EDISON PARTNERS - Key Persons
Aston joined Edison Partners in 2021. He focuses on identifying and evaluating investments across Enterprise Solutions, Healthcare IT, and Financial Technology.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Aston started his career as an Analyst at RockCreek, a global investment firm focused on a diverse portfolio of entrepreneurs, companies, and investors. Prior to joining Edison Partners, Aston was an Analyst at Blu Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on industry agnostic B2B software and cybersecurity companies. At Blu Ventures, Aston was responsible for deal sourcing, due diligence, investment execution, and portfolio support.
Brendan joined Edison Partners in April 2022 and focuses on investments in Fintech, Healthcare IT, and Enterprise Solutions.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Edison Partners, Brendan was an associate with Escalate Capital Partners, an Austin-based private credit and growth equity fund targeting rapidly growing later-stage companies within the technology, software, services, and healthcare sectors. Prior to Escalate, Brendan was an investment banking associate at PJ Solomon. Before business school, he was an assistant vice president in debt capital markets at Deutsche Bank and an associate director at Fitch Ratings. Brendan is a CFA charterholder.
Caitlin joined Edison Partners in 2017. She is responsible for many aspects of accounting and finance for the management company, active funds, and new investments. This includes department-specific budgets, spend analysis, cost forecasting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, GL maintenance, quarterly report assistance, and expense reporting. Caitlin also serves as IT Coordinator and manages all IT platforms, computer support, inventory, cybersecurity, and employee onboarding.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Edison, Caitlin was a restaurant manager for the Terra Momo Restaurant Group, where she specialized in hospitality and Italian cuisine. She then worked with a distributer of fine wines as a sales representative, wine consultant, and educator for many high-end restaurants throughout the state. She continued as a wine consultant when she joined the Princeton Corkscrew Wine Shop as Database Manager.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Leader in Smart Home
Daniel Herscovici is a recognized leader in Smart Home, IoT, and digital transformation. Over the past 20 years, he served in leadership roles at Fortune 50 companies like Comcast and Motorola and spent much of his career focused on creating new businesses within large enterprises. An entrepreneur at heart, he founded and led several businesses in consumer tech and tech-enabled services. He has a passion for customer-first product design and is always looking for innovative ways to address unmet, unarticulated market needs. Daniel dedicates his time to both leading growth stage technology investments and helping entrepreneurs build world-class companies.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Daniel has sourced and led several investments for Edison since joining in 2018. Prior to joining, Daniel founded and led Xfinity Home, Comcast's Home Security, Smart Home, and IoT business unit. In addition, he founded a premium tech support business unit and played a primary role in introducing Wi-Fi at scale into consumer internet households across the US. He maintains four patents in mobile device mechanical design and accelerated methods for improving the in-home Wi-Fi experience. He gained his experience in successive leadership positions at Lucent Bell Labs and Motorola mobile devices. Dan leverages an exceptional technical product design background and operational leadership to help entrepreneurs accelerate business success.
Deanna manages administrative duties across the Partnership by supporting numerous duties and projects related to Edison's portfolio companies, new investment activity, CRM tracking, diligence coordination and internal/external reporting. Deanna also assists with facilitating tasks related to Leadership, Governance, CoE, as well as event planning and execution.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Deanna has more than 7 years of experience in providing high-level administrative support. Previously, Deanna served as an Administrative Assistant at a real estate development and property management firm, assisting corporate level executives and the two company Presidents. Deanna's experience also includes working as a Group & Corporate Room Sales Coordinator for a family owned, New Jersey-based hospitality company.
Dylan focuses on sourcing and evaluating Financial Technology, Healthcare IT, and Enterprise Solutions investments. He joined Edison in 2020.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Dylan began his career working in the accounting department at John A. Biewer Company before getting the fintech startup bug while working as a market analyst at Orion Trading Systems, a Red Cedar Ventures portfolio company. Prior to joining Edison, he spent two years interning at Red Cedar Ventures, evaluating early-stage investment prospects in the Midwest region.
