was Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of the Chilton China Opportunities Fund since 2007. Mr. Chiang has over 20 years of investment experience, with a proven record of outperformance in the industry. He has received numerous prestigious nominations and awards and has been recognized as a leading global investor. Before joining Chilton, Mr. Chiang spent 7 years at Merrill Lynch as a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of the Merrill Lynch Global Small Cap Fund. Prior to that, he was a Managing Partner at Samuel Asset Management for one year, and before that worked for 6 years at Merrill Lynch as the Co-Manager of the Emerging Market Fund. He received a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School.