Ellen joined Edison Partners in 2021. As Senior Fund Accountant her responsibilities include fund accounting, reporting, and assisting with fund audit and tax preparation.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Edison, Ellen spent time in fund administration, working with hedge funds and hybrid funds. Earlier in her career she worked with a CPA firm working on various audits and tax return preparation.
Grace focuses on identifying and evaluating investment opportunities across Enterprise Solutions, Healthcare IT, and Financial Technology. She joined Edison Partners in 2022.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Grace started her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Evercore in their Technology Mergers & Acquisitions Group. While at Evercore, Grace worked on a variety of sell-side and buy-side transactions across Software, Industrial Technology and Tech Enabled Services. After Evercore, Grace joined the investment team as an Associate at Brighton Park Capital, a late-stage growth equity firm focused on B2B Software, Tech Enabled Services, and Healthcare IT. At Brighton Park, Grace was responsible for sourcing new opportunities, deal execution, and portfolio support. Grace was closely involved in Brighton Park's investment in HTEC, a software engineering and digital product development firm with delivery out of Eastern Europe. She also assisted Brighton Park's portfolio company, Glassbox, in its IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
Education
BS, Finance & Business Analytics, Indiana University
Greg is a long-time, Boston-area based product and technology operating executive. In his role as an operating partner with Edison he partners with Product and Technology executives in the Edison portfolio. He leverages his background in CyberSecurity, Cloud Technologies, and DevOps as a consultant, advisor, and independent director. Greg is a member of the Edison Directors' Network and currently serves as a board director for FundThatFlip an Edison FinTech portfolio company, reinventing the loan origination space. He also serves as a board director for CloudSphere an Atlantic Bridge portfolio company in the cloud security posture management space. Greg is as an advisor to HYPER, a leader in the passwordless security space and Oak9 a pioneer in securing infrastructure as code. Greg has two college-age kids and a 9-year old French Bulldog (Bubba). When he's not working, he's usually watching the Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, or Red Sox.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Greg led the product and technology organizations at CloudHealth (acquired by VMware), Veracode (Acquired by CA Technologies, Thoma Bravo, and TA) and Connected Corporation (acquired by Iron Mountain/IRM NYSE). He ran Systems Development, Product Management, and Engineering, and led the Document Management business at Iron Mountain Corporation. Earlier in his career he was an executive at Information Security and Network consulting innovator Predictive Systems (1999 IPO) where he led their Managed Security Services business. He started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation and had a seven-year stint in product at Sun Microsystems.
Gregg focuses on investments in Healthcare IT and Enterprise software, specifically marketing technology. He also advises Edison portfolio executives on strategy, operational efficiency, and leadership. He brings 20 years of experience leading HCIT and media organizations, and a consistent track record of developing and executing innovative business strategies that deliver bottom line results.
Gregg served as CEO of Linkwell Health, a leading consumer engagement company in the healthcare industry, where he built a proprietary content marketing system and significantly scaled the business during his three-year tenure. Prior to joining Linkwell, Gregg spent 10 years with Rodale, the worldwide leader and trusted content source in healthy active lifestyles. As President and CMO, he had full P&L responsibility for the company's $450 million global media business leading more than 500 employees across multiple disciplines-B2C and B2B sales and marketing, business intelligence, and functional support groups among them. Under his direction, the company developed digital and mobile business strategies and infrastructures that expanded Rodale Digital to a $100+ million advertising and ecommerce business.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Marketing
Iris joined Edison Partners in January 2022 as Vice President, where she leads marketing, communications, and events.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to joining Edison, she was a Director at General Atlantic where she focused on the firm's global marketing efforts, product launches and brand equity. Before joining General Atlantic in 2019, Iris was on the Communications and Marketing team at Warburg Pincus, providing marketing capabilities to portfolio companies at all stages of growth.
Joe joined Edison Partners in 2008. As CFO and CCO, he leads Edison's financial and compliance functions including - audit and tax compliance, domestic and foreign limited partner reporting and administration, SBA reporting, cash forecasting, accounting, and analysis.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Previous to joining Edison Partners, Joe worked with a fund administration firm providing a wide range of accounting, tax, limited partner and back-office services to venture capital funds located across the United States. Earlier in his career, Joe spent several years in public accounting working on various audit and tax engagements.
John joined Edison Partners in 2022 and focuses on the collection, management and reporting of data.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
John began his career diagnosing workflow inefficiencies at Turtle & Hughes, an industrial supplier of electrical supplies. Prior to joining Edison John worked with live market data as a price reporter for TP ICAP, an international financial services firm based in London.
Joseph Gwozdz is a former C-Level executive and a CPA possessing deep financial and operational leadership experience across a breadth of industries including SaaS, tech enabled services, hospitality, education, financial services, healthcare, and construction. He has a track record of repeatedly scaling operations, generating consistent growth in EBITDA, revenue and shareholder value while creating and sustaining a culture of employee engagement across businesses and industries. He has been the CFO, COO or advisor on M&A deals valued at over $1b in enterprise value.
At Edison Partners, Joe Gwozdz leads the Financial Center of Excellence within the Edison Edge platform. Joe advises entrepreneurs and finance leaders on matters from strategic finance and planning to financial reporting and optimization of processes and systems. He leverages his 30+ years of financial and operating expertise as he coaches and mentors on how to translate strategies into actions that maximize enterprise and shareholder value.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Joe founded JTG Ventures in 2020 through which he advises privately held and investor owned business on implementing and executing financial and operational excellence. Prior to launching his own firm, he served as CFO with Compass Group, TwentyEighty Strategy Execution, and Folio Financial and has held other leadership roles at E*TRADE and Navigant Consulting. He served on the board of Financial Executives International and was the founding Managing Director of the National Capital Chapter of the COO Forum.
Joy Whitney provides research and analysis for both business development and deal diligence. Her expertise includes uncovering prospective investment candidates and analyzing the market and competitive landscape for targeted industry sectors. Joy administers Salesforce as an integral part of Edison's deal process, providing reporting and training, as well as optimizing Salesforce effectiveness for deal flow. She joined Edison in 2002.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Joy has over 30 years of research and information technology experience. She held positions providing business intelligence research at a pharmaceutical contract sales organization, a management consulting firm and a corporate investigations firm. Her previous experience includes programming, systems analysis and database design for AT&T and Lucent/Bell Labs.
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT & LP RELATIONS
Judi skillfully manages administrative duties by providing high- level support to the managing partner and coordinates limited partner relations including administration, communications and the investor portal. She joined Edison in 2006 as an administrative assistant and has provided executive level support to several general partners, partners and principals.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Judi has more than 31 years of experience in professional executive assistant positions and a track record of strong performance in high-volume, high-pressure environments. Prior to Edison, she served as executive assistant in the wealth management, real estate investment, pharmaceutical, and audio/security industries. Judi began her administrative career with Essex Investment Management Co. located in Boston, MA. While employed at Ortho Diagnostics she received her IAAP certification as a Certified Professional Secretary (CPS). Judi also received her NJ real estate license while employed as an office manager for a real estate investment firm.
Kelley Dicso joined Edison Partners in December 2021 as Marketing Coordinator. She maintains a focus in events and marketing operations, while providing support for the Edison Edge Platform.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Prior to beginning at Edison, Kelley started her post-graduate career as a Marketing Coordinator on the Field and Events team at TripActions, a Travel and Expense company in Silicon Valley.
Job Titles:
- General Partner
- Tech Industry Executive
Kelly is a tech industry executive turned growth equity investor. She leads the firm's operations, investments in enterprise SaaS and fintech, and is the pioneer of our Edison Edge operating platform.
A 20+ year veteran of high-growth emerging and established B2B and B2B2C companies, Kelly is a technology optimist who has built her career on a passion for breaking new ground, having never held a role that someone held before her. She joined Edison in 2014 from SundaySky where, during her tenure, revenue grew 3X year over year, and she established the company as the leader in personalized video. In addition to her time at SundaySky, Kelly has held leadership positions at Operative, an Edison portfolio company sold to SintecMedia for $200M, and LivePerson (LPSN) where revenue doubled during her tenure. Prior to LivePerson, she started a wine venture, Oriel, achieving profitability in three years and doubling sales year over year. Kelly began her career in various roles at Lotus (acquired by IBM). She got the startup bug in 2000 when Ray Ozzie, the inventor of Lotus Notes, recruited her to Groove Networks, where she spent five years prior to the company's acquisition by Microsoft.
Kristen joined Edison in July 2020 investing in Enterprise Solutions and Healthcare IT. She currently serves as a Vice President at Edison.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Kristen's career began in private equity at Hamilton Lane, where she spent three years on the direct equity team. She advised and supported investing decisions in both equity and credit for companies between $100M and $2B across various industries globally. Kristen often participated in board meetings and supported portfolio companies by assessing follow-on opportunities, advising on foreign exchange and commodity hedges, and guiding companies through exit.
In her fourth year at Hamilton Lane, Kristen was chosen to lead a Series A corporate investment in Cobalt, a private markets software solution. Upon investing, Hamilton Lane formed a joint venture and built a limited partner version of the product. Kristen led the development of new features alongside Cobalt's CTO, guided pricing strategy discussions, and crafted the first go-to-market strategy. Ultimately, Hamilton Lane launched Cobalt for Limited Partners to the market within eight months of investing. Post-launch, Kristen onboarded Cobalt's first customers, trained sales professionals, and developed ongoing marketing content.
Given her passion for working with high-growth technology companies, Kristen left Hamilton Lane to pursue an MBA from Wharton with a focus on entrepreneurship. She spent the entire second year of her MBA in San Francisco, completing internships with Touchdown Ventures and Samsung Ventures.
Mariann is a results-oriented CMO who is expert in driving growth, establishing and expanding markets, and building culture. She has been instrumental in serial exits and major growth in every organization she's led. As Operating Partner with Edison's Go to Market Center of Excellence, Mariann helps companies diversify markets, energize their brands, and generate loyal, profitable customers.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Mariann also leads Marketing strategy for WorkFusion, overseeing brand, demand, content and product marketing. Before joining WorkFusion, she was CMO at erwin inc., where she successfully repositioned the company to the high-value data governance market before its acquisition by Quest. Previous executive roles were CMO at former Edison company inContact and SVP at Xtralis and Verint Systems. Mariann's experience in high tech and software marketing also includes advisory and board roles at DQLabs and SparkPost and membership in professional associations such as National Association for Female Executives, Women Investing in Security & Education, CMO Council, and Greater New York Marketing Executives Council (founder).
Michael focuses on identifying and evaluating investments across Enterprise Solutions, Healthcare IT, and Financial Technology. He joined Edison Partners in 2021.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Michael started his career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Credit Suisse in the Financial Institutions Group, primarily covering Insurance and Asset Management sectors. While at Credit Suisse, Michael worked on a variety of sell-side and buy-side transactions, as well as equity and debt financings. After Credit Suisse, Michael joined the investment team as an Associate at Lightyear Capital, a leading private equity firm focused on the financial services industry.
At Lightyear, Michael was responsible for evaluating new opportunities, investment execution, and portfolio support across Financial Technology, Insurance, and Wealth Management sectors. Michael was closely involved in Lightyear's investments in Datalot, a digital customer acquisition platform for insurance carriers, and HPOne, a tech-enabled Medicare insurance distribution platform.
Peter joined Edison Partners in 2021. He focuses on evaluating and executing investments across Enterprise Solutions, Financial Technology, and Healthcare IT, as well as new investment origination and existing portfolio company support.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Peter began his career as an Investment Banking Analyst with Leonis Partners, where he executed nearly a dozen sell-side tech and software M&A transactions. During his time at Leonis, Peter rose to Senior Associate and joined the firm's principal investing team, where he executed several growth capital investments. Peter then joined Noble Rock Advisors, a private equity firm focused on B2B software and payment companies, where he was responsible for evaluating and executing transactions and supporting the origination of new investment opportunities.
During his time at Noble Rock, Peter also served as a Senior Advisor to Inflexion, a middle market growth equity firm in the UK. As a Senior Advisor, Peter was responsible for supporting portfolio company growth strategies and operations in the US, with a focus on US deal sourcing, execution, and advisory in the TMT space. Peter also serves on the Benefits Committee for the Partnership for After School Education (PASE) in NYC.
Robert joined Edison in 2019 and focuses on investments in the Enterprise Solutions and Fintech sectors, as well as on exit management for existing portfolio companies.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Robert started his career in investment banking at Janney Montgomery Scott in the Technology and Media group where he focused on sell-side and buy-side transactions, as well as public and private financings. During his time at Janney, he relocated to San Francisco to help spearhead the firm's efforts in establishing its West Coast tech banking offices. After Janney, Robert joined the Strategy and Corporate Development group at Constant Contact, a provider of SaaS marketing solutions to small and medium sized businesses. At Constant Contact, Robert assisted in the overhaul of its corporate strategy, led the Company's M&A efforts, and ultimately oversaw Constant Contact's $1.1 billion sale to Endurance International Group (NASDAQ: EIGI). Upon joining Endurance's product marketing group, Robert was responsible for managing all the cross-selling efforts for Endurance and Constant Contact customers.
Job Titles:
- General Partner
- Director of Emplify
Ryan currently serves as a Director of Emplify, which provides best-in-class employee engagement insights and analytics for managers and executives; Director of Overhaul, a cloud-based supply chain visibility software and risk management platform for large enterprises; Terminus, the leading B2B go-to-market suite and account-based marketing (ABM) platform; The Pro's Closet, the world's largest and most trusted brand for pre-owned bikes; and TripleLift, the industry-leading connected TV and omni-channel supply-side platform for publishers. Ryan has led investments and served as a director for dozens of high-growth technology companies. He joined the investment team in 2005 helping to lead several successful Fintech investments, building out Edison's industry-leading portfolio. Ryan joined Edison in 2003 to establish the firm's sourcing and business development team.
Job Titles:
- CEO & Co - Founder of Growth Consulting Firm GrowthTera
- Operating Partner
Sherri joined Edison in 2022. She is a seasoned tech growth strategist and Chief Revenue Officer, now Operating Partner at Edison Partners. Sherri works with the Edison Go-To-Market Center of Excellence to help portfolio companies develop unparalleled strategy and repeatable, scalable, data-driven execution, proven to accelerate growth. Sherri partners closely with Boards, CEOs and executive leaders to help them build, scale and optimize their sales, marketing and customer success teams.
Sherri's passion is to create customer-centric companies that generate exponential growth and recurring impact. She is known for getting results, her competitive drive to win, her ability to inspire and lead a high-performance culture and her mastery of all revenue functions across the customer life cycle. As a growth architect, she is laser-focused on driving key valuation-enhancing company metrics while leading growth through bottom-up KPIs (key performance indicators). Her success comes from helping companies build a revenue engine that increases deal size, shortens sales cycles, generates greater expansion revenue, grows robust pipelines, and converts stalled opportunities into closed deals.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
As the CEO & Co-Founder of growth consulting firm GrowthTera, Sherri serves as CEOs' right-hand operator in leading growth for their companies. She has created transformational change, recasting many organizations as their customers' best ally in helping them achieve their business goals.
Skillful across both large (IBM, Accenture, PWC, CA, SunGard, CTG) and emerging growth companies (ABT/Niku, ComplySci, Code Climate, Mobilewalla and more), she has grown companies from $10M ARR to $100M+ ARR, achieving 500%+ growth, Gartner "Magic Quadrant" and "Product of the Year" status, and many successful funding rounds and exits. A recognized leader, she is the recipient of many company awards for outstanding achievement.Outside of work, Sherri's Board leadership includes Chair, Women in Tech; Chair, Programming for the HBS Women Alumnae Association Board of Directors, Vice President, Energy InfoTech Board of Directors. She is Co-host of "The CEO Morning Jolt" podcast, a sought-after speaker for many organizations including "Tech Up for Women" and Pavilion, and Chapter author of "The Fractional CRO", The Startup CXO by Matt Blumberg.
Steve is an accomplished business leader, chief people officer, and trusted partner with the board and CEO. Known for his intentional, contextual, and values-driven leadership, Steve is a highly effective coach, advisor, and facilitator for C-level teams and a proven assessor and developer of senior-level talent and capability for our rapidly changing world. He helps executive leaders and teams strengthen their performance, navigate and propel the organization forward, create and sustain value with and for key stakeholders, and affirm mission, culture, and strategy. Steve leverages his breadth and depth of experience and his strategic insight as a speaker and podcast guest across an array of leadership and HR topics; graduate guest lecturer, and mentor to emerging leaders across the tech and HR community. He is foremost a listener, observer, divergent thinker, re-framer, pragmatist, and designer of new pathways for growth, change, and lasting impact.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
For over three and a half decades Steve built, scaled, and transformed global organizations and premier brands across diverse industries including banking and finance (Citi), digital media, entertainment, and publishing (TimeWarner/Time Inc), conversational commerce and AI (LivePerson), and sports (United States Golf Association/USGA). Steve spent twelve years as a graduate faculty member at the New School for Public Engagement in New York City where he designed courses that intersected strategy, HR, and the digital world. He is a certified executive and team coach, a Baldrige Executive Fellow, and was pro-bono coach to global leaders across the Ashoka network for social entrepreneurship.
Steve joined Edison Partners in March 2022 and focuses on investments in Fintech, Healthcare IT, and Enterprise Solutions.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Steve has been working in, and around, high-growth technology businesses his entire career. Prior to joining Edison, Steve was a Vice President with Morgan Stanley's early-stage technology accelerator, the Multicultural Innovation Lab, focused on investing in female and multicultural entrepreneurs. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Steve headed Finance and Operations for Silbo Inc., a venture-backed sports technology startup based in North Carolina. Prior to Silbo, Steve spent five years at Spring Lake Equity Partners investing in growth stage B2B Software companies. Prior to that, he spent four years at Tudor Growth Equity (the private equity arm of Tudor Investment Corporation), with a focus on Enterprise Software and Healthcare IT. Steve began his career as an analyst at Seven Hills Partners, a middle market investment bank based in San Francisco.
Tom Vander Schaaff is a General Partner and leads Edison's portfolio management. He also heads the analysis team and is co-chairman of the firm's investment committee. He joined Edison in 2003. As the leader of Edison's analysis team for over 15 years, he guides Edison's evaluation of investment opportunities and helps determine the firm's investment and portfolio strategies. Tom has been involved in over 100 financings by Edison, including more than fifty initial investments. Tom currently serves on the boards of GAN, Giant Oak, Northpass,and PurpleLab, and previously served on the boards of HMS, Smartanalyst, Solovis, Telarix and Superpedestrian (Zagster).
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
Tom has more than 25 years of growth equity investment, technology investment banking and entrepreneurial experience. Prior to joining Edison, Tom was a Senior Associate with MMC Capital's C&I Fund, a communications and technology-focused private equity fund created by Marsh & McLennan Companies. At MMC Capital, Tom sourced and evaluated potential investment opportunities, and worked with portfolio companies by serving as a board observer and performing special projects. Tom began his career in private equity as an Associate with CIBC Capital Partners-the private equity principal group of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce-where he worked on a broad range of investments. At CIBC, his activities included analysis and execution of investments and working with portfolio companies. Previously, Tom worked as an investment banker, meeting the capital raising and advisory needs of technology and growth company clients. Initially, he was a Financial Analyst with CIBC Oppenheimer's technology investment banking group, and later an Associate with the private placement group of E*OFFERING, a San Francisco-based online investment bank that he helped found and launch